Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770 Posted February 12, 2025 Posted February 12, 2025 Anybody here know much about these guns? I recently picked one up on Gunbroker, and while it works okay, the barrel has rotated in the frame to the point that the front sight is visibly right of center. From what I've read, the barrel is a press fit to the frame. The frame is an aluminum alloy, while the barrel is steel. The frame is heated and the barrel cooled until they can be assembled. Then a crosspin holds the barrel in place. Anybody ever disassembled one? I like this little gun, but I have to aim at the right edge of a paper plate to hit the left side of it. Being a cheap guy, I really don't want to spend a couple hundred bucks having a Gunsmith fix it if I can do it myself. I'm hoping that I can heat the frame with a heat gun enough to rotate the barrel straight. What say you?
Pat Riot Posted February 12, 2025 Posted February 12, 2025 I had one and I swapped barrels on it from a 2” to a 4”. My gun was a Sentinel Mk IV .22 Magnum. I am sure the frame was steel. The barrel was pinned and press fit but it got one out and put another in by making wood blocks for the vise to hold the barrel AFTER removing the pin. I soaked the barrel and frame with Kroil for a couple of days. I secured the barrel and literally wiggled the frame back and forth to get it loose then twisted and pulled until I got it off. Cussing helps. It appeared that the factory used that white lithium grease to insert the barrel so that’s what I used to install the 4” barrel. I hope this helps.
Pat Riot Posted February 12, 2025 Posted February 12, 2025 Also, before you take on this task look at Gun parts Corp and see if they have a replacement pin as well as a barrel, just in case.
Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 Posted February 12, 2025 Posted February 12, 2025 Good find, Sarge. For any not familiar with the model, here's a link to a decent article - I wish I had one! https://revolverguy.com/the-high-standard-sentinel-r-103/
Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770 Posted February 12, 2025 Author Posted February 12, 2025 15 minutes ago, Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 said: Good find, Sarge. For any not familiar with the model, here's a link to a decent article - I wish I had one! https://revolverguy.com/the-high-standard-sentinel-r-103/ Read that one. Mine is a similar model, but the aluminum frame has a painted type finish, and the barrel and cylinder blued. Here's the Gunbroker pic. It cleaned to to look a LOT nicer than it looks here. Probably why I got it cheap. I got all the rust off and cleaned a lot of gunk both from inside and out. It's a nice little gun, but I really need to straighten the barrel out.
Pat Riot Posted February 13, 2025 Posted February 13, 2025 Oops! Sorry Sarge. I forgot to mention that I also made a wooden clamp to hold the frame so I could screw it back and forth to get the barrel out. Also, unless you absolutely need to fully disassemble that gun I wouldn’t unless you are a masochist. It’s truly one of the hardest guns that I have seen to reassemble.
Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770 Posted February 13, 2025 Author Posted February 13, 2025 2 minutes ago, Pat Riot said: Oops! Sorry Sarge. I forgot to mention that I also made a wooden clamp to hold the frame so I could screw it back and forth to get the barrel out. Also, unless you absolutely need to fully disassemble that gun I wouldn’t unless you are a masochist. It’s truly one of the hardest guns that I have seen to reassemble. It wasn't that bad. I've dealt with worse. The hardest part was getting the trigger where it was supposed to go. While I didn't disassemble the trigger group, I did remove it from the frame. I really needed to get all that rust and goo out of it. When I first got it, it was so gummed up that when you pulled the trigger, the hammer just slooooowly moved. Now, everything works, it's just that front sight.
Pat Riot Posted February 13, 2025 Posted February 13, 2025 8 minutes ago, Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770 said: It wasn't that bad. I've dealt with worse. The hardest part was getting the trigger where it was supposed to go. While I didn't disassemble the trigger group, I did remove it from the frame. I really needed to get all that rust and goo out of it. When I first got it, it was so gummed up that when you pulled the trigger, the hammer just slooooowly moved. Now, everything works, it's just that front sight. Good. I’m glad it wasn’t that bad. Some people freak out over these guns judging by write ups I have seen in forums. I completely disassembled everything. Then followed some guy’s recommendation to make a wooden parts set up board with pinholes and drawn parts outlines. It looked great. What a waste of time. Reassembly was tricky but doable. Three hands would have been nice.
Warden Callaway Posted February 13, 2025 Posted February 13, 2025 Some shooting buddies had cleaned out an estate and found in the bottom of a cardboard box in the basement one of these but more deluxe model. They soaked in in WD40 for three weeks and couldn't get it open. Mary volunteered me to fix it. I really didn't want anything to do with it. But I worked at it a couple of hours and got it broken loose and operating. But the inner guts had a problem. I can't remember now what was wrong but seeing it pinned together and springs and parts did multiple things and doing research, I didn't want to take it apart. I returned it to the couple and explained the problem. They still wanted the problem fixed. We often shot with Gunsmith Frank who is a gunsmith by trade. He looked it over and explained how difficult it was to work on and how the factory had special tools to hold parts in position, etc. He didn't want to fool with it either. But the couple where insisted. So being a good guy he took it. I never heard how it turned out.
Chickasaw Bill SASS #70001 Posted February 13, 2025 Posted February 13, 2025 having been in a couple of the JC Higgens 88s I have developed a whole new class of expletives for them I will not go into one again !!! Chickasaw
Horace Patootie, SASS #35798 Posted February 13, 2025 Posted February 13, 2025 When I was young I had the Sentinel Deluxe. Horace
Sam Sackett Posted February 14, 2025 Posted February 14, 2025 I have a JC Higgins Ranger. From what I can tell it’s the same as the Hi Standard 99, but made for sale by Sears Roebuck. It’s the first series (1958) that doesn’t have the spring on the ejector rod. Most of these were all scratched up, as folks tried to swing the cylinder closed without realizing you need to push the ejector back in first. Fortunately, mine only has a couple of scratches. Darn thing works great and is pretty accurate. Sam Sackett
Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770 Posted February 19, 2025 Author Posted February 19, 2025 Okay. That went easier than I had thought it would. It's in the 80s here today, (Tucson Winter), So I sat the gun out in the sun to warm up. Once it was warm to the touch, I set the gun on a plastic Gunsmith Block and punched the barrel pin with a brass punch. It popped out in about three hits. I put the barrel in a vice, with plastic soft jaws in it, and using a piece of 2X2 as a frame wrench, was able to rotate the barrel so that the sight is now straight up. Reinstalled the pin, and am (hopefully) good. Range time will tell.
watab kid Posted February 20, 2025 Posted February 20, 2025 nice looking little revolver - dont have one of those among my histandars but i do have their double nine
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