Henry U.S. Survival Rifle AR-7 - Myths and Rumours

[armycat]

MYTH AND RUMOUR 9 - Cleaning a firearm with WD-40 may cause ammunition to fail to function.

This is not specific to the Henry U.S. Survival Rifle, but I read a post where it was claimed that some police had experienced ammunition failures after cleaning their firearms with WD-40 and the keeping them loaded. I have used WD-40 on several firearms but have never stored them loaded. I had a hard time believing a WD-40 film on a firearm would lead to ammunition failure.

Decided to try and test this but took it to the extreme. I put 16 cartridges into five pill bottles. Eight CCI Mini Mag 36 gr CPHO and eight CCI Standard Velocity 40 gr LRN in each bottle bullets facing down. I sprayed in WD-40 in each bottle until there was enough liquid that it covered the joint between the bullet and the cartridge case. I filled five bottles with the intent of firing 16 rounds today, 16 rounds tomorrow and the rest next weekend. I thought the WD-40 would cause some problems but figured it would take several days to occur.

I hit the range and fired 8 CCI Mini Mag and 8 CCI SV that had not been exposed to WD-40. I had one misfire with the CCI Mini Mag and it fired the second try. I then loaded up 8 CCI Mini Mags that had been in WD-40 for 1.5 hours. The first two rounds fired but the recoil and audible report was extremely light. So much so I removed the barrel to verify there was no obstruction. I was shooting paper that was shot up and at 50m I couldn’t see if the bullets were hitting the target. On the third round I switched to a 25m steel target so I could see the impact. Third round had a weak recoil and report but hit the target. Forth round was even weaker and did not hit the target. I removed the barrel and sure enough there was a barrel obstruction, I had to return home to deal with the problem so that was the end of testing. Bullet made it 4” down the bore. It was easy to push out. I will return to the range and will finish off the remaining rounds from the first bottle. These cartridges are not in WD-40. The cartridges in the remaining pill bottles that are still soaking I will pull the bullets and check the powder.

I still have a hard time believing a light coating of WD-40 on a firearm would cause ammunition failure but it appears it is possible.

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[Travlin]

My experience with WD 40 was that it gunked up and formed an almost cosmoline around the extractor on my 97 Winchester shotgun causing it to fail to extract a loaded or fired round. That was many years ago so now if I am in a situation with a wet firearm , the only thing I use it for is to spray on a cloth and wipe down the outside until I can be more thorough. One of the men that I used to hunt with in Penn. was told to "get with the times " and used it on his Marlin 36 32 Spec. The rifle failed him when he needed to shoot a nice deer . He learned not to use WD -40 on the internals of his rifles.

[armycat]

My experience with WD 40 was that it gunked up and formed an almost cosmoline around the extractor on my 97 Winchester shotgun causing it to fail to extract a loaded or fired round. That was many years ago so now if I am in a situation with a wet firearm , the only thing I use it for is to spray on a cloth and wipe down the outside until I can be more thorough. One of the men that I used to hunt with in Penn. was told to "get with the times " and used it on his Marlin 36 32 Spec. The rifle failed him when he needed to shoot a nice deer . He learned not to use WD -40 on the internals of his rifles.

Interesting. I may have to play around with WD-40 some more to try to gauge how little can be a potential problem.

[armycat]

MYTHS AND RUMOURS 10

Firing the action with the barrel removed damages the guide rod and springs. Well the poster does state at times, so this could be possible however in my experience it is not true.

When re-assembling the rifle the action must be cocked to put the action spring guide, springs and bolt back in the receiver. Once the bolt is pushed back in the receiver the cocking handle can be inserted and this retains the bolt in the receiver. Since the action is cocked I often fire the action to release the trigger spring with the barrel still off. With the barrel off the bolt sits slightly forward of where it would sit when the barrel is in place but not far enough forward to prevent the hammer from lining up with the cut out in the bolt, When the barrel is attached the cocking handle does not contact the receiver. With the barrel removed the cocking handle contacts the receiver. When the action is fired the hammer strikes the firing pin and bolt which would exert a forward force on it pushing the cocking handle into the receiver at the front of the groove it travels in. Although I have not experienced any problems this could potentially cause some peening on the receiver or possibly crack the receiver so firing without the barrel may not be recommended but I will continue to do it.

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