From none to four

[marlinman93]

I headed over the Cascades Yesterday to buy an O.A. Bremer custom High Wall scheutzen rifle with a George Schoyen .38-55 barrel from a friend. After doing the deal he began bringing out three more High Walls! I had a weak moment and ended up bringing home all four High Walls! I didn't own a single High Wall before the trip, although I have owned some. My buddy said I'm officially a High Wall collector now.

Bremer-Schoyen .38-55:



High Wall .25-35 Takedown. One of only 80 made in .25-35 and much less in a takedown:



Schoyen High Wall .38-55:



Bremer-Pope .22LR:

[GunnyMack]

Very nice!
I like that take down, bet that would be neat to take out for antelope or deer.

[Old No7]

Wow, really nice!

But you know -- you can't shoot them all -- so you ought to loan them out to us here; we'll shoot them for you, get them on target, put them through their paces, etc. You'd eventually get them back there (right....) This is no time to be greedy... But lucky -- yes! I'd say you were!

Old No7

[Bill in Oregon]

As Jack Benny used to say: "Now CUT THAT OUT, Vall!"

[marlinman93]

Very nice!
I like that take down, bet that would be neat to take out for antelope or deer.

I think you're right Gunny. It's a fairly heavy barrel, but still feels light. There's a dovetail under the barrel that likely had a sling swivel once, but oddly the buttstock doesn't appear to ever have had one? So maybe someone replaced the buttstock sometime? If they did it fits perfect, and doesn't look replaced, but I can't think of why it has the barrel dovetail on the bottom, except for a sling.

[marlinman93]

As Jack Benny used to say: "Now CUT THAT OUT, Vall!"

I have no control when it comes to old single shot rifles, especially by well known makers. I've wanted to buy a Bremer Ballard, but a Bremer High Wall with a Schoyen barrel was too hard to pass on. And the others were just too well priced to not take home too.

[yooper2]

Excellent haul!


Eric

[hfcable]

amazing score ! love those rifles !!

[marlinman93]

Never messed around with a High Wall, but the Bremer-Schoyen had a hammer/sear issue that caused the hammer to drop just as the lever was almost closed! So last night I tore into the action and discovered someone had used solder to build up the sear in an attempt to make less engagement. The solder being so soft had over time been pushed up towards the sear tip and made the contact to the hammer notch unsafe. I took a small file and scraped the solder off the sear and reassembled the action. It now works as it should have originally. Not nearly as easy to disassemble as my Ballard or Remington Rolling Blocks, but I figured my way through it.
Today I'll d&t for the forearm screw on the Bremer-Pope .22 so it's finished. Then I'll rob the Win. A5 scope and Pope mounts off my Zettler Bros. Ballard to fit the Pope scope cuts on the Bremer. I'll replace the bases on the Zettler and put another spare scope on it to keep it correct also. It doesn't have Pope cuts, but has Pope bases to accept his rings. I'll use regular target bases instead to accept an old target scope.
Need to replace the prongs on the Bremer-Schoyen buttplate, and weld a prong on the lever to make it longer and easier to open and close the lever.

[Oldncrusty]

When it rains it pours . Congrats. High walls have always been my favorite to look at.

[AmBraCol]

That 25-35 especially looks like a right sweet package! Have had a thing for that caliber for most of my life, and the high wall platform just sweetens the deal!

[marlinman93]

That 25-35 especially looks like a right sweet package! Have had a thing for that caliber for most of my life, and the high wall platform just sweetens the deal!

I've owned a couple 1894 Winchesters in .25-35, but didn't keep them long. My first Marlin was a Model 1893 in .25-36M takedown, which I still own and love shooting. We'll see how this High Wall compares to my 1893. Doubt is will ever replace the 1893 as I've had that rifle for almost 50 years, but it might become another favorite eventually. It feels light and nimble with it's 26" heavy barrel, especially compared to the other three!

[RIHMFIRE]

THATS AWESOME!
CONGRATS

[marlinman93]

Began restoration/upgrades on the first Bremer today. Restoring the prongs to the buttplate, and fixing the lever so it has enough length to operate easier. I had a couple repro Ballard ball & spur levers so I cut one up and tied it to the Bremer lever to see where to splice it before I cut or weld it on. Looks like it will work and give a better grasp to open and close the action.


Took the points off the Bremer buttplate that was hacked and d&t for 8-32 screws. Then cut prongs off a repro brass buttplate and d&t them also to let me screw them on and hold when I braze the new prongs to the old buttplate.


Maybe tomorrow I'll get the lever welded, and prongs brazed. Then see if I can get them both shaped and smoothed out also.

[GunnyMack]

Val, I'm surprised you don't have safe jaws for your vise! 1" copper pipe the length of the jaws, hacksaw that length, bring to red hot and quench in water. You can then peel it at the slice , hold in your vise and fold to shape. They hold parts and no damage. Easy to take off when you need to grab and hold.

I keep copper, lead and soft rubber jaws on my bench. Aluminum angle works too, can glue some cork on for even softer holding.

[Griff]

Very nice additions to an already outstanding collection of single shots. I believe I'm jealous of your willingness, and skills in tackling rehabilitations & upgrading deficiencies into something you will enjoy.

[marlinman93]

Val, I'm surprised you don't have safe jaws for your vise! 1" copper pipe the length of the jaws, hacksaw that length, bring to red hot and quench in water. You can then peel it at the slice , hold in your vise and fold to shape. They hold parts and no damage. Easy to take off when you need to grab and hold.

I keep copper, lead and soft rubber jaws on my bench. Aluminum angle works too, can glue some cork on for even softer holding.

I have 3 or 4 types of vise jaw inserts that are either magnetic, or formed to my vise jaws. The buttplate is simply sitting on the vise as I used unpadded jaws to cut the prongs off the repro buttplate.

[GunnyMack]

I knew you knew better

[marlinman93]

Almost finished the lever and buttplate repairs! Just need some polishing and then I'll rust blue the lever, and put the buttplate in a sealed container with vinegar and salt to antique the finish and keep it looking old.
I decided to return the lever to Winchester style instead of the Ballard type. So just made a piece of tang up and welded it back on where it was chopped off. Pretty simple task and done quickly.



The buttplate turned out to be a long time to braze the prongs as the sheer weight of the buttplate sucked heat out and took a long time drawing heat directed on the buttplate before the rod flowed well. Finally got it flowing, and then it wasn't too bad, except every time I stopped to turn it over I had to heat it again for awhile. Once it was brazed I ground it close, and then used my 1" belt sander to make it closer. Still needs some fine polishing before applying finish, but getting close!

[marlinman93]

Finished the parts and reassembled.

Buttplate.


Lever. Flash made the bluing disappear!

[GunnyMack]

You rust blued the lever ?
The butt looks great!

[marlinman93]

You rust blued the lever ?
The butt looks great!

Yes, but to about 50% so it doesn't look too new. I know the blued actions were blued levers and CCH actions like this one were also CCH, but new CCH would look odd. There was basically zero finish left on the lever, but faded bluing looks better.

[marlinman93]

I moved onto the 1885 Bremer with Pope .22 barrel to fix two glaring issues.


One obvious issue is the lack of an extractor. Since the previous owner got tired of waiting after 8 years for this rifle to get finished, it seems the gunsmith wasn't quite done and he didn't get the extractor back with it! It had been converted to a 9 o/clock extractor to work better with the little .22RF rims, and it's MIA. Called a friend who said he had 13 spares, and after sending him a picture of the chamber end he said he's sending me three extractors and I can see which one fits best, and send the others back.
Second issue is the hammer spring. It's so wimpy I can cock the hammer with my pinky finger! I was told that the mainspring in it is a gunsmith's "setup spring" designed to be very light while geometry is worked out. But since it got suddenly repossessed the correct spring never got installed. I ordered a couple from C Sharps as their rifles are coil spring actions. So once those arrive I'll have a spring and a spare also. Might never need a spare, but for $20 it's better to have one.

[GunnyMack]

Nice to see you are righting the wrongs of these grand ol guns!

[marlinman93]

The new springs and extractors both arrived yesterday Springs from C Sharps, and extractors from a friend up north from me.
Excited, so I ran down to my basement shop to fix the hammer mainspring, and fit an extractor! Pulled the hammer out of the breech block and unhooked one end of the torsion spring, and the other end came free at the same time. (this should have been a clue!) I put the new spring on the hammer and reinstalled the hammer to the breech block. I made a special tool to guide the spring ends into their holes in the breech block by cutting a slot in the tip of an old flat blade screwdriver. Even with that it took me about 10 minutes to get one side hooked into the hole. Moved to the other side and after 30 minutes trying the end of the spring wouldn't enter the hole! Disconnected the opposite side to see if that helped, and 20 minutes later still no go! I took the hammer out again, and used a small Allen wrench to push into both holes from the outside. One went clear through, but the one I couldn't get hooked wasn't bored through! A few thousandths shy of being finished!
I grabbed a brand new drill bit the size of the hole and filled the hole with cutting fluid, and after a few minutes I had destroyed the drill bit! That metal is harder than heck! I grabbed the next size smaller and repeated, and it finally made it through. Used my Fordam and a burr to finish cleaning up the hole so the spring end would fit, and finally got the mainspring installed on the breech block and hammer! Whew! This appeared to be an original Winchester .22RF block, and marked "22" on one side, so not sure how it lived in any action without both holes for the mainspring?
I moved on to the extractor, and after a short time came to the reality none of my three donors would work without some extra attention. The extractor cut in the vertical plane wont let any extractor fit in the slot, and the horizontal 9 o'clock cut is a few thousandths too high so even fitted to the cut it wont allow the lever pin to enter the extractor. I'll need to have someone tig weld the top edge of the extractor up with weld so I can remove metal off the bottom edge to allow it to fit the lever pin, and reach the extractor horizontal cut also.
So for now it's on hold until I get the extractor reworked and can return to fitting. Probably going to spin the barrel off in the meantime and file the cut wider so an extractor fits without being thinned to fit.