JC Higgins Model 20 20 Ga.

Q

quepasakimosabe

New member
Why do I keep running into these guns..? I recently "repaired" a hunting acquaintance’s gun by heating the shell stop on the oven burner and quenching it in bacon fat...the bacon tasted great at 9 pm too. For those not familiar it is a flat spring held in place on the ejection side with a shouldered pin. The issue was that it was worn and/or bent to shallow and I bent it the right way, heated and quenched and it worked...I put 50 rounds through it and it stayed just as strong as the first time. The only change was that the round coming out of the magazine tube protrudes about 1/16 further than it was originally designed (with proper functioning) but it does not impede the shell raiser thingy...oh so technical, I forgot what they are called. Basically what I am getting at is did I treat the metal correctly or will the part drastically fail soon, he needed it for his sons first quail hunt for the weekend. I realize that there is very little danger involved if it does shatter (its just gonna jam) but I am just curious. He told me not to buy a new part if I didn’t have to and I was thinking along the lines of customer satisfaction...I get paid in beer what do I care.
 
The JCH model 20 and the High Standard model 200 are some of my favorite shotguns. I always seems to be able to bring them back from the brink one way or another. I buy them when I can.
 
Heating a spring and quenching it is not going to hold up.
Carbon steel must be heated to critical temperature (red), then quenched. A file should skate off the spring. Canola oil or vegetable oil will work better as a quenchant.
Polish to bare metal, and heat to blue. THEN you have a spring.
 
It was red (somewhere in the area of 800-850 by the pretty chart I have) when I quenched in the bacon grease, close enough to canola oil but you are right they are not the same canola oil stays liquid at room temp and I imagine the temperature of the quenchant has much to do with the process. If I understand you correctly I should have re- to blue after removing the surface metal with a file. If in my case the part is a flat spring about 1.5 inches long, .25 inches wide and 1/16 thick what then...?
 
I'll simplify it.
Heat the part to cherry red, and quench it in canola oil.
Test with a file. The file should not cut the spring. If it does, reheat and quench.
When the part is hard, polish/sand it to bare metal.
Then gently heat the part until it turns a deep blue. Remove heat as soon as it reaches the uniform blue color. Let the part air cool.
 
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