Colt Huntsman re-assembly, in Omaha

[warren209]

I have a Colt Huntsman that I've owned for a few years.  The slide has been pretty sticky when sliding it back.  I've never fired it, and it is in very clean condition.  It looks perfect to me.  After procrastinating disassembling it for a long time to clean the slide and frame of the stickiness, I finally did it.  I watched a Youtube video to make sure that I was doing it correctly, but I ended up with a couple of problems.  The button on top of the slide fell out.  I have not been able to put it back.  It seems to only be able to go back from the bottom of the slide.  However, the spring and the spring guide are blocking it from entering the hole.  The second problem I have is getting the slide back onto the frame.  In the video that I watched, the slide is supposed to go back easily, but for some reason I can't get it back.  If someone who reads this is able to help me with my Huntsman, please give me a shout.

[Lmbass14]

Ton's of 'smiths on this board, and sure one will step up.  Would like to get a Huntsman or Woodsman someday.  Seen them at shows, pricey.  Not worth 1500 to me.

[JAK]

I am not a gunsmith, but I did find the attached manual online that has a good exploded diagram of the gun.  I find that seeing the exploded diagram helps me figure out how everything goes back together when I have extra parts,

Hope it helps,

John K

[warren209]

I looked at the diagram that John K attachted, and the part that is giving me trouble is part number 2.  I don't think that it is normal for that button to fall out during disassembly.  I'm glad to see that people are reading my post.  I"ll keep my fingers crossed that someone will know how to reinstall the button.  I think that the slide is not going back on for something very simple, but I seem to have a blind spot as to what it is.

[JAK]

I found a picture of what I believe it is supposed to look like.

It appears that the button (Part #2) may be keyed so that once it is in, it has to rotate to align with a hole in the assembly lock (Part #1).  If it not correctly aligned it would cause the assembly lock to interfere with the reassembly of the gun.

Once both of those parts are back in place, then the recoil spring and recoil spring guide can be reinstalled and the gun should go back together.

JAK

[warren209]

I've tried to remove the spring, unsuccessfully.  I did slide the spring back as far as I could, but the spring guide was still blocking the hole.  Even with the spring removed, it didn't seem possible to reinsert the button.  That's why I don't know where to go from here.  Thanks for your input.

[JAK]

The link below is to a website specializing in the Colt Woodsman and includes instructions of how to remove and replace the recoil spring.

John K

https://www.colt22.com/repairs/index.html

[JAK]

May also want to check out this link,

https://www.colt22.com/recoilspring_pos.html

It shows the correct relation between the recoil spring and the assembly lock.

John K

[warren209]

Thanks John K.  In my case, the assembly lock is out of position and is sticking in the up position above the spring.  That spring is a bear to push and hold back to get it attached to the assembly lock.  I'm probably going to have to take it to a gunsmith to get it fixed.

[warren209]

I kept trying to make it work and in the process, I broke the assembly lock.  Thanks for everyone's help.

[warren209]

I took it to Carl Jarl's to be repaired.  I should have it back in four to six weeks.

[Mali]

Man, sorry about the problems you had. At least you can say you tried and learned from the process. Hope it isn't too expensive to repair.

[warren209]

Carl Jarl's said it would cost between $60 to $100 to fix it.  It's worth it to me.  Other than this one issue, I think that it's a beautiful pistol.

[Jito463]

Carl Jarl's said it would cost between $60 to $100 to fix it.  It's worth it to me.  Other than this one issue, I think that it's a beautiful pistol.

That's not too bad for repair.  Sucks that you had to go through this, but at least you can consider it a learning experience, and it didn't cost you too much money.