I had my older (Serial No. R27XXX) H&R Sportsman out to the range last night. By the sixth cylinder full of Remington Target .22 ammo, it was keyholing and I could barely keep 5 of the 9 rounds on the paper at 50 feet.

When I got home and went to clean it, I discovered that there was a ring of lead in the breech end of the barrel. It was large enough that I couldn't get a standard .22 caliber cleaning rod and brush through the barrel.

After more than a few naughty words and some serious effort (including actually driving a cleaning rod through from the muzzle to push out the lead ring), I finally got nearly all of the lead out. I'm still seeing a little bit there, but I actually broke the brush off the screw-in base, so I quit for the evening.

Looking at the gun, I can barely see any kind of forcing cone at all. It appears to have a very short (less than 0.1 inch) taper into the lands.

I'm wondering if this is normal or if the gun may not have been correct leaving the factory. Given its condition, I'm fairly sure it was shot very little prior to my acquiring it. I've put about 200 rounds through it, but this was the first time I've had the problem. The gun was grouping in the 2-1/2 to 3 inch range when I started the evening, which isn't quite as good as I'd like, but is fairly consistent with my shooting abilities on all but the absolutely best target trigger guns, where I generally can keep them inside the 8 ring.

If this isn't normal, what would be the proper solution to the problem? Is this something a local gunsmith should be able to address, or is there someone you'd recommend I sent the gun to? I really love this gun for no good reason except that the little break actions have always given me great pleasure. I'm easily amused by things mechanical, having no mechanical abilities at all.

FWIW, I'm located near Philadelphia, PA, if that changes your suggestions regarding how to get this problem fixed at all.

Sorry for the length. Thanks for your help.

you could have 1 or 2 problems or maybe both. #1 would be that the forcing cone isn't wide or deep enough. Thats easy to fix. #2 is that the thing is out of time, meaning that the holes in the cylinder aren't lining up with the one in the barrel. check this by taking a caliber size rod and dropping it down the barrel into the cylinder to see if it lines up with the middle of the cylinder. do this with the hammer back ready to fire. at the same time, ckeck and see that the cylinder is tight when the hammer falls, sometimes they will loosen up. If you have to retime or replace ejector rods, then it's going to be a bit more $$.

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried the cleaning rod test and things lined up quite nicely. I then took a 30 caliber cleaning rod and used it to clean the forcing cone. Following that, I used 0000 steel wool on a rod with an electric drill and then flitz paste on a patch, again with a drill. The cone now looks to be completely clean, so I'll try it again and see if it leads.

Hello 40X:

I've got an old H&R 999 (my second, mistakenly sold off the first one -- first handgun I ever bought -- back in 1981 or so...)

Anyway, neither of mine had a very distinct forcing cone, as I just checked again.

However, I do suggest you try a different brand of ammo, to see if you get the same or different results. I'm not slamming the Rem T22 ammo per se, but one of the guys at our local club had similar issues with it -- which did not repeat when he tried other ammo.

Good luck.

Old No7