A follow-on review of the MGC M-73

This review should be read in conjunction with Smootik's earlier post:
https://mp40modelguns.forumotion.net/t2275-mgc-winchester-m1873-metal

Howdy Pardners! This review follows on from Smootik’s great review of his M73, in which he comprehensively covered his model so well, it is a hard act to follow!

Purchase & Overview
Having similar “Cowboy & Westerns” enthusiasm, I’ve always hankered after the MGC M-73, and when a Forum member offered one up for sale I jumped at it, as soon as I belatedly saw his post. Too late! He’d had no replies and so he’d put it up for auction on eBay! My determination saw me win the auctioned carbine which was duly sent to me. As I have mentioned on other posts it arrived damaged with a broken hammer and a broken lower tang. Luckily I’d bought some spare parts off another forum member in anticipation, and the hammer was soon replaced along with the saddle-ring and bolt. Judging from the markings, it appears to be a very early model, and is showing its age. (A bit like me perhaps!). It was un-boxed.

I immediately replaced the broken hammer with a spare using Smootik's review as a guide. During disassembly I discovered the lower tang was cracked and broken. I left that for a later day to fix and bolted it all back together.
The ladder of the rear sight (called a Smith's Ladder sight) was missing – but that was the way it was auctioned.
I’ve managed to win a real one (an antique) on eBay this afternoon, and will repair or replace that feature in due course!

As a licensed firearms owner I’ve owned a few Winchesters over the years and have an 1873 version for comparison – as posted previously. And first impressions were very favourable with a small number of differences in dimensions and toggle link operation, as expected.
My MGC could be an earlier version to Smootik’s as it has no serial numbers; it has a “Made in Japan” stamping on the brass elevator;
and it’s cover plates are quite roughly finished (soon fixed by an hour’s sanding and re-bluing). It has an open barrel un-like Smootik’s, so that's a big PLUS!
The Butt-stock had a plain brass butt-plate fitted. Some real carbines had a sliding cover over a concealed cleaning rod (3 -5 sections) inside the wood. MGC chose not to copy that feature.

Test firing:
I loaded 6 cartridges to test the action – and that’s where my trouble’s began!
1. The 1st round chambered ok, but failed to extract!
2. The 2nd round in the elevator was now jammed!
Some careful work with some hand-tools soon cleared the action ready to try again. But - the same thing happened!
After emptying the magazine, I took a closer look at the new bolt, to find that the extractor clip had broken.

I stripped the action and replaced the bolt with another new one (3 were included in the spares purchase mentioned), and tried again.

Would you believe the extractor on this one also broke! (Now I have a challenge to come up with some better replacements! That will be another repair post in the future sometime!). So I put back the original bolt that had come with the M-73. Comparing the old with new showed that the new extractor was fixed very firmly; the old one had a degree of vertical movement.

The metal of the extractor, being so brittle, is subject to breaking easily – so be warned!
The spring metal of these parts will tolerate an absolute minimal amount of movement! Just attempting to cycle the first round had resulted in shearing the extractor on those two bolts! Compared to the real steel, the extractors seem to be an incredibly flimsy design. But maybe aging metal fatigue is a factor??? But that wouldn't explain the NEW extractors breaking twice! There's nothing to adjust........just bad luck I guess??

I reloaded, and this time the action worked fine…..but only 80% of the time!!
Occasionally the elevator would not come up high enough (sloppy wear in the elevator and on the lever) and the cartridge would strike below the chamber and jam.

Not good when them pesky Injuns are on the warpath and coming to take your scalp!
(This would be the time when the film Director yells “Cut! Let’s try that scene again!”)

Future work needed
I reckon to fix this problem by adding some epoxy-steel over the wear spots and file and sand to ensure the elevator travel is consistent. For now, I just put my left middle finger under the elevator and push, so that the cartridge aligns, and continue shooting.
Ha! That had them Redskins fooled for a moment!

Now some people may have responded to these setbacks with understandable disappointment....but given the age of the Modelgun, and the price I paid for it, I'm glad to own an M-73 in a condition that I can improve on! That's part of the joy of Modelgun ownership for me!

All in all, the M-73 is a credit to MGC and their designers. An extremely detailed working replica of the Winchester 73 carbine that would fulfill anyone’s dream of owning such a Carbine without being able to have the real thing! When placing both carbines together against the wall my non-gun orientated friends couldn’t tell the real 1873 Winchester carbine apart from the MGC M-73!

Kiwigunner

See this post for details of repairs: https://mp40modelguns.forumotion.net/t2863-mgc-m73-repairs

And another good piece of information :-)

My Winchester is closed barrel, unfortunately.

Tolerances and wear in the mechanism are somewhat bad, as it seems a little thing off causes trouble. Your problems look similar to mine, except that I managed to not break the extractor yet. This should be correctable as you wrote.

Man, with all these collective building, repair and troubleshooting skills forum members should open a new manufacturer :-)

Thanks for correcting me re your barrel mate. I just updated my text! It was Garyforce who had an open barrel on his Randall M-73.
Re sloppy actions: maybe packing with lithium grease might help? I'm going to try on mine as soon as I buy the grease.

Maybe we should form a consortium: International Modelgun Collective - I.M.C. ? Or maybe Modelgun International Think-tank ?
I guess the way we use this forum IS a collective Think-tank!
Certainly gets me to thinking a lot! ''

I haven't broken the extractor yet either, so maybe I am lucky.

As for the cartridges not ejecting and jamming, I had similar problems. A few times I had to disassemble the guns to remove the jammed cartridges.
What I found in my case, was the speed I was trying to use the gun. Probably a little too fast, thinking I was Chuck Connors in the Rifleman.
Slowing down a little, I found that they ejected a lot better.

Well today I stripped my M-73 and gave everything inside a good dollop of Lithium Grease - and that seems to have taken out all the sloppiness of the action.

Thinking about it, the M-73 needs the occasional oiling - but because of the large tolerances, I am now convinced the whole mechanism also needs thicker lubrication i.e. grease. I chose Lithium grease, but other types of grease might be used.
Since then I've not had any jams or misfires - and my old MGC M-73 worked perfectly! ''
So if all you M-73 owners like to do similarly - we can compare results, and see if we've got a useful fix for others to emulate!

Kiwigunner