Home Forums Birds & Dogs Shotguns Win Ranger 120 problems

Friend of mine was frustrated with his Win Ranger 120, 12ga and gave it to me. It will cycle shells all day until you actually fire one. Then the slide jams as you are trying to eject the spent shell. Researching on line I found people with similar problems and most say look for a new slide arm bridge. After visual inspection of existing bridge I don't see any problems but am open to suggestions. Any ideas? Thanks.

Most of those Win pumps actually require a little forward pressure before you eject. Not a big deal if you hold the forearm tight when shooting, recoil does the deed for you. If you dont hold it tight, you will have to push foreward on the forearm before it will go back. Dont know all the technical jargon, just shot quite a few rounds thru a M-25 and 1897. Hope that helps. You can try it by dry firing as well.

I have one and a ton of rounds trough it with nary a problem so if you find a fix for the issue please post it so I can fix mine if it ever comes up. Thanks in advance.

Thanks Hawk,I'll give that a try. Thinking that maybe the slide arms are coming out from the notches in the bridge after firing because of excessive clearance and then binding up the whole works. Just installed new bridge but don't really see anything wrong with the old one. When I try it ill post results.

Nemo, you must have a good one. This particular gun was won at a raffle around 1990 and has never cycled right. Been to one gunsmith who didn't listen to my buddy when he said "it cycles fine until you shoot it." Gunsmith gave it back to him after a few days and said "its fine, if it cycles dry firing then it will cycle when you shoot it." So its been sitting for years with less than 50 rounds through it since new. I stripped, cleaned, & inspected it only to have the same thing happen after one shot!

If the shell simply won't move after firing the first thing I look to is the chamber itself. Many of those shotguns have chambers so rough that it causes the shell heads to cling to it upon firing and it makes extraction very difficult..

A polishing session, getting it mirror-bright with a Sunnin hone and various wet/dry papers will usually cure that issue..

That applies to the M12.. But the 120 (and 1200) use a different system to unlock the action arms; basically as soon as the hammer goes fully forward the flat section of the hammer pin causes the disconnector to drop and unlocks the bolt/fore-end..

Since it works ok with unfired shells I doubt the problem lies with that area.. More likely (IME) it's a chamber issue..

My first thought was a rusty or rough chamber.

Ah, Scandinavian, I see.

I had a 120 20GA for years, that I regret I let go of, because I just needed the latest new thing. Mine was flawless. But it did gunk up easily after a few rounds. A good cleaning kept it firing.

Thanks to all that responded. Installed a new slide arm bridge http://www.gunpartscorp.com/Products/260600A.htm and shot a box of shells through without a problem. $15 fix for a 20 year old problem.

I have basically the same gun except mine is a Ted Williams model from Sears that I bought new in 1980. never had an issue with mine but its nice to know that if it ever does start acting up I now know what to look for. that old pump has been to hell and back. my son has been using it lately, I couldn't begin to count how many shells that have been through that thing.