COOEY Model 35 Pump Action, Finally!
Copyright 2023© by Sav22 for a RimFireCentral post
Copyright 2023© by Sav22 for a RimFireCentral post
I finally found an example after trying to track one down for quite a few years. I’ve seen a few for sale but they were either in Canada or sold before I saw them. I believe these were the only 22 pumps ever made in Canada. I found very little information on them but was fortunate to get some information from Canadian author Scott Jamieson, who is working on a book about Cooey’s. They started making rifles in 1919 and by the 1930’s had at least two models of single shot bolt actions, a long action chambered for 22 or 25 Stevens, and a shorter action for just 22. The Model 35 pump was their first repeater and appears to be based on the short bolt action - the bolt looks like it’s from a bolt action with the handle cut off. These were made starting about 1935 and were discontinued by 1939 or possibly sooner. About 1939 the design was used as the basis for a repeating bolt action, the Model 60, so back to what the basics of the design started as. With later changes it became the Model 600, from what I can find this was in the early 1960’s when the company was acquired by Winchester. Here is a link to a more detailed history of Cooey - COOEY: THE HISTORY OF CANADA'S GUNMAKER - Calibremag.ca The Model 35 is not even mentioned.
Here’s a link to another site - Cooey Machine and Arms Collectors - They have pictures of 100’s of Cooey’s but I saw none of the Model 35. They have it listed and have a gallery page for it, but without pictures. They also have a list suggesting there was a straight stocked version, but I have doubts about that without seeing pictures.
The gun was very dirty when I got it and needed some work on the action. It also had a replacement inner magazine that did not function correctly, it require a longer swiveling follower and I turned the end plug to resemble a Cooey’s. The stock has cracks in the front and this appears to be a common problem with them, the only other one I handle was cracked worse than this one, there is a video on youtube of one that also has a cracked stock – youtube/watch=pmsg7UMg3Bc (note that the action release has to be pulled for every shot)
That one is later version than mine, it has the flat bottom pistol grip and the metal insert in the nose of the stock has tabs at the top that are inletted into the top front sides of the stock.
I could not find a patent, any parts list, or schematic for these. Many of the parts look identical to ones for the bolt action Model 60 and 600, but I didn’t find much on them either.
Some pictures of it in various states of disassembly -
The magazine tube is brazed to the cartridge guide and the assembly is held in position by the takedown screw which is adjusted for play and then held with a round lock nut. The cartridge guide is connected to the bolt by a tab that rides in the groove for the extractor and it moves with the bolt. The takedown screw is turned out to lower the magazine assembly so the tab on the cartridge guide will disconnect from the bolt. Removing the lifter would allow the magazine assembly to be pulled through the large rear hanger, but I saw no need to do that.
The forearm has a metal tube through it full length that is brazed to a heavy rear plate with the bracket for the slide arm brazed to them; I do not think cracking a forearm should ever be a problem on one of these.
ACTION LOCK - The action lock on these appears to be another problem area, in the video linked to above it had to be pulled for each cycle of the action. Here’s another video he made where it’s working better, but you can still see that a few times he has to wiggle the slide to get the action to open - youtube/watch=pmsg7UMg3Bc
Some years ago there were two for sale from a dealer who often imported from Canada, one appeared to be quite nice but the other was missing all the action lock parts – these both sold by the time I saw them. Kaynine has posted pictures of the better one of those – rimfirecentral/post-3164748
The action lock on mine needed a lot of tweaking to get it to work reliably. When I got the gun the action lock cover kept tilting up due the way the spring is attached and it would catch on the striker pin which caused it to be crooked with bends and dents from hammer marks due to previous straightening and the metal was expanded so the top edge was no longer straight. There is a slight lip the cover is supposed to fit against, I had to file the top edge straight and do a lot of straightening to get it back to fitting right without binding the release, I eventually had to curve the top edge and ends down a little to catch that lip.
This is what would sometimes happen -
The pointed front of the action lock goes into a small hole in the rear of the locking lug to lock the action.
The ring on the actuating tab is bent out at the bottom where it contacts the tab on the action lock, it appears it was originally connected at the bottom by a thin strip that is now pulled apart, this had to have happened when the action was first opened. Bent open like it is, it will still push the action rod to its forward limit when the action is fully opened, you can see burrs where it’s been hitting at the limit of travel. If it were bent back in shape to close the loop it would get bent right back the first time the action was opened. The notch should have been wider; I left it as it was since that was working. I found part of the reason it was not release the action reliably was due to a problem with the bolt, it works fine now.
In the next picture you can see how the spring is attached, I had these parts off a number of times and found that practice does not seem to make it easier to get the parts lined up and back together and keep the spring attached.
The trigger is separate from the sear block and can pivot forward, I see no need for this, it does not pivot at any time when cycling. The sear is like a hook to catch a notch in the striker for a safety.
You can also see a repair that was done to this receiver, the bottom edge of the slot for the slide arm was welded up and then re-machined. It looks like the receiver turned while the slot was being milled the first time - this is not normal.
-continued due to attachment limits -
