New Sportster Question

[Bill3006]

Hi,
 
I had my local gun store order me a sportster .22LR and I picked it up the other day. I've wanted one for a long time, mostly to practice with a rifle that's similar to my handi 30-06 and save on 30-06 ammo. Nice gun, wish they came with the monte carlo stock and scope rail though like they used to. Anyway, after looking it over more carefully, saw a couple of possible issues. The crown has kind of a burr on it, like it was cut with a dull tool. I suppose it can be cleaned up with a steel ball bearing and some valve grinding compounding. It locks up tight, but the amount of engagement is small, maybe only about 0.050 wide by 0.050 long on the barrel shelf. It looks like the latch might be cocked a little to one side and only making contact on an outer edge. Anybody every have a bad latch? Maybe not a problem for a .22?
 
Looking forward to a trip to the range, but maybe not so much if it is going to be a problem gun.
 
thanks for your comments!

[quickdtoo]

It could be a broken latch, but more than likely the underlug is the problem, it's not welded on the barrel plumb, I've had many H&Rs that showed uneven latch engagement, it can be corrected by honing the shelf, but I'd shoot it first and see how it does, if accuracy is real poor, it may have to go back to H&R for repair, see the repair page on the H&R website for more info it needed, their CS is second to none and will make it right, you can always ask them to cover return shipping as well so it doesn't cost you anything for the repair, just a little wait.

Tim

[Bill3006]

Thanks, I appreciate the advice!