Fixing a High Standard R-108 Sentinel Snub Revolver

One of my favorite guns is a High Standard Sentinel R-101 .22 with a nickeled finish and 3" barrel, that I bought in near-new condition about 5 years ago. It's given excellent service.

A couple years ago I found a later Sentinel R-108 snub with a 2" barrel, and the original box and papers included.I jumped on that because the shorter barrel makes it a lot more pocketable, and 9 rounds of CCI Stingers or Federal Punch .22s is nothing to sneeze at.

Unfortunately, the snub gave me problems at the outset with the cylinder binding. I tried swapping cylinder assemblies with one I grabbed off eBay but that was for nought. It needed to have the cylinder disassembled to find the problem. I figured it would be a burr or some grit had managed to work its way inside.

The problem is that the Sentinels are notoriously difficult to put back together once taken apart. They are held together with pins and you need to align all the holes just right, often under spring tension. So, the gun sat until today when I finally got tired of it occupying space.

After removing the cylinder from the frame, which isn't difficult, to get the cylinder stripped I had to remove the cylinder lock plunger pin (part # 7112). This pin is about as thick as a pencil lead and 3 or 4mm long. It's under pressure from a couple springs (#7513 and #7576).

I managed to drive it out and not shoot any parts across the room. Upon pulling everything apart I found that ejector rod spring (#7576) was splayed out on both ends, causing cylinder rotation to bind. I clipped both ends which still gives plenty of spring pressure for the ejector rod to rebound.

Now came reassembly. I had to hold three parts under spring pressure in alignment and drive that tiny pin back into place. Aside from a small diameter drift punch I found a small hook from a Harbor Freight set indispensable.

You also need to stick your tongue out at the right angle, squint correctly, cross your toes, and pray. In extreme cases you may need to sacrifice a chicken.

After reassembly and a few cylinder's worth of dry firing (safe to do with the Sentinel) it seems to be working smoothly.

Part of self reliance is being able to work on your guns. To that end, you should have a gunsmith's screwdriver kit with an assortment of bits that properly fit gun screws, a set of drift punches, a non-marring mallet, and a bench block. A vise with non-marring jaws will also be very handy. Also, magnetic parts trays help keep you from losing small parts when you've got a gun apart.

I feel like I earned a bowl of Half and Half in my Falcon pipe, along with a can of Yuengling Lager.

Hopefully I'll get to do a live fire test soon.