Can't get barrel back in

[dorsey]

I can't find an answer to this one, so I'm posting a new question.  I had received a lot of great help with my 1934, and hope to find the same with this question regarding my HSc.

I recently purchased an Eagle/L 1944 production in what appears to be unfired condition (probably wrong about this, though), and wanting to clean and preserve it, I pulled the barrel out, which was very difficult in itself.  Now, I can't get it back in.

From what I've seen in the YouTube universe on this gun, disassembly and reassembly only requires finger pressure to snap it out and then back into place.  On this gun, finger pressure alone barely compresses the recoil spring, and the barrel keeps sticking inside the front of the slide rather than protruding.  When I remove the spring, the barrel slides in pretty easily, so I think that I'm doing it right.

Am I missing something?  The hammer is cocked, the safety is on, and I've tried this with the magazine both in and out.  This doesn't seem like something that should be giving me this much trouble, but I'm stuck.

Thanks for any and all help.  Not that we don't all know what the parts look like, but I've posted a photo.

Dorsey

[Warbird]

Hi Dorsey!  This isn't an unusual situation because the tolerance of the "Barrel Bushing" at the front of the Slide is very close.  With the Barrel in the position shown in your picture, take a nylon (plastic) cleaning patch holder, insert it partially into the front of the Barrel and squeeze it up against the Slide with one hand while pushing forward and down on the Barrel Breech with the thumb of your other hand.

That should do it!  Let me know how you made out ...

[dorsey]

Many thanks for your quick, helpful, reply Warbird.  I used a 1/4" aluminum rod that I had in lieu of a plastic rod (that I don't have) and it worked immediately!  I also used leather gloves, since both thumbs are pretty sore from working this over the last few days.

To confirm that I had the barrel fully seated, I removed and re-assembled it.  Now that I'm an "expert" at this (ahem), I found another thing that helps is to rotate the recoil spring so the open coil point doesn't interfere with seating the barrel through the "bushing".

Thanks to the HSc Production Chart post http://www.mauserguns.com/forum/index.php/topic,6.0.html, I have to amend my original message in this thread that dates the gun from 1944 to 1943.

All of that said, I've been wanting one of these since the early 70's and have now added this specimen to my early 20th Century  .32 / 7.65 pocket pistol collection.

Regards,
Dorsey

[Warbird]

Glad to hear it!  If you care to give me your serial number (in this thread or Private Message), I can tell you the exact month and year of production for your HSc.