Oow 28?

A picture is worth...

Not too bad

loboslanding said:

gunranger, I bought the whole setup from OOW as a finished piece...I didn't build it. The workmanship and finish is way better than I could ever muster.

Chester, how does the water jacket look? Any dents? Although I have a working '28, I keep getting the itch to buy a kit from OOW.

Click to expand...

Mine has 2-3 dings (looks like they banged against the water stopper corp brass plug) or whatever - like a pencil eraser diameter sized depression, and some minor surface scratches.

The Jacket is blued. The Left sideplate (no engraving) and bottom are blued. The top plate with sight are parked. The Barrel is .30-06 blued, with the muzzle end threads for the blank firing adaptor. The backplate and safety is blued.

The internals are parked Isreali parts for semi auto configuration. The trigger job is far superior to my ORF 1919a4.

I got all the parts, rivits, etc. and working on the edges and look of the semi right side plate. OOW engraved.

I read somewhere elsewhere on this board, perhaps Hotchkiss, mentioned that someone is making neoprene gaskets to keep the water seal intact on the water jackets between the barrel? Am I missing something? I heard originals were greased leather. How was this issue addressed on your finished unit?

Hi Chester, and congradulations on your Colt! It was Viton that some people are using for O-rings-a little more expensive that Neoprene. Small Arms Review mag had an artlicle on the subject a few years ago. It seems that most people using Lou's great set up find that the Ace Harware Teflon packing works like the old Asbestes but I have not tried it yet. The Viton rings come several to a package from McMaster Carr and I never have found what size to order and I am WAY to cheap to guess on that.

Now Chester, I got a question for you. How would you rate the blueing on your new gun? Was it polished like a fine sporting arm or do you see blanchard grinding marks in the left side plate? Maybe you didn't get the original left plate???) I am getting ready to blue my Colt 1917 replica and I want to know how Colt finnished a machine gun in the day. I have seen .30 Gatliings made by Colt that were finished nicer than any of their single action armys. I am sure your going to have fun with this project and we all wish you luck, Hotch

from what i have been told, argentina manufactured there own 1928 water cooled guns

i believe if thats the case, that your left side plate, if not engraved was probably one of them guns made by argentina

one of my oow kits have the unengraved left side plate, but i can assure you thats an original plate cause its numbered to the rest of the parts inside of the plate

the other 2 are are colt engraved on the lsp

ive also been told there were 2 types of engravings on the RS plates one has the rampant colt, and one has the colt over the top of a shield
one of the engravings were found on the guns made by colts, and the other was found on the guns made in argentina


i wasnt there at the time so i cant say for sure 100%, just what i was told by someone who is pretty knowledgeable on these

that i believe is why some of the 28 kits have unengraved left side plates

and chester, i believe the 28 colts were only made in 765 argentine
your 30 06 barrel with the threading on it had to come from some other browning variant from some other country. If you look at your rear sight leaf, you will find that it is marked S, and SS. S, and SS are two variants of 765 argentina ammunition. also, the argentine 1919 rear sight leaf is marked with SS as well (at least my argie 1919 is)

all 3 of my 28 colts are 100% blued over a fine polish
they are not black oxide (bluing over a sandblasted course finish making them look dull black), or parkerized

Lucky, you're too kind.

I thot the '28s were all made by Colt stateside and then sold to Argentina under contract. I bet Mark Genovese could clarify it if he sees these posts.

Sounds like the dings are minimal and can be tapped out with the end cap off.

The original packing was asbestos, as said, and put grease on it before you wrapped it. I used the Ace Hardware TFE teflon string for the first time on my last shoot and I love it. It has a kind of plastic feel to it so after I put wheel bearing grease on it and wrapped the rear groove I took my little brass hammer and tapped it down all around leaving a little sticking up. Because it's teflon and really slick it didn't bind the action at all. I packed the front gland the usual way, but ran about one more round knowing I was going to compress it a tad with the gland. With the asbetos string the gun usually leaked a bit until it warmed up and sealed off. The teflon string sealed up really tight and I lost minimal water. After I came back from the shoot and cleaned the barrel the packing is still intact and didn't fray like the asbestos string did.

I hear the Viton rings work good too. I just like using string because it's kind of an art to wrap it.

Get you a copy of one of the field manuals for the 1917 water cooled and it will tell you how to wrap it properly. Mine is FM 23-55 and it came from OOW with the gun. Chester, if they didn't include a manual you might want to call them up and see if they'll send you one because you bought a kit.

B.A.R. you bring up an interesting point on the barrel. My '06 OOW barrel is threaded on the end too and I wonder where they came from because the gun was only in 7.65 Argentine...good question. Although 1917 barrels interchange, the blank firing adapter doesn't thread onto the barrel. Of course OOW could have just threaded a 1917 barrel for our use...they certainly have the ability.

B.A.R., did you build your '28s, buy from OOW or are they original full autos?

Here is a link to the article on converting a Browning for O-Rings. There are two pages. It was featured in SAR April 2000.
http://www.hunt101.com/img/425163.jpg
http://www.hunt101.com/img/425165.jpg


Below are the engravings from a 1928 with no rampant horsey on it. These are pictures of a still original and live gun in Argentina.
Left Side:


Right Side:



Chester,
Check your 30-06 barrel for the Argentine RA inside of a circle. This was their mark they put on damn near everything. I am not sure as whether this was a manufacturing mark that they used or one Colt put on there for them. I would guess it was made by Colt but marked for Argentina as all parts I have seen that are marked this way are of excellent quality. If it was an Argentine factory that would mean there was an Arg factory putting out the same quality as one of the world's leading arms makers (doubtful). This would also be their way of keeping the military contract parts identified seperately for certain contracts.



BAR gunner,
I do believe that 99.9% of 1928s were 7.65 there were a few made in 30-06. This comes from an Argentine collector, first hand. I also have an Argentine made 1928 belt loader but it is made to handle 30-06. This is not a modification to the loader, it is cast longer and the hopper is longer to permit the longer cartridge to feed.
I have no idea why or how many but some were definately in other calibers.

I am no expert and could be wrong. If so I would welcome any more info that is out there! (you would think the Argentine guns were top secret with how little info is out there)

Dave West