Ted Williams Model 3T .22 Auto

[Sarge]

Hit the local gun show today and picked up a Ted Williams Model 3T .22 automatic rifle. The guy had $175 on it but I got him down substantially, pretty quick. It is actually a Winchester Model 190, rebranded for Sears. The rifles were produced between 1967-1980 and total production including the Model 290 (nicer wood/stamped checkering) is around 2,150,000.

I’d been looking for a .22 and with the current ammo stupidity, I wanted something that would shoot Shorts, Longs or Long Rifles interchangeably. The 3T/Model 190 is so marked and it will handle them all. I’ve shot a few over the years and remembered them as good, accurate .22’s designed to fit a grown-up. I was glad to find one at a decent price, in very good condition.

It was about dark when we got home but I gathered about 60 rounds of assorted .22 LR that was scattered around the back porch, remnants of Federal 36 HP, Winchester Wildcat, Remington Thunderbolt and Winchester T22. It digested these as fast or slow as you cared to run it. Sights were a tad off. If it don’t rain, zeroing the irons commences tomorrow.

 

[ThomasT]

That was the first gun I ever bought. I found a 190 with scope at K-Mart for a grand total of $48 bucks. I shot the snot out of it.

That gun has one particular problem and I have seen several guns do it. The barrel will move foward and the gun will start to misfire. You will see a gap between the forearm and the receiver when it does this.

If your gun does this just remove the forearm and you will see a nut at the receiver that tightens against the barrel. Just loosen and tap the barrel back in place and tighten the nut. It would be a good idea to remove the nut and clean the threads and add locktite to the threads. I had to retighten mine 3 different times. I didn't know about the locktite trick.

I hope you enjoy your gun as much as I did mine. Mine was marked S,L,LR but all I ever shot was LR rounds. I wish I still had mine.

And just in case you didn't know it those were also made as a lever action. I had one in 22 mag. Fun little guns.

 

[Sarge]

Thanks, Ratshooter. I was aware of the barrel nut issue and I imagine a lot of 'bad ones' were sold for cheap over the years, when a simple fix would have cured them.

I located the following resources for T3/190/290 owners:

Disassembly

Reassembly

Loose Barrel Nut/Feeding Issues

Still tinkering with sights and ducking 36 degree raindrops. Range report to follow.

 

[Sarge]

Dug in my stash & found an ancient box of Remington Hi-Speed 22 Shorts with the Golden bullet. The old Ted 3T/Win 190 fed & fired them slick as a whistle. The last 22 automatic rifle I fired, that functioned with Shorts, was an old Remington Model 24 one of my brothers owned.

 

[CUBAN REDNECK]

I remember this rifle from the 70's when they were even sold in Sears stores in Massachusetts. We come a long way since then, not for the better...

 

[Sarge]

Over the past week the 3T/Model 190 it has fed every odd .22 cartridge I've thrown at it, from assorted .22 Shorts to 'Quiet' ammo to a Mulligan Stew of oddball 22LR from various manufacturers.

I had to change out the front sight for a taller one, so I needed to check zero. Today I ignored the rain and fired a few 5 round groups at just short of 50 yards, using the window of my old pickup a rest. Ammo was Federal 36 grain bulk HP. This was occurring regularly when I didn't screw up a shot. The old rifle is certainly accurate enough for any use I'll put it to.

03/23/13 Update:

...and finally today, I sat down at a bench and adjusted the last bit of right windage out of the sights. I was shooting three shot groups to conserve ammo and kept seeing stuff like this and thinking "Wow, those are about a half inch."

I put a tape on it before I drove back to the house and it was 5/16". This old rifle is shooting as well as any .22 auto I've ever owned, the best of which was an old Mossberg 151-M.

So color me happy as a clam.