The ATF has a published list of C&R guns and I believe its available online.
You can write to the director and request that it be placed on the C&R list for any of the applicable reasons.
EDIT: Here's the list......didn't see it on there but it may be in an update.
http://www.atf.treas.gov/firearms/curios/sec2.htm
The first article I pulled up concerning the Cooey kind of indicates its C&R capability concerning the age of it if this is the gun in question.
See text below:
A true Canadian, the Cooey 39 single-shot .22 was very likely a first gun for most of us.
The exact date of the 39?s introduction is unclear, but it came on the market just as World War II was breaking. Designed and built by Toronto-born Hubert Joseph Cooey at the family plant in Cobourg, Ontario, the Cooey 39 has earned a reputation for simplicity, ultra-reliability and safety.
The 39 is a great youngster?s gun?scaled to fit an adolescent comfortably and, at a trim four pounds, easy to carry. I remember walking the fields of Hastings County as a boy of 13 in search of the dreaded groundhog, Cooey 39 in hand. Cooey obviously understood his market when he designed this gun. Even with a cartridge in the chamber, the gun must be manually cocked by pulling back the bolt knob, making accidental discharges all but impossible.
The Cooey has always been affordable, unusual for a firearm that?s also inherently accurate. And it?s versatile, digesting short, long or long-rifle loads.
There are no accurate records of the number of Cooey 39s sold, but the number must be staggering. And, as a testament to durability, most are still in use today. To the probable annoyance of gun registration people, none of the Cooey 39s carries a maker?s serial number.