Ahoy there Shipmates,
For quite a while now I've been looking to add a 5906 to my personal collection. But not just any 5906. There was a certain combination of features I was after that together seem to be not particularly common. Specifically, I wanted the Novak low mount backsight and a first trigger guard. But, that first trigger guard needed to have the gradual radius cut where the front joins the frame. It's much more common to see a 90° milling cut there that leaves a pretty sharp edge on each side of the frame. I much prefer the gradual radius taper from frame into trigger guard at the front as seen on the later guns with the third trigger guard.
What we wanna do here is cobble together my idea of the perfect 5906 for concealed carry or whatnot.
Anyway, I spotted a candidate for this project on GB a few days ago and bid on it. $355 later and it's here, let's have a look shall we...
According to the SCS&W the TEP prefix makes it April of 1990 production.
Aside from a bit of rust erupting through the chrome plating on the trigger & hammer, the exterior looks pretty good.
Century's import mark in the trigger window so it been re-imported from somewhere. Had Century burned this on the side of the dust cover I'd have passed but, semi hidden here is ok.
How about a peek under her pettycoats eh?
Yikes!
Just might need a new recoil spring...maybe
Fixin' to detail strip the slide...
Well, that's liable to be a problem
Everything is dripping wet with dirty oil and most of the springs are rusted as if this gun was laying in the bilge under the #2 generator next to the auxiliary fire pump
Extractor came off without difficulty...
Oh Boy!...
At this resolution it kinda looks like my cat puked on this stuff...
Ok well the top end is all tore down, I rekon we better get after the bottom half
Just lovely... Early two finger trigger play spring, drawbar plunger spring rotten & bleeding rust everywhere, and the gunk
...
Old version of the 23019 ejector. that'll go in the recycle bin along with the rotten springs...
Sideplate is kinda tweaked but it does not appear the prongs are spread so this might be fixable, at least until I can get a new one...
And gutted... Hard to tell what's actually rusted and what's not with all the crud. Looks like the rust that's bled everywhere is from a few of the small music wire springs. My guess is this gun got really wet or went for a swim at some point and instead of a detail strip & clean it was just dunked in some oil.
Stripped frame shows some rust under the grip and I suspect there'll be some degree of pitting...
A little less bad on this side...
First order of business...Everything goes into the ultrasonic crud disintegration chamber
Heated the tank up to 40°C and I'll run this for a half hour to start and see how things look...
I'll be better able to assess what needs doing after the bits are all clean.
But, my overall impression despite all the crud is very little wear and lots of neglect... So, not fired much and not taken care of either. I can work with this
More to follow...
Cheers
Bill