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Old 12-07-2011, 11:56 PM
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Default Colt 1903 Detailed Reassembly – The Difficult Parts

Light, compact, accurate, and a natural pointer, the Colt 1903 Pocket Auto retrofitted with modern sights remains a great little pistol, but a difficult one to reassemble. The manuals I’ve seen either say “assembly is the reverse of disassembly”…which ain’t so…or not to disassemble beyond field stripping…or to take it to a gunsmith. Fine…except where does the gunsmith go for guidance? So when I got one of these in (as a bag of parts) to replace the slide safety, mainspring and trigger all broken or bent by an owner’s disassembly attempts, I thought I’d document how to reassemble one of these for the benefit of the next guy.



Field stripping is easy and you can find how to do it in books. I’ll only cover the parts internal to the frame. Here I’ve already installed the trigger, sear and disconnector, which are also straightforward. Also note that I’m using a rubber band to prevent the ejector from pivoting, which will make aligning the hammer easier.



The first parts to go in are the magazine catch and the sear spring. Both are straightforward…the magazine catch has a tenon that fits in a rectangular slot in the frame and the sear spring in the lower of two circular recesses in the frame sides. After installation, apply pressure to the spring with your finger to insure the three upper leaves engage the rear surfaces of the sear and disconnector and the lower leaf the magazine catch, and that all function correctly.



Note the upper circular recesses in the frame. These are for the mainspring, but are a sloppy fit until the mainspring is compressed, so watch the alignment as you proceed.



Slide the mainspring upward into the frame its position controlled the recesses. Note I’ve lightly mounted the pistol in a bronze-lined vise for stability.



Next I remove the mainspring temporarily to check the position of the sear before installing the grip safety. The sear must be tilted to the rear (push the lobes down) to properly engage the hooks on the grip safety in relationships shown in the diagram below:



Note how the three leaves of the sear spring (28) engage the sear (22) and disconnector (23), how the upper mainspring leaf (29) fits into the hammer slot above the pinned roller (18), and how the hooks of the grip safety (27) engage the rear lobes of the sear.



I slide the grip safety into the frame. Note that pressing against the mainspring will cause the bend of the mainspring to seat into the recess milled into the grip safety. I lightly greased both faying surfaces to make that easier.



Here I’ve seated the mainspring by applying pressure to the lower end of the grip safety, and am holding the assembly in place using a rubber band. Note the upper rear face of the grip safety rests firmly against the mortise in the frame. For future reference, this is the “cocked” position of the grip safety.



If instead, your efforts result in the grip safety ending in the “fired” or hammer-down position, the upper grip safety hooks rode over the sear lobes. You need to remove the grip safety, tip the sear to the rear and reinstall the grip safety so the end result is the “cocked” position.



An alternative to using a rubber band to hold the grip safety in position is to use a thin slave pin. Keep in mind that the more play there is in the bottom of the grip safety, the less pressure is required for the hammer to engage the upper leaf of the mainspring, which is the next step.

Continued…







Here I’m pointing to the upper leaf of the mainspring as it bears against the grip safety. I apply some grease to the upper leaf, and to the roller and other faying surfaces on the hammer.



Here I’ve mounted an undersized slave pin for the hammer in the vise. This one happens to be a punch. I ease any burs and apply some grease to the punch for an easy sliding fit.



Again insuring the grip safety is in the “cocked” position, I press both the grip safety and the trigger using my right hand and tilt the sear all the way forward by pushing the bottom of the sear rearward using my pointer with my left.



With right-hand pressure still on the grip safety and trigger, I use the tip of a punch to push down the disconnector, again using my left hand. These steps are critical for aligning the hammer. Here you see the hammer resting loosely in place – it hasn’t been installed yet.



Now while continuing pressure on trigger and grip safety, I place the hammer roller between the mainspring leaf and the inside surface of the grip safety, pressing the hammer down onto the leaf using my left thumb. Refer to the drawing above – I’m sliding the roller behind the mainspring leaf until the leaf bottoms out in the hammer slot. This requires moderate to heavy pressure – just insure you don’t oversqueeze the trigger at the same time, or you can bend its rails.



Then while continuing pressure at all three points, I carefully lift the frame and fit the assembly over the undersized slave pin I secured in the vise. The slide safety also serves as the hammer pin, and fits through two opposed holes in the frame, two more opposed holes in the ejector, plus the hammer itself. It’s a difficult fit – insure no faying surfaces are burred and apply grease to the hammer sides, holes and pin.

While applying downward pressure to the hammer to keep it engaged with the mainspring leaf, I also have to rotate the hammer forward to the downward position to properly align all the holes. All with the sear tipped forward and the disconnector pressed downward. Until you get the hang of it, you may find it useful to use a small-diameter slave pin like the one shown in the photo above. Here I’ve installed the slave pin and am testing the hammer to insure it is properly engaged with the mainspring.



When I’ve mastered the sequence necessary to align all the holes while keeping the hammer and mainspring correctly engaged, I remove the hammer and switch to a slave pin that is only slightly undersize.



Then with the slave pin still secured in the vise, I rotate and pull upward on the frame to withdraw the slave pin half-way, then tilt the frame as necessary to sight down and align the holes so I can push in the slide safety-hammer pin until it touches the slave pin. When it does, I continue the sequence until the hammer pin completely replaces the slave pin. Note that the stud on the slide safety only installs in the “safe” position.



With the slide safety-hammer pin fully seated, I replace the lower slave pin with the magazine catch pin, double check that the grip safety, slide safety, hammer, trigger and magazine catch are all functioning correctly, reassemble the remaining parts, and test fire the pistol. My first test-fire rounds are a series of single rounds singly-loaded to insure the sear is catching the hammer correctly and the pistol won’t double or triple when a full magazine is loaded.

Last edited by Bob Smalser; 12-08-2011 at 01:38 AM.
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Old 12-08-2011, 02:45 AM
forindooruseonly forindooruseonly is offline
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Great post! I've always wondered how to do it. I've never actually taken down any of mine because I knew they were difficult to put back together. Not that I'm going to start now... that looks as difficult as I heard it was!

Do you mind if I copy and paste that to a personal file? That's the best explanation I've seen.
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Old 12-08-2011, 11:10 AM
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Quote:
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Do you mind if I copy and paste that to a personal file?
Not at all. That was my intent.
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Old 12-08-2011, 12:44 PM
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This should be added to the FAQ's in the Gunsmithing section. Great post. It's even worse than a Ruger .22 auto.
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Old 12-08-2011, 01:23 PM
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Thanks from another 1903 lover. What did you upgrade your sights with.
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Old 12-08-2011, 06:14 PM
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Excellent post. I took my rusted & pitted 1903 completely apart, resurfaced the metal, rust blued it and reassembled it. Your post today would have made things much easier. Thank you!

Any chance you could do a post on disassembly & reassembly of a Walther PPK? I have a WW2 model that needs work and there aren't any instructions available.

Thanks and Best!

Charlie
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Old 12-08-2011, 08:42 PM
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I put a note in Administration to put this in a FAQ section.
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Old 12-08-2011, 11:56 PM
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Raises my blood pressure just to read about it. I think I'll be content to just field strip my 32.
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Old 12-09-2011, 11:10 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by REM 3200 View Post
Thanks from another 1903 lover. What did you upgrade your sights with.
Nothing fancy. Mine has a generic fixed set off a nondescript 380 I've had in a parts box for a long time. But unlike the original knife-blade sights, they are big enough to see yet don't look out of place on a small pistol.
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Old 12-09-2011, 11:14 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Raider View Post

Any chance you could do a post on disassembly & reassembly of a Walther PPK?
Doubtful. I work mostly on shotguns:

Marlin Hammer Pump Shotgun Disassembly in Pictures
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Old 12-09-2011, 01:28 PM
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I, too, would have liked to have seen this before reassembling my 1903. It's one of the more difficult guns to reassemble. I have a tip that might make things even easier. I placed a couple of pencil sized, but powerful, magnets in the rear of the magazine well. They held the sear in the forward position and the magazine release catch in place while assembling the pistol. Squeezing the grip safety home and installing the pin was the real chore for me.
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Old 12-09-2011, 07:37 PM
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I recently acquired a Colt 1903. This is great information. Thanks Bob.
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Old 05-03-2012, 07:57 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Collects View Post
My friend, Jim had to reassemble the only Colt 1903 hammerless I ever took apart. I have no plans to ever go beyond field stripping one in the future.
Me neither. I'm thinking if mine needs to be disassembled past field stripping that gunsmiths have to make a living too.
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Old 05-05-2012, 06:38 AM
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I have some printed material on these little pistols. I can email to anyone who would like the details and pictures.

4011
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Old 05-13-2012, 06:22 PM
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4011,
If you would be kind enough to email me the information you have on this gun I would be most appreciative. My email is [email protected]
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Old 05-13-2012, 09:58 PM
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Excellent first rate post, thanks a million for thinking of us this way. I have done one of these assemblies a few months back. It was a 1903 32acp that was totally stripped of any finish and had a few pits. As it was no one would have given much for it so I took it all apart, polished it and reblued the pistol in its entirety. I didn't notice if it did this before but now it will sometimes not cock. If you pull the trigger and work the slide by hand about one out of three times the hammer will follow down with the slide while you hold in on the trigger. Was it something I did??? I remember it not being the funnest gun to put back together, but it wasn't impossible to figure out either.I am asking because I just found a 1908 380 that is in the same condition I would like to save and would like to know what I should watch out for. Thanks again for this post. The world needs more folks like you.
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Old 03-06-2013, 08:32 PM
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Default Doh

I was very careful in photographing the dis-assembly but it would have been really handy to have this post literally 24 hrs ago. I got it together eventually in exactly that order, but this would have saved me a couple hours of experimenting.

thanks for the great post for next time though.
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Old 03-07-2013, 01:24 AM
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Excellent posting! Thanks for the tech advise on the older stuff. I have my dad's 1903 that came into the family by way of my grandmother who received it as executor of a friend's estate sometime in the 1950's. I have had one appart and back together, but that was 35 years ago & memory is never as good as pictures.
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Old 04-15-2013, 11:15 PM
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Quote:
I was able to disassemble and reassemble mine, but the problem continues. problem is that the hammer doesn't seem to cock. When i pull the trigger, nothing happens. When I rack the slide, seems like the hammer also goes forward with the slide. The trigger travel is fully to the rear, so i think the hammer is not locked back, but I could be wrong. I noted someone else with the same problem. All parts seem like new, nothing broken, so I think it is the sear spring that needs tweaking, but I could be wrong. What is your opinion ?
Study photos 6-9 and compare them to your pistol. Sounds like the lobes of your grip safety are over-riding the sear. You're getting the pistol back together, but the sear engagement surfaces aren't mating.
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Old 04-16-2013, 08:11 AM
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BLESS YOU! There is a reserved place in Heaven for you.
The last Colt Model 1903 (.380acp) I disassembled was "FULL AUTO" when I reassembled it.
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Old 08-20-2013, 07:18 PM
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I think a Sainthood is in order here!!

Another happy, happy M 1903 owner weighing in. Now... if I could only find info as good as that for an ancient Stevens 235 SxS shotgun
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Old 08-20-2013, 07:42 PM
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As we say in England, "What a palaver!"
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Old 08-21-2013, 08:49 AM
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Hi Bob I tried to thank you once before ,but don`t know if you received it, so here goes again.
You saved my bacon when I tried to repair a friends .380. I NEVER would have gotten it back together with out your excellent tutorial. Many thanks for a job very well done.
Jack
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Old 08-21-2013, 10:32 AM
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Thanks for the nice comments, gentlemen.

I come from a long line of craftsmen (the Newhart-Moll-Kuntz line of "golden age" gunmakers) and like to document these skills for a book I'm preparing for my grandchildren. Posting the drafts in user forums provides me much better feedback for clarity revisions than any editor.

Tools and Wood with Bob Smalser
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Old 08-21-2013, 10:56 AM
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My 1903 in .380 is a beautiful piece. Wish they made something like that today. The 1903 is a great carry size.

THanks for the detail info...great stuff.
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Old 09-01-2013, 08:01 PM
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Bob,

I may be a bit late to the party but I have a Type 1 (s/n 533XX) that is gunked up (probably has never been cleaned since it was made in 1908) and needs to be taken completely down and cleaned. I have an ultrasonic bath to clean it and your tutorial to get it back together.

I would be interested to know your thoughts on where to use gun grease (I use Brownells Action Lube) and where to use oil.

Also about the magazine take down? Just move the follower or any special instructions?


thanks,

Rob

Last edited by Recoil Rob; 09-01-2013 at 08:03 PM.
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Old 09-01-2013, 08:49 PM
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I tend to use grease on the high-friction areas like the tip of the disconnector, and oil everywhere else...although I don't believe either way is critical with this pistol.

The Smith Safety Hammerless revolver is the only pistol I can think of that I've had react badly to modern lubes. They can be too slick to use the trigger to "cock" the internal hammer.
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Old 09-17-2013, 07:28 PM
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Bob,

Great post! I too am a fan of the Colt 1903s and this post will definately come in handy in the future. Great photos too.
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Old 09-17-2013, 07:53 PM
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I didn't take mine down completely, rather I field stripped it, put it in an heated ultrasonic bath, then clean boiling water, compressed air, water displacing oil and then let it sit in ATF. More compressed air, grease and oil on appropriate spots, reassembled and shot. What a fun gun to shoot! Mine was pretty accurate even though the grooves were frosty.

Taking it out again next week and will shoot from rest to see how good we really are.

Thanks to Bob for his help.

Last edited by Recoil Rob; 09-17-2013 at 09:15 PM.
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Old 10-04-2013, 05:36 PM
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Default Reassembly Tip

One thing I didn't notice in this excellent reassembly advice for the 1903 Colt is the fact that you can not finally, fully insert the combination safety knob/hammer axis pin into the frame UNLESS THE HAMMER IS COCKED. In other words, after you wiggle the safety pin to start it into the frame, but get it most of the way in, you THEN have to cock the hammer, since the safety only installs through the enlarged cutout in the frame when it is in the "up" or "safe" position, and it only will do that if the hammer is cocked. Additionally, I found the hammer hard to hold and push into position against the mainspring pressure, until I used vise-grip pliers on the top of the hammer (and no, the pliers didn't mar the hardened steel hammer).
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Old 10-04-2013, 09:43 PM
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What a very informative post; thanks much!
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Old 10-05-2014, 07:36 PM
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This post will be very useful when I reassemble the 1903 Pocket Hammerless that I picked up this weekend past in Louisiana.

Mike
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Old 09-15-2015, 09:20 AM
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Default Colt 1903 Repair?

Hello,

I have my dad's "Pocket Colt .32" or Colt 1903. We have not used this pistol for a while because it will fire after releasing the slide. Any suggestions on how to repair? Thanks.
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Old 09-15-2015, 12:46 PM
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This again confirmed my opinion to "NOT" disassemble mine beyond field strip. A spray can of parts/brake cleaner and some fresh break free and some compressed air will have to suffice.
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Old 09-16-2015, 05:52 PM
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ONE QUESTION :
Where were you in 1958 ??
Long story, short: a USCG buddy bought a Colt .380 to the armory to strip and clean. We did disassemble , cleaned, and reassembled. Then took it out to the testing range to test fire. Inserted full magazine, aimed, squeezed the trigger, and FULL AUTOMATIC !! (diaper change time). He wrapped it in a cloth, took it home, and hide it away.
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Old 02-26-2016, 02:24 PM
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I just found this fine thread yesterday. I'd had to disassemble my 1903 because of a jam with a live round in the chamber. That's all taken care of safely! But I must be doing something wrong in reassembly. With the mainspring and grip safety installed with a thin slave pin, The long thin end of the mainspring extends higher than the hole for the slide safety. as a result it seems impossible to push the hammer down enough for the hole in it to line up at all with the holes in the frame. Or am I just a 90 pound weakling?!
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Old 02-26-2016, 05:25 PM
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I solved the problem of the mainspring extending too far by seating the tabs on the shorter leaf in the rounded slots in the grip, rather than trying to insert the mainspring and grip safety as a unit. I have a slave pin anchoring the bottom of the grip safety and have a cord tourniquet squeezing the trigger and grip safety. I still cannot exert enough force on the hammer to align its hole with those on the frame.
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Old 02-26-2016, 06:00 PM
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Really great tutorial. Hope I never have to use it. I didn't read where you said what version/series this 1903 is. You don't mention a magazine disconnect (different from 'disconnector'). My 1903 was made in 1943 and has the magazine disconnect. At what place in the reassembly do you have to address that part?

I only take mine out rarely; I enjoy shooting it, but the gun's value is great enough I don't want anything happening to it. I was given it by my Stepdad, it was his brother's service issue during WWII.
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Old 03-04-2016, 01:01 PM
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I'm still unsuccessful. I'm using the wooden clamping top of my sears workbench as a substitute for my weak grip. Several times I've gotten a small then a larger slave pin through frame and hammer, but can't get the hole wide enough for the slide safety pin. Adjusting the cranks of the workbench top variably moves the slave pin (and the hole) up or down but never enough toward the muzzle for the hole to get large enough.
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Old 03-04-2016, 09:38 PM
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Gave up and took it to local gunsmith. He called back in an hour: done. Well worth the $20! He said I had the disconnector in backward.
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Old 09-28-2016, 12:51 PM
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exc. post & tutorial Bob.
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Old 02-22-2020, 10:06 AM
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Default Very Helpful, I Have a Different Question

One of the M1903s I bought, after I removed the grips, I cannot get them screwed back on because there is what looks like a thin wire-type piece extending across the grip screw hole on the right side of the grip frame. Thus, the grip screw will not extend through that hole in the grip frame.

What could that be?
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380, colt, ejector, gunsmith, hammerless, ppk, ruger, walther

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