The firing pin retaining pin is shaped to the recoil shield and looked like a royal pain to reinstall in the correct orientation. So far I had gotten three pins out without any issues so I decided not to press my luck. I left it where it was. The front ejector rod plunger also looked to be a real joy to reinstall, so it stayed in place as well.
The frame made a trip out to the back porch and I reminded myself that brake cleaner splashes everywhere when you put the nozzle into a tight space. Half a can of brake cleaner did a fine job of de-nastifying the inside of the frame and washed a truly amazing amount of junk out of the front ejector rod plunger area.
There is a reference in my previous post to some rust scabs on the frame that may seem to be just a random thought that doesn't belong there. It wasn't random. I removed the rear sight because I was planning on boiling and carding the frame while it was mostly from together. I put a pot of distilled water on the stove to boil (She Who Must Be Obeyed was still at her church camp so I was able to do this inside instead of outside on the grill side burner) and turned my attention to the trigger group. I wanted to boil and card the trigger guard but all the pieces needed to come out first.
The transfer bar is easy...just pull the trigger and it falls out. At least it would fall out if it wasn't gunked in place by 48 years of gack. A few drops of Hoppe's got it un-gacked and out. The hand/pawl (whatever Ruger calls it) was next and was done inside a plastic bag to prevent the dreaded ZING! I needn't have bothered. The pawl plunger and spring were also gacked in place and required solvent and a pair of pliers to remove.
The trigger is held in place by a pin inside a pin. The trigger return spring pin is hollow and the pin that holds the trigger/spring assembly into the trigger guard slides inside the hollow pin. That one was easy to remove. Getting the spring out of the trigger was also easy with the use of a small parallel clamp.
All of the various pieces that were to be boiled were strung up on wire and into the pot they went. That's the rusty front sight blade on the end of the wire attached to the frame.
Last edited by Shotguncoach; 02-04-2024 at 11:47 PM.
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