Great Moments in Home Gunsmithing

[2000Z-71]

Reading Fitz's post about trying to get his Ruder SP101 back together got me thinking about my own great moments in home gun smithing. So what have your moments been? Some of mine below:

Ruger NO.1, when I first got it I decided I needed to do a complete strip and clean. Why? I still don't remember. I used a finishing nail as a slave pin to capture the firing pin spring. The finishing nail prompty bananna'd leaving absolutely no tension on the firing pin spring. I had a hell of a time getting the spring back on and captured.

1911 recoil spring plug. It got loose under the bushing wrench and I launched it skyward, literally shooting it into the drywall ceiling of the garage. Had to get the ladder out to pry it out of the ceiling.

Winchester 70 firing pin field strip. Well the field strippable firing pin is supposedly one of the great features of the Model 70. When I got my first one I had to try it, just because. I ended up cocking the thing in dissassembly and had one hell of a time getting it back together. I talked to my best friend who got one the year before I did. He did the same thing and had the same issue.

 

[2000Z-71]

Reading Fitz's post about trying to get his Ruder SP101 back together got me thinking about my own great moments in home gun smithing. So what have your moments been? Some of mine below:

Ruger NO.1, when I first got it I decided I needed to do a complete strip and clean. Why? I still don't remember. I used a finishing nail as a slave pin to capture the firing pin spring. The finishing nail prompty bananna'd leaving absolutely no tension on the firing pin spring. I had a hell of a time getting the spring back on and captured.

1911 recoil spring plug. It got loose under the bushing wrench and I launched it skyward, literally shooting it into the drywall ceiling of the garage. Had to get the ladder out to pry it out of the ceiling.

Winchester 70 firing pin field strip. Well the field strippable firing pin is supposedly one of the great features of the Model 70. When I got my first one I had to try it, just because. I ended up cocking the thing in dissassembly and had one hell of a time getting it back together. I talked to my best friend who got one the year before I did. He did the same thing and had the same issue.

 

[mjr]

Around 1956 I took apart a Hubley cap pistol and couldn't get it back together. My dad--bless his heart--worked on it for what seemed like hours and got it mostly reassembled, but it was never the same.

It was a lesson learned early. Since then I've left most of my gunsmithing needs to gunsmiths.

 

[mm6mm6]

My Marlin Camp Carbine 45 is disassembled on my work bench right now. I needed to replace the hammer a few months ago and the sear spring went "boinngngngngngng" to who knows where in the basement's black holes.

I got a new spring (2 of 'em) but I can't figure out how to get it back in or exactly how it goes in. Some help was obtained over on the Marlin Forum, but I've been working the last few days and I haven't had time to monkey around with it some more.

 

[Jeb Stonewall]

I guess enough years has past for it to be safe to tell.
I tried to convert a 22 semi auto to full auto when I was 15.
Didn't turn out to good.
Could fire two rounds without any problems.
Then it would jam.
Most I ever got it to fire on full auto was 5 rounds before jamming.
Also learned that after working on the sear and bolt that chambering a round by pulling the bolt back and letting it slam shut just might fire off the chambered round(into the basement ceiling!!!!!)

 

[nicky4968]

Most valuable learning experience was that the bolt on a Krag (difficult enough if you're just reading a book) has to be cocked. That cost me near a week of off-and-on attempts.
Now I take the bolt off cock after removal. Better than any S&W lock. If you don't know what's wrong, you absolutely can't get it in.

 

[jimmyj]

Hi:
Working in a Gun Shop on my days off was an experence. Customers would purchase a new firearm and within hours would return with a box/bag that contained their new gun in parts. they had taken it apart as soon as they got home. I would inquire what had broken that soon on their new firearm?
Jimmy

 

[crofoot629]

Maybe about the 6th or 7th grade I completely disassembled my 3 screw Ruger Single Six, took a couple of weeks to get it back together with a little help from my dad here and there.

I'm still all thumbs.

Emory

 

[jkc]

I can't be the only one who's exhausted an extensive repetoire of profanity attempting to reassemble a Ruger Markx .22 pistol???

 

[EvelMe]

jkc, you're not.

 

[Jeepnut]

I put some Pachy's on a BHP...never knew the original grip screws are might on the long side for the application.
Short of it is..one screw sheared off during recoil. Them bugger's are a tad harder than the frame material...my attempts to extract the fugger resulted in some severly wandering drill bits.

Ain't pretty under the grip panel, but I know it's there. Doesn't shoot any less, and doesn't shoot any better.

What's my point?...none. I fuggered it. And any value it had.
Sometimes, a bit of pride-swallowin' is worth the expense of seeking professional assistance. Even with a mere grip screw.

 

[john traveler]

I detail stripped a Ruger Stainless Security Six and washed out the black powder residue in the kitchen sink. Oops! The cylinder center pin went down the drain! Panicked, called my friend a couple miles away and borrowed his plumbing tools to remove the sink gas trap, made another huge mess, but recovered the cylinder center pin. Lesson learned, and have not dropped anything down the sink drain in over 30 years!

 

[WR Moore]

Launched a mainspring assembly while trying to put it in a 1911 mainspring housing. Looked for it for over 1 hour. Then found it embedded in the underlayment of the floor overhead.

 

[n4zov]

My greatest moment was when I was 15 and decided to take my Winchester 24 double apart for cleaning. Big mistake! It eventually went back to the factory to be reassembled.

 

[Stranglehold]

1911 recoil spring and plug got me one day. I was running a 20lb spring in a Commander that got away from me during reassembly. The spring plug centered the 14 inch ceiling light fixture in my gun room, destroying it and showering me with shards of glass. I was lucky and received only a few small scratches, but the cleanup took over an hour. It even shattered two of the three bulb inside the fixture.

Roe

 

[NMPinNYC]

This is great... nothing else to share yet, but I'm thinking about it... Good stories, all.

 

[yanici]

I put a little gun oil in the hand slot on my brand new 642 because it felt gritty during the pull on the trigger and the trigger was getting stuck on the rebound. Lotta dry fire to try to smooth it out. That helped but now I get some black, dirty oil leaking out from the side plate, near the top. I'm scared ****less to take the plate off and try to clean inside.

 

[kleinkaliber]

Originally posted by jkc:
I can't be the only one who's exhausted an extensive repetoire of profanity attempting to reassemble a Ruger Markx .22 pistol???

Once. That was enough.

D*** thing.

 

[H Richard]

If you haven't changed the blade on a S&W rear sight yet, just be sure to put the hole thing in a large plastic bag before backing out the windage screw all the way. I still have a (teeny tiny) detent plunger and spring "somewhere" in my shop.

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

Originally posted by jkc:
I can't be the only one who's exhausted an extensive repetoire of profanity attempting to reassemble a Ruger Markx .22 pistol???

Been there, done that, got the t shirt to show for it