Gun cleaning mistake

[Happyshooter]

I just really earned the title of the dumbest gun cleaner of the month award. I know it has been a month ago that I did the bad thing.

I have a Double Eagle Officers Mark II. It is a nice DA/SA 45ACP. At first it didn't run well, years ago when I got it. I ended up polishing the upper portion of the inside of the chamber when I realized it was like sandpaper, and I switched to King's springs and guide system for the Officers. It is important to the story that the King's has a very small pin which goes though the rod to ease takedown quite a bit.

After the new guide rod and polish job the gun runs 99.9 percent. I retired it some years ago when I went to full time pocket gun carry and didn't need a car gun anymore. Last month I got it out, gave it a quick cleaning, and set it in my range bag with a few boxes of wolf 45.

I get to the range and am having a great time blasting away with my bedroom pistol, a 92FS that is a close to the M9 I had in the service as I could get. Some fun shooting with a friend's new (to him) police rebuild Glock 17, and some rounds with my pocket revolver, and it is time to get out an old friend.

The first two mags run really bad, about 50% functioning. Every other round hangs out halfway through ejecting.

I figure wolf must have let me down (hah) and switch to my 45 defense load---230 gr rounded version hydrashok. I have about 10 boxes of this left before I have to try gold dot for functioning---but that is another story. Same thing, hydra shok is jamming the same way.

Please note that at the seven yard line I am hitting about half of the bowling pins I am aiming at...more on that later.

I get home--get out the small kit I have with the king's size bushing wrench, spare springs and pins, and the wooden block I made to aid me when the take down pin slips and I have to recompress the springs.

I lay out the bushing wrench, the bushing, insert the pin, pull the slide release, open the pistol, pull the guide rod, slide the barrel right out...

Look up at the bushing laying there next to the wrench where I got it out of the bag...

I left the darn bushing off last month and carefully put it away with the wrench.

The thing shot about 50 percent functioning without a bushing, and I was hitting about half the pins (which is worse than what I usually do but not really bad for me).

I can't believe I am that dumb, but I am.

 

[hoghunting]

Everyone screws up sometime - that's how we learn. On the bright side, you'll be more careful reassemblying your weapons, and you didn't loose the bushing.

 

[fast eddie]

Don't feel bad. I put the recoil spring for my Kahr P45 in backwards which caused the spring guide to slip through the spring and poke out the front of the slide during recoil; the gun doesn't work too well that way. It's just another reason to practice regularly. Better to learn from your screw ups on the range then when your life is on the line.

 

[Roadwild17]

Not that bad, you didnt mess up your gun.

 

[dfaugh]

Reminds me of the first time I did a brake job on a car (olden time drums--no disks back them)....I'd watched the boss do a couple, so he left me on my own to do this one. Completly alone. Got it all back together (except drum), went into offfice to see if he wanted to check my work. He asks me "Did you have any parts left over?" I said no. he says "then you probably did it right!")

 

[James T Thomas]

jigsawpuzzle

I have an old shotgun that I disassembled to clean, and to this day, it is not operating right.

What you describe is one of the good points about revolvers. Simplicity; in cleaning that is. Once the cleaning is completed, close that cylinder -the swing out kind, and it is ready.

No concerns about placing some part in oriented wrong.

In the military, after cleaning, and before going out on patrol, it was standard procedure to test fire the weapon before leaving the fire base to prevent just those mistakes you mention.