That danged ol thing.

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WestKentucky

WestKentucky

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Western Kentucky
We have all had “that gun” that was a pain in the butt to deal with. Hard to clean, hard to reassemble, just a pain in the butt. The one that makes you want to cuss, and is sometimes successful. What is the gun, and why is it so bad?

My coworker is not much of a gun guy, but he has a few that have come to him over the years. He has cycled through sending all of them home with me to clean up and preserve for him because they were starting to not work so well and he was afraid to do anything more than spray some oil on them. This weekends project was a Winchester 190 that has either been through a swamp or left in a truck bed for a year, pretty rough and not worth the trouble, but it was his wife’s first husbands gun and it will soon be passed down to the stepson since it was his late fathers, so the chore was mine. The gun had some mechanical issues with the lifter and feed lips, which had somehow managed to both get bent inside of the gun. With it seeming to be operational I shot a few rounds and made sure it cycled, but then came the aggravation. I tore it completely down again, and gave everything a very thorough detail clean. Getting the recoil spring back in was far worse than assembling a ruger mk1. I finally got it in and got the rifle back together nice and clean... except for rust I was afraid to work more on because the metal was questionable... but that spring was a mother. It’s been cleaned up and is ready to go to the youngster, and will thankfully be much more than a wall hanger. I thought I wanted a 190, now I think I will pass.
 
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Mine is a Sig Trailside .22, parts of it keep breaking off.The piece under the barrel will not stay on, it start sliding off after 10 or 12 rounds.I still have it,don't shoot it.I probably should get it out of of my safe and shoot it or trade it.
 
Llama .45. Beautiful gun but it could never get it to feed a full mag of ammo. The take down finally pin broke and a mil spec pin does not fit.
 
My most difficult to deal with gun was an Astra Model 600. Now when I first got this gun I was pretty much a rookie when it came to semi-auto handguns. Also this was during the Prehistoric Era when there wasn't any Internet to consult when it came to taking it apart. All I had to go on was a few lines in a book (I think it was Small Arms of the World), on how to field strip it, followed by the usual "Reassemble in reverse order" instruction. Very helpful for someone with a gun that they have never seen before, let alone know anything about. Eventually I got it figured out (not without letting the recoil spring launch into low orbit around the Earth), and somehow managed to get it put back together and in working order.
 
My Turkish Girson MC1911C imported by Zenith would be that gun.

No matter the ammo it doesnt reliably feed/eject. At this point I've just been waiting for a better made 1911 deal to trade it in for. Havent found it yet but eventually I think this guns going away.
 
NIGHTLORD40K said:
View attachment 889084
Whoo boy, worn hand and cylinder stop, every little leaf spring broken......

Bought new old stock parts and cut my own springs, finally got it all timed up, but didnt want to mess with it any more and traded it towards my Luger. Smartest move I made was getting rid of it!
Click to expand...
All that work to dump it. I would try to wear it out and turn it over to the next guy to go through the same nightmare.
 
NIGHTLORD40K said:
Considering the excellent original finish, I dont think it took many rounds to wear out one of these......and those were low-powered .38 Long Colt rounds too!
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It may have been other by someone like my little brother who used to watch westerns and "shoot" at the tv with an unloaded 1851 Navy.
Beat the nipples to death and broke the main spring. It looked new.
 
Unique model D2.

I love the lines and I grabbed it because the grips were intact and the dealer was willing to throw it in on a deal for a Browning BDA.

Sure enough, just like everyone warned me, the grips have disintegrated and now I have a gripless pistol that is waiting for me to carve a new set of one piece grips for it.

I really am looking forward to being able to use it again because I think it looks great and it was fun to shoot before the grips went kaput.
 
NIGHTLORD40K said:
View attachment 889084
Whoo boy, worn hand and cylinder stop, every little leaf spring broken......

Bought new old stock parts and cut my own springs, finally got it all timed up, but didnt want to mess with it any more and traded it towards my Luger. Smartest move I made was getting rid of it!
Click to expand...
I worked on one of those for a friend, and yes, it was a tedious job. Tuning old Colts is not easy, though it is rewarding, the best part of working on that one was shooting it afterward before getting it back to him. I will take this opportunity to again reiterate that those old Colts in .38 Long Colt had the chambers bored through, with no step in them like .38 Spls. have. thus .357 Mag. ammo will chamber in these, but NEVER FIRE .357 Magnum in an old Colt New Army or like model! Instant hand grenade!
 
My first gun was a Winchester 190. Got it from my stepfather as well, but then let his son have it when his father died a couple of years later. Recently picked up another one, which looks a bit more worn than I remember mine being (mine was back in '85.)
 
I would not tear down any of my firearms that have a complicated action; I do not have the skill nor the patience - I would contract with someone that does - the OP is a braver man than me.
 
There's been a few.

The first one that comes to mind is some Rossi .38 revolver; it wasn't even mine. Being "the gun guy", my father volunteered me to look at his buddy's .38 snubnose. I'd fired as many as several cylinders through other people's revolvers at that time and had no business even popping the side plate.

But I did.

Turns out someone else had removed the sideplate, gouged it up, boogered the screws, and removed the hand. The hand pops right out, easy peasy, and looks like it should just pop right back in. It doesn't. You have to disassemble the entire lockwork to get it back in, rebound slide and all, with a severe risk of spring-propelled parts sproinging everywhere at every step.

And they did. Repeatedly. I didn't have a real problem until I had it almost back together.

The mainspring retaining swivel shot over my shoulder, bounced off the wall behind me, flew over my head, and ended up on the complete opposite side of the room I thought it would be in. I thought I'd have to buy a new one, and then "What the heck is this? Is it that part you were looking for!?"

From this project, I've learned the trick of working with sprung parts inside of a gallon freezer bag.

Another one is the CZ52 pistol. Field stripping is surprisingly Glocklike, but detail stripping is nasty. The mainspring requires "South Park" style language before it goes back in. I've tried it without, and it just doesn't go in unless you cuss it blue. Maybe I should have asked it nicely in Czech?
 
The worst one I ever had was a Taurus M9 clone in stainless steel, the first magazine of WWB I put through it, the gun literally fell apart in my hands. Front sight, grip screws, you name it. Sent it in under warranty they sent it back even further disassembled and said this model is now discontinued so we will no longer be servicing these. Took me a month and over a dozen youtube videos to put it back together and sell.
 
kozak6 said:
Another one is the CZ52 pistol. Field stripping is surprisingly Glocklike, but detail stripping is nasty. The mainspring requires "South Park" style language before it goes back in. I've tried it without, and it just doesn't go in unless you cuss it blue. Maybe I should have asked it nicely in Czech?
Click to expand...

Could be that when you were cursing the pistol in American, it thought you WERE speaking lovingly in Czech. Pistols are really sort of stupid, and don't understand many languages.

At least, all my firearms are fairly dumb. I tell them repeatedly to put all the bullet holes in one neat compact area, but nooooo.....
 
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kozak6 said:
Another one is the CZ52 pistol. Field stripping is surprisingly Glocklike, but detail stripping is nasty. The mainspring requires "South Park" style language before it goes back in. I've tried it without, and it just doesn't go in unless you cuss it blue. Maybe I should have asked it nicely in Czech?
Click to expand...

Maybe it's because I studied Czech in the Army. Maybe it's because I'll excuse any Czech firearm any malfeasance. Maybe it's because I tend to fire and maintain them with a good Pilsner or Slivovice..... I dunno. Just seems like a mechanical adventure to me.:)

It's always either: "Hey! That was easy!":thumbup:
or
"Aw hell..... what'd I expect?":cuss:

Todd.
 
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NIGHTLORD40K said:
View attachment 889084
Whoo boy, worn hand and cylinder stop, every little leaf spring broken......

Bought new old stock parts and cut my own springs, finally got it all timed up, but didnt want to mess with it any more and traded it towards my Luger. Smartest move I made was getting rid of it!
Click to expand...
Brother.... I have seen THAT movie!!!!!

Springs, hand, bolt..... endless wear & tear. It was a GREAT lesson in proper assessment and prioritizing repair.

Identify, select and hand-fit part *A* only to find that in a correct sequence, it is REALLY part *G*! Return to *GO*, do NOT collect $200!:evil:

Big learning curve back then. Good thing it was dirt cheap.:)

Todd.
IMG_1335.JPG
 
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