Small gunsmithing triumphs for the mechanically challenged

As a student of the Engineering discipline, I tend to take for granted the mind's eye God has blessed me with. On that note, my single greatest gunsmithing victory was when a former co-worker learned of my penchant for firearms and the next day brought me a Savage 67 he'd acquired from his grandfather. His grandfather had at one point started to disassemble it for repair and passed before it was completed. At the disadvantage of a box of misc. parts and a detailed exploded drawing procured from the internet and the advantage of him being a competent machinist with shop at his disposal, we proceeded to reassemble the ol' girl and had her pumpin' shells within a week. I don't consider the gun itself my victory so much as the satisfaction of helping my friend finish it.

Not so much a gunsmithing thing, but with regards to reloading , I have a LEE progressive press. I got it from a friend who was frustrated with it. I've since polished some parts, lubed, unlubed, bent, and tweaked, disassembled then reassembled several times.... I can now sit down and run 1000 rounds with maybe 30 re-dos

My AR build was relatively easy and straightforward.

My M1911 build, starting with an Essex receiver and questionable quality parts from a surplus wholesaler was something of a much more epic undertaking. I learned to appreciate the fine art of using Swiss files and of buying parts from a name brand manufacturer in order to have a gun that was truly functionable and worth the effort.

B1gGr33n said:

... At the disadvantage of a box of misc. parts and a detailed exploded drawing procured from the internet and the advantage of him being a competent machinist with shop at his disposal, we proceeded to reassemble the ol' girl and had her pumpin' shells within a week.

Click to expand...

Nice job! I believe that is called "forensic gunsmithing"!

I've liked to mess with stuff since I was little, I had a friend who went to south America every year dove hunting, he had a Browning sweet 16 that was his pride & joy that he used. The shell were the old kind with the saw dust & glue bases and they left a mess in the action. So when the gun started to jam he would spray it with wd 40 and shoot some more. He would bring it home sort of clean it and put it away till the next time. Well it got so bad that he gave up on it and got another gun that he could use but he really missed that sweet 16. He was talking to a Dr. friend and asked him who he could get to help him get the old gun back shooting and he suggested me. So I ended up with the gun, I took it apart and found that he action was gummed up with what looked like particle board from the combination of the fiber & wd 40. I soaked it in solvent and put it back to gether and found that it was hard to put shells in the magazine tube, so I took it apart and found that at one time it was disassembled and the screw that held it in place was put in wrong and left a burr on the inside of the tube which made the hulls hard to load. I peened that bump out put it back together and it ran like a champ. When the owener got it back he asked me how much do I owe you and I told him nothing. But a couple of years later I went to buy my first vehicle and I worked with the salesman on a 1978 bronco and he gave me the price and I told him it was too rich for my blood, well the owner of the place over heard it and came in and looked it over and quoated me a price that was in my price range ($2000 less) YEP the sweet 16 owner.

I bought a Marlin Camp 9 on Gun Broker that was TOTALLY MISREPRESENTED as a shooter in good shape. From a dealer, too. The barrel and receiver were spray painted and it was not possible to tell from the pictures - this was done on purpose, it was pretty worn internally and not diclosed (but the wood was fine). Plus the supplied aftermarket magazine didn't work - it was not a shooter and it was in rough shape. I griped at the seller and he refunded some of my money and gave me two S&W mags. At the point the deal evened out and now I had a project.

I stripped, sanded and polished and got reblued. New springs, buffer, some replacement pins and parts. Cleaned and waxed the wood. Now very nice, with a great patina. I was daunted at first but went in head first and came out with a great sense of satisfaction.

I once took my Browning Buckmark all the way apart and put it back together.

This is minor, of course, and not even a gunsmithing triumph, really, but the manual from my Buckmark is tremendously unhelpful. Browning doesn't "recommend" removing the slide and leaves no instructions for doing so. (When I did, I found a bunch of grease from the factory that was making my slide sluggish, but that's another story.) It seem as though the assumption on the part of the manufacturer is that no one is interested or has the capability to disassemble the firearm completely.

Short aside: I can't blame Browning for that, though. The dominant mentality in our culture is that we can either replace something when it breaks or pay someone else to fix it for us. As a result, many of us (I include myself in this category) have not the slightest idea how to diagnose or fix mechanical devices when they fail. Rant concluded. Sorry for the hijack.

Just switching out the magazine tube follower in my Marlin 1895 was a triumph for me. Thank god for youtube videos!

Fixing the light hammer strikes on my Marlin 39TDS and replacing the buffer in my Marlin model 75.

Here's my all-time eureka moment

Reaming round the hole through my revolver's cylinder for the ejector rod to remove the sloppy manufacturing defect I found before, of course, I noticed the rod had a flat side, for a reason!



If it ain't broke, don't fix it, and when you do fix it, understand how it should work, I mean really understand, not just THINK you understand

As it turns out, it's only slightly more difficult to re-assemble a Ruger 22/45 that's been taken completely apart than it is to re-assemble one that's just been field stripped.

I changed the hammer spring on Browning Hi-power, using only a pair of small tweezers and a wooden bench to sit on. Problem was that the thread on the spring guide was worn and only the small pin was keeping it all together.

I'm Generally really good at pulling em apart and putting em together. For better or worse I guess, I Tend to watch a video the night before and do it the next day, and have been good thus far, guns are generally far less complex than what I typically deal with.

There has been one notable exception. My Ruger mkII was failing to extract and jamming another round into the partially pulled empty. I stripped it down, to give it a look see. When I pulled the recoil spring out of the bolt, the Firing pin fell out, which drew the "huh that's not supposed to be" look on my face. The roll pin and spring that are the firing pin stop and return were gone, the pin sheared and the spring popped, after that the firing pin rode high and steaked the round in the chamber. That one had to go to the gun smith to get the chamber right again.

scythefwd said:

adding aluminum pillars and glass bedding my rifle.

Click to expand...

did you find that you needed to glass bed the rifle after pillar bedding. I had several savage rifles that shot tiny groups with just pillar bedding. I never liked glass bedding a rifle and if pillar bedding would not solve the issue which it always did I would sell the rifle

I bought some lighter Wolf springs for 2 of my revolvers, and actually managed to get them installed and put back together!

And they both work too!

1. Drilled out a stripped grip screw in my old 1911 I once had in order to replace the grips. It was stripped from the factory. I didn't mar the finish or hurt the gun.

2. Fit a tapco t6 stock to my Norinco sks m with a pocket knife by taking a small amount of material off the rear tang area of the stock.

Sent from my mind using ninja telepathy.

I loved the title of this thread.

One time I took a file to a old browning hi power slide to try to smooth the action up...definitely didn't turn out too well.

Complete teardown and reassembly of a Marlin 60 action.

One of my pocket pistols has no field strip procedure for cleaning. So I am surprised every time I come back from shooting it at the range that it works after I clean it. I have to do it at my computer desk every time since I have an exploded parts diagram on my desktop.

well...I am mechanicaly inclined, i just dont have good access to proper tools all the time. My latest triumph was shortening an aftermarket 5 round magazine for a winchester43 (stuck out the bottom) down to a flush fit 3 rounder. used a dremel with a cutoff wheel, a pair of smooth jawed channel locks and a couple files. It came out far better than I was hoping.

This year I fit a brand-new .45 ACP cylinder to an old S&W 2nd model hand ejector that had originally been in .455, but that some "Bubba" had reamed out (sloppily) for .45 Colt. Had I known how many hours it would take me to time each chamber, and how stiff and sore I'd be when done, I'd never have attempted it. Needle file the ratchet star for that chamber...fit and try...needle file some more...fit and try...needle file some more...fit and try.....a little stoning...fit and try...then on to the next ratchet....fit and try...file some more...fit and try.....file some more....fit and try....file some more....stoning.... My upper back and the pads of my fingers were a mess by the time I was finished. But the timing and endshake are now perfect, and she shoots like a dream. So while I can now add fitting and timing a S&W revolver cylinder to my list of acquired gunsmithing skills, I'll never do it again.

co-worker brought a Grendel .380 (precursor to KelTec) that he had completely disassembled due to dropping in salt water. Took me several hours to figure out what went where and then had to make slave pins to reassemble. Told him next time he dropped it in the water....just leave it.

Took apart a S&W Model 10 snubby, removed the hammer, cut the spur off, polished, and cold blued it. Looks like a pro job, and it was a great excuse to buy a cheap dremel tool.
Then came time for re-assembly. Since I took the rebound slide off to make the hammer easier to remove, I had to make a tool to re-install the slide and spring. I cut the tip of a brass cleaning rod at an angle, and used it to press the spring and slide in. That spring is STIFF, but the "tool" made it easy to install.

I have to admit I don't consider myself mechanically challenged, but I tend to be impulsive when it comes to these types of projects. It's not uncommon for me to start a job before I have all the necessary tools and or knowledge.

Replacing the broken hammer strut on my Astra A90 with a pair of hemostats and flat head screwdriver.