380 Government Issue Squib Repair

[Mike A]

Hello all,
I have a .380 Colt GI which was given to me by my father; a Korea & Vietnam Combat Vet, 2 Purple Hearts, Bronze Star (courage under fire) and retired A Command Master Sergeant. The .380 was his personal side arm that he gave me before he died. Needless to say the gun is very special to me and I would really like to repair it.

Here is what happened: My daughter was shooting it at the range; it was a busy day and there where lot's of shots going off so i did not notice that she had a squib load.. I am very hard of hearing from the 5" guns in the Navy and i just missed it..

Anyway you can see the results are that the frame was broken when the barrel exploded and the top slide is frozen with a spent shell in the chamber.

I took the weapon to a local gun smith and he told me that he could not get the weapon disassembled. However, I do think that it would be possible to get it apart using some machine shop tools. But to what end?

Here is the question..

Besides the barrel, frame damege and the spring the rest of the gun is fine.

I have the missing parts of the aluminum frame so I think if i was able to disassemble it could the frame be re welded and ground flush by a skilled MIG welder... The break does not appear to be in a high stress area but I am not an engineer.

Also part of the trigger guard is missing but i think that could be fabricated by a skilled machinist...

I would be Ok with applying Cerakote or something similar to cover the scar (dad would approve) but I really want THIS weapon, not a replacement, I really want my daughter to have it as a memorial to her grandfather, a real war hero.

I am not so skilled with weapons and not too far above a beginner...Please advise: If i spend the money to have a machinist/gunsmith disassemble it could the frame and trigger guard be repaired?

If so is there any way i might be able to disassemble it instead of paying a gun smith? besides the fact that i like to do things myself, I am not a Rockefeller.

Thanks for your thoughts on the matter.... I plan to follow this post through to the end which i hope are photos of my daughter shooting it again.

 

[Eb1]

Thank the Lord your daughter was not hurt. Sorry that's all I got.

 

[stressed]

Mike, I can understand the sentimental value of the weapon, but I'm not sure said weapon would be safe to fire if you even could repair it. Can you get a new barrel and frame and use your slide?

 

[rcmodel]

IMO: The gun is destroyed.

Welding the frame would always be suspect strengh-wise.
I for one would certainly not recommend welding it back together and risk your daughters Hands & eyes again.

She got off VERY lucky the first time!

The only thing I can suggest is to contact Colt and see if they have the necessary parts left to replace the frame & barrel and make it safe to shoot again.

I have my doubts they do, but it won't cost much to ask.

rc

 

[BBBBill]

Any "repair" to that gun, should you decide that it is important enough to spend the coin, should be with the intent to render it an inert paperweight. It will be expensive even at that. If you do, plug the chamber, weld the barrel to the slide, and mount it on a plaque.

 

[Ron James]

What's a command Master Sergeant ? The photo shows first Sergeant stripes. Just for information the Army did not issue Colt Government .380's. I have to agree, that .380 is toast.

 

[Bailey Boat]

Unless I miss my guess that pistol post-dates the era of your father's service dates.....I could be wrong?????

 

[BBBBill]

He did not say that his father was issued the gun. He said it was his personal sidearm. Agreed, that gun was never issued by the government, but that is not germane to the problem at hand.

 

[Mike A]

Hi Guys thanks for the quick feed back... Not the answer that i was hoping for though... But I will follow your advice and retire the weapon...

You are right my daughter was very fortunate not to have been hurt, all that happened is she lost some skin on her knuckle, we wrapped it and continued shooting (see photo)...Lesson learned by the whole family.

I gave her that shirt to scare the boys away... It works...


****
I did call colt and they told me that they would not supply a new frame but had all the other parts.. I also called Numrich and they advise me that when they get a gun in for parts they are required to grind up the frame. So I will keep my eyes open for a new frame and barrel, you never know I may get lucky...

****

Regarding my dad's service, I actually appreciate you questioning it. I have called people out on stolen valor myself... In this case the confusion is easily cleared up...

I am ex Navy and we used the term "of the command" or "Command Master Chief" Looking at his DD-214 I see the Army calls the same position Senior Sergeant.. My mistake..

You can also see by his DD-214 he was a Master Sergeant just not at the time of the photo. If i dug through my trunk I could probably find one but this is my favorite photo of him....

You are right the weapon was his personal weapon not issued to him by the Army... I have papers showing that he request and was granted authorization to carry it on base... Besides he would have no reason to lie to me about it.

After the Army he got a law degree and went to work for the Dept of Labor, Veterans affairs... He worked with legislators to pass laws protecting veterans rights. I have letters from many of them and a personal hand written note from Bill Clinton thanking him for his help passing a law and a pen he signed it with all framed up. I am very proud of him.

I Hope that I have answered all your questions, again thanks for the advice...

I will have other gun smithing question in the future... I really want to do everything myself going forward... I am in the process of stripping down my weapons one by one and rebuilding them with my daughter... She loves it..

 

[DT Guy]

An E-8 Master Sergeant with a Bronze Star would get a crisp and respectful greeting from any Vet I know.

I am also not a Rockefeller, but if I were you I would seek out a way to make the gun *look* good, at least from one side, and then inert and mount it as suggested above. A skilled body man could likely do it with Bondo or glass and resin, and essential turn it into a 'model' of your dad's gun. Something to consider.

And the daughter's a lucky girl, for sure!

Larry

 

[Ron James]

I wasn't being disrespectful to MikeA's father, I just wanted the terminology straight. A First Sergeant is a Master Sergeant with a diamond in the center of his E-8 stripes. He also carries a M suffix at the end of his military classification code. Meaning what? regardless of his assignment, he has to be placed in a First Sergeant slot. The diamond trumps all. There may be other Master Sergeants serving in the same unit with more time in grade and time in service, don't matter, the diamond is senior. The term first sergeant means that, he is the top NCO in the unit. The only one higher in power is the commanding officer and when it comes to the enlisted grades the CO usually defers to the First Shirt. MikeA's father wasn't a Senior Master Sergeant, he was a First Sergeant, by damn and by golly. When the First Sergeant speaks, the earth trembles. Been there, done that. BTW, the Bronze Star has been so degraded it is now given out almost as much as the Army Commendation Medal is. almost automatically given out to higher grades in a combat zone, no actual combat required. The kicker is the V devise, which can be seen on the top row of ribbons, the V devise is for valor in combat.

 

[rodinal220]

While it is possible to repair the pistol,it would be quite expensive. I see that the pistol has much sentimental value which can exceed the actual dollar value.

The only person I have seen that did work like this was John Norrell back in 1980s right before the 1986 machine gun ban. Norrell used to buy scrapped USGI cut up M16a1 lowers and re-weld them back together. He used his Moly Resin spray on finish to refinish the receivers once they were welded,re-machined,bead blasted,re-anodized and tested.

There would be a tremendous amount of labor&technical skill (jigs/fixtures/welding) for this,most smiths don't have the skills or equipment for this and it would take up too much of their time.

 

[hartcreek]

I would check with my local gunshops and gunsmiths the older the better. I have purchased "parts" from gunshops before. In one case it was a bag of Savage 1905 -1927 parts so I wound up with several frames, barells, slides ,triggers bolts all for twenty bucks.

 

[ghitch75]

if you find a frame pm me as i think i have a barrel.....glad your daughter is ok....