Buckmark Issue--Need Advice

[sean1129]

Hi all--

I've had a Buckmark Target 5.5 for about 9 years and to date has tens of thousands of rounds through it. However, the slide has never been perfect from the beginning in terms of locking back on the final round. I've had two new magazines from Browning and the problem persists. So, for some reason I've decided to tackle this in the last couple of weeks to actually fix the problem and replace parts. I've replaced the stop open latch spring, which is a small spring that adds pressure (downward, not upward) to the slide catch. However, this made the problem much worse, even with new mags. Here is my overall question--does anyone see the purpose of this spring? I've removed it completely and the pistol functions flawlessly. I can see that perhaps the slide catch is held down by the spring to prevent premature contact with the slide, but this simply was a non-issue when I loaded the gun and cycled it.

As of now, I've fixed my problem by removing the stop open latch spring altogether, and I wanted to know if anyone else out there has done the same or had the same frustrations of the slide not staying back as I have. Or, for those with an intermittant or consistant issue of the same problem, I can tell you that if you pull the spring out completely, the pistol slide/latch operates flawlessly and 'clicks' up on empty for a very positive lock-open position.

Please refrain from 'the pistol is dirty' comments, as I've had the pistol completely apart every 300-400 rounds for thorough cleaning for the duration of its life.

Thanks for the discussion!

 

[wally]

The spring that pushes the slide lock down is to be sure it goes down if you pull back the slide after inserting a loaded magazine (slingshot reload), and help keep it down under recoil (such as it is with a .22lr).

If gravity lets it fall down when you pull back the slide to slingshot load, and you don't get premature slide locks with rounds remaining in the magazine while shooting, I'd consider the problem solved.

If you always use the slide release and don't care if slingshot loading works, I'd stop worrying about not having that spring in there, assuming you aren't getting premature lock backs.

 

[David E]

Sounds like the pistol is dirty.......

 

[TJx]

I had the same problem, replacing the spring didn't help, replacing the stop-open latch assembly itself fixed it. Buckmark had around 10,000 rounds on it.

 

[sean1129]

I failied to mention that I, too, replaced the latch assembly thinking it was the problem at first--but the problem persisted.

TJx, if I had to estimate, I would say my pistol has 2 or 3 times the rounds through it, so I was also considering a new slide (from wear on the front corner that catches the latch stop). However, this wear is not visible and is slight if at all. I'm headed to the range in about an hour, so I'll let you all know what happens.

It's interesting that others have had similar issues. The slide is the only other thing that would have anything to do with this, but we'll see how the removed latch spring does...

 

[sean1129]

For any watching this small thread, I fired the gun today without the latch spring. After about 450 rounds of bulk ammo, only two magazines failed to lock open. For those of you who shoot bulk .22 ammo, you know as well as I that this could have been merely an undercharged round or two. I tested with full magazines, partials, and single rounds, all functioning flawlessly.