Field Expedient or Cheap Firearm Reapirs.

[Mot45acp]

In this day and age money is tight. I am looking for cheap temporary or permanent fixes you have made to firearms or accessories. Those that have worked and ones that were tried and didnt work so well. (Kinda learn from others mistakes type thing)

I am looking for on the spot repairs that you have made in the field. If they were something you did to just make it through the task at hand and repaired later. Or something you rigged up and it worked so good you are letting it ride until it breaks.

Some of mine:

Doing some informal plinkng the front sight screw and rear sight pin of my Mark II 22/45 kept working loose. I took some of my sons gum he had been chewing and used it as some impromptu thread lock. Wiped it clean with T-shirt. It wore this for a year until I fixed it for real purely out of boredom.

Used my hunting license and some errant thread off my clothing to make a sunshade for a scope. Fixed this later.

Used a 1" scope ring to mount a flashlight to my Sub 2000. This one still rides.

Used a cut piece of wire coat hanger as a punch. This worked so-so. I wouldnt recomend it for anything you want to look pretty. I have also used coat hangers bent and ground down to make dental pick type tools for cleaning.


What are some of yours?

 

[wally]

Not really much you can do in the field without tools, but I've solved several issues of sights not staying put in their dovetails with wicking grade Loc-Tite. Epoxy has fixed a cracked stock and loose handguards.

More SHTF gun smithing practivce, rather than practical -- I had a AR that wouldn't extract Wolf, substituted the extractor from one that did and it was fine, as I waited for the replacement to arrive, I filed the bad extractor to match the good (hook was too fat not letting it fit properly in the extraction groove) and verified it was indeed the fix. I put in the proper replacement part when it arrived as I don't know if there is any surface hardening of the part that might have been removed by my filing, besides AR extractors are pretty cheap.

 

[Mac's Precision]

I have numerous times used the bottle cap opener (the hooked one) in a swiss army knife to extract rifle cases that are stuck. When the extractor hook hops the rim...leaving a stuck case behind. This works ok on certain models of rifle. Specifically rolling blocks....and some shotguns.

Cheers
Mac.

 

[GIJOEL]

I've used Automatic transmission fluid to lube M-16's in the Field, Hydraulic oil or 80/90 gear oil works even better! I've bent mechanics wire to replace a firing pin retaining pin. Being a mechanic in the army means you get to fix everything! Teflon tape to tighten up a front sight post... etc