"In praise of gunsmiths" or "Those $%&@*# Italians!"

[PrudentGT]

Friend from work was telling me about his troubled Beretta 85F a couple weeks ago. "Ug. It no shoot." So I (stupidly) offer to take a look at it. Slide stop spring is *missing* and trigger spring has sheared in twain. Okay. So I call Beretta for a couple of springs. One of the springs they sent was the wrong one, so I called again and today the trigger spring arrives. Nice customer service, BTW.

I don't know who designed this thing, but let me tell you about the nightmare that installing this spring was. the spring has two loops. The front one lies horizontal in the frame and provides tension for the button that locks the takedown lever in position. The larger rear loop sits in the trigger and is held in place by the pin from the slide stop lever. Behind that is a hook that tensions on the pin on the front of the trigger bar. After an hour trying to first place the front of the spring into the takedown lever button and then trying to push the large coil into the trigger with no luck, I had to change tactics. I captured the spring in the trigger, with a toothpick where the trigger spring would go and lodging another toothpick where the trigger bar pin would go to tension it. Clipped the toothpicks flush with the trigger, put the trigger in the frame and painstakingly adjusted it so that I could juuuust slide the front of the spring into the takedown button (I used a fork to align the spring with the teensy hole in the takedown button). Sliding the slide stop pin into place and shoving the toothpick out was easy (it exits the opposite side of the frame). The pin from the trigger bar however was a whole different ballgame, however, since there's NO HOLE on the opposite end of the frame for the toothpick to exit from. So I ended up cutting the toothpick in situ as it were and easing it out. Pocket knife held the spring hook while I moved the trigger forward and managed to get the trigger bar pin in place, whereupon the spring hook fell nicely back into place. *WHEW* By now I know this thing inside and out, better than any of *my* pistols! It *was* nice to see a perfectly functioning pistol instead of the poor, sickly little .380 that I started with, but what a pain!

Long story short, I have a far better appreciation for gunsmiths today. =)

 

[mete]

Take a close look at a gunsmith, you'll see that he has three hands !! I've been to gunsmithing school so I know all about that .

 

[TonyB]

Those I-talians are famous for making great things that are hard to work on...like guns and motorcycles....my Father had a wiring problem with a MotoGuzzi years ago,and (after having my grandfather translated the manual)did a lot of cursing of our ancestors
Just remember Italy is socalist(kind of like California)...

 

[Third_Rail]

I found out a few years ago that when Italian goods do what they're supposed to, they do it well, and when they break, they REALLY break.

 

[Das Pferd]

Heaven is where...
The police are British
The cooks are Italian
The lovers are French
The mechanics are German
And it's all organized by the Swiss

Hell is where...

The cooks are British
The mechanics are French
The lovers are Swiss
The police are German
And it's all organized by the Italians

Sorry I couldnt help myself.

 

[Jim K]

Hi, PrudentGT,

I am not very familiar with that pistol but it sounds like you have (re) discovered the "slave pin" (although I understand it is now politically correct to call it a "helper pin"). Gunsmiths know all about these and how to use them, proving once more that gunsmiths, like most of us, get paid for what they know, not what they do. Gunsmiths also have a third hand, called a padded jaw vise. Don't do pistol work without it.

Jim

 

[Penman]

Hence the gunsmith's favorite saying:

"You want it WHEN?"

 

[nvrquit]

It would make a neat...

... T-shirt

Das Pferd,

Mind if I "borrow" the quote or perhaps you could let me know where same originated, so I could make sure that I'm not infringing on any others rights.

Thanks!

 

[Treylis]

Mind if I "borrow" the quote or perhaps you could let me know where same originated, so I could make sure that I'm not infringing on any others rights.

It's a real old one, and unattributed originally, as far as I know. Go wild.