Small gunsmithing triumphs for the mechanically challenged

[ljnowell]

Removed the springs from a Ruger standard once to give it a good cleaning afrer shooting the heck out of it. One went flying across the room, never to be found again. Went into town to the local hardware store and lucky for me the guy was a retired LEO who took pitty on a 14 yo. He even figured out which it was and took his own gun apart so we could match the size and coil. He was my hero. I often revisited him to my surprise, with dads blessing, to learn everything I could. He really mentored me.

Cool Story. Its funny sometimes where we find that friend, or mentor. Sometimes its someone much older than us and they become a good friend. When I was in my early 20s I had a great friend who was almost 80. Loved guns and loved to talk, had no children. We spent hours talking guns at his house and shooting, then when the parkinsons got to bad, I would stop by three times a week for a few hours to just talk, maybe cook him some dinner. When he passed it was just me and him in the nursing home room. It was sad, really, but at the same time, he didnt go alone.

Nowadays my best friend is my uncle. We shoot and reload together and he has proven to be a great mentor. In the last few years I have started to outshoot him. He likes to play the star wars thing with me and say "You once were the student, but now you are the master" lol. Great guy.

 

[mec56]

Just finished my 1st ar lower. "Only" took me 6 hours and countless trips to youtube, but I actually learned a lot.

Plus side, not a single scratch!

 

[herrwalther]

Stripped down my 1943 Mosin tonight to clean out the cosmoline. Only took me 3 hours to get it all. Rather proud of myself that it went back together with no extra pieces on the table.

 

[Deus Machina]

I think my most 'minor' triumphs are converting my Saiga to standard pistol-grip form, then removing the front sight, cutting the hood away, and threading the barrel.
That was a long-but-not-difficult project for me.

For some reason I just can't understand people that can't figure out a tape measure or screwdriver.

 

[rondog]

I had a RIA GI model 1911, and decided to make it into a Tactical model. Sent the slide to Novak to have tritium sights installed, and ordered the RIA Tactical hammer, trigger and beavertail from Advanced Tactical in NV.

Then came time to fit the beavertail to the GI frame, and there was a LOT of steel that had to come off! A lot more than I expected. It quickly morphed into a project from Hell, but I was committed now. Just took my time and worked slowly with files and sandpaper, and it turned out perfectly! When I was done I had it polished and blued, and I now have a beautiful pistol and a wonderful shooter. I'm the only kid on the block with one like it.

Took my ratty old mutt Garand, had the metal parts all refinished, then bought a new stock set from Dupage and did a lot of wood shaving to get it to where I wanted it. It's beautiful now, IMO, and she must love me because she shoots better than I could have imagined she ever could.

I bought a 1914 Mauser .32 pocket pistol from a co-worker and it just wouldn't work right, wouldn't release the striker to fire. My gunsmith couldn't fix it and gave it back. So I started fiddling with it and discovered the sideplate wasn't perfectly flat, it was bowed just a few thousandths. If I pushed on that plate with my thumb, it would fire every time. So I very carefully smucked that sideplate with my little hammer, and it works fine now!

Redneck Engineering at its finest!

 

[Ifishsum]

I wouldn't call myself mechanically challenged, but years ago my buddy gave me a really nice Mossberg 500AT - apparently a special trap model that did not release the slide action even after the trigger is pulled. At that time I hadn't done any tinkering with firearms other than shoot and clean them. I was only 20 and didn't even have any tools to speak of. Anyway, Mossberg said it needed a whole new trigger assembly and they would not sell me one directly. Comparing the trigger groups with another 500 revealed an extra pin that mine was drilled for but did not have. I was able to find a nail or something with the same diameter, cut to the proper length and used a center punch to flare the ends enough to lock it in place. I was quite proud of myself at the time and I still use that shotgun 25 years later.

 

[Coop45]

Does loading a clip errrr magazine count? LOL!!

 

[JTHunter]

My "skills" haven't had to work as hard as most of the posts here.
I have an old (~50 years) Stevens 12 ga. SxS that cracked the stock on both sides of the tang-mounted safety. I removed the stock, drilled small holes and counter-sunk two sheetmetal screws (thin, flat heads) and filled the holes and cracks with a 2-part epoxy. Screwed them together and let them cure, then scraped & sanded the bleed-out off, filled the countersunk screw heads with wood filler, and restained the wood. Hasn't given me any problems since I did that 15 years ago.

Got new grips for a 90 y.o. Colt .32 auto but they didn't exactly "fit" even though they were the same part number. I had to sand off the inner face of the misfitting panel (only one) as well as remove some material from a couple of the edges (rotary tools are your FRIEND!!) so it would fit down into the metal frame.

Nothing too hard. I leave metal working to people with better skills than mine!