Why me?

[doubleh]

It seems every time I start a project I'm eat up with the don'ts. This don't work, that don't work. Does everyone have this problem or is it just me?

I decided to to do an action job on my Rossi 92 which consists mostly of changing springs as it's severely over sprung. My spring kit came in yesterday afternoon and I tackled my tune up about an hour before lunch today. Never having messed with the 92 action at all I watched a few youtube videos. Easy peasy, just take it apart, change the springs, and put it back together. Yeah, right. Everything went pretty good until I tried to remove the trigger bar. In the videos it just pulled right out. I finally took a brass rod and drove it out and it didn't come easily. Thing was tight. I looked things over and the machining inside the action was nice and smooth but the bar had burrs and rough spots all over it so out came the safe file and I went to work. File some and try, file some more and try again, and so on. I didn't want to make it a sloppy fit and eventually got it close enough to suit me. It still requires a few taps from a little safe hammer both ways and I'm happy with that. Spring changing went fine until the ejector spring and the kit spring is a smaller diameter and much longer. I spent quite a while without getting it to work, gave up and dug out my box of assorted coil spring. I finally found one of the same diameter wire and enough smaller guage wire that I thought it would be satisfactory although it was too long. I cut it slightly longer than the factory spring and bent a a half coil over to have a smooth end and put the whole mess back together. Then I cut some off the magazine spring. With time out for lunch I had a least 2 1/2 hours in this project.

I have to say that the results were worth all the effort. Rounds load in the magazine tube much easier, the trigger pull is nice and I wouldn't want it any lighter, and the ejected empties don't fly off into orbit anymore. They just drop at my feet. I'm treating myself to a little bourbon and coke as a reward while I type this.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Just remember the word EDITING, when watching how to YouTube videos. They edit out all the trouble they have, and make it look easy.

 

[LoonWulf]

I've done an action job on a few 92's now, and all tho they aren't horrendously difficult, each one is had its own little idiosyncrasies.
You're right though the amount of effort you put into it is rewarded with a surprisingly nice feeling gun afterwards.....

 

[Ru4real]

Are you a gunsmith? If not, that’s the way things roll until you get your 10,000 hours in. With pretty much everything.

(or 30,000 hours if you subscribe to Japanese principles)

 

[wiscoaster]

It seems every time I start a project I'm eat up with the don'ts. This don't work, that don't work. Does everyone have this problem or is it just me?.

Ha! No ... pretty normal human psychology. You're normal!! You then look at the don'ts in new light: as challenges you can overcome because you're smart enough and able enough to do so. As you found out at the end of the project!! Don't it feel just great to conquer and defeat the challenges? Yeah!!

 

[Riomouse911]

That’s me just about every time I mess with a firearm... and it’s me every time I try to fix a broken sprinkler or pipe.

Steve’s Guns has a dvd that I bought when I got some Rossi 92 upgrade parts. Other than having to run into the computer to re-watch a sequence, it did make taking apart and reassembly easy.

A question on the spring; do you recall if it was caliber-specific or universal? I was thinking the spring may have been made to fit inside a .357 magazine tube follower and that would be smaller if you used it on a .44 or .45.

Glad you got it running well!

Stay safe.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

I remember when there was no YouTube videos to go watch and very few people had PCs.
I still have a bunch of book on assembly/disassembly of firearms.

 

[12Bravo20]

I remember when there was no YouTube videos to go watch and very few people had PCs.
I still have a bunch of book on assembly/disassembly of firearms.

You're showing your age Gunny. But so am I since I have books and manuals scattered around the house too. I still have my Arms TM that covers the M16 family of rifles from Unit level maintenance all the way to Depot level from when I was a machinist in the Army and had to fix what the armorers couldn't.

 

[12Bravo20]

And doubleh, don't feel bad. The very first time I had to take apart the trigger group on my Marlin Model 60 to replace the bad buffer was a little daunting to say the least with all the super tiny e clips and springs.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

And doubleh, don't feel bad. The very first time I had to take apart the trigger group on my Marlin Model 60 to replace the bad buffer was a little daunting to say the least with all the super tiny e clips and springs.

Hell, the first time I worked on a Marlin Model 60, it was brought to me in a paper bag. My friend’s nephew took it completely apart. All I had was an exploded diagram to put it back together. I don’t every remember saying so many bad words while working on a gun.

 

[12Bravo20]

Oh I know the feeling Gunny. I too had someone bring me a Model 60 torn apart and in baggies. And this was well before the internet was readily available. I think I cussed worse than any of my drill sergeants ever did.

 

[LoonWulf]

The 60s are their own special nightmares.......

 

[Riomouse911]

I had one... given to me by my Uncle.

Gave it to a friend for his daughters first gun.

I do recall an episode where I was stringing together several curse words in a completely new order while trying to reassemble a Nylon 66 with no diagram, manual or Internet.

I had to go to confession twice after that one...

Stay safe.

 

[earlthegoat2]

Just ask any mechanic type. They all know haw a job should go and they also know it will take 2-3 times as long 98% of the time.

 

[lemaymiami]

Like many, I was encouraged as a kid - to do my own repairs on this or that... I learned the hard way that I could mostly get it done but did learn over the years that it usually took me twice as long as a pro would take -and that a pro mostly wouldn't break anything or lose a critical part (or any of the other things I've done over the years...). That lead me to make sure that for electrical stuff or plumbing needs I was watching someone that actually knew how to do the job. On the plus side, with fishing reels, I can repair almost anything made if I have a schematic and can get the needed parts (and yes, I've gotten more than one reel to fix that came to me in pieces in a paper bag...).

For firearms all I've ever done is basic maintenance, period. I do love reading accounts of other folks troubles though and every now and then learn something valuable...

 

[doubleh]

That’s me just about every time I mess with a firearm... and it’s me every time I try to fix a broken sprinkler or pipe.

Steve’s Guns has a dvd that I bought when I got some Rossi 92 upgrade parts. Other than having to run into the computer to re-watch a sequence, it did make taking apart and reassembly easy.

A question on the spring; do you recall if it was caliber-specific or universal? I was thinking the spring may have been made to fit inside a .357 magazine tube follower and that would be smaller if you used it on a .44 or .45.

Glad you got it running well!

Stay safe.

It was the ejector spring that gave me problems, not the magazine tube spring. I simply cut a few inches off the factory mag tube spring to reduce the effort required to load it which was a lot. Being one of those old farts mentioned in another thread I may simply be too weak to load it easily.

 

[Speedo66]

The ejector spring is one of the parts for the Rossi 92 with a simple solution.
A Century C-530 spring is a drop in, available in hardware stores, Ebay, etc. It reduces the effort to work the action and drops empties at your feet.

Cheap, too. A six pack of them is $6.65 w/ free shipping on Amazon.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

I hate to work on vehicles. I’m always busting knuckles, dropping things in places that are hard to retrieve and just not having fun. I much rather pay the guy that does it for a living.
Now when it comes to guns, it’s easy 90% of the time. But you couldn’t pay me to work on a Nylon 66.

 

[LoonWulf]

I hate to work on vehicles. I’m always busting knuckles, dropping things in places that are hard to retrieve and just not having fun. I much rather pay the guy that does it for a living.
Now when it comes to guns, it’s easy 90% of the time. But you couldn’t pay me to work on a Nylon 66.

I had both at the same time, and as a 16 year new gun nut, and old know it all, it was a humbling experience..........

I used to really enjoy automotive work. All the parts are large, dropped pieces can usually be snagged with long needle nose or magnetic sticks instead of hours crawling on the floor (before i learned the take it apart in a box trick)....they make the coolest noises when you get them back together right.

Now if i didnt love guns so much id never work on another car.
Just lost the interest after having to make them run consistently and putting almost 1000 miles a week on 20-30yr old machines....id also buy new vehicles, but gotta make choices on where the money goes.....