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When gunsmithing, you ever done..............
44pinshooter
Member Posts: 1,048 ✭✭✭
............something rely stupid?
I'll tell you one about me, but you gotta' tell me one about yourself.
One time, had a bench full of SIG 226's and 220's from an area PD to have night sights installed. Had to get these cranked out and returned. Long night in the shop. Got them done and they were picked up the next day. Later in the day, one of the officers comes up to me and asked if this was to be an aiming point for the bad guy.
Huh?
Hands me his 220 and the front sight is in backwards. Little green dot, to the front.
Oh boy, do I feel stupid.
I take the slides, measure them, to find center, front and rear. Measure sights, finding their center and install the sights. This is pretty much spot on, some need a little adjustment, but that is after the officer or owner shoots the gun.
Most sights need a little bit of the file to the bottoms to get the correct fit. I file very, very little, try the sight several times. Must have gotten the fit just right and ran it in, checked center and moved on, without looking.
Quick run in back, change it and try to save face with how it was a long night and I am sorry. He was cool about, we laughed, but still felt like a fool.
I'll tell you one about me, but you gotta' tell me one about yourself.
One time, had a bench full of SIG 226's and 220's from an area PD to have night sights installed. Had to get these cranked out and returned. Long night in the shop. Got them done and they were picked up the next day. Later in the day, one of the officers comes up to me and asked if this was to be an aiming point for the bad guy.
Huh?
Hands me his 220 and the front sight is in backwards. Little green dot, to the front.
Oh boy, do I feel stupid.
I take the slides, measure them, to find center, front and rear. Measure sights, finding their center and install the sights. This is pretty much spot on, some need a little adjustment, but that is after the officer or owner shoots the gun.
Most sights need a little bit of the file to the bottoms to get the correct fit. I file very, very little, try the sight several times. Must have gotten the fit just right and ran it in, checked center and moved on, without looking.
Quick run in back, change it and try to save face with how it was a long night and I am sorry. He was cool about, we laughed, but still felt like a fool.
Comments
Now, I can share some storied that I witnessed or became a party too:
Buddy gets a hankering for a TC Contender. He's a frugal Scot so instead of just buying a complete pistol, new or used, he starts collecting barrels. Eventually he (and I) go to a gun show where he makes a deal to buy a brand new TC frame that had to be ordered. The next show off we go again and he buys the NIB frame. Then it's out to his truck where he mounts an old (split locking pin - I knew ZERO about TCs except they were nice shooters) 44 mag barrel and slams it shut. The rub is, he can't get the barrel to break open. His solution is to take a multi tip/magnetic screw driver and drive the pivot pin out, with a claw hammer! I'm standing there is a state of shock because I don't work that way. Well, the pin comes out Ok, but the large bit holder on the screwdriver goes through the pivot hole and is now captured by the frame/barrel. FUBARed comes to mind. The TC still won't open and he has to go back to the dealer to solve the problem.
Fast forward a year: Same fella same gun. He also owns a Ruger P85 and liked to keep it REAL wet with lube since he'd read about 4130 Molly (slide) and Aluminum (frame) galling. So, he slathers or soaks the TC in a vat of oil and it starts to have light hits on the primers. He's a week away from going on a canned hunt and asks me to come over and look at it. Dummy that I am (I still don't know much about TCs) I ask him for the owners manual. There, on page 1, in BOLD print is a warning to NOT lubricate the fire control parts!!!! Apparently TCs were internally lubed with graphite. We've entered the TARFU zone.
I suggest he two day air it to TC and pay to have it expedited to the hunt camp. I don't think it's ever been serviced. He took it as is.
His P85 came with fixed sights and he bought a nice set of Bomars for it. He asked me to do the work since I'd done some sight replacement (pre fiber-optic days so I didn't have much to worry about). Eventually the pistol and sights arrive at my place and when time permits, I do the swap.
As I mentioned, the slide on a P85 is 4130 chrome molly, which is pretty tough stuff. I use my favorite ball peen hammer and a bronze drift to replace the rear sight. After I'm done I notice the slide is scratched where the drift had been. I'm sick to my stomach and can't figure out how a bronze drift had scratched (as in gouged) a chunk of 4130. I call up the owner and confess to my dirty deed. Nope, he tells me that HE did that. How, you ask? By using a NAIL and that damn claw hammer to try to do it himself!
I don't have much contact with him these days and surely don't work on his firearms.
Only wish pops was still around to see my skill have improved from the mistakes we made together.
Loading, obviously, involved disassembly. I shudder now to think of reassembling the gun with that live round in the chamber.
Fortunately I had in installed a set of Pachmyer rubber grips; i.e. soft rubber over steel inserts. Final mistake was leaving a magazine in place. With no magazine all of those hot gases from the rubtured shell would likely have taken the southern route to the great outdoors with no damage. As it was, my right hand got a right smart "stinging" and the steel grip inserts bulged out about 3/16" on both sides. Had the panels been walnut there's no telling how much wood I'd have been picking out of my palm.
Needless to say, I never tried a second round and STRONGLY ADVISE that no one else try even the first.
I bet your nickname was ramrod after that happened
Did it sound kinda like Ka-wooooom-ba then a swirling zu-zu-zu sound
and it kicked the dog-snot outa you
saw it happen one morning, laughed for hours at him
I also had a friend build a 1911 BARREL tester you could order 6 barsto
barrels from barsto direct and return any or all as long as you did not modify it.
so we were testing and forget to remove the arbor type of laser type of bore sight scratch one barrel and bore sight[:I][V][xx(][:(]
Yes : have made a few mistakes on the bench : and hopefully learned from them ???
and :
Whats a " rely " ???
Thanks !!!
I Grew Old Too Fast (And Smart Too damn Slow !!!) !!!
not really gunsmithing but in my early years I did shoot a ramrod out through the woods from my muzzleloader.... does make a kind of neat sound though..[;)]
Ive always wanted to see some one do this[:D]