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Most commonly launched gun parts
chiefr
Member Posts: 14,078 ✭✭✭✭
Thought this might make for an interesting post some may agree or disagree, but certainly some of you will own up to having launched a few gun parts over the years.
Some never to be found or found years later in places you would never imagine such as a flower pot or ceiling light fixture etc.
My two favorites are 1911 recoil spring plug and since I started building ARs: Pivot pin detents and the forward assist spring.
Comments
Recoil spring on my Buckmark. It’s like a game of fetch when putting the thing back together.
🇺🇲 "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." - Thomas Jefferson 🇺🇲
Ruger Security-Six mainspring when you remove the seat and pin, and I've also launched the occasional Remington 700 ejector plunger.
My shop floor is like this gravity no man's land- stuff falls towards it, but then disappears when it hits.
Called Murphy’s law. Over the years in my work room I’ve kept a round magnet with a long handle on it for just such instances. Found many of plungers, plunger springs, pins and so on. Only solution I can come up with to curtail these mishaps is, either grow a third hand or have a magnetic floor to keep things from rolling or bouncing.
As for my vote
I go with AR style rifle detent springs and the detent pins
I learned the hard way launched a detent spring into orbit . Searched and then just gave up waited about a week on replacement
Several plus years ago I bought enought springs and detent pins and roll pins for the AR platforms . Just cheap peace of mind after the first lanch epasode .no way I wanted to wait several days for a few dollars in springs to get my rife up and going
I have a craftsman 3 or 4 drawer toolbox i set up and dedicated to just AR platform i have poced up many many speciality tools and enought spare parts to keep me coveted for my life and most liky my kids and grandkids.. lol
Of course I have had the random spring or part from other guns over the years jump out of place and bounce off a wall but always recovered them not like the black rifle lanching parts into the next county
...Let's not talk about dropping a screw down a carburetor or a random bolt or socket into a hard to reach frame rail or inner panel while working under a cars hood
By the way Any one seen a 10 mm socket or a 1/2 " 6 point socket I have lost my share
Pivot pin detent has to be at/near the top of the list. Number 2 would be buffer retainer/spring.
AR's are the only thing I take apart these days.
I looked for two days to find this microscopic pin that holds the entire ejector assembly together on a Charter Arms Bulldog.
Less than the size of a small grain of rice ....... what a PITA. AND, I lost it twice.
Yep AR platform, purchased a few springs and detents as spares after building my first 80% problem is I can't remember where I put the spares I ordered....
The reason a circlip is referred to as a Jesus clip. "Jesus Christ !!!, where'd it go?"
Have sent a few fly's (which is a tiny little part in a flint or percussion lock) into the 7th dimension.
Then, just once I launched a ramrod out of muzzle loader. It hit my target dead center. The patched ball that was following it missed the bull by an embarrassing no other holes were ever found! 🤫
I hope nobody feels that this is inappropriate but 65 or so years ago when I was just a kid, one of guys in the repair shop of my dad's appliance store explained to me what a Jesus washer is. It's a washer or other small part that when launched out of what you are working on is very hard or impossible to find on you say "Oh Jesus".
I must have been in my late thirty's before I found out that they really aren't "Jesus" clips, even bought them asking for Jesus clips and was never corrected. They are appropriately misnamed.
bullshot, I thought nobody else heard of that term.
I have seen alot of Glock front sights fly off while shooting over the years.
Generally, a person “upgraded” the sights and failed to properly secure the front sight when installing the new set.
My dear wife went and bought me a rolling magnet, to find all the springs I have shot across the room. I usually find them with my bare feet in the middle of the night. 😫
My workshop in our last house was carpeted. When my sons were younger, I would pay them 5 bucks to find any spring or small part I could not find. I had a couple large magnets and the boys could usually find the items fairly quickly... It kept me from having to crawl around on the floor and they always liked to make a buck..
I'm just going to plus one to just about every reply so far. Yup!!
Back in the early '70s I launched all the magazine guts out of an 870 I took apart to remove the plug. I never again dismantled a gun on a pond bank. All I heard was a "Zinggggg.......Kerplunk!"
Oddly, the gun still functioned OK if I held the muzzle straight up while racking the action.
You guys are entertaining........but that/those ain't nothing!!🙄 ........AND I think/hope Forgemonkey will back me up on this.......
Back in the early 1980's........my wife and I, and our brand new first child, had moved into a new two bedroom apartment. I now had my own space for my work bench and "toys".........sorta.
Anywho.........I was working on an old National Match/Gold Cup. I zigged when I should have zagged..........and launched the sear depressor spring into approximately 10 square feet of dark deep pile carpeting!!!😫🤯
No spares........of course. Sooooooooo.......after about an hour and a half.......and much deep pile carpet belly surfing.........I actually found the spring. The wife thought I had lost my mind.
It should be noted that......in all these years......I've been unable to replicate such a superhuman effort. Probably because.....for the most part......I'm unwilling to recommit such idiocy. 🥴
Bottom line........I subsequently devised a method to deal with such parts.....inside a large clear plastic bag.........AND to keep a few spare sear depressor springs.😎
I was searching one day ( one of many ) for a small part that had sprung into action 😁
my youngest son happened to stop by and said check the vents in the floor ( heat and A/C vents) he said many times that where he would find such parts
I found it odd 🙄that's where it would go, with nothing to loose sure enough after all the searching I had done I pulled the deflector cover and in the duct was the part .. I still dont know how it found its way in
Ever tried to remove the spring from the gas piston extension on an SKS? Get that little gas tube release lever just right, and the piston/spring combo will go high enough to make NASA jealous. First time I ever disassembled an SKS. Your first thought when flipping that lever isn't "hey, I should hold a finger over that hole below the rear sight, so something doesn't break the sound barrier on the way out". At least mine wasn't.
On the south side of Grandpa's front porch was a big lilac bush. That's where the piston and spring landed. Right smack dab in the middle of the jungle that had formed in that bush over 30-some years. Found the piston easily enough. The spring? Well, it's likely still there, mocking me, covered by a parking lot, after the house was moved 26 years ago.
Might wanna spend $10
Good lord man, you have any idea how much a gravity feed 870 goes for now days?????
well just proves were all in this together. 😁
I have found that some things are best taken apart and put back together in a clear plastic bag.
Saves a lot of time searching dark corners
High Standard 22 revolver crane pin and spring
"Yep AR platform, purchased a few springs and detents as spares after building my first 80% problem is I can't remember where I put the spares I ordered...."
Since I'm sort of 'in the AR business', I keep a couple of compartmented boxes of spares. Unless I see the little bits fall, I don't spend much time looking for them. Probably enough pins and springs hidden under the back corners of my work bench to assemble a couple of AR's--I find long lost parts now and then while looking for the most recent 'launchee'.😁
Bolt plunger and spring, as well as rebound springs for S&W's.
Bullet
Where did it go?
That animal is walking dead.
Got you all beat I launched a Jennings j22 somewhere in my garage after it closed on my finger. To this day i am still looking for that little bugger. I have a general idea were it landed but I dont want to move that side of the garage.
My garage shop is 100 by 60 on one side other side is 100 by 24,.