I have received a few new guns now which I found to have metal chips from the factory, inside various parts of guns.
My new Savage 22LR had some metal chips packed in with the bolt.
My Mossberg 464 had some in the action.
I found chips inside the Ruger 10-22.
But every one of those guns I purchased brand new and this latest gun is 39 years old.
This is from my 1981 Ruger Super Blackhawk .44 Magnum. I believe it has had a chip inside it since it was manufactured, and it has never been detected.
This stupid thing was making the cylinder lock really stiff. It wasn't just a dirty action as I originally surmised, and I assembled and disassembled and reassembled the gun in order to find this. It took a little doing to pry it out with a pick as it was firmly pressed into the hole.
Here's a picture of the actual chip taken at high magnification. It is about 0.080" in the largest dimension.
The chip was found in the bottom of a detent well for the spring locking the cylinder.
Inside the gun it is something like this:
The chip was at the very bottom of that well which is drilled right into the trigger guard.
This extra metal was causing the detent plunger to ride crooked on the cylinder lock, causing erratic lock action.
I knew the gun was filthy inside (although the outside was nearly pristine) but I got it for just $260 plus fees of $40.
40 rounds of ammo was included and I fired one test shot at the range.
But the action was definitely balky and the old guy who had it was fed up with the gun, and sold it cheap.
I didn't think it was too damaged and I was correct. Except for that chip, which was throwing off the detent action, and one tiny missing alignment pin in the custom grips, the only real problem was lots of residue inside the gun. If you zoom in you can see the dirt and rust are specially on the pawl.
This is the first wheel gun I have ever disassembled completely so it took me a little while to get it apart and back together but most of my time was spent polishing the bits and greasing them.
It also got a few coats of permablue on the wear marks, and plenty of hand buffing.
You cannot easily remove the plunger on the hammer, or the firing pin from the frame, without Extreme Measures so I did not bother. The firing pin appears to be retained by a blind Cross Pin.
I also did not remove the mainspring from its carrier.
After I corrected that little problem with the lock spring assy, and lubed and reassembled everything, it was like a different gun.
I won't get to shoot this until Monday though, so we'll find out then how good a job I really did on the internals, and how well the sights are aligned. I wouldn't be surprised if they were way off.
My new Savage 22LR had some metal chips packed in with the bolt.
My Mossberg 464 had some in the action.
I found chips inside the Ruger 10-22.
But every one of those guns I purchased brand new and this latest gun is 39 years old.
This is from my 1981 Ruger Super Blackhawk .44 Magnum. I believe it has had a chip inside it since it was manufactured, and it has never been detected.
This stupid thing was making the cylinder lock really stiff. It wasn't just a dirty action as I originally surmised, and I assembled and disassembled and reassembled the gun in order to find this. It took a little doing to pry it out with a pick as it was firmly pressed into the hole.
Here's a picture of the actual chip taken at high magnification. It is about 0.080" in the largest dimension.
The chip was found in the bottom of a detent well for the spring locking the cylinder.
Inside the gun it is something like this:
The chip was at the very bottom of that well which is drilled right into the trigger guard.
This extra metal was causing the detent plunger to ride crooked on the cylinder lock, causing erratic lock action.
I knew the gun was filthy inside (although the outside was nearly pristine) but I got it for just $260 plus fees of $40.
40 rounds of ammo was included and I fired one test shot at the range.
But the action was definitely balky and the old guy who had it was fed up with the gun, and sold it cheap.
I didn't think it was too damaged and I was correct. Except for that chip, which was throwing off the detent action, and one tiny missing alignment pin in the custom grips, the only real problem was lots of residue inside the gun. If you zoom in you can see the dirt and rust are specially on the pawl.
This is the first wheel gun I have ever disassembled completely so it took me a little while to get it apart and back together but most of my time was spent polishing the bits and greasing them.
It also got a few coats of permablue on the wear marks, and plenty of hand buffing.
You cannot easily remove the plunger on the hammer, or the firing pin from the frame, without Extreme Measures so I did not bother. The firing pin appears to be retained by a blind Cross Pin.
I also did not remove the mainspring from its carrier.
After I corrected that little problem with the lock spring assy, and lubed and reassembled everything, it was like a different gun.
I won't get to shoot this until Monday though, so we'll find out then how good a job I really did on the internals, and how well the sights are aligned. I wouldn't be surprised if they were way off.
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