Kewl Gunsmithing

[outerlimits]

having had lots of guns built over the years, i've had to opportunity to see some very interesting skills. thought there needed to be a post where these skills could be mentioned. i'll add a couple:

many years ago i had a steel gun built. bought a new colt commander slide for it. my gunsmith worked on it for weeks and was getting close to finishing it when he called to say "we got a problem". i went to his shop and he showed me the issue. this new colt slide had a problem. upon close inspection, the firing pin stop channel cut under the rear of the slide was many thousandths larger than spec. a stock firing pin stop, once installed, had so much play that extraction was unsolvable. so he decides to machine one himself...actually 2 of them. he got out some steel, measured the channel, started chucking it in the mill and created a flat that fit. then drilled out the hole for the firing pin, relieved the part where it unlocks, heat treated it and the gun worked fine. i was impressed. shot that thing for years.

the other fix was equally impressive. i had one of the first chip mccormick frames when they first came out. built an open gun with it and it was fine for a few months. then, during a reload, i punched the mag release right through the right side of the grip. the little channel inside the grip that retains the catch just broke through. i called chip and he said he'd ship another when the make the next batch, which was gonna be another month or so. had an area match coming up and panicked. my smith looks it over and comes up with an idea. here's where it got weird. he goes out of the shop, into his house and returns with a pin he took from his wife's sewing kit. he cuts the pin to a shorter length, heats up the pin and shoves it into the grip under the mag catch hole, passing thru the hole but retaining the little tang on the catch. solved that issue right there.

Edited September 17, 2009 by outerlimits

[benny hill]

Common sense & logic will win everytime. A very bright guy.