The Gunsmith Thread

A customer dropped off a new-in-the-case Sig Sauer P938 yesterday because the trigger was "frozen". I opened the case to find an unloaded (I checked first) pistol with an empty magazine. I picked it up, inserted the magazine and sure enough, that trigger worked just as it should.

I left the following note:
"Please read and understand the owner's manual, particularly where it says that this pistol will not fire without a magazine."

$30.00. Here's your sign.
 
Another dipstick dropped off a pistol that would "load and extract, but not fire".
I loaded it with 3 rounds and took it out to the range. Bang, bang, bang.

So I call the aforementioned dipstick and asked him what sort of ammunition he was using, because I could not recreate the malfunction.

He says: "just regular full metal jacket .380"

So I tell him: "Sir, this pistol is chambered in 9mm. It says so on the slide, on the barrel, and on the magazine."

$30.00. Here's your sign.
 
Crappy Armscor .38SPL revolver today, with four (4) squib rounds in the 2" barrel. Yes, full of bullets from stem to stern.

1736006760323.png 1736006855525.png
1736006911370.png 1736006943205.png

How does one get these out, you may ask?

I heat up the barrel with a torch and liquefy the lead. I then take a pointed awl and puncture all the copper jackets, so that the molten lead can flow out. Then, it's a simple matter of pushing the jackets out with a brass rod which matches the bore diameter. I got 518.3 grains of material out of that barrel and four (4) copper jackets, so I surmised that this clownshoe was shooting a mix of 125 grain and 148 grain loads.

This came in on January 2nd, so I can only surmise by the lack of maintenance, that it was used as a "noisemaker" on New Year's Eve.
Yes. Morons shoot guns into the air on New Year's Eve. It's a shocker, I know.
 
The one sticking out of the end of the barrel had tool marks on it, so I think this micro-cephalic put some pliers on it - attempting to un-foxtrot it first - before giving up and taking it to the gunsmith. :p
 
Okay, my pilot brain is con-fuse-ed.

Load one round; fire said round. Physics says it should go-a-flying. The second round enters the chamber, repeat the process...

Here's my confusion...HOW does one:

a) NOT know that the round didn't, in fact, head out?
b) HOW does one not have their barrel split, explode, etc., when round #2 meets round #1...
(repeat confusion for rounds #3 & #4)

1736012052743.png
 
flieger83 said:
Okay, my pilot brain is con-fuse-ed.

Load one round; fire said round. Physics says it should go-a-flying. The second round enters the chamber, repeat the process...

Here's my confusion...HOW does one:

a) NOT know that the round didn't, in fact, head out?
b) HOW does one not have their barrel split, explode, etc., when round #2 meets round #1...
(repeat confusion for rounds #3 & #4)

View attachment 17502
Click to expand...

Yeah, I don't get it either when people do this on a range. Do they think they completely missed the target? Each squib round also makes a drastically different report. They go "pop" instead of "bang". I always tell people in my classes "if it goes pop, stop".

This clown was more than likely shooting into the air to make noise on New Year's Eve, so the fact that it made a sound was what he was going for, I guess. After the 4th round, it locked up the cylinder and didn't allow it to rotate. This was good, because if the 5th round had fired inside the cylinder, he would have lost part of his hand or head as the cylinder exploded (see the OP of this thread for a photo of the aftermath of such an explosion)

Frankly, I'm sorry Darwin didn't win this time. Hopefully, he's too old to be still contributing to the gene pool.
 
That shooter is very fortunate that firearm held together.
 
I had a funny one today. The work ticket on a new Glock 19 said: "trigger does not reset after firing."

I picked it up and was immediately put off by the fact that this clown checked in his pistol for what is ostensibly a firing issue, and didn't leave me a magazine with which to test it. Sure - I have Glock magazines available to use - but that's not the point. Maybe the issue he's having is magazine-related. If it is, I certainly can't diagnose it without the magazine. Come on, man!

But I digress. :rolleyes:

I cycle the slide. I pull the trigger and it goes click. I hold the trigger down while cycling the slide again. I let out the trigger, it resets, and I pull the trigger again. Click again.

Okay. The gun works fine and passes the function checks, so I load several rounds in a spare Glock magazine and trundle out to the range.
I get to the range, load it up and it goes bang, bang, bang, bang, well you get the idea here.

I call the guy and tell him I cannot recreate the issue he seems to be having and ask him if he was in fact firing the pistol when the trigger failed to reset. He tells me no, he was just pulling the trigger at home when it was unloaded and the trigger didn't reset for the next trigger pull.

I tell him that the action of the slide resets the trigger on all Glock model pistols and asked him if he racked the slide after his dry-firing fiasco.
There was a bit of silence there, so I suggested that maybe he should read the owner's manual.

$40.00. Here's your sign.
 
Part 2 of the story related above!

Guy comes in to pick up his gun. He tells the guy behind the counter "it still doesn't work", to wit the guy behind the counter shows him exactly what I had previously explained to him over the phone (pull the trigger and it goes click, rack the slide and trigger is reset).

Then the guy says "I have to do that (rack the slide) every time?"

"No sir, it's a semi-automatic. After you fire, the slide is pushed back by the firing sequence and automatically resets the trigger for the next trigger pull."

"Oh."

You can't make this stuff up.
 
Part 3 of the story:

When firearms in need of repair are checked in, there is a flat $30 fee assessed for diagnostics, for which the store takes a $30 deposit. We do this because sometimes people check in guns that aren't worth $30 in the first place, so when we fix them and they decide to not pick them up (it has happened many times before) then at least we have the $30.

With this particular ticket, I went to the range and used 10 rounds of ammunition, so I added $10 to the fee for live fire testing.
When the idiot picked up his gun, he didn't have any money in whatever account he had, so he called his mother to Venmo him the $10.

Again, you cannot make this stuff up!
 
Had a good one yesterday. Guy brings in a lever-action .30-30 Winchester rifle with a live .243 round stuck in the action.
It was too long to be lifted by the lifter and therefore would not insert into the chamber.

I removed the cap on the end of the mag tube - took out the spring and follower - and out the round came.

So the answer to the question that nobody ever asked is yes, you can load a .243 round through the loading gate of a .30-30 lever action rifle. ;)
 
THParent said:
Had a good one yesterday. Guy brings in a lever-action .30-30 Winchester rifle with a live .243 round stuck in the action.
It was too long to be lifted by the lifter and therefore would not insert into the chamber.

I removed the cap on the end of the mag tube - took out the spring and follower - and out the round came.

So the answer to the question that nobody ever asked is yes, you can load a .243 round through the loading gate of a .30-30 lever action rifle. ;)
Click to expand...
I can also fire a round from a vice with a hammer and punch.

The question is: why would I?

Same to your brilliant rifleman...

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