Rossi Rifleman

I hear ya OP, I had my 20" oct barrel apart a few months ago, I called it every name in the book for a couple days, then everything just fell into place. I haven't shot it since, so it's a great shooter

golfish wrote:I hear ya OP, I had my 20" oct barrel apart a few months ago, I called it every name in the book for a couple days, then everything just fell into place. I haven't shot it since, so it's a great shooter

Yeah....you HOPE.........

Took mine all apart for cleaning, deburring, polishing and refinishing. It weren't no thang IMO, but I've always been mechanically inclined. But OMG, what a difference in the operation and shooting!!!

First time to clean and deburr was an experience. Second time to replace springs was easier. Third time to replace original springs,except the ejector, was easy.

dlidster wrote:

Arroyoshark wrote:Part of the elegance of Browning's designs is how parts secure parts without the need of additional pins or screws.

You must have never seen a C96

There have been times when I needed to (take a gun apart). Here is a good example. I bought a Cimarron 1872 Open Top revolver in .38 Special. And while the action was nice and tight, it had a few rough spots and the trigger release was a bit gritty. So I dove in:





There were several surfaces with little nicks that roughed up the action. The sear also had dings in it that contributed to the "grittiness". I spent a few hours carefully smoothing things out and reassembled with small amounts of strategically placed lubrication and it is a completely different revolver. Absolutely butter smooth and has the absolute best trigger release of any gun that I own.

Now granted, this gun is pretty simple but I wouldn't hesitate to pull the 92 apart (in fact I'm planning to in order to give it the "treatment" like above). It is next on my "tinker" list.

Dan

You know I have a number of guns I have never needed to take apart.
I've seen several come in from the factory however that were never put together correctly.
Had a Ruger for example that wouldn't lock back on empty (and thus the last round as well) brand new into the shop. It turned out to be the magazine was assembled incorrectly from the get go.
Not to mention the used guns I've picked up from time to time that have had oil or grease turned to varnish inside the action, needed new springs because someone stored them with the slide locked back for twenty years or because somebody decided that it'd be smoother or better if the spring was cut down by a quarter or half or they swapped out grips, safeties, triggers or sears and either didn't use quality parts or didn't know what they were doing fitting them so they either didn't work or were unsafe and had to be replaced. It seems like damaged or ill fitted grips are extremely common.

Another reason to take something apart is the curiosity of an engineer wondering how things are put together and how they work. Quite often I can puzzle that out from a drawing, diagram or the like but every once in a while taking apart and putting back together the physical item is the thing that makes it obvious. Today with YouTube there's a lot of examples out there of how things go together.

There are those firearms that are put together with jigs and tools that are specialty items and you'd best not try to take them apart without them. However MOST firearms ARE designed to be maintained to be potentially taken apart and put back together without five hands or a special jig at least to a point.

While taking apart a gun may not be 'required' to clean them, unless you are taking off the wood/plastic/rubber and dunking them in a tank of kerosene or other solvent there's probably a lot of smudgy fouling in places you aren't getting out. Field stripping most guns means taking them apart enough to get at 95% or more of that crud. Detailed stripping isn't required very often on most firearms but I've found that on most semi autos and particularly on many .22 LRs once in a while is desirable since the action typically opens before all the gases have gone out the barrel and in the case of ARs they dump exhaust back into the action to make them work. .22 Rimfire is typically externally lubricated and the lube and fouling from the blowback action builds up everywhere. I've bought 10/22s that have never been taken apart and found a hundred or two hundred grains of lead shavings in the bolt mechanism.

As well as some guns that probably shouldn't be taken apart without the tools to put them back together there's some people who just aren't mechanically minded. It may be that half the problems I run into are the results of those people putting things back together wrong but there's a lot more firearms that NEED to be taken apart from time to time, even in detailed form to make certain they work correctly. I know for example people who've had their Glocks stop working only to find out there's enough pocket lint somehow gotten into the striker mechanism to soften the blow on the primer to the point that ignition was no longer a sure thing. (How pocket lint gets into the mechanism of a gun that I don't personally consider safe for pocket carry is another question.)

Interestingly, I just downloaded Glock's maintenance manual since I finally purchased one and decided to read the paperwork again.

The first page has a paragraph about how field stripping is required because cleaning from the muzzle can result in build up in the action and impaired function.

One thing fer sure, I can diddle with my 92 faster than the factory can...

Archer wrote:The first page has a paragraph about how field stripping is required because cleaning from the muzzle can result in build up in the action and impaired function.

That's very true. To combat that with a levergun, you pull the buttstock and flush with dechlorinated parts cleaner afterward and then re-lube the action. After I spray the parts cleaner clear, I used compressed air to blow the action out then spray my lube and blow that out with compressed air as well. All this takes just minutes.

Silver Beagle wrote:One thing fer sure, I can diddle with my 92 faster than the factory can...

So true