Most problems start with confidence

[Haven]

A gunsmith told me once that he can always tell when somebody worked on their own gun, not because DIY work is bad but because a lot of people start filing and polishing things they don’t fully understand.
Most of em were trying to fix one problem and ended up creating two more. Ever since hearing that, I’ve been a lot more careful about what I mess with myself.

 

[Hilldweller]

Learned that myself long ago working on my Colt SAA. Loved taking that thing apart and putting it back together. Also tried to mimic what I read about in some gun books. (The internet was just a “pie in the sky” idea at the time.

It took a well known SAA gunsmith only an instant to ask “You did this work, didn’t you?” when looking at the innards spread on his workbench. Meekly, I said “yea” while looking at the floor.

His response was “have a seat” and proceeded to give me an explanation of what role each part played - how they interacted - what, how, and where to file/polish/etc (and where not to) to do different things. He spoke his words of wisdom as he deftly manipulated and fit the (new) parts I had to buy. It was like a free college course in an afternoon.

I was a happy camper I’ll tell ya. Walked out with a finely tuned SAA….and two sets of internal parts that I could practice with to try and achieve the results he did.

PS - over the years I bought several more parts, usually after I broke them playing ‘Quicksdraw McGraw’. Many years later I ended up dropping it off to get repaired (broken firing pin, trigger, buggered screws, etc) and a rebluing due to holster wear.

Note: for all who are thinking “OMG” don’t fret. It was an NRA Centennial model. Those are the cheapest way to get into Colts for single action play. Plus it was a .357. Ended up selling it and getting the same gun in .45 Colt as well as several others over the years.

My only complaint today relates to my arthritis, trigger finger in half my fingers, and diminished eyesight. No more “quick draw” for me. Unless you’d like to see how many times I can fumble and drop YOUR Single Action.

 

[Unshaven2897]

I tried to get into gunsmithing but it's a tough place to enter. And the stuff that WAS brought to me was either junk that they expected to be returned in like new condition for $25 or was malfunctioning due to assembly and/or 'cleaning' errors. So I quit except for friends or my own stuff.

 

[Hilldweller]

Me too, not that ever wanted that as a career.

Shortly after we moved here a neighbor dropped by to introduce herself. She also inquired if I fixed guns. Guess the other neighbor I had met mentioned that I worked on them to her. Word spreads fast here.

I said “yes” and she went to her car and brought out a 4” .22 revolver….in pieces. My natural response was “are these all the parts?” and got the typical “uh, I think so”…

When she left it took me all of 10 minutes to figure out that all the parts were there and she had put one in backwards. That solved I fully disassembled and cleaned it. Did a slight polish on the internals too. Was much better when I gave it back a couple of hours later. Made big points with the new neighbors !

 

[Smasher]

My cousin tried to polish his Glock connector with a Dremel and ended up with light strikes right away. A gunsmith fixed it but he definitely learned restraint the hard way.

 

[Unshaven2897]

Me too, not that ever wanted that as a career.

Shortly after we moved here a neighbor dropped by to introduce herself. She also inquired if I fixed guns. Guess the other neighbor I had met mentioned that I worked on them to her. Word spreads fast here.

I said “yes” and she went to her car and brought out a 4” .22 revolver….in pieces. My natural response was “are these all the parts?” and got the typical “uh, I think so”…

When she left it took me all of 10 minutes to figure out that all the parts were there and she had put one in backwards. That solved I fully disassembled and cleaned it. Did a slight polish on the internals too. Was much better when I gave it back a couple of hours later. Made big points with the new neighbors !

I have disaster stories. I'm retired. We have these Cane Corso pups, the yearling Catahoula and two retired Catahoula dogs. Not much need for firearms. At least it would be a bad day for an evil doer. But to visitors the dogs want to smell your breath. Apparently there is much to tell about a person from their breath. So I go with it. The dogs are pretty accurate.

 

[CoyoteHunter]

I have done a little work now and then on pistols, but I have always preferred the bolt actions to work on.

Many years ago a gentleman brought me two Savage lever action rifles that had a crack in the "wrist" area. He wanted them repaired and I said OK, but be advised I had never done that type of work before.

So I order some brass pins from Brownell's and went to work. Drilled hole, measured the pin length and coated it with epoxie and I must say I was delighted that I didn't screw anything up. The customer was very happen and he even gave me a $20 tip above what I was charging.

So over the next 30+ years I continued to do different things on the bolt actions rifles, mostly doing a lot of "glass bedding" of the actions. Lapping scope rings etc. etc.