This is surely preaching to the choir but I wanted to share my recent thoughts and experiences with my first attempts at doing my own gunsmithing, if indeed it can be called that.
I have not been shooting long and have no mechanical aptitude. My hands are clumsy and there are many delicate types of filing and fitting that I will probably never attempt at home, or not without using the appropriate setup. My first 2 gun purchases were a S&W 67 and a Baby Eagle 9mm. Both were reliable and accurate but the desire to open them up and tinker around inside grew too powerful.
The Baby Eagle worked flawlessly but I was unimpressed with the grittiness and stiffness of the double action trigger. I spent most of a year dry firing the pistol and was never satisfied with the break in. Something needed to be done about it and sending it off to a professional smith, if one could be found that works on Baby Eagles, and throwing lots of money at it wasn't what I wanted. I came across photos of an at home trigger job being done on a cz-75 and it looked close enough to my Baby Eagle (which most consider nothing but a knock off anyways) to give me a guideline. With only a $10 gunsmith screwdriver set from Wal-Mart, a $20 set of pin punches, a dental pick, and a generic roto tool with felt pads and buffing rouge I set off. No gun vise, no special tools. Just a clean sheet over my bed and a desk lamp.
I spent one very long, very irritating, and ultimately successful night taking the pistol apart and putting it back together. Any place that metal made contact recieved a surface polish and the plunger was polished to remove a manufacturing irregularity. Except for a troublesome roll pin and forgetting to polish a part the operation really wasn't that problematic. The results were a definite improvement. The double action pull remained heavy but all operations were smoother. The gun retained all reliability and I was proud of myself, as well as being more familiar with the gun. I recently installed a lighter mainspring and am very happy with the compound results of working on my own pistol. I have not thoroughly tested the lighter mainspring for reliability but it feels like a different gun than the one I purchased. It feels like a much better gun.
The best part of this? I am no longer considering a 2nd 9mm purchase. There is a defensive pistol course I'd like to attend in April but I knew that a DA/Decock pistol as stiff as the Baby Eagle would guarantee a poor performance. My mind has been changed and I consider the extra time and money invested in this pistol well spent.
Now, as to my Smith and Wesson 67. It has twice, by some coincedence, broken the cylinder stop spring. It was purchased used with an unknown timing problem, which was repaired at the factory. The factory replacement spring broke a couple months back and after recieving a new spring from Wolf I went in over my head (yet again) to replace the part. The inside of these revolvers is very intimidating to an amatuer but I was not entirely confused with a manual by my side. Everything was going well until I began noticing unsightly burrs and coarsely finished MIM parts, and in the process of removing parts I launched the bolt plunger spring into orbit :banghead:
Yeah, I'm sure we've all done it. After 15 minutes of futile searching I went online to start shopping for parts. I didn't like the idea of spending so much on shipping for a fifty-cent part so I called S&W and asked if they could help. Three minutes later they offered to send me a set of spare bolt plunger springs at no cost
There weren't any questions about fiddling around inside my gun or warnings about violating a warranty. When they arrive I don't expect much difficulty in reassembly.
I don't wish to promote liability or reliability concerns for anyone else at home but if you have a gun that simply falls short of your expectations, I encourage you to give this a try. Swapping springs and polishing the obvious isn't a terribly difficult road. At worst you'll have to box up the parts and send them to a professional, which is exactly what you'd be doing if you were paying someone else to fluff and buff the gun for you. At best, you'll know your gun better and save money customizing it yourself.
I have not been shooting long and have no mechanical aptitude. My hands are clumsy and there are many delicate types of filing and fitting that I will probably never attempt at home, or not without using the appropriate setup. My first 2 gun purchases were a S&W 67 and a Baby Eagle 9mm. Both were reliable and accurate but the desire to open them up and tinker around inside grew too powerful.
The Baby Eagle worked flawlessly but I was unimpressed with the grittiness and stiffness of the double action trigger. I spent most of a year dry firing the pistol and was never satisfied with the break in. Something needed to be done about it and sending it off to a professional smith, if one could be found that works on Baby Eagles, and throwing lots of money at it wasn't what I wanted. I came across photos of an at home trigger job being done on a cz-75 and it looked close enough to my Baby Eagle (which most consider nothing but a knock off anyways) to give me a guideline. With only a $10 gunsmith screwdriver set from Wal-Mart, a $20 set of pin punches, a dental pick, and a generic roto tool with felt pads and buffing rouge I set off. No gun vise, no special tools. Just a clean sheet over my bed and a desk lamp.
I spent one very long, very irritating, and ultimately successful night taking the pistol apart and putting it back together. Any place that metal made contact recieved a surface polish and the plunger was polished to remove a manufacturing irregularity. Except for a troublesome roll pin and forgetting to polish a part the operation really wasn't that problematic. The results were a definite improvement. The double action pull remained heavy but all operations were smoother. The gun retained all reliability and I was proud of myself, as well as being more familiar with the gun. I recently installed a lighter mainspring and am very happy with the compound results of working on my own pistol. I have not thoroughly tested the lighter mainspring for reliability but it feels like a different gun than the one I purchased. It feels like a much better gun.
The best part of this? I am no longer considering a 2nd 9mm purchase. There is a defensive pistol course I'd like to attend in April but I knew that a DA/Decock pistol as stiff as the Baby Eagle would guarantee a poor performance. My mind has been changed and I consider the extra time and money invested in this pistol well spent.
Now, as to my Smith and Wesson 67. It has twice, by some coincedence, broken the cylinder stop spring. It was purchased used with an unknown timing problem, which was repaired at the factory. The factory replacement spring broke a couple months back and after recieving a new spring from Wolf I went in over my head (yet again) to replace the part. The inside of these revolvers is very intimidating to an amatuer but I was not entirely confused with a manual by my side. Everything was going well until I began noticing unsightly burrs and coarsely finished MIM parts, and in the process of removing parts I launched the bolt plunger spring into orbit :banghead:
Yeah, I'm sure we've all done it. After 15 minutes of futile searching I went online to start shopping for parts. I didn't like the idea of spending so much on shipping for a fifty-cent part so I called S&W and asked if they could help. Three minutes later they offered to send me a set of spare bolt plunger springs at no cost
There weren't any questions about fiddling around inside my gun or warnings about violating a warranty. When they arrive I don't expect much difficulty in reassembly.I don't wish to promote liability or reliability concerns for anyone else at home but if you have a gun that simply falls short of your expectations, I encourage you to give this a try. Swapping springs and polishing the obvious isn't a terribly difficult road. At worst you'll have to box up the parts and send them to a professional, which is exactly what you'd be doing if you were paying someone else to fluff and buff the gun for you. At best, you'll know your gun better and save money customizing it yourself.
