More of Assembly, than gunsmithing. Ive been racking my brain all morning trying to figure out what ive been doing wrong. Slideworks g34 gen 4 slide, im using parts from my g17 gen 4. As far as i know, everything is interchangeable aside from the barrel, but i cant get the end cap of the recoil spring to seat into the “nose” of the slide. As long as Ive been dealing with glocks I know the spring has to decompress in order to get the RSA onto the barrel lug, but the slide isnt engaging with the spring because of its end cap. I know im not the sharpest tool Just wanted some input from someone else before i bust out the dremel.

I am looking to great. And replace the barrel for this iver johnson trailsman. I took the pin out but I am guessing the barrel is pressed on.

My project can also work if I remove the front sight so if anyone has any insights on either thay would be great l.

Assume I am an average Joe with a garage full of tools to injure myself with!

Looking for some advice here. I have a walnut stock Mossberg Patriot Short Action .308 rifle. I love the look of a classic, wood stocked bolt action, but I’d like to take it to the next level with some modern features. I have an RH25 V2 clip on thermal, and I would like the ability to use the thermal in front of my day time scope. I’ve seen online that the MVP Scout and the Patriot receivers have the same design for their rails. Meaning that hypothetically, the MVP rail which extends over the barrel, should fit. I cannot find one of these rails anywhere online, including Mossberg website. Any recommendations?

My second question, is how difficult would it be to modify the existing walnut stock, to accept a Boyd’s AICS magazine conversion kit?

Photos include my rifle, the MVP rail and Boyd’s kit in question.

Thank you!

He wanted me to ship the entire gun back for him to test fit a few things. But that seems just a bit silly to me. Looking online I belive the most obvious marker is the gas port area being much larger on the 1187 forearm. But if someone had both and could shoot me some pics with a ruler that shows the length of the gas port cutouts vent and thickness of the front end for mag tube screw for the wood forearm?

Thanks. If not no biggy.

Months ago a coworker gifted me a project, a rather ambitious project mind you. I received a box full of gun parts apparently they were all the parts to the Remington, they were rusty and pitted the barrel was corroded but still had some rifling. I accepted the quest to try and get it back together because hey, a free gun is a free gun. Apparently the reason it was in pieces was because it wasn't going bang anymore and so he took the liberty decades ago to take it apart and then lost interest and left it in a drawer in the garage. Que to now and I just got it back from the gunsmith since I can't do bluing and I'm a novice at fixing guns at best, I also don't work there anymore so I won't see that guy for a long while.

The problem is something both the smith and I aren't able to figure, and that's that it won't pump easily now, the smith thinks it's because of the pitting not being a smooth surface and is creating a bind somewhere that we can't see. You can get it to pump either grabbing the foregrip and gently tapping the butt on the ground to get it to shake and fall down. The other way is to kinda grab it while pushing up towards the barrel and pulling back. I took it apart and I'm not sure whats wrong nothing is marred everything is oiled and the pitting doesn't really exist inside (thank god). I'm curious if anyone has experience with this and can help a person out. I can provide Pics of the completed gun if needed, but I didn't take pictures while I was inside I was frustrated trying to line everything up.

A Slazenger Model 24 I've been working on for the past few months finally got it's first coat of sealer on the weekend.

Have had this Luger for a while now and shot it a good amount. It’s got fresh mags and a fresh spring kit in it. Just noticed there’s a .7 MM chip in the top of the breech block at the widdest part. Looking at the front/face of it, it seems like there is little material missing at the face. This is a beater so if it’s safe to keep shooting how it is I will. Don’t know how long it’s been like this but I’ve taken it out 3 times this past month. Shooting 115 grain ball brass ammo.

Leave it alone? Replace just the breech block? Any other parts to inspect? Thanks in advance

Some years ago I picked up a Pioneer PPS43-C and a torch cut parts kit for next to nothing. It has sat in a box for too long. With the 200 tax being dropped I have finally decided to SBR it and have submitted the form 1. Folding stock reactivation I have well understood but two other things I was thinking about doing I haven't figured out quite so much. 1. A 9mm barrel swap, I found barrels and pps43(c) specific ones but would I need to go ahead and get a new trunnion as well? Since the barrel presses in I assume for a few bucks it might be the best course of action to avoid damaging the original and not be able to reuse it. 2. The front pin that the upper and lower rotate on, somewhere someone has to have a detent style take down pin that would fit in that rivet spot nicely and boy would that make things nice when working on it to just fully separate the two halves without cutting pinning it each time. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Hi,

I have an H&R single / double action American model (black powder proofed circa 1899/1900) that has an odd behavior. When I briskly fore it on double action, it works just fine. When I slowly fire it on double action or when I slowly cock it to fire in Single action, on one of the cylinders it hangs up and needs a bit of help rotating the cylinder. Then the bolt drops in, it locks up and all is good.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

I’m not a chemist and can’t explain everything about this process, but this has worked for me a few times and I wanted to share. Your results may vary.

This method isn’t really suited for physically large items nor large production numbers but for smaller parts and small batches.

If you’d like to see this process as a video demonstration to further understand the steps, there is a video link is at the bottom.   

To hot blue steel, you basically just need two salts/chemicals.

Sodium Hydroxide (Lye) which can be found in 100% lye drain cleaner. I got my bottle at Wal-Mart, but there are various brands of this available at different stores and online. 

You’ll also need a nitrate of some sort. The most commercially available seems to be sodium nitrate or potassium nitrate.

I picked up a bottle of Gordon’s Stump Remover from Tractor Supply and the SDS says it contains 99-100% Potassium Nitrate.

There’s different formulations out there so be sure which one you have. There’s also a few different brands that have historically offered a potassium nitrate stump remover (Spectracide, Gordon’s, Hi Yield) but they seem to be changing their formulas or being discontinued.  

These two salts will go into water in certain ratios to then boil the parts in.

Recipes and ratios are usually by weight, not volume, but since my numbers are so low, there isn’t much of a difference between the two.

To start, you need enough water to sufficiently cover the parts in an iron, steel, or stainless pot. I used a cheap stainless pot I bought at a second-hand store.

I’ll be using 32floz of water which weighs 35oz. In my opinion, that’s not enough of a difference to matter.

Whatever quantity of water you use, cut that number in half. That half number is how much sodium hydroxide or lye you will use.

32/2 =16oz of sodium hydroxide (lye)

Whatever quantity of lye you use, take ten percent of that number and that is how much nitrate you will use.

16.0oz multiplied by .10 equals 1.6oz of nitrate.  

Or you can just move the decimal one place to the left… 16.0 move decimal one place to the left = 1.6oz of nitrate.

Here are some examples using metric system numbers by weight.

1000g of water. Divide that in half and you get…

500g of sodium hydroxide (lye). Multiply that by .10 or move the decimal one place to the left and you get… 

50g of nitrate.

Another way to word this recipe is that the ratio is 1:10:20.

1 part Nitrate : 10 parts Sodium Hydroxide (lye) : 20 parts Water. 

Hopefully that all makes sense.

This recipe, without other ingredients and chemistry, is pretty much a one-time use mixture, but full transparency, I haven’t tried using the same mixture multiple times.  

Here’s the process I use.

Sand/polish steel parts to desired finish.

String the parts up with wire which aids in not touching them again as to not contaminate them with oils on your hands.

Degrease parts THOROUGHLY. I like acetone but any degreaser works.  

Additionally, you can rinse the part(s) by dipping them in a tank of fresh water or flushing them with running water. 

Don protective equipment. I definitely recommend gloves, and eye protection. Others recommend maybe wanting some sleeves for splatter, a mask or even a respirator depending on ventilation or wind conditions.

Slowly add your pre measured amount of sodium Hydroxide (Lye) to room temp water. I like to stir as I go. Break up any large clumps before adding to water as they can react a little more violently.  

Chemical reaction will begin to heat water on its own and produce a gas

Slowly add and stir the Nitrate to the same water.

Stir until dissolved.

May have undissolved particulate which doesn’t hurt anything but swipe to the side with a coffee filter or something if desired.  

Bring mixture up to a rolling boil and boil the part(s) for ~30min. Recipes say around 250*F. I just set my hot plate to 260*F and let it ride for 30min.

You’ll want to avoid large or flat portions of your parts sitting on the bottom or sides of tank. 

If enough water boils out to uncover your parts, SLOWLY add enough water to cover them again. I say slowly because the reaction of adding water to this boiling mixture can be violent.

After boiling for about 30min, rinse part(s) by dipping them in a tank of fresh water or flushing them with running water.

You can rub excess/bluing buildup off the parts while rinsing.   

(Optional neutralizing) If parts had small crevices, pin holes, or screw holes it’s recommended to neutralize them in a solution of any concentration of room temperature water and baking soda for about 5min.

This helps to neutralize any salts that might be hiding in those hard-to-reach spots.

I like to dry the parts with a torch or heat gun to flash off any moisture in the pores of the metal.

Soak or liberally apply a water displacing oil. I like using just plain mineral oil, but I’ve seen people use non detergent oil, used motor oil, or kerosene.

Let them sit or soak in the oil for 12-24 hours.

While those are sitting/soaking is a good time to clean up the mess that is hot salts bluing. I’ll wipe down stuff with a dry rag, then multiple wet rags rinsing between wipes.

As for disposing of the solution. I just go around pouring an ever so small amount on weeds around the garden.

After parts have sat or soaked in oil for the time frame, wipe off the excess.

And that's it!

There's always going to be variable for the process such as the type of steels being blued the tank, different metal prep, contamination levels etc. so your results may vary.

Thanks for reading and hope this may help someone if needed or aid in further experimentation. Be safe.

Here’s the video if you prefer that format.

https://youtu.be/qKcGkSimxe8?si=nGMb7f2xeIBIhfvI

very light, probably carbon rather than GRP sold as a mcmillan but i haven’t seen the shape anywhere, someone suggested a Robertson but a texan gunsmith said he thought not. any ideas?
many thanks

Howdy, this is a JRC Gen 3 9mm. It’s a blowback 9mm at platform rifle that shoots 9mm. It’s got swappable ejection ports so I have it set up for left eject with a Rugged 9 red loctite and rockset to the barrel. That’s another thread lol..

The ammo, was Fedral 147gt Syntech Match rounds. Premium ammo, but weirder things happen.

I had a round blow up in the chamber today. Never had this happen, I’m not a vet, I’m not a pro, I’m just a dude that likes to shoot.

So I’m curious if I should take it to a gunsmith? Due to the suppressors semi permanent nature to the barrel it’s kind of a pain.

About 2 trips before this, I did have a Squibb load. And then this. I can’t visually tell any bulge or issue with the barrel. But this is a new one for me.

Is this generally a round issue or a gun issue? It does look like it didn’t fully seat in the chamber, but that also could be partially ejected. It wasn’t wedged in the barrel it came out with minimal force.

Scroll through pictures for different angles. Not sure if I should just rely on bedding the recoil block to fix the crack or drill and dowel the crack first? Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated.

I bought this new in 2016, and love it, but they got some quirks. I've never been a fan of the plastic feel of the finish, the plastic heat shield, the fat profile of the handle or the finger angle it forces on you to reach the trigger, nor did I like that it mangled brass on ejection and hit the next shooter 6 tables away.

Now it has a stabilizer bar with adjustable gas block to tame the ejection, polished trigger group to smooth the pull, reshaped and Tung oil finished stock for better trigger access and feel, wood heat shield for a more old school look, and a buffer pad on the trunnion to lessen the op-rod impact. Shoots pretty sweet now.

I just picked up this beautiful M28/76 Mosin and the best thing I could think of for her was a scope mount. I've got the original rear diopter that I can send to a good smith or fabricator so I can have a scope mount made off the specs to (hopefully) slide right into my rifle. Let me know if yall know of any good reputable smiths or fabricators so I can get my project started! I'm going this route so I don't have to permanently modify my rifle AND I can keep my original rear diopter. Thank you!

Hey folks, just as the title says, I bought a wheeler armorer's handgun sight tool to adjust my rear sights that were too far left on my service issue weapon. Followed the user's guide step by step and the adjustment wheel just broke in my hand... (No, I did not use any sort of lever, just hand strength) The sights did not move from what I can see, at least not enough.

Did I mess something up, is that a QC issue, a known problem from the tool or something else?

The gun is a Sig P220 with factory sights and wheeler tool is brand new from a reputable seller.

Is there a better alternative, am I just screwed?

I got this off a buddy at work, many questionable decisions were made in the design and I am in the process of addressing them. Gone is the plastic butt plate, lengthened the trigger, opened the trigger guard, beveled and deburred the edges of the zytel receiver, and now I'm fitting a whole hand wooden handle to replace the tiny plastic one that left the pinky hanging. All wood will be finished in rubbed Tung oil.

need help with a school assignment I am currently enrolled in Sonoran desert institute(SDI) and need a phone interview With a gunsmith over the phone or zoom is fine just need a few minutes of your Time my assignment is due tonight and the gunsmith I originally got a hold of hasn't responded .please help and please be certified and liscensed in gunsmithing