Slim's Gunsmithing

Jenny's Ruger LCP

2011-03-12T18:31:00.000-08:00

Jenny's Ruger LCP with the slide refinished using Brownell's Gun-Kote

A few months back, Jesse had a guy come in with a Beretta 92 that was originally stainless. The guy had tried to blue it and the finish didn't come out quite as he planned. He wanted a matte black finish instead. So Jesse bead blasted it and finished it with Brownell's Gun-Kote. Upon seeing the results of this Beretta, I wanted him to do the same thing to the slide on my Ruger LCP. Originally, it was blued on the raspberry model. (Yes, I have a pink gun, but only because its the "right shade" of pink!) Anyway, it was the same deal. Bead blast the slide and some of the other parts, spray on the Gun-Kote, and bake. I joke around that Brownell's Gun-Kote is like shake and bake for guns ha ha. Because it's my gun, I have photos of the before and after and I must say, I am tickled pink with the results.

Below is a before and after of only the slide with and without the Brownell's Gun-Kote.

Yugoslavian M59/66 Barrel Project Part 3

2009-08-15T17:19:00.000-07:00

So we've removed our front sight assembly and cleaned the barrel off. Time to install our new (to us) front sight/bayonet lug. Here is our donor: a barrel and receiver stub I bought from Numrich gun parts.

Pulling off the donor parts are the same as pulling the originals off our gun. Use a little more care, however, as they'll be going on our gun. My donor gun's sight assembly was extremely tight and required both penetrating oil and some heat to get it off. Also, the rear cross pin was very tight as well. Once again, I used the hammer off method but used a piece of scrap aluminum to prevent damage as I was hammering the sight off (and the same scrap aluminum to hammer on the sight on my gun.)

Before the donor sight assembly is installed on the gun, clean off any rust, dirt, etc. Also clean out the inside of the sight that wraps around the barrel. It will make installation a lot easier and prevent rust damage between the barrel and sight assembly later on.

Once the front sight assembly is installed, you'll most likely have to cut a second cross pin slot. I used the front-cross slot and the cross pin from my rifle, you can use the donor sight's pins too. The reason I used the front-cross slot was because when that one is used, the rear slot is hidden so you don't have a visible extra slot. You don't need any special high dollar tools to cut the cross slot; a hack saw and a small hand file is all you need. Install the sight, the front cross pin, mark through the rear cross pin hole the location of the hole and remove the sight assembly. Use the hack saw to get the slot started. 4 or 5 strokes should be more than enough. Use the file to open up the slot to the proper width. The easiest way to get the slot cut correctly is to keep referring to the existing slots in the gun and to GO SLOW. You don't want to cut through to the bore. When you get close to finishing the slot, reinstall the sight assembly and check to see if the pin will fit. If it doesn't, remove the sight and take a little more off until the pin fits in the slot snugly.

At this point you can put away the tools and call the project finished, or you can choose to cut down the barrel, and re-crown the muzzle. If you go that route, continue on to Part 4.

Note: You can use the stock Yugoslavian bayonet sleeve, but it will wobble when in the forward position. To use a bayonet sleeve with a muzzle ring, this requires cutting the barrel down about an inch and a half again and we will cover this in part 4.

Yugoslavian M59/66 Barrel Project Part 2

2009-08-03T22:55:00.000-07:00

This time around we will discuss removal of the front sight assembly. With the grenade launcher spigot removed, we can now remove the front sight/grenade launching sight assembly. First, remove the two retaining cross pins in the assembly with a punch and hammer; it doesn't matter which direction you remove them from.

There are a couple of ways you can remove the sight assembly: the first way is to attach some form of pulling device. One such device would be an automotive gear puller. These tools are inexpensive and can be bought at any auto parts store. It has two arms with projecting fingers to grip the gear, or in our case they'll grip the front sight tower. The center portion will press against the muzzle. To prevent damage, you can place a scrap piece of metal between the muzzle and puller stud. The scrap metal should be at least 1/4" thick. Since I plan on removing about 2" from my barrel, this doesn't really matter too much. Once the gear puller is in place, simply turn in the center stud and remove the front sight. Beware, however, that these assemblies can be a real pain to pull off and sometimes require a little heat on the assembly itself (keep as much heat as possible off the barrel.)

A second method (the one I employed for this project) is to simply hammer the old sight off. This is the option I chose as I am not keeping or reinstalling my sight.
When using this method, remember it is very easy to get carried away and accidentally smack the barrel. The best way I've found is to apply a little heat to the assembly in the form of a heat gun or a small propane torch (available at any hardware, plumbing store, or WalMart) to the sight itself and using long heavy blows, the sight is knocked off very easily.

Take note that the original sight will probably be useless at this point from the hammer blows. It all depends on how tight your assembly is. They tend to go from tight, to tightest, to damn near impossible. Once again, go ahead and clean off any oil, dirt, residue, etc. and apply a light coat of good quality gun oil.

Part three will tackle the installation of a stock M59 front sight/Bayonet lug assembly.

Yugoslavian M59/66 Barrel Project Part 1

2009-08-01T21:35:00.000-07:00

Christmas 2006 my wife Jenny got me a Yugo SKS (an M59/66.) Great gun except the spigot grenade launcher and it's associated sight assembly really unbalance the rifle in a muzzle-heavy fashion. When I first got in to guns and shooting, my second gun was a Romanian M56 SKS. I later traded it off for an SAR 1 AKM clone. So my sellers regret is what led me to get this second SKS; however, after initial cleaning and firing, I found this muzzle-heavy, flaw I so disliked it.

Part 1 begins by removing the grenade launching spigot. This is a fairly simple thing: remove the cross pin and spin off the spigot. Knocking the cross pin out is the easy part; spinning off the spigot, well, that's another. It requires some heat and generally a cheater bar (I used a set of vice grips, ,a length of pipe on the handle and with a steady pull, the spigot broke loose and spun right off.)

At this point, I cleaned off residual cosmoline/grease/oil off the threads and barrel. I'll address front sight removal in Part 2.

-Slim

A New Year

2009-08-01T16:14:00.000-07:00

In June 2007, Jesse and I moved to Reno and Jesse wanted to start gunsmithing out here. He hadn't quite found a niche in the gunsmithing world, so he took up a job in gun sales at Sportsman's Warehouse. While there, he made an important discovery: the average person doesn't want huge, over priced modifications to their guns that most gunsmiths offer. The average person wants little things; cleaning, trigger jobs, scope mountings, things of the sort. In January 2008, after 5 months of hearing people complain about how they paid large amounts of money to have their gun sit for months just for a simple task, he found his niche: reasonably priced quick turn-around gun repairs.

Flash forward to August 2009. One website, several business cards, and lots of great word of mouth later, Jesse still does what he did before, only better. He still helps people in town with their small needs that most gunsmiths might over look or not consider as important. He has a nice following of customers and has befriended many of the gun instructors in town.

Last month, I had discussed with Jesse the idea of starting a blog. Because honestly, Jesse has been a well of knowledge for me and has a lot of great tidbits he can share with others. There are many times at his gun cleaning seminars that points come up that could be dealt with more in depth online in a blog, or a video seminar. So, with that in mind, we now have a blog! But that's not the only change to the site. Obviously, it has undergone a make-over.

Look forward to some interesting blogs in the future. Jesse will post an occasional tip, how-to, things of the sort. I'll post on news, up-to-date type things, an occasional woman's perspective on guns, stuff like that.

Enjoy!
-Jenny