Gunsmithing | Cleaning Archives | Page 6 of 9

6 Jul 2015

Top 5 Upgrades For Your Handgun

Whether you are using your handgun for personal protection or sport, it is immensely beneficial to upgrade your gun from time to time. This guest post shows the top 5 upgrades for your handgun.

Upgrading your handgun enhances the capabilities of your gun, it makes your gun look more professional, and it also gives you something to brag about to your pro-gun friends and family. As most gun enthusiasts will tell you though, choosing the right upgrade for your gun can be a challenge because there are just too many great options out there. Fortunately, below are five of the best upgrades you should take advantage of to solidify your gunsmith skills.

New Springs

A handgun’s components easily wear out over time, especially if you are prone to using your gun often. One component that is useful to upgrade is your recoil spring. In general, springs should be replaced anywhere from 1,500 to 5,000 rounds, depending upon how enthusiastic you are about keeping your handgun in top notch condition. Keeping your recoil spring in mint condition ensures that the shock is absorbed well every time a bullet is fired. Upgrading your springs can be costly, but doing so is well worth it in the long term.

Stipple Your Handgun Grip

Another upgrade option is to stipple your handgun grip. Stippling is the process of modifying the grip of your handgun to improve how you hold onto the gun. While you can have a professional stipple your handgun, many gun enthusiasts prefer to do it on their own. Doing it on your own also makes for a fun DIY project and learning experience. When you stipple your gun, it is best to take your time. Rushing through the process may not get you the quality results that you are looking for and so it might be best to get a lot of practice in before you move to a gun you really care about.

Add a Sight

Most handguns, unless they are already top of the line, don’t have a quality sight attached. A sight component is what improves your visibility when you aim and shoot your gun. There are many different options you can choose from when upgrading your sights. For example, you can choose from night sights, adjustable, non-adjustable, sharp, front sights, and rear sights. After you’ve upgraded your sight, you’ll notice that you’ll be able to better align and aim your weapon before you shoot it, thus improving the quality of your targeting.

Sharp Edges

When you first purchase a gun, chances are your handgun comes with sharp edges that can cut and bite your hands. Sharp edges make your gun difficult and even painful to use. As a result, you may want to consider upgrading your gun by smoothing out the sharp edges. While the process of removing your gun’s sharp edges veers into gunsmith territory, the practice and knowledge are well worth the time you invest. To remove the sharp edges, you can get instructions from a gunsmith on how to smooth out the edges or you can take a course on how to get the process done.

Add a Guide Rod

Finally, another quality upgrade that you may want to take advantage of is to add guide rods to your handgun. In terms of guide rods, you can choose from either a one-piece or a two piece rod. In general, the two piece guide rod is much easily to assemble and disassemble. By adding a guide rod to your handgun, you can improve the function of your gun and you can also prevent your recoil spring from encountering issues. Keep in mind though that upgrading your guide rod will add weigh to your gun. To mitigate the weight, you should choose from a lightweight option.

With the above upgrades, you can easily improve the quality of your handgun. Fortunately, the fun doesn’t end there. The universe of handguns is far reaching and there is always more to learn. Don’t stop at just upgrading your gun. You can also work to improve the speed of your shooting or the aim of your shots through diligent practice. If you don’t want to learn alone, then add to the enjoyment by learning or practicing with a friend.

1 Jan 2014

Coloring AR-15 Receiver Markings

This post is a little mall ninja, and coloring ar-15 reciever markings is not the most loved idea.

However, this is my AR, and I really like the white and red filled selector markings on HK firearms and wanted to replicate it on my firearm.

There are several ways of doing it, and I used a red lumber crayon on the AR in the video
Basically I just rubbed the crayon over the inscription and then wiped off the excess. Just like ivory scrimshaw, the colorant filled the deeper cuts and was able to be wiped clean of the body.

You can dab enamel paint or fingernail polish into the engraving for a more durable color, but it is harder to remove it from the side of the gun. If you use a rag with too much thinner it will drip in and mix with the paint you want to keep. Not enough and it can smear on the body of your gun.

If you use crayon, be aware heat can make it run

If you use nail polish and decide to remove it, a tooth brush and nail polish remover does a good job.

I like how this looks, but you need to be careful what you use, and ensure its what you really want. Some people like the look that comes from coloring AR-15 receiver markings, but many do not.

26 Sep 2013

How to Remove Cosmoline

There are several ways and opinions about how to remove cosmoline, and many curses heaped on the head of this product over the years.

Cosmoline is not evil, if it was not for its preservative effects, we would not be able to enjoy shooting old military surplus guns as they would not have survived over the years.

You Need to Understand Cosmoline

Before learning how to remove Cosmoline, you first need to understand that it is chemically similar to Vaseline, and is applied by dipping guns into a vat of molten Cosmoline. This means that the preservative is not just gunked up on the gun, but is embedded in every nook and cranny in the gun. If you are going to remove cosmoline from a gun, you will have to disassemble and detail clean it.

Some like to use chemicals to clean out the petroleum based Cosmoline. I have read accounts of people using gasoline a 55 gallon drums. I think that this is overly dangerous and under-effective. Mineral oil and brake cleaner work just as well.

Hot Water Method

I personally use hot water for the metal, and sun and gently heat for the wood. Some do not like the idea of using water, but in my experience using heat alone runs the risk of cooking out the oil and leaving the dark tar-like crud. Water seems to both heat the oil and help float it away.

The way I do it is to strip off all the wood, and disassemble the gun to is smallest user level parts. I don’t do an armorer level disassemble, but just a detailed field strip. I then put all the small parts in a stainless pot that the wife won’t kill me for ruining (I actually have my own kitchen set by now), and boil them clean.

The Cosmoline will float to the top as it melts. When I take the hot metal out of the water, and quickly clean it with bore solvent, it dries rather quickly and I oil it well so it does not rust.
The longer parts like the barrel, takes more work.

I boil them in a large stock pot, and repeatedly pour hot water down the barrel to loosen up the Cosmoline. A rod will need to be pushed down the barrel as it will be plugged with the Cosmoline.

Attention to Detail Helps

Take special care on the action, as with guns such as the Mosin Nagant, In the video I show a Mosin, but this is not a how to remove cosmoline from Mosin Nagant article.

Cosmoline is notorious for being hard to remove. It may cycle fine, but after a shot or two, the Cosmoline will become tacky and the bolt will be hard to cycle. Additionally, If you fire the gun a lot with the Cosmoline on the action, it will bake on and make a small problem a huge nightmare.

I take care with the stock, and do not introduce boiling water as that will damage the old wood. What I do is to gently heat it up in the sun on a hot day (or VERY gently heat with a hairdryer) and wipe the Cosmoline off with a towel. With repeated heatings and wipe downs you can remove the Cosmoline without damaging the wood. If you go to fast or too aggressive you can strip out the moisture and mess up the stock. I also use murphy’s oil soap to help remove the oily Cosmoline from the wood.

I know this is not an easy process, its messy, and will most likely cause a little bit of marital stress, but look at it as a rite of passage, and a way to help preserve history. Heck, if you get a C&R license, you may even consider buying a curio gun and leave it in its Cosmoline wrapping to allow your kids and grand kids this pleasure.

19 Sep 2013

What Glock Maritime Spring Cups Actually Do

There are some misconceptions about Glock maritime spring cups and shooting Glock pistols underwater that I want to clear up in this article.

You can shoot a Glock underwater without special maritime spring cups. Any Glock can be shot underwater.

However, water does not compress. Additionally it flows slower than air. This means that water can bind in the firing pin chamber and cause your Glock fail to cycle. Basically making it a single shot handgun.

To remedy this malfunction in water, Glock created maritime spring cups.

What Are Maritime Spring Cups?

Spring cups are two half cylinder shaped stops that fit in the firing pin spring and cup the firing pin connecting the two so that the spring can cause the firing pin to function. Spring cups are called the “million dollar part” because if you break them or lose one the gun WILL NOT function.

Normal spring cups are solid plastic, maritime spring cups have two channels cut into them to allow water to flow past them and empty out of the firing pin chamber, so that it can move fast enough to fire the handgun.

Spring Cups Allow Glocks to be More Reliable When Wet

Maritime cups don’t actually allow the gun to fire underwater; they just allow the gun to function more reliably when wet. While the gun CAN fire submerged, the idea is that when working in maritime environments like on rivers or swamps, if the gun is submerged you can pick it up and start firing without having to shake the water out or perform maintenance. In the Glock 18 courses they actually fire the full auto Glock until it smokes, dump it in 5 gallon buckets of water to cool, and then return to firing by using the maritime cups.

Shooting Guns While Underwater Can Cause Internal Injury

But besides the impact to on the gun, the water also impacts your body. When shooting on dry land, the atmosphere does not impact on the gun the same way the water does. Since the water does not compress, firing a gun underwater causes shockwaves. The impact of repeated underwater shockwaves can do major damage to a person’s internal organs. Therefore, this is one of those things that, just because you CAN, does not mean you SHOULD. There are several very cool you tube videos showing high speed camera footage of shockwaves caused by underwater gunfire.

Watch Your Backstop

Unfortunately enough people have tried out their maritime spring cups in their bathrooms, toilet bowls, and above ground pools that Glock considers the spring cups to be restricted items. Only law enforcement agencies can buy factory maritime cups, and only on official letterhead signed by the agency head.

Maritime Spring Cups Are Not Always The Best Choice

You can buy aftermarket cups, but you should know that they have less material to support the firing pin, so they are more prone to failure, they are not able to be seen without disassembling the slide, and if they break the gun is useless until repaired.

Spring cups are always replaced in a set of two. Glock only sells them in pairs, and factory cups are only a dollar. I do not see a need for using the maritime cups. If you want to run maritime spring cups, I am not mad at you, its your gun.

Just please be aware of the entire issue before you decide to tinker. There are a lot of modifications to Glocks that are factory blessed. I have done most of them to mine to show you exactly what they are. My favorite is a tie between the larger magazine release and the smooth trigger. In my new free PDF section I have a collection of Glock manuals

5 Sep 2013

How to Replace a Glock Magazine Catch With a Larger One

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6guo1c

I am not a Glock Fanboy that thinks nothing beats a Glock. But the Glock has its place in the tool chest.

I understand them and how to make them work better.

One thing I do not like about Glocks are their magazine release button. This post show Glock magazine catch replacement with parts from larger Glocks so that the catch is easier to use.

The first through third generations of Glocks have a short and small magazine release (the gen-4 has a magazine release button 3x the size of the others and needs no replacement).

You can buy aftermarket extended magazine release, but if you have a compact Glock, the equivalent caliber full size model’s magazine release is bigger and will work perfectly as an extended release.

Using an OEM part will be much cheaper than using aftermarket parts. – This might not be factory, but it is something the factory is aware of, and they basically did the same thing with the Gen-4 guns.

I learned about this “trick” for Glock magazine catch replacement from the actual factory Glock armorer school so this is not some redneck trick like sanding down the Glock connecter as a “trigger job”

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