Follow-up on Maintenance

25 Feb 10

Follow-up on maintenance of carry pistols:

From a friend with a Metro-PD in MI:

"Our lieutenant bought a Colt Cobra (snubby, six-shot revolver) shortly after joining the Force. I'm not sure where he got it, but he carried it as a back-up for the last twenty-five years of his police career. He continued to carry it, now as his only gun, during his retirement years.

In all the years he owned it, it was never checked-over by an armorer, nor was any maintenance ever performed on it, nor did the lieutenant, nor anyone else, ever fire it.

Years later, while in his seventies, he was walking in the woods near his retirement cottage. On a whim, he decided to finally fire his little revolver (for the first time) at a discarded pop can.

It did not fire, not the first time he pulled the trigger, nor the sixth!

A local gunsmith examined it the next day and discovered that the lieutenant's revolver did not have a firing pin, and apparently had never had one! A subsequent investigation revealed that the gun had been used as a trainer and had thus been rendered sterile, decades earlier. Obviously, up until that moment, no one had ever noticed!

This officer had been carrying a non-functional pistol for over thirty years, and never knew it, nor, I'm sure, even suspected it!"

Comment: He was lucky to have gotten away with it! Who are that nonchalant in our time, probably won't!

Jim Garthwaite, eminent pistolsmith and my good friend, suggests the " Pencil-Check" on all pistols after any kind of maintenance has been performed, and routinely even when maintenance has not been performed.

The pencil-check will confirm that the firing-pin is functioning as designed and will therefore reliably dent primers with enough force to dependably generate normal ignition.

Unload the pistol first. Then, point it upward (assuming that is a safe direction). Drop down the bore a pencil, eraser first, so that the eraser comes to rest over the firing-pin hole on the bolt-face.

Press the trigger. When the firing-pin hits the eraser, the pencil will jump out of the barrel at least far enough to clear the muzzle. That is prima-facie evidence that the firing pin is in-tact and functioning normally.

When the pencil doesn't move, or only jumps an inch or two, the firing-pin is broken, defective in some other way, or the firing-pin channel is so clogged with grime that the firing-pin cannot move as designed. In any event, the pistol is out of action and should not be carried.

A competent armorer needs to check-over all your serious guns at least once a year. As owners/carriers, our duty is to shoot our guns regularly, and perform user-level maintenance (including the pencil-test) diligently.

Take care of your guns, and they will take care of you!

/John