HA...!
I found two problems with the gun - the Firing Pin Spring #21 is missing, as is the Firing Pin Block Spring #34.
Of course maybe they
were there up until I made the mistake of disassembling it while I was standing in my workshop (aka 'junk pit'), balancing it on one knee, and my toolbox on the other knee.
![Embarassed :oops:](./images/smilies/icon_redface.gif)
I
heard at least one of them go 'boing' and hit a wall full of bins of thousands of empty cartridge cases (any one of which would eagerly swallow the spring[s]
![Shocked :shock:](./images/smilies/icon_eek.gif)
).
The GOOD news is I only heard ONE 'boing', and although the spring #34 is TINY, I kind of think it may have been missing. There was NO gunk in the gun, and the firing pin freely can protrude quite far enough, but perhaps
not if the #34 spring isn't in place.
So......
A handy
pre-ban part from the 'pharmaceutical sales rep' era, known as a '
drug rep pen', seems to serve as a donor to provide a test #21 Firing Pin Spring, but the tinly little @$%#@ spring #34 may be a challenge to replicate/borrow/steal/buy. Nonetheless, I think I'm on the right path.
Now I have to decide if I should tear down 100 cubic feet of 'stuff' to look for a spring the size of a peppercorn, that may have never been there in the first place, or try to fabricate something from another part, at least 'good' enough to work for testing purposes. I can always (hopefully, anyway) try to get a proper one from the Gun Parts Corp., or whatever they are known as these days, once I determine if indeed that is the issue.
Meanwhile, I have to see if I can find out if the previous owner actually claims to have been shooting the gun, or perhaps confesses to just having disassembled it to 'clean' it, prior to selling it,
and perhaps didn't get all the parts back in place.
That's what I get for buying a
used gun.
![Evil or Very Mad :evil:](./images/smilies/icon_evil.gif)
In fact, I'll bet that spring WAS missing, probably because
some complete idiot took the durned thing apart without setting up a clean work-space, probably balancing it on his knee or something, and LOST that spring. . .
. . . uh, er, . . . before I got a chance to...
![Embarassed :oops:](./images/smilies/icon_redface.gif)