I don't believe in fate, but it sure makes a good excuse for buying guns. While nosing around at Bill's the other day, I spotted a Colt 1903 in very good condition and priced to fit my budget. I said to myself: "First I hear about the 1903 on the MNGunTalk forum, and now I'm face to face with ...

Looks like a loading gate and a single action trigger to me. Looking at it again from that viewpoint, I think you are right. Of course, there's still the problem that the wife could have left her prints on the "bullet" at any point in the past -- and somebody trying to frame her carefully...

Buzz.mn, the online Strib feature run by James Lileks, has a once-a-week four-panel comic strip from the Strib's ancient files (1940s, it looks like). Each week, Lance solves a crime in the last frame based on evidence revealed in the first two frames. I only mention it here because it often involve...

There's also "The Killing," a Stanley Kubrick movie with Sterling Hayden. Nebbishly little Elisha Cook, Jr., has a 1903. In one of my fave Hollywood-gets-it-muddled moves, he pulls it out of a gym bag, racks the slide, and only then inserts a magazine. (Of course, you might do that just to...

Unfortunately the magazine retention clip thing came out, so yeah, I need to take the whole shebang apart in order to get it back in. I was able to get the safety back in using a channel locks and strip of leather. It'll be a bear, but I want it back together and shootable again. From the serial nu...

Do any of you have breakdown schematics for the pocket pistol? I'm looking for more than the simple field stripping guide. My magazine release came out and I need to know how to take the grip safety and spring(s) out safely so I can put the thing back together. Rather than tapping out pins left and...

I came up with a powder check a couple of years ago and have been using it ever since. It cost me nothing out of pocket. With each block of 50 loaded cases, I just use a short length wooden dowel that will slide into the case easily, and hold it in such a way that one fingertip just touches the rim ...

DeanC wrote:It is usually a good idea to avoid wet lubricants on the extractor rod and under the ejector star. Gunk will collect there very easy if you use an oil based lubricant.

So -- use lithium grease?

The cylinder latch being forward when the cylinder is open is what keeps the hammer from being cocked. A simple test of your theory would be to pull back on the cylinder latch if it locks up again. If that frees it, your theory is correct and the latch is not being pushed rearward far enough with t...

Recently, my Smith 586 has been jamming -- for lack of a better word -- after firing maybe three rounds. It then sort of locks up. The trigger will pull back only slightly, the hammer can't be thumb-cocked, and the cylinder can't be rotated by hand. The cylinder will open without any huge resistance...

I can't find the post anymore, but I recall reading on one of these forums somewhere that there are ranges that consider all fired brass to be theirs. Kind of like the divine right of kings, or something they discovered in the Constitution that had previously escaped notice, like a penumbra. Well, s...

Count us both in -- Jean and I will be there.

Greg wrote:What type of failures, light primer strikes, jams, failure to feed?

I think it was failure to feed and jams, but I'll ask him.

Thanks for all the info, guys.
The gun is a S&W M&P .40, and he says he has no problems with any other ammo.

A friend bought 10 boxes of Fiocchi in .40 S&W. The first two boxes, which were white (I hope I'm remembering this accurately) functioned his new gun just fine, but the next several, which were brown, caused a malfunction on about every other round. Has anybody ever heard of this kind of problem...