Wednesday, August 03, 2011

Gunsmithing

I went out today to shoot the Ugly Rifle, a .308 Savage 10 I've been tinkering with. I put about 25 rounds through it, exercising the steel plates at the range. When I got home I put the rifle in the cradle to clean it. While the Hoppe's was working on the bore, I put a brush on the bolt face to clean it. Dabbed a little Hoppes on the brosh, gave the bolt face a good scrubbing and turned the brush around like I always do. Gave the ejector a little push to make sure it was free, then gave the extractor a push to make sure it was free.

Something gave way when I pushed the extractor and I heard a "ding" across the shop. Well, hell.


I lost a 1/8 steel ball that sits between the extractor and the spring. In my shop, with all the sawdust, and clutter, there's no telling where that ball went, and I spent the better part of hour looking for it. So, I looked on the website and got the part number (part #100214 - $2.00). I called the Savage customer service line and talked to the lady there. The minimum order is $10.00, so I ordered an extractor spring (part #100257 - $2.00) and another extractor (part #100139 - $4.00). That's still under the minimum $10.00, so with shipping my total is $12.00.

It looks like I'm going to learn how to install an extractor.

3 comments:

Old NFO said...

Oh I HATE it when I do that... And I've never found the parts either. Sigh...

Anonymous said...

PawPaw,
That is what they call a learning experience. I have had more than a few in my lifetime. :)

mostly cajun said...

I'd order half a dozen of the darned things.

I've lost more than one tiny part over the years myself, including the hammer strut pin for an M1911 and that tiny pall from the detent on a Garand match rear sight. I just bought a half-dozen, figuring that if I didn't do it again, somebody else would.