12/27/13

Some more gun parts arrived yesterday… and by “arrived” I mean in the post and I went to Bloodbath & Beyond on the way home.  What arrived in the post were the two aluminum safety levers for the Tavor.  One replaced the indicator on the right side of the gun and the other replaced the plastic lever on the left.  I installed them and fiddled with that for a bit before moving on to the parts I bought at BB&B which were a pair of sling swivels for the SKS.  I have a pair like them on the two Kushnapups… one per gun, sort of thing.  I thought I could just run up to the hardware store and buy some 10-23 countersunk Allen heads and bolt them on… but no.  The heads of the bolts sit just a bit too high to allow the swivels to lock into the receptacle thingies.  I have them in the trunk of the car, along with the trigger group and US hammer, so I can swing by the shop “on my way home” this afternoon and do a little work on them.  I'm going to try grinding down the outer circumference of the heads to see if that allows them to drop a tad lower in the receptacles.  Don’t worry about it, it makes sense to me.  I'll also cut off the Chinese trigger from the trigger group and install the hammer.  Hopefully the thing will be reliable then.  I will buy yet another one of those bitchin’ slings this weekend at the gun show and then I'll have one for each of my “Tacticool” weapons.  Oh, I read online how to remove the magazine “safety” from the Bersa the other day but was loath to try it because of the grip sleeve I have on the gun.  It was a total PITA to install and I didn’t want to take it off again.  Well, after messing with the Tavor and SKS I decided to gopher it.  It was a doddle!  The hardest part was removing and reinstalling the grip sleeve.  “Why would Juan want to remove a safety?” I hear you asking.  Well, a magazine “safety” isn’t… really.  In fact, in my opinion, the term is an oxymoron.  What it does is make it so the weapon can't be fired with the magazine out.  So, in the heat of an altercation, if the magazine is accidentally removed somehow with a round is still in the chamber, all you have is a club… and not a very big one.  The argument FOR it says that if the bad guy is going to get your gun away from you, you drop the mag and he can't use it ON you.  Sure, if you have time to think that through in the midst of a fire fight, YOU CAN SHOOT THE SON OF A BITCH!  Now, on the Bersa with a de-cocker, this next bit isn’t as big a deal as it is on the Ruger Mk III, which also has a magazine “safety,” but if there is any reason one needed to “dry fire” the weapon, the ONLY way to de-cock a Mk III by the way, a magazine has to be inserted.  That means one has to be extra diligent not to grab a hot magazine when doing whatever gun smithery, or de-cockery, might require said “dry firing.”  The only reason I haven’t removed the magazine “safety” from my Mk III is it is a total pain in the ass.  Well, it is approaching lunchtime.  I think I'm going to call it a rant because I don’t plan to stay very long this afternoon.  Perhaps I'll have a rant on Monday… if I come to work of course.  Toodles.