Kevin Muramatsu - Gun Digest Book of Automatic Pistols Assembly/Disassembly

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To George Lucas, for finally getting out of the way and letting someone else have a crack at it. I realize it was your baby, but dude

I get to work with firearms. When you work with firearms, there is just short of an infinity of new things to see, figure out how they work, and try to decide why this companys pistol is more worth a months pay than this other companys pistol. We live in the Golden Age of firearms ownership. More guns are being designed and manufactured today for sale to the American citizen than ever before. It must be mindboggling to the first-time handgun buyer trying to choose what to get. The answer for a gunsmith is to simply get them all. The corresponding curse then is that they all must be taken apart to see how they work. The curse returns to blessing when you have the opportunity to go digging in random pistols in order to revise a resource such as this book.

This book and its brothers in the Disassembly/Reassembly series are written just for those occasions. These take down steps can be invaluable to the professional and the layperson, and yes, even to the manufacturers. Many manufacturers, mostly the big name guys, tend to encourage that firearms be returned to the factory for service. There are a lot of people who for whatever reason arent going to do that, and this book can keep the repairs and curiosity takedowns from becoming brown-bag specials. Of course, gunsmiths must service their customers guns; that is their function. Many gun owners like to do the same thing, and this is usually a good thing, since a man who understands how his gun works will likely take better care of it, resulting in a better maintained and, therefore, safer gun. This gun owner will be better able to identify malfunctions, know why this piece is here, and what that spring is for, and why the gun doesnt fire when the magazine is out.

The steps in this book are designed to be as linear as possible. When disassembling the handgun, simply follow the steps in the order given. The reader will note that the reassembly tips are far fewer than the given steps for disassembly. The reassembly can generally be accomplished by reinstalling the parts in the reverse order of the disassembly. If there are deviations, these deviations are noted. The use of a digital camera is priceless. It should be standard practice, when disassembling a gun for the first time, that images are taken of each step. Its astounding how the oh nuts moment becomes an oh yeah, I see how it was moment. A cheap, 2-4 megapixel camera is sufficient.

There is a fair selection of basic tools needed for the disassembly of the firearms in this book. Punches of various sorts, such as roll pin punches, starter punches, and standard drift punches, are necessities. Small hammers for tapping (not pounding) and a diverse selection of screwdrivers and hex wrenches (standard and metric) will also be needed. Of particular importance is the use of screwdrivers with hollow ground tips, not the standard taper-type tips. These types of things are noted in the tools section. A handy selection of spare springs and detent balls doesnt hurt either; both are available from Brownells (www.brownells.com).

We will not go over, every single time, the fact that one should triple check to ensure the gun is unloaded. We will do it just this once, right now. Do not ever work on a loaded firearm. Remove the magazine, empty the chamber. On revolvers, check every chamber. When removing screws, use the proper sized tool, and dont pry something out of a slot. Theres a better way to do it. I have to apologize in advance, since I have used the word pry several times in this book. A better phrase would be gently nudge the part away from but pry is shorter and gets the meaning across. You dont want to leave a mark in the finish or a gouge in the polymer frame. Generally, greater force results in greater damage, with little to no positive result. Use safety glasses, since you dont want springs stuck in your eyes, and wait till you get home to your well-lit workbench before you take it apart. Read the manuals supplied with the firearm; you might even find a schematic to help you out in the last few pages.

In the last pages of this book is a cross-referencing index. Many of these guns, one of the most notable being the 1911, have many, many clones and copies, all of which are pretty much the same when being taken apart and put back together. Unfortunately, a complete list is impossible. Fortunately, there are a lot of common trends, such as in fire control designs, takedown methods, and ignition methods, and many guns are so closely related to others that a little research can provide a basis of knowledge. In fact, it seems that the greatest feats of innovation of late appear to be the skill in which some companies manage to avoid patent infringement (when its not an outright copy) when designing their guns not quite exactly like another companys guns. I digress. Still the index is quite expansive, referencing many hundreds more guns than can be covered in the preceding pages.

It is recommended that the user of this manual also acquire an even larger tome published by FW Media/Krause Publications, called the Gun Digest Book of Exploded Gun Drawings. Sometimes a simple drawing can be incredibly informative, many showing the exact placement and direction of insertion with simple lines on paper.

Finally, I often receive griping and moaning about not having some obsolete gun or another in these books. Look, there are only so many pages to work with here. Adding new guns means we have to take out old ones. This publisher, Gun Digest, maintains PDFs of all the guns entered in these books, so contact them if you are looking for something that may have been in an earlier edition but has since been removed for lack of space. Also, previous editions are still often available online and in stores.

Kevin Muramatsu

Somewhere in the Twin Cities

Somewhere in Minnesota

July 2015

Most of the pistols covered in this book can be reassembled by simply reversing the order of disassembly, carefully replacing the parts in the same manner they were removed. In a few instances, special instructions are required, and these are listed with each gun under Reassembly Tips. In certain cases, reassembly photos are also provided.

During disassembly, note the relationship of all parts and springs, take digital photos of the installed arrangements, and lay them out on the workbench in the order they were removed. By following this procedure and referring to your own digital images, you should have no difficulty.

Countless firearms, old and new, bear the marks, burrs and gouges that are the result of using the wrong tools for taking them apart. In the interest of preventing this sort of thing, I am including here a group of tools that are the best types for the disassembly of automatic pistols. Except for the few shop-made tools for special purposes, all of those shown here are available from one of these three sources.