Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Ballseye's Gun Shots 35 - Ortgies .32 Pistol Woes

So there I was doing a good cleaning on my Ortgies .32 Pistol tonight and when I was reassembling it I noticed a crack on one of the grips. Not a negligible crack on the main part of the grip. Of course, it was instead on the a portion of the groove edge which engages the grip latch (it forms the side of the notch into which the latch fits). In other words, if it breaks off chances are the grip will no longer be held in place. This crack runs on an angle from the edge of the wood on the outside of the groove diagonally from top toward bottom of the groove and toward the center of the grip from the rear. Now I am debating, should I lop off that piece of the edge so the crack will not go any further. Doing so would probably leave enough wood to hold the grip but that is uncertain. Not doing it may allow the crack to keep going and shear off any wood that engages the grip latch, that is also uncertain. (Nothing to drill as when you drill a hole to stop a crack in a large piece of wood; if I drilled this it would just fall off.)

Anyone know: Is there any type of glue or resin that works especially well at binding wood by actually getting into its pores and really holding it together well?

Now this is not the end of the line even if the grips fell apart. Replacements are out there. I ordered a set of new manufacture hard rubber replacement grips from Numrich Gun Parts. I figure to have them by Monday or Tuesday. I can use them when I shoot and put the other ones away.

Yet, even with replacement grips ordered, this sucks a lot! I so much liked this pistol in its all original parts condition (well except for the firing pin spring which I replaced when I got it). Did I already say this sucks - if I did not let me say it now and if I did let me say it again - this absolutely sucks. So I will be looking for a set of original grips to replace these. They sometimes come up for sale at GunBroker.com; as you would expect though there are none for sale now except for the .25 Auto size. Anyone have a set? (I do mean of these grips.)

I guess one thing came of this that is positive - an answer to something I always wondered - why the grip on one side always felt a tiny bit loose. Other than that I just about completely disassembled the pistol tonight. I took everything down except for the trigger, and only did not do that because I could not see the spring and plunger that give it tension. Not seeing it to take it apart probably means I would have difficulty seeing it it was going back together right too - so why chance it. It is a fairly simple pistol to detail strip and reassemble. No screws, only pins.

All the best,
Glenn B

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Thank You Veterans

To all of you who are Veterans of the U.S. Military, and who served honorably, I say thank you. I am grateful for all that you have made possible for me, my family and the rest of the United States of America. To those of you who are Veterans of Foreign Wars - I give double the thanks.

All the best,
Glenn B