...and as I say to myself "knock on wood" and then as I knock on my own head I say to myself (and to anyone who may overhear me) "the thickest wood in the house". What I have been lucky with is that for the ones I've had for awhile, none have ever badly broken. Some though have needed new parts though, either to replace missing ones or worn/broken small ones like an ejector, an extractor or sights on mostly older guns I have had for awhile. I have also been lucky to find the parts.
The first old gun I needed to repair, as I recall, was my Ortgies pistol in 32 ACP. It's firing pin was not hitting primers hard enough to ding them enough to fire. I cleaned it, tried again, same thing. Took it totally apart, cleaned it, paid special attention to the chamber and slide rails, lubed it, and fired it - all to the exact same effect. So, I searched online for a replacement firing pin spring. As best I recall the company name, I got a newly made reproduction from a place called Marstar Canada. Since those two words immediately prior to this sentence are now a link, I recalled the company name correctly (kudos to the little gray cells!). Tried to get Ortgies grips, for another Ortgies pistol, later on but had no luck there or anywhere except GunBroker; however, the price of the grips there was cost prohibitive, at least for original grips.
A few other times I needed parts for C&R rifles. My Marlin 36 needed a new ejector. I could not recall where I got that but Blogger did when I searched for "ejector" in my blogposts and that place was Wisner's Inc.. They make replacement parts for various firearms, including pistols, rifles & shotguns. Nice workmanship on that new ejector, it fit and worked perfectly. (I hate that I later sold that Marlin 1936 - what a simple but yet gorgeous machine and piece of nature was it - at least to my eyes.)
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I hate that I later sold my Marlin 1936 - what a simple & yet gorgeous machine & piece of nature was it - at least in my eyes.
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Another rifle that needed a part was a Mosin Nagant 91/30 or three. I have had a few and changed a few minor parts on at least two of them; for instance replacing missing sling grommets that fit into slots in the stock to protect the wood. Then there was one of my Chilean Mausers 1895. It was missing something but I'll be damned if the little gray cells are working as good as they were a couple of minutes ago when I lauded praise upon them two paragraphs above! I've also gotten some things like grip screws, buttplates and such from online dealers. Lest I forget (gray cells going good again) I got magazines & magazine parts too and also got a few different parts (for spares) for a Voere 22 rifle. Another gun I wish I would have kept.
In fact, everything I have mentioned so far has been bought from online dealers. The online gun parts dealer from where I have gotten most of those parts was: Numrich (AKA: Numrich Gun Parts Corp. and just Gun Parts Corp.) in Kingston, NY. Sadly, I never saw the place personally when I lived in NY and heck I drove by Kingston many times in my travels to upstate NY. I never even thought of the place when on those drives - dah. Anyway, I should have stopped by for a visit and a chat at least once - there is an actual shop that Google Maps indicates is a gun shop (pretty sure they do not have an FFL) and sell just parts other than receivers but don't hold me to that). Oh well, back to never having stopped there: should have - could have - would have - wished I had!
As far as parts availability goes, they have lots of different used, factory new (OEM) stuff and reproduction parts. That is not to say that Numrich is going to have all the parts for any specific gun for which they have some parts - especially with regard to older guns. Yet, they have come through for me more times than not and thus this free plug for them. They also often have indexed parts schematics. You can purchase them or while on their site, you can often just look at them & their parts lists. I am fairly certain I have a couple or few of their schematics downloaded on my laptop but I am certain that even if the little gray cells were at their all time peak performance, they'd not help me recall for which guns; although, a Beretta something or other comes to mind as the subject of one of those schematics. I am sure there were other parts I needed over the years since I started fiddling with the workings and such of my guns.
My most recent purchase from Numrich was a mainspring for a revolver. The hammer of which maybe has not had enough force to make the firing pin strike the rim area hard enough to get some rounds off during each cylinder's worth of cartridges. This spring however is not the normal regular strength mainspring, they evidently did not have them in stock. What they had and what I got was a heavy duty mainspring or at least that is how it was listed. That spring is the one that powers the hammer on its way to making the gun go bang. If the new one makes the gun go bang every time but seems too heavy when firing double action, then I will look for a newly manufactured regular mainspring to see how a new one of those will work. That would probably take awhile as I could not find any of the regular strength ones anywhere. Hopefully this one, which was the only one I could find and which I found at Numrich, will be okay.
I should point out that wen I mentioned fiddling with my guns parts, I meant only for actual repairs and almost
always with original spec parts. I almost never modify guns out of spec
except for stock refinishing, different grips, adding glass optics and
rarely adding after market sights. Of course, in the current case of the revolver spring I got most recently I am using a heavier duty spring; that is a very rare exception to me almost always using original spec parts. While I will use that spring,
I'd never use a weaker spring, for example just to make the action
smoother. That's because a weaker spring could make the gun fail when
needed; this heavier spring should have no such consequence but may make
the action stiffer. Anyway, as I said, if this spring is found to not
be right, as in too stiff, I'll look again for a regular strength one.
Back to Numrich. If I regularly wore a hat (it'd likely be a fedora or a bowler), I'd give the guys & gals at Numrich a hat tip. Good company, often has what I need, ships pretty fast and has what are decent prices although if you just need one small inexpensive part, shipping may cost more than the item.
And just so you know: No they (Marstar Canada, Wisner's Inc., Numrich) did not request a write-up, did not suggest or hint at one, did not pay me in any way-shape-or form for this review/compliment and did not know I was going to write this in the first place.
So, all I am wondering now is: Where do you, my readers, get your guns parts?
All the best,
Glenn B
