Getting started gunsmithing woes

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mr ed

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If your getting into gunsmithing, I would be cracking into good quality working guns before I try and tackle things that are all boogered up. Better to learn and practice assembly/disassembly and observe proper working function. There’s no point in putting $200 worth of labor into a $50 pos pistol so you can Make it worth $100

But it is better to practice your skills on a POS firearm.

Start with the junkers first.
Better to put that labor into making a $50 pos into a $100 pos and learning, than to turn a $1000 gun into a $50 pos cause you don't know what your doing.
You have to work your way up,
That's what apprenticeship is about. You don't start as the Master on day one.
Doing the dirty work and working your way up is how it works.
 

Gunbuffer

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But it is better to practice your skills on a POS firearm.
You gotta GET the skills before you practice them.
How do you learn those skills unless you know what is 100% good and functional! You must get skills before you can practice them. Not much skill in filing square or taking off a few thousandths off a piece of metal compared to knowing where you’re supposed to remove material and how much. Not with good tools and good measuring instruments. That’s the only point I’m trying to make
 

okierider

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If your getting into gunsmithing, I would be cracking into good quality working guns before I try and tackle things that are all boogered up. Better to learn and practice assembly/disassembly and observe proper working function. There’s no point in putting $200 worth of labor into a $50 pos pistol so you can Make it worth $100

I wished I would have had that advice on the first pistol I bought to "learn". The pistols I work on/ refurb now are platforms I know thoroughly. The first one (tanfaglio TitanII) took me forever to get running, too much money and a lot of frustration and time sitting on the top of my gun safe waiting for my knowledge to catch up to the level of experience I needed to finely figure out the issue. I had some where in the area of $250 dollars wrapped up in a pistol I bought for $100. $350 dollar lesson learned which I could not bring myself to sell cause I knew the pistol would not keep functioning for long even after I managed to fix it. Broke it down and sold it for parts. Still have the frame sitting around functioning as a paper weight.
 

Gunbuffer

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RickN

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Guys there is a difference in disassembly / reassembly and gun-smithing. True you have to know how to take them down and put them back together, but you do not want to be filing on a good working firearm.

I would buy Bubba "sporterized" MILSURP and practice by turning them into usable rifles. Sometimes all I had was an action with a barrel that had been cut off with a hack saw. Wish I still had most of them.
 

Gunbuffer

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Guys there is a difference in disassembly / reassembly and gun-smithing. True you have to know how to take them down and put them back together, but you do not want to be filing on a good working firearm.

I would buy Bubba "sporterized" MILSURP and practice by turning them into usable rifles. Sometimes all I had was an action with a barrel that had been cut off with a hack saw. Wish I still had most of them.
Your go gauge was a round of 303 I’ll presume
 

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