Butcher Job - Lesson Learned

[DancesWithSquirrels]

Choose your "gunsmith" carefully. I learned this lesson the hard way. Awhile back I took my Mark III 512 to a local fellow to do a little trigger work. I wanted some creep and grittiness cleaned up and to make it a little lighter in pull. When I got the gun back there was a noticeable improvement although I had hoped for a little better. The break was cleaner and lighter but there was still some slight creep.

Well I have shot the gun on and off alternating between it and a Smith 41 I have. Recently I started having problems with the Mark III where the hammer would occasionally not stay cocked when the bolt cycled. Also a very slight "hitch" in the trigger pull started to show up.

I decided to go ahead with installing the VQ sear and trigger in hopes of restoring my gun to shootable condition. The parts came in in short order and last night I sat at the table to do the installation. What I found was surprising to say the least. The hammer was a mess. The shelf where the hammer engages the sear was in two steps. It looks like the notch had been filed or stoned too far and then some metal welded back on and a butchered attempt to file the notch again was done. There are file marks on three sides of the hammer. To make things worse when I removed the sear to replace it with the VQ sear I found that the sear pivot pin is bent. I am surprised that the gun was shooting at all for the past year or so.

So now I also need a replacement hammer. I decided to go ahead and install the VQ hammer. Odered one last night. I'll also be calling Ruger today to try and get a replacement sear pivot pin. Hopefully they won't laugh at me.

For those of you out there wanting to have some gunsmithing done make real sure of the reputation of the person who does the work for you. Don't be too cheap to pay a little extra for that reputation.

DWS

[jjfunk]

Tough lesson though. Sure do hope that it goes back together OK. The problem with most Gunsmith's today is just like you described it, and it's really kinda sad that most of the people touting themselves as smith's have little more than a basic understanding of firearms. Truth be told, with so much information available on the web and in print, I would have thought that gun-smith's would be getting more competent, instead of less. Oh well.

JJ

[DancesWithSquirrels]

The problem with what I found is that the hammer is butchered up bad enough that you can't even attribute it to just poor work. I would be embarassed to admit I did it even though I am not a gunsmith and would have a legitimate excuse for botching the job.

DWS

[Bullseye]

With Ruger 22 Autos, the hammer is the least tolerant part for stoning or modification. If it's not done exactly right, failures will eventually occur. Unfortunately having more information available through the internet just gives some folks with weak skills the confidence and familiarity to attempt things a little beyond their technical abilities. At least you can replace these botched parts with just a little loss, an AD could have ended up quite differently.

Another option is to get the oversized hammer and sear pin set from Clark Custom.

R,
Bullseye

[DancesWithSquirrels]

Fortunately everything should be able to be put right with drop in replacement parts. I'll have mostly VQ internals now.

I called Ruger today and they are sending a replacement sear pivot pin for free. Nice folks. Hopefully I'll have it by the end of next week.

I had not looked at the Clark options for any of the parts and since I already have VQ parts and a VQ hammer on the way I guess I will just stick with them. I am not one of those who finds the mag disconnect to be annoying so I had no plans to remove it.

Bullseye, you would not believe what my hammer looks like.

DWS

[Bullseye]

I actually think I have a pretty good idea based on your description. It sounds like the trigger was worked with a stone that did not have a precision ground edge. That would create a step near the vertex of the hammer hook. If you want to post a picture, I'm sure everyone would get something from it.

R,
Bullseye

[DancesWithSquirrels]

I will try and get a picture taken this evening. I don't have place to host any images so if I get a decent picture of it I'll email it to you.

DWS

[Bullseye]

Sounds good, I'll post it.

R,
Bullseye

[KAZ]

That's just very sad, at least let him know he should not take on "trigger jobs". Regards

[greener]

I will try and get a picture taken this evening. I don't have place to host any images so if I get a decent picture of it I'll email it to you.

DWS

You might try a site like photobucket for picture hosting.

Good luck with the fix. The VQ hammer/sear/trigger will get you about where you wanted to be.

[DancesWithSquirrels]

I expect that all will be better than ever once all the pieces are here. Thanks to the guidance provided by Bullseye in the technical forum the detail stripping was easy. Right now the pistol is just a collection of parts in a box. As soon as the hammer and sear pin arrive everything should drop right back in.

DWS

[Bullseye]

Here is a photo montage of DWS's ruined hammer.



This is a textbook example of how not to do a trigger job.

R,
Bullseye

[greener]

Ouch!

Hardly recognizable as a MKIII hammer.

[OpsMgr]

That hammer had a real hack job done on it - Looks worse than I imagined...

[Bud33]

What a horrible butcher job!!! This guy couldn't even do a decent weld job.
Something needs to be done about people like this before they get someone killed.
If this guy has himself listed as a professional, the BBB should be notified at least!