When you buy a firearm, it generally comes with disassembly instructions.  If you’re gonna shoot it, ya gotta clean it…and when it gets dirty enough, ya gotta take it apart to get it cleaned right.

Actually, taking it apart is the easy part.  As so many of our experienced readers know, the challenge comes when you try to put the damn things back together.

Hint…leftover parts are NOT a good sign, and were NOT usually extraneous to the design…

As a kid, I was proud of my ability to disassemble, clean, and most importantly, reassemble the family firearms.  And I remember my frustration at age twelve when I ran into the first gun I couldn’t properly do that with, the Ruger .22 caliber semiautomatic pistol.  (I was later relieved to learn that grownups went nuts getting it apart and back together, too. There are actually tools to help you do this. Google “Brownell’s.”)

Today I am old and lazy, and probably go too far between cleaning guns – well, at least the play guns as opposed to the work guns. Some of my match guns don’t get cleaned until I realize that lower life forms are beginning to evolve in the mechanisms. I knew I was getting sloppy when a friend asked me, “Mas, what do you use to clean guns?”  I heard myself answer, “Armorers.”

In rural America, where guns are handed down through the generations and bought or swapped between friends, owners’ manuals tend not to last as long as the hardware. Today, most gun manufacturers will happily furnish you with the manuals. Trouble is, in “backwoods homes,” there dwell lots of guns whose manufacturers are no longer in existence..

Two good friends in law enforcement recently passed on a tremendously useful website for this stuff. It’s called “Steve’s Pages” and you can find it HERE.

It’s an absolute treasure trove of info for maintaining firearms, including the ones that are rare, and exotic, and obsolete.

Many thanks to the cops who turned me on to this – I’ve thanked them already, and they know who they are – and particular thanks to Stephen Ricciardelli who makes “Steve’s Pages” available as a resource to the rest of us.

1 COMMENT

  1. I have a Ruger MK II. I learned to shoot pistol on a MK I, 35 years ago. I can’t get the MK II back together on the first try, every time.

    The MK III is worse, because it has a magazine disconnect (Thank you, Sarah Brady). Remember that part of reassembly is holding the gun muzzle down and pulling the trigger to flip the hammer up. Won’t work without a mag. Meanwhile, the mainspring housing won’t fit IN its slot, with the mag inserted. Oops.

  2. Thanks for the tip, Mas.

    I’ll add that the first time you take apart your weapons, you’ll hopefully get a good idea on how they work. You’ll never look at a Mini-14 bolt or 1911 bushing the same way.

    Two more suggestions:

    1) ALWAYS triple check to make sure the weapon is unloaded (including cycling the action and not just removing the magazine)

    2) disassemble on an old white bed sheet to help find parts that might go spriiiiing. If it’s your first time, consider video recording yourself to see what parts came from where.

  3. I didn’t know that dedicated Ruger Mk.I/Mk.II reassembly tools existed. The first time I detail-stripped my Mk.I, it took me two tries to get it back together correctly … but after that, I knew the secret.

  4. “Today I am old and lazy, and probably go too far between cleaning guns – well, at least the play guns as opposed to the work guns. Some of my match guns don’t get cleaned until I realize that lower life forms are beginning to evolve in the mechanisms. I knew I was getting sloppy when a friend asked me, “Mas, what do you use to clean guns?” I heard myself answer, “Armorers.”

    For shame. Your Drill Sergeant would NOT be proud.

  5. Thank you Mas, for great information.

    As usual you are right on cue. It seems you must be reading my mind. How is that? Take care and stay safe.

    Biker

  6. REALLY cheap field-strip tool for Ruger .22 pistols: a paperclip bent into loop, held in Vise-Grip pliers! Works wonders!

  8. Going directly to the question suggested by the headline:

    Prep work includes finding the manual (most new guns come with one), and anything you can get for free on the Internet, asking friends who own the same gun what is difficult or what can go wrong (or to help and show you), asking the dealer who sells it to you to teach you the process, perhaps buying an armorer book or video (at some point).

    Clear a workspace of other junk — probably a good idea to put down a white (or light colored towel. Also watch out for spring that go “sprong” in some firearms. They can sometimes shoot quite a ways across the room.

    Once it is clear, ensure you know EXACTLY how the firearm functions NORMALLY (e.g., from the outside), e.g., work the safey, work the slide, work the trigger (after checking it again). You will need this KNOWLEDGE to be airtight when you test it in the final stages.

    The actual process:

    First (2nd and 3rd): Ensure it is unloaded by SEPARATE checks. Be so certain that you point it in a safe direction (you checked 3 times right) and pull the trigger — many/most guns require this anyway for disassembly. Note: A “safe direction” does not include at any living being, the big screen TV, a non-block interior or exterior wall, at anything hard where a ricochet might ruin your day, etc. Typically good directions include END to END of an encyclopedia set (an OLD set, hey we have Wikipedia now), or perhaps the baseboard area of an interior closet. Pick something where IF a round is loosed it isn’t going to be a tragedy or even really hard to explain to your spouse.

    Ok: It’s unloaded right?

    Follow the instructions you received in the “prep work” above (manual etc).

    Take of ONE item, and put it back, or at least go through the motions of putting it back — this will ensure that later you can recall which end goes up, or in that slot first or whatever.

    [The above trick and the following one were taught to me by a camera repair guru who taught me how to repair THOSE beasts (cameras are all different, have more parts, and much more finicky fitting pieces in general.]

    As you take off a part (and refit it), remove it and place it IN ORDER on a clear area of your work surface. As more pieces join the line after each is refitted, ensure they remain in this order and that you impose a “this end up” type of scheme on each piece.

    If ever you are uncertain, reverse the assembly process (at least once or twice during the first disassembly) to ensure that at each step you can get the darn thing back together correctly — this time is NEVER wasted since you will be taking down this firearm for years probably and the better you learn it NOW the less trouble in the future.

    Finally, FOLLOW the instructions and the order of the parts you laid out and put it back together. Use ALL of the parts. Test it thoroughly. (See “prep work” on ensuring you know how it works.)

    Follow all of these procedures at least the first few times you disassemble that firearm — and anytime you have not done so in a while.

    One final tip: with modern digital cameras being ubiquitous (even in most cell phones), you might consider taking a picture before removing each part if you are not normally good with “tools” and small parts.

    Finally: If it doesn’t work out — don’t panic, instead RELAX and BREATHE. Someone (or somewhere) on the Internet will tell or show you how to get it right. Safeguard all the parts until you can find that source and explain your problem.

    Seriously: I really did do camera repair and used this procedure for many cameras I had never seen before, and for all of my firearms.

    Shoot safe. Stay healthy.

  10. Great article as usual.
    It’s also very important to understand what cleaning solvents, oils, brushes, and rods, are acceptable to use on your firearms and their furniture, barrels, and externals, and which ones to avoid at all costs. I came within a few seconds of un-bluing my brand new gp100 because I was about to use the same solvents and pads I use on my 870 (which would have left some very unsightly “ware” on the new piece.)
    Ask a few people, including whoever will be doing gunsmith work on that firearm, what tools and chemicals they use and what ones they recommend against (and why.)
    Every manufacturer I look at says their products are revolutionary, and the best at this or that. Talking to actual shooters, I’ve learned more about caring for my firearms, and how not-to-care for them then through any online resource.
    Made a few friends too, since shooters seem to appreciate someone who wants to do things right the first time.

  11. My father taught me a clean gun is your friend a dirty one is your enemy. I’d rather have more friends than enemies.

  12. Mas, I remember when you would answer “kids” rather than “armorers”! 😛 I guess once they’ve escaped the house, you’re back on your own.

    Regarding Rugers, I have come to the conclusion that some sort of reasssembly “gotcha” is a required part of their designs. Every Ruger I’ve owned had a particular little trick you had to figure out/master to get them back together.

  13. Or,..you could just get an FN-FAL and clean it when you feel like it,….or not. It won’t make any difference.

  14. Most people overclean their guns. Waaaaaay overclean them in fact.

    Excluding corrosive primers and rust, you will do more harm than good continually ramming a cleaning rod down that bore, or messing up the trigger area by applying excessive lube (which most people tend to do btw), and just plain futzing around springs and such just for the ‘peace of mind’ of keeping a squeaky clean gun. I say such machinations are BS and mechanically unnecessary.

    For the vast majority of recreational shooters who aren’t in high abrasive dust situations (such as Iraq for instance) and/or very high volume shooting, leave the gun alone rather than fiddling with it all the time after putting 100 rounds down range for Pete’s sake.

    It’ll still work after 1,000 rounds just as well too.

    FOhsen

  16. Here is an essential first step which I learned from a friend who was rebuilding an old carburetor. He had placed a white sheet over the bed and neatly laid out all the parts when SuzieQ came in and jumped on the bed to help him. First Step: always put the cat outside.

  17. The Ruger MKIII has TWO extraneous parts that can be left out in re-assembly. I “forgot” to put the magazine disconnect back in and it works better than before. This makes putting the thing back together much easier.

  18. Ruger pistols, Light weights. Take a Remkngton 550 apart and put it toeather again or change a firing pin in a M-100 Winchester. You will spend some money with Brownell , purchse books and find a piece of 3/8 od copper tubing to get the recoil springs in correctly.
    M-1911 or a US Rifle Cal. 30 is the easiest way to go.
    Try them.