Butcher Job - Lesson Learned

[DancesWithSquirrels]

Thanks for posting those. In addition to that mess I have bent sear pivot pin. I am anxious for the new hammer to get here so I can see what it is really supposed to look like.

Unfortunately this guy is just a local operator who does work on the side. He gets his work by word of mouth and he doesn't charge much. He's actually a pretty nice guy and easy to get along with. But apparently his skills and experience leave a lot to be desired. I blame myself for not checking him out more thoroughly before letting him touch my gun.

Like I said earlier don't be afraid to pay legitimate prices for reputable work. Quality very rarely comes cheap.

DWS

[Bullseye]

That is one of the worst examples I've seen in a while. You are very lucky that pistol did not have an AD. My next question is - What does the sear look like? If that person went to so much trouble to attempt to fix that botched hammer when it should have been replaced; what has happened to the sear? I also have to wonder how the sear pivot pin got bent. There's no natural way I can think of. Which again takes me back to the sear's condition. If it shows even the slightest sign of alteration I'd replace it with a new one from VQ. It is obvious this person had no idea what they were doing and sear and hammer engagement angles are critical surfaces.

R,
Bullseye

[DancesWithSquirrels]

Believe it or not the original sear looks untouched. I see no evidence of anything whatsoever being done to it. I can't imaging how the sear pin got bent if the sear itself was not touched. I guess the sear was removed and replaced without doing anything. How he managed to bend it I can't imagine. The bend in the sear pin is slight but it is enough to cause tightness when the pin is inserted into the sear.

I am actually replacing the trigger, sear and hammer with parts from VQ. I originally intended to just replace sear and trigger until I found the hammer botch job. I also have a sear pivot pin coming from Ruger so I will have a straight one.

I will be very careful testing the gun after all is put back together. But since I am only dropping in reputable replacement parts I don't believe there should be any issues.

DWS

[jjfunk]

Those pictures were shocking.

I thought that I had an idea of what he had done wrong, but my imagination wasn't nearly close to the actual damage that was done to your pistol.

Bright side though, it sounds like you are going to get a nice shooting pistol in the end anyways. I use a lot of VQ internals, and their parts work very welll for me. I am looking forward to your post saying "all done" and hearing about how this whole fiasco ends.

JJ

[PISTOLERO]

IMHO I would ask for my money back. And demand reimbursement for all parts damaged. It is when we don't say anything that people can get away with things like this. Pistolero :

[Rickw]

IMHO I would ask for my money back. And demand reimbursement for all parts damaged. It is when we don't say anything that people can get away with things like this. Pistolero :

I agree with the above statement. No matter how nice he is he could have gotten you seriously hurt with his handy job.

[DancesWithSquirrels]

We will definitely be having a chat at some point. Right now I just want to get the gun back together. The hammer came in from VQ over the weekend. Nice to see what a hammer is really supposed to look like. But I am still waiting on the sear pin from Ruger. Since that has to go in first I can't do anything else till it gets here.

DWS

[DancesWithSquirrels]

Well, I finally got all the pieces parts together. The sear pivot pin from Ruger took the longest to get here. Just got done putting it all back together. Everything feels great. I don't have a trigger pull guage so I don't know what the weight it. But it is clean and crisp and light. I can't wait to get to the range and test fire it. The gun now has a VQ trigger, trigger return spring, sear, sear spring and hammer. So far I am pleased with the results. Maybe Ill hang out my gunsmith shingle. I can't do any worse than the guy who butchered my gun in the first place.

DWS

[OpsMgr]

Good deal - Sounds like you have your pistol sorted out. Enjoy...

[greener]

Congratulations. Looks like a successful conclusion.