Pistol - Heal Thyself!

[charlesb]

I have had this Contender for some time...



It was bought a few years ago at a gun show, fairly cheap as it was extremely hard to open.

I finally got around to taking it apart to see if I could get it to open easier, and was successful - but alas, after my "repair", the gun would not cock. - The hammer would not engage the sear so it couldn't be fired.

It served as a paperweight for some years. I never did feel like messing with it again, and was too lazy to box it up and ship it to TC for repair. It has a .22lr match barrel and should be pretty accurate - but my Ruger MkIII Hunter has been so accurate that I just never felt motivated to fix the Contender.

Then I moved recently, and ended up with an amazing cardboard box collection after unpacking etc... And today I found a box that was about the right size for the Contender.

I casually opened the action, to make double-sure that it was not loaded, and then thumbed back the hammer, like I have done hundreds of times, to remind myself once again why I was going to all that trouble with the box.

I guess I must have scared it by preparing a box for it, because now the hammer stayed back, just like it should!

The gun apparently fixed itself. It functions perfectly!

I've been dry-firing it repeatedly, whacking the cocked hammer with the heel of my hand, to see if I can get it to slip - all to no avail. I can't get it to malfunction, now.

I can't figure out what happened, there.

In any case, it's off to the range tomorrow, to see how it shoots. I showed the gun to my son, telling him how it fixed itself - and I was informed that it was his gun, all along!

I don't know how that happened, either.

[greener]

The gun heals itself because it decides it has rested enough. As for the other, I'm sure you just don't remember giving it to him.

[charlesb]

It turned out to be a shooter. Even with my old eyes and the open sights, it was easy to bounce old shotgun hulls around at 25 yards.

I used to wonder why there were shotgun hulls all over the pistol range... Now I know.

I asked my son how he got the impression that the gun was his. He said that I asked him what kind of handgun he liked the look of, and then went and bought one just like he had mentioned.

I often buy ailing firearms of a type that I have not worked on before, fix them, then sell them to finance the next purchase plus any parts I might have had to buy. - This is, in part, how I educate myself as I can make any mistakes on my own gun, and develop confidence to work on somebody else's gun of that type, should the occasion arise.

Since he had taken a shine to the Contender though, I just suggested that he ought to keep it in his safe, now that it's working.

Then he hit me up for a .44 magnum barrel to go with it. That request set me up perfectly to suggest a haircut and a job.

[Downeaster]

Then he hit me up for a .44 magnum barrel to go with it. That request set me up perfectly to suggest a haircut and a job.

I like yer style!