[longtooth]

I have a real, Real, REAL good friend that has only been shooting handguns for about 3 yrs. When he shot my 1911 he had to have one. (short story)Every time we are together I give it a good cleaning 'cause he dont think it ought to be dirty yet. His bolt rifle dont need it that often.:hairpull:
Here is my cleaning bench.

Here is what is on the other side of the room. It is small. Wall to wall about 8 ft.

Well I let a firing pin spring get away from me today. Good thing it did not get me in the glasses. I spent about 15 minutes before I found them. Sure glad it was not pointed out the door into the garage. I may never have found it out there.

 

[Ridgerunner665]

Those darn plunger springs can be hard to find too...

 

[longtooth]

I was real fortunate. It was gummie enough that they stayed together.
He really dont every clean it. I told him one day that he took better care of his $200 echo weed eater than he did a $800 gun. He just shrugged.

 

[hawk]

My loading/gun/cleaning room is like a "Black Hole" when it comes to losing small items that that drop or go flying. :hairpull:

 

[gottripletsNC]

hmmmmmm, (sigh) one day, right now its the kitchen table on a towel. When I get my storage building / workshop, it will have its own little room for reloading and smithing.

 

[AutoMag]

I can remember one time my recoil spring plug went flying right into an original oil painting on canvas that my wife has. It did not do any damage but I got a good yelling at!!!! The painting is in the 5 figure range so I guess she had the right to be angry at me!!!!:nonono::nonono:

 

[gottripletsNC]

Whats funny is when my kids were sitting at the side of the table when I was cleaning my 1911, and the recoil plug went for ride. Have ya ever seen three 3 year olds ducking and running with their hands over their heads? It takes past experiences to know to do that LOL.

My kids will sit with me at the table now while I clean or smith on my stuff, and they know instinctively when to "watch out"
They even tell me sometimes to "be careful with that Daddy."

 

[tsp45acp]

Several yrs ago I was cleaning my wife's Colt Special Combat in my shed/reloading shed. She called me inside (about 30' from the house), I walked to the back door and realized I dropped the firing pin stop somewhere between the shed and the house. I looked for an hour that day and combined 3-4 more hours over the next several days. Ordered a new firing pin stop which arrived a week later. Put the new one in and FOUND the old one laying the grass 2 days later. I know I had looked there at least 20 times, walking back and forth between the house and shed. THEN there it was, laughing at me. Tracy

 

[longtooth]

Yep. Find it every time after buyin a new one.:hairpull:
Since this was not my gun I sure didn't want to loose it.
Only thing worse than buying parts & having 2, is buying parts & still dont have any.:hairpull:

 

[El Pistolero]

On a 1911 the wolff plunger springs are strong. I forget the dw's come with them and when I popped the thumb safety off after getting the cbob the plunger spring shot all the way accross the kitchen and bounced off the wall. I lost one before by forgetting it was a wolff, have to put my hand down there when pulling the thumb safety off. I lke the wolff's, very positive click on the thumb safety with them but man they can rocket.

I hate to admit that when I drop small stuff now it takes the wife's eyes to find it.

 

[Bud White]

The plungers and spring out of the plunger tube i have shot across the room many a time

 

[TraderJack]

A couple years ago we were shooting a match and on the 2nd stage, I noticed the gun cycling sort of sluggish, so I hurridly went to the pick-up to change out the recoil spring(the range safety area was the trunk of your car/truck). The recoil plug got away from me and shot into the covered bed of the truck, into several power tools, misc. parts, half full buckets and other junk from work.

So here I was without a spare and my recoil plug was somewhere in the mess!

A fellow shooter had a spare and ran to his car to get it, as I crawled into the bed to search!
He returned with the spare(I had absolutely no luck) just in time for me to get the gun back together and shoot my next stage.

Several of us looked for that damn plug over the next couple of hours and simply could not find it!

When the match was over and we were packing up, I sat on the tailgate to change shoes.
Low an behold, EUREKA! In my right shoe was the damn plug! We all had a good laugh and went for adult beverages.:biggrin:

 

[Rocky]

Yeah I sent a firing pin off over my head before and stuck a recoil guide rod from a 4006 into a wall once. Safety glasses are my best friend while cleaning /disassembly.

 

[longtooth]

Yes sir on the safety glasses. I was really thankful it did not hit me in the face.
I do wear glasses but they awere not safety & that firing pin would have shattered glasses for sure.

 

[AZ Husker]

When I teach new 1911 shooters detail stripping, I have them do it inside a clear plastic trash bag. Never a lost part yet!

 

[OD*]

Do yourselves a favor, put a kink in your plunger spring like JMB designed it, they won't fly out of the plunger tube anymore. :wink:

 

[longtooth]

Never thought of that. Thanks.

 

[msjdgman]

For the little work I`ve done on my guns I`ve been pretty lucky. I`ve never truly "lost" a part, but I have done a little searching. Now as my eyes are getting older and my glasses thicker, I`ve set up a table/bench in an unused area of my basement on a bare concrete floor. I purposely planned for and saved this area just for ME for doing this sort of thing when we built the house 5 yrs ago. Believe it or not...my area has yet to be imposed upon for the collection of junk!!

 

[OD*]

John Moses was a wise man.

 

[AZ Husker]

I used to lose small things on the floor all the time. Here's a hint...get down on your knees with the brightest flashlight you have and shine it across the floor. Even a screw will make a shadow that's easier to spot.