FEG Hi-Power clone

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Dixie Gunsmithing

Moderator Emeritus
I worked on a FEG, 9mm, Hi-Power clone today, and found a doosy. The owner had said he had field stripped the gun, and after reassembly, though it felt a little tight in the recoil tension after that, but shot it anyhow. First, I pulled back the slide, held it open with the safety, and pushed the pin through to take it down. After letting the safety off, to take the slide off the front, it stuck when it was just coming off the frame at the front, and didn't want to go any farther. Okay, as I played around with it, I got my palm pinched in the ejection port, and this really torqued me, and for a little I'd charge them double for the blood blister it raised. Anyhow, I had to tap it forward slightly with a plastic hammer, and then it slid free. Here, I found the eye in the recoil rod caved in, and there was no way the pin could have went through it (it was heart shaped at the rear). It had been sitting in front of the pin. So, I installed a new recoil guide, and called the customer. I can't figure out how he got that together, or how he got the pin to go between the barrel notch, and the rear of that guide. It was turned in the correct position too. Has anyone ever seen this before?
 
If it required the assistance of a hammer to get it apart, maybe that's how the owner got it back together.
But with a bigger one.
 
Of course they'll never admit to that, but it took something to get that together that way, and what, I have no idea. I have never seen this before, but the takedown pin had to be forced through somehow.

It really only took a small rap from a plastic faced hammer to the rear of the slide, as I figure it was moving that guide up or something where it was deformed, since the pin wasn't holding it. The takedown pin had caved in the rear of the guide, or the rim of the pin hole that should have been around the pin itself, and probably during firing it, to where it looked like a heart in shape.
 
May have had the recoil spring guide in upside down. Hard to say. I see all kinds of effups all the time. Guy with a brand new S&W Performance Center 1911 that put the slide stop in but not through the link. Another with a new Taurus Millennium that forced the gun together without capturing the recoil spring in front of the barrel lug. One guy forced a Glock together with the rear rail section out of the slide track. All of these folks come to the gunsmith, then cry a little after I get done fixing their gun for them. At least some of them tell me they did it.
 
We often dealt with something we called "The wife's not home syndrome" where a guy if bored, so he takes a gun apart. I don't know how many times we would have a bag of gun parts wander in the door that the guy couldn't get back together, or had to use a hammer on because it wouldn't go back together the way he wanted it to.
I actually sold guns that were back within a couple of hours in parts.
That FEG was a troublesome gun in my opinion. Some parts seemed soft and deformed easily and you routinely cut yourself on the sharp parts before you were done.
I've seen a lot of parts that weren't properly hardened for the task at hand. I once tried my best to not order a Llama .380 for a guy that was determined to buy one. I finally relented but told him when it broke, he would be responsible for it....not me! He was back in the shop within hours after taking delivery of it and it wouldn't fire the first shot. I felt sorry enough for him to at least look it over, and the back of the firing pin was peened over from the factory firing it. It was peened over enough that it wouldn't go through the retainer.
In the end, I fixed it and told him to not shoot it much...
 
Scorch,

No, he actually had it in it right, which is why it baffles me, as the pin should have went through the guide. It's almost like it was pried forward, and the pin placed behind it.

Old Stony,

Yes, the immortal words, "I got this apart, and now can't seem to get it back together". I shake my head every time I hear it. Spanish firearms have been known to be weak out of the box, almost nothing heat treated, nor good steel used. I think Marlin figured this out when they tried to sell those supposed "LC Smith" shotguns they last had off. Also, a lot of parts had to be hand fitted, as hardly anything would work from one gun to another, especially in the older guns.
 
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Dixie, I have a number of Star pistols in calibers from 22 to .45 and have found them to be of exceptional quality with machined and fitted parts as well as finishes the equal of most US products. As for heat treating and poor steel my model B (9mm) and A Super (9mm largo) were previously used by the Spanish military and then many hundreds of rounds by me and show no unnatural signs of wear. Firing pins will break if dry fired excessively because they are too hard it seems although I have never done so. Interchangability of parts is usually an easy process however some parts can need fitting. The Star DK is the unrecognized parent of both the Mustang and Sig 238 and having all three I would pick the Sig and Star for concealed carry with utter confidence.
 
Ibmikey,

You may have got hold of some decent ones, and todays manufacturing technologies has certainly helped, but many of us who have worked on Spanish guns will all tell you the same, that they are not quality made to US standards. I am not singling Star out, who is now defunct, but I am saying that the majority of the work that I have seen, in Spanish manufactured firearms, isn't good. Just like their shotguns, that came over as imports in the 80's and 90's, which are now sitting on pawn shop shelves, and only bring a small price, shows why. Same with the black powder kits they sold over here, where some rifling was so bad, that the barrel had to be thrown out. I've picked new revolvers up from the box and looked at the deep file marks on the sides of hammers, etc. You look inside some, and see worse. Look at some of the e-books on the old Spanish firearms, with good close-up views of the parts, and you'll see what I'm speaking of.

Spanish Ruby Hammer & Sear:


Ruby Sear by matneyw, on Flickr
 
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Most Spanish handguns were made in factories, albeit with a lot of hand fitting, even before WWII. But their shotguns and some other guns were made by the cottage industry system. The factory did make the parts by forging, say, hammers. Then good old Pedro showed up and they gave him a basket full of forgings. He took the parts home and he and his family sat around and filed them until they fitted a gauge, at which point he took them back and got his money and another basket full of forgings.

The point for Americans is that when we ordered a part from the factory, we got the rough forging. And an American gunsmith is paid a lot more than Pedro. The gun owner, used to buying a drop-in hammer from Remington, balks at the price of the hammer for the Spanish gun and tells the gunsmith what to do with the clunker.

And some silly American writers went ape over the "all hand fitted gun" nonsense!

Jim
 
The Browning clone story brings to mind the "How'd he do that?" story of the 1911A1 that was brought to me with the slide stop pin inserted between the link and the barrel foot with the slide stop in place. The slide wouldn't come back far enough to get the slide dismount cutout back to the slide stop. After a bit of tinkering and a fair amount of thought, I finally used a Dremel tool to cut through the slide stop about halfway back. I managed to insert a box cutter blade under the stop so if I cut too deeply there would be some protection for the frame. The job was done quickly, without a mark on the frame and only a smudge on the blade. The front of the stop pulled out and the rear fell out when I moved the slide back. Whew!

I showed the customer how to make sure it didn't happen again. He was glad to receive the modest bill; he was convinced the pistol had been ruined.

Jim
 
I once had the same problem with a customer's 1911 with the pin between the lug and link. I did a similar job with a Dremel and only had to replace the slide stop afterward. Anything mechanical seems to be subject to human error. I've been out of the business for a long time now and occasionally I still have someone showing up at my house hollering "Help".
 
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