What have you renewed due to plain wear and tear?

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Pond James Pond

New member
As I sat out in the sunshine, pondering my next tinkering project, I started thinking about the various service kits you can buy for guns like my CZ or my ex-Glock. I thought about the sorts things that might need to be replace after a certain number of rounds. I also thought about what I might replace on a revolver given the same criteria and here I just don't know enough about how they work, what wears down and when.

However, it occurs to me that with slide flying back and forth etc, there might be more wear on a semi. Then again, a revolver's internals seem to be more precisely aligned. Once a bit of material has worn it might start playing up.

My guess-work suggests that revolvers will probably need less in the way of spares over its service life, but if a part does wear down it might be pretty steep to replace.

So here are my questions:
-What have you replaced on a gun due to it wearing out (please exclude manufacturing faults)?
-What were the ball-park costs?
-What gun was it?
-And most importantly, what was the approximate round count?

Using the indispensable car analogy: a tyre might be replaced once bald and down to the carcass, or it might be replaced because someone slashed it on a Friday night or came from the factory horribly unbalanced.

I am only interested in the situations when if was replaced due to the baldness. Worn through regular wear and tear only!!
 
only renewing I've done to any of my revolvers ( aside from tightening up end play on a well worn Dan Wesson 44 Magnum ) has been finish wear ( refinishing )
 
i am usually not one to care what my gun looks like, but my Tri-Star has officially gone way over the top of how bad a gun is "allowed" to look. I love this gun, is has more bullets down it than all my other dozen plus guns combined(well, that may be exaggerating), never a single flunk or fail. BUT.....holy carps this thing looks awful.

so as for "renewing", some point in the next few weeks, I am going to search for a small body shop that will glass blast it for me, and I will be doing a DIY cerakote, not sure if i'll go color, but I think i'll likely just stay black. also notice the cracks in the grip panels around screws. so part of that project will be adding aluminum panels, or some kind of metal.

the thought of adding probably early 100$ to the cost of this "budget" gun goes against everything i preach. and if i didn't love this gun so much, i wouldn't mess with it. but in the end, the gun is still perfectly functional and the "renewing" isn't out of necessity, just for my own "pride" i guess.

round count?? geez, hard to think about, but has to be over 6000.


i have always had "a" gun since ive moved out when i was 18, but have only really been "shooting" guns for about 4 years. i am fortunate to say that, besides a couple that were bad right outta the box, none of my currently held firearms have ever had a piece "wear out" or "break" to the point that it affects it's function. that always amazes me thinking about the abuse they endure and that most ALL my guns would be considered "budget guns" or even "cheap" to most people. i know four years isn't a long time for a gun, so time will tell i guess. i think the first thing that i will HAVE to do to any of my guns will be replacing the barrel on my AR15, only because the round count is getting so high.
 
with the 44 magnum ( it was my FIL's ) so I don't have even a guess as to the round count... it might be lower than expected, as he like to load hot...

but, I've not found the painted type of finishes to be as durable as the guns they use them on
 
I have to admit that the only thing I've had to replace because of wear and tear, is my wrangler jeans that my LCP wears a hole in my left hip pocket!
 
I hear of extractors & ejectors breaking, on some models more than others, but I've never had to replace any. But that could just mean that I don't shoot nearly as much as others.
 
I've always had both revolvers and semi-autos in my inventory, and I can't actually remember any of my revolvers needing anything replaced. With my semis, it's typically springs; three recoils in my case for some reason. The other part has been extractors. Somehow I've gone through six total on five different guns.

I don't have a round count for most of my older guns so I can't really say when these things happened, other than one of the extractors. My first .40 cal (S&W 4003) snapped an extractor in the first two years (22 years ago) and again about three years ago. In between I'd guess I sent at least 9-11,000 rds downrange.
 
The only thing I ever replaced was the firing pin and recoil spring in a Ruger MarkII, I was getting misfires and had read that after a while the firing pin gets shorter. I didn't measure just installed both parts, it seems to have helped.
Main thing on it is to keep it clean and use good ammo.
 
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If you have gun parts that are breaking due to normal wear and tear, you are shooting a ton and not maintaining your firearms.

I have pushed 3 Glock pistols well past 50K, one to 80K and have changed recoil springs and firing pin springs. I put 9700 rounds on an AR15 in under 3 months, never cleaned the barrel, but I did clean the BCG. I have over 40K on the .357 Magnum, have not changed a thing.
 
I've had to replace the sear/bolt spring on two different "Colt type" single action revolvers. For those not familiar with the original Colt single action mechanism, this is a flat spring with "fingers" that provides tension on the bolt and sear (duh). There's a reason that Ruger went to coil springs for his revolver mechanism. Pic here if you don't know what they look like:

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/13...lt-spring-colt-single-action-army-steel-blued

I had one break on an Uberti 1860 black powder cap and ball reproduction with only a couple of hundred rounds through it, and another break on a first generation Colt SAA that looks brand new. I had only put a couple of hundred rounds through the Colt but have no idea of the round count through it in it's first hundred years.

Other than that, only things that I can recall that have been replaced due to wear and tear are magazines (from repeated dropping on hard surfaces) and recoil springs.
 
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So here are my questions:
-What have you replaced on a gun due to it wearing out (please exclude manufacturing faults)?
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Slide release on a Makarov.

-What were the ball-park costs?
Click to expand...

I don't recall. Minimal.

-What gun was it?
-And most importantly, what was the approximate round count?
Click to expand...

Makarov. I don't recall. It developed a problem where slamming a magazine home would release the slide without operator intervention.

My guess-work suggests that revolvers will probably need less in the way of spares over its service life
Click to expand...

For a revolver, I would probably want to keep a spare or two of the firing pin spring.
 
My heart. Wasn't maintained properly. Apparently storing cholesterol in it was a bad idea. snicker.
Haven't ever changed parts from them wearing out. However, the type of action shouldn't matter.
 
I was able to make a deal on two Star DK pistols and three bags of parts each containing a complete pistol except for the frames. This is a neat .380 and the parent of the FI model D, Colt Mustang and Sig P 238, they bring super high prices when in excellent condition. Upon arrival of the mystery box i found one DK in beautiful condition and the second a basket case, parts replacement was done to the point that only the stripped frame was used on this pistol. When together and spitting .380's out as fast as my arthritic fingers could move i decided it should look as good as it shot....off for a complete Metaloy finish...now it is a neat little pocket pistol and has the appearance of brushed stainless. So what was replaced....everything! Cost....don't ask...would i do it again....you bet, love the pistol now.
 
My Springfield XD's guide rod wore out, meaning the spring failed. This did not concern me much, since all springs wear out eventually after a finite number of compressions. I had to buy a new guide rod, which I probably paid more than I needed to for (it was not factory and it was tungsten), which I seem to remember being $70. But the upside to this is that spring kits are cheap once you go beyond a bare guide rod. Steel (or in my case especially tungsten) doesn't really wear out on a guide rod. Return springs are like $5 each, and I've got 3 sets of 3 different spring weights, so basically I'm probably good for the life of the gun.

That's the only major part on a centerfire handgun that I've worn out through use.

I had a Kahr guide rod experience some chipping, but Kahr gave me a new one for free and it had never caused a problem.

OH! I've blown the port out on an extended ported barrel on my XD, but the company replaced the barrel for free.

If you expand the category to .22 LR semi-auto pistols, then I've had all sorts of things wear out and fail... which is one of the reasons I am cool to the type now and prefer to shoot 9mm.
 
darker loaf said:
If you expand the category to .22 LR semi-auto pistols, then I've had all sorts of things wear out and fail
Click to expand...

What have you worn out on .22 semi-auto pistols? I have several that date back to the 1950's with literally hundreds of thousands of rounds through them with no replacements and no problems. Mine seem to have the same parts (extractors, ejectors, firing pins, etc) as centerfire pistols, I'm having a hard time imagining which parts would wear more than on a centerfire.
 
Glock 22 Gen 3, I bought it used, I was the third owner (at least). It functioned fine however on first detail strip the striker spring and extractor spring had been rusting pretty badly. I would guess the gun was at least 10 years old judging by the night sites. The nickel plating had flaked off and the springs were rusting. No big deal. The plating on Glock parts routinely flake off and the copper shows underneath. The good news is that there is steel underneath so it is just icing on the cake with extra corrosion protection for a time. Usually doesn't affect function immediately.
 
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