Maintenance Day

Nov 12, 2006 - Hawthorne

There's something to be said for a day of puttering in the garage. Even more so if one is puttering with rifles. Sunday was maintenance day. Time to pay attention to the little details.

#1 - The AR-15's buttstock is cracked. It's dufus owner dropped it on the concrete floor. Replacement parts have been ordered and is on it's way. I ordered two so I'm ready for the next time I do something stupid.

#2 - I switched out the Turner AWS sling for a Turner leather one on the AR-15. While a good sling, the AWS's peculiarities have been as much thorn as boon this past year. I gave it a full season but like many other people I'm headed back to the familiarity of leather. I will keep the AWS in the ready gear bag just in case I get the silly notion of shooting a match in the pouring rain. You never know.

#3 - The rear sight on my M1903A3 Springfield was not as crisp as it should be at Pendleton. So I took it apart and did some cleaning up. The detents in the knob were not as clearly defined as the previous one on the gun. A few minutes of stoning made that right. The main axis screw was binding at the screw head. It now turns freely. Presto crisp clicks. Mo betta! I am still contemplating whether to drill the peens in the rear sight base and replace it with a new one. From conferring with others at Camp Pendleon it seems like all the Greek Sringfield sight bases are about 7 clicks too far to the right. I'd like to get my rear sight back to the center so there's equal windage adjustment range on both sides. That's a nice to have though. CMP matches are all at 200 yards and it would take a hurricane to blow the bullets more than an inch sideways.

#4 - Citrus cleaner sprays are a gift from heaven for getting the dirt out of wood stocks. All the sweat, dust and grime cleaned off nicely from the Garand and the Springfield. It cleaned up the BRRC club guns too.