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Military Firearm Restoration Corner

Got a Penny?


roscoedoh

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Here's the best use of a penny this side of exact change:

 

user posted image

 

This is a trick that I'm sure is known to most here, but I wanted to share it just in case someone found it useful. My gunsmith showed me this and it's sure saved me some pinched hands and aggravation during bolt assembly/disassembly!

 

Jason

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Oh, my goodness! I didn't even know about that! What a great idea.

 

Thanks roscoedoh, for the tip...I never would have thought of something like that, and I have the pinch scars, blood blisters and bashed fingers to prove it!

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I've always just kept the striker spring compressed as long as needed

 

I do to. But when one starts adding on aftermarket parts like the Chapman safety I just put together, it becomes helpful not to have to fight the cocking piece while trying to remove the firing pin assembly from the bolt. By using the penny, all you have to do is screw the firing pin assembly in till it clicks to a stop and then either pull the cocking piece up or just yank the penny out. The penny also makes removing the firing pin assembly easy by using the reverse of what I just wrote. I suppose you could use a washer just as easily, but I had a great many more pennies around the house than washers.

 

One other use for a penny I'll add is as a spacer for reloading. I have used a penny with a hole drilled through the center of it as a spacer to adjust my full length sizing die to neck size only with pretty good success. It needs a hole drilled through the center to clear the decapping pin. I simply put the penny between the die and the ram with the ram at TDC and adjust the die like its supposed to be adjusted without the spacer. Art Alphin describes something similar in Any Shot You Want, only he used washers. Again, I don't have many unused washers so I substituted a penny. Has worked like a champ for several hundred rounds now.

 

Its amazing what you can do with a little creativity.

 

And that's just my $.02!

 

Jason

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