Servicing and self maintenance

For a newbie, what are people's thoughts on gun servicing on top of self maintenance??

Ive got most of the usual stuff; Payne Galway brush, rod, jag, legia, grease, etc. so do clean after using, but coming from an extensive history of guitar playing, selling, tweaking, modding, you name it, where I very rarely got a shop service as I did nearly everything else myself, I'm wondering if others are the same when experienced with guns over time or are there still things that a shop really needs to do, especially as it's a potentially lethal weapon, essentially?

And what would a 'standard' service entail and how much is a reasonable price for it?

Mirakuru said:

For a newbie, what are people's thoughts on gun servicing on top of self maintenance??

Ive got most of the usual stuff; Payne Galway brush, rod, jag, legia, grease, etc. so do clean after using, but coming from an extensive history of guitar playing, selling, tweaking, modding, you name it, where I very rarely got a shop service as I did nearly everything else myself, I'm wondering if others are the same when experienced with guns over time or are there still things that a shop really needs to do, especially as it's a potentially lethal weapon, essentially?

And what would a 'standard' service entail and how much is a reasonable price for it?

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I would say that most guns need very little in the way of servicing,regular cleaning and whip the stock off occasionally for a little light lubrication and cleaning if necessary is all that is needed i have never had a gun fail.

Then again if you have a Kreighoff it probably knows its own way back to Alan Rhone

Mirakuru said:

For a newbie, what are people's thoughts on gun servicing on top of self maintenance??

Ive got most of the usual stuff; Payne Galway brush, rod, jag, legia, grease, etc. so do clean after using, but coming from an extensive history of guitar playing, selling, tweaking, modding, you name it, where I very rarely got a shop service as I did nearly everything else myself, I'm wondering if others are the same when experienced with guns over time or are there still things that a shop really needs to do, especially as it's a potentially lethal weapon, essentially?

And what would a 'standard' service entail and how much is a reasonable price for it?

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There is the odd thing that I wIll do , for example the firing pins on a Miroku /B525 , a doddle to change or polish up  .  Stripping the ejectors out of most guns , usually easy and really cleaning not servicing ,  However you have to ask yourself beyond perhaps pulling the stock off of your gun if you have been out in the pouring rain, what servicing does the gun need ?  If it ever needed a new part fitting  , I’d leave it to a gunsmith . When I bought a second hand Miroku I had the gun stripped down to bits cleaned and reassembled  I think it was around £65  or £ 70 On top of that was the cost of new springs , but I supplied an Imported JP spring and pin kit . Just having the springs and pins changed is about £35 plus parts,, which will cost more than the labour 

ps in 42 years I’ve had two Miroku firing pins fail , and Miroku ejector break . I did have my  lightweight K80 fully serviced 10 years ago but the big bag of bits I got back looked as good as new . 

Clean/oil it once or twice a month, get things replaced when they show signs of wear (which could literally take years), pay attention to signs of looseness and ask for advice. Guns are not like cars that need an oil change every 10k miles etc,. 

Hamster said:

Clean/oil it once or twice a month, get things replaced when they show signs of wear (which could literally take years), pay attention to signs of looseness and ask for advice. Guns are not like cars that need an oil change every 10k miles etc,. 

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I guess you must get a service book with a K gun...not to long before all the spaces are filled

schmokinn said:

I guess you must get a service book with a K gun...not to long before all the spaces are filled

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I would think there to be an additional fee for that considering the usual expectations.

I've been around things mechanical and guns my entire life.  I have no reservations about dealing with almost any maint issue but there are some things that require special tools and are infrequent enough that I don't bother - like maybe fitting barrels and replacing locking bars sort of things.  Guns are not that complicated and for the reasonably experienced mechanically inclined person I would suspect they pose no great challenge.  Of course  a self assessment of one's talents and/or skills may be optimistic.  I've often seen some some work that clearly testifies to that optimism   :fool:

Mirakuru said:

For a newbie, what are people's thoughts on gun servicing on top of self maintenance??

Ive got most of the usual stuff; Payne Galway brush, rod, jag, legia, grease, etc. so do clean after using, but coming from an extensive history of guitar playing, selling, tweaking, modding, you name it, where I very rarely got a shop service as I did nearly everything else myself, I'm wondering if others are the same when experienced with guns over time or are there still things that a shop really needs to do, especially as it's a potentially lethal weapon, essentially?

And what would a 'standard' service entail and how much is a reasonable price for it?

Click to expand...

Cleaning and servicing regimes are very subjective. You’ll find most clean regularly, depending upon the type of gun, the number of of targets shot and the weather at the time of its use. 

As for servicing, there are some that use guns that have never been serviced. Few service at home because of the tools required, specialist knowledge and the limited availability of parts. 

Personally, my gun is cleaned after every use and stripped down once every 2-3 months for a tidy up. It’s serviced every other year or 10000 shells, usually at the Krieghoff DTL (one of the excellent advantages of K80 ownership). It’s never reached the point where it’s in urgent need of a service but I do it to ensure reliability’s not a concern when shooting competition.

WHat's the difference between cleaning it and stripping it down, if you don't mind me asking? Only cos I cleaned (or what I think is cleaned) my gun once as it's pretty new to me, but for me that involved me taking it into it's three main parts to give the barrels a scrub and some of the parts a grease, courtesy of what I've trawled off youtube.

Mirakuru said:

WHat's the difference between cleaning it and stripping it down, if you don't mind me asking? Only cos I cleaned (or what I think is cleaned) my gun once as it's pretty new to me, but for me that involved me taking it into it's three main parts to give the barrels a scrub and some of the parts a grease, courtesy of what I've trawled off youtube.

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Yes, that’s a clean and there’s no need to do more than that as an everyday effort. Periodically i’ll take the ejectors out, clean them and lubricate. I’ll also take the stock off and inspect and clean if necessary. Whilst the stock’s off I check the nuts and adjusters to ensure everything is as it should be.

Anything more than that and it’s dealt with by a specialist.

Jan Powell said:

Cleaning and servicing regimes are very subjective. You’ll find most clean regularly, depending upon the type of gun, the number of of targets shot and the weather at the time of its use. 

As for servicing, there are some that use guns that have never been serviced. Few service at home because of the tools required, specialist knowledge and the limited availability of parts. 

Personally, my gun is cleaned after every use and stripped down once every 2-3 months for a tidy up. It’s serviced every other year or 10000 shells, usually at the Krieghoff DTL (one of the excellent advantages of K80 ownership). It’s never reached the point where it’s in urgent need of a service but I do it to ensure reliability’s not a concern when shooting competition.

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Does the K80 require flossing too, Jan  ?

Mirakuru said:

WHat's the difference between cleaning it and stripping it down, if you don't mind me asking? Only cos I cleaned (or what I think is cleaned) my gun once as it's pretty new to me, but for me that involved me taking it into it's three main parts to give the barrels a scrub and some of the parts a grease, courtesy of what I've trawled off youtube.

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The next stage beyond the three pieces would be to take the ejectors out of the slides,  a doddle on most guns needing either no tools or very simple tools. I’ll do that 2 or three times a year .  As mentioned in a couple of posts above,  taking the stock off the action is another step  , I’ll always do this if I’ve used a gun in pissing rain as part of my clean ,before it goes into the cabinet ( Carbon steel  action parts like Mirokus and Brownings do not like the wet ) . Personally  once a year I’ll take the forend iron out of the wood and give it a good clean out  also good to remove the stock and forend wood if you decide to do a thourough stock oiling job once in a while. 

A total stripdown would entail every piece of the action being disassembled by a gunsmith into the component parts and then being rebuilt, probably replacing tired springs . 

Bit above my level, but then again experience makes it all easier... I'll quite happily strip an electric guitar to it's component bits nowadays (did it the other weekend on a strat) but I had to be shown how to even change a string at first!

Honestly removing the ejectors from a Miroku/ Browning takes just a small screwdriver , the stock either a big screwdriver ( most Miroku )  or a long Allen Key .  The most common Beretta ejectors , hold with a rag  push down and twist , K80 ejectors a light sharp tap .  The only thing I’d say is get a few hollow ground  screw drivers or  bits , not the tapered joiners type which chew up slotted gun screws in record time .  If you can strip a guitar you can take the wood off a gun . If I remember  rightly,  you bought a Browning , the’ve  been making that design for nigh on 90 years , I doubt it will give you any problems anyway , most gun issues start with a lack of basic cleaning and lubrication and you’ve got that well covered . 

Ahhh, confidence is as big a part of it too, and I'll probably get there eventually, but although I understand your words from a technical point of view the fear of ballsing it all up weighs pretttty heavy so thanks for your comments, I'll take them on board, and carry on slowly catchee monkey for a little while.

Hopefully, the more people I meet at shoots, talk to, get an idea of what's what, it'll be a nice sedate learning curve.

There are some guns that obviously should be left to specialists.  K80's for example were designed by tweakers, the same sort who write code with as many useless personal roundabouts as possible.  Stripping them should go likely to another tweaker  delighted by the pile of bits and pieces resulting from the disassembly.  And I have to admit that the Beretta fixed trigger guns are a righteous PITA to strip but not even on the same page as a K80.

Perazzis, naturally, as a consequence of actually being designed as a pure competition gun suffers none of those afflictions.

Wonko the Sane said:

There are some guns that obviously should be left to specialists.  K80's for example were designed by tweakers, the same sort who write code with as many useless personal roundabouts as possible.  Stripping them should go likely to another tweaker  delighted by the pile of bits and pieces resulting from the disassembly.  And I have to admit that the Beretta fixed trigger guns are a righteous PITA to strip but not even on the same page as a K80.

Perazzis, naturally, as a consequence of actually being designed as a pure competition gun suffers none of those afflictions.

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What afflictions ? 

MartynB said:

Honestly removing the ejectors from a Miroku/ Browning takes just a small screwdriver , the stock either a big screwdriver ( most Miroku )  or a long Allen Key .  The most common Beretta ejectors , hold with a rag  push down and twist , K80 ejectors a light sharp tap .  The only thing I’d say is get a few hollow ground  screw drivers or  bits , not the tapered joiners type which chew up slotted gun screws in record time .  Im you can strip a guitar you can take the wood off a gun . If I remember mightly,  you bought a Browning , the’ve  been making that design for nigh on 90 years , I doubt it will give you any problems anyway , most gun issues start with a lack of basic cleaning and lubrication and you’ve got that well covered . 

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Tooth pick for a Perazzi. Even for someone who has only been shooting for five minutes it is a simple gun to strip to it basic parts and  reassemble ... that includes the trigger.

To Be honest I asked the advice of one who knows these guns about stripping to have a look and clean... then I thought... if you can strip, clean and replace a bank of Keihin 40mm CV carbs or shim the valves on a Japanese 4 why would you worry at all about taking a few bits off a gun??

Hamster said:

What afflictions ? 

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jwpzx9r said:

To Be honest I asked the advice of one who knows these guns about stripping to have a look and clean... then I thought... if you can strip, clean and replace a bank of Keihin 40mm CV carbs or shim the valves on a Japanese 4 why would you worry at all about taking a few bits off a gun??

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jwpzx9r said:

Tooth pick for a Perazzi. Even for someone who has only been shooting for five minutes it is a simple gun to strip to it basic parts and  reassemble ... that includes the trigger.

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The "afflictions" to me are the unnecessary complications.  I'm sure that people shooting other than target games may have no concerns about that but for me the complications are a PITA that I've learned to avoid by the simple expedient of using guns that were designed for what I use them.  I'll not make any pretense that Perazzis are perfect as there are a couple things about them that I'm not crazy about but at the same time I realize that sometimes design compromises must be made.  So long as they're at the BFD level it's easier to not GAF about it.

JMO of course and I know YMMV for many people