Firearms need to be cared for. I’m not good at it. I came to it later in life and just didn’t understand what it takes.
That being said, I’m attempting to do better. Part of “doing better” is actually training with EDC in normal clothing/gear and being willing to send self-defense rounds down range.
This sometimes leads to sending many more range candy down range to overcome my bad habits.
The other day, my wife comes out of the bedroom and is putting on her coat, screaming “Which rifle is the right rifle to kill that (long bleep) rodent!”
It is that time of year when the weather turns and the damn mice come in out of the cold. There is one or more that have made a nest in the crawl space under the bedroom. When they are eating, and we are trying to go to sleep, it is very loud.
The problem is that it sounds like there might be an animal just outside our window. This has led to many a parameter walk by at midnight with the R92. On this particular night, my wife was in bed before me. I was busy writing an article for you guys. So she couldn’t just tell me to go deal.
So she’s looking to take one of the rifles out varmint hunting at around midnight.
It was at that moment that I realized: I don’t know if the Henry Golden Boy has been sighted in.
Longer story shortened, I, blue haired fairie, and wife go outside, I prove that there is nothing out there. She heads back to bed.
The next day, I took that .22 out to the test range and proceeded to put 50+ rounds through it. I sometimes forget just how much fun it can be plinking with a .22. I rang steel, put rounds on paper, and destroyed a small pumpkin.
Then I took out my SIG P938 out to test myself.
It is a small 9 mm pistol. Beautiful sights. I take aim, pull the trigger and click. No bang.
I’ve not shot this pistol in too long. Maybe something is wrong and it needs to be clean. I rack the slide, and it doesn’t go into battery.
I give it a slight push, and it slides into battery. Press, BANG! Clean miss.
Next press and another BANG!
Failure to feed.
Drop the mag, clear the failure to feed. Put the no-bang round back on top of the mag, reinsert mag.
Bang. Click.
Cock hammer, click.
Cycle the gun, finish sending rounds down range, finally ringing steel.
We take everything back inside, and I take the Ruger PC9 out, drop one round into the chamber, click.
Out of seven rounds, one failure to fire, one failure to feed. I need more practice.
When I went back inside, I tossed the round to the blue haired fairie and asked, “What’s wrong with it?”
When I came back to her, she stumbles over the words and says, “I don’t remember what it is called. The spark button didn’t go off.”
I hereby declare that from this time forward, “primers” can also be referred to as “spark buttons” in polite company.
I’ll take that… spark button sounds less familiar to the gun grabbers…
FWIW – 50/50 mix of peanut butter and plaster of paris (yes, that white chalky crap) rolled into acorn sized mouse snack balls and tossed in the crawl space will take care of the little bastardes for good… poor aim aside. Just make sure your dogs can’t get at them.
I think that she coined a great alternative name!
Spark button. Heh. Boom dust, zinger bit, and … Not coming up with something for the shell casing. (And why do I suddenly want to go watch Firefly?)
The colloquial “brass” seems the most convenient term for the bit that contains the spark button, boom powder and freedom seed.
Common SIG failure if you don’t clean and lube them often, even in storage. Make sure you use TW25 grease and not oil on the rails.
I have a Sig p938 as well.
And, frankly, I am sorry I bought it.
.
First of all, it is a great feeling gun, and for someone with a soft spot in their head for the 1911 (look, it feels good in my hand, and I like the trigger, OK…) it was a perfect EDC gun in my book.
Turns out it is very, very finicky.
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Cycling rounds is generally OK, but it fails much more often than I like. During a period of mild stress, your firearm has to be reliable, and I do not have that confidence in the 938 anymore. Additionally, when you load a magazine and cycle the slide, the next round is moved forward in the mag. To the point it is ready to fall out. Pulling the magazine results in that round falling onto the floor. Yeah, I am one of those people who use magazine A to get a round in the chamber, then put magazine B (full) into the gun. But, with the 938, I always have to pick up the second round from mag A. I have not investigated fully, but I suspect that may be a contributing factor to the malfunctions.
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Last note, there is a possibility the 938 will discharge when you disengage the safety. It is not common, and the hammer has to be partially cocked for it to happen, but it can do it. Try it out, (no live ammo in the room! Clear the gun, and double check!) cock the hammer about 1/4 of the way with the safety engaged. Then disengage the safety. Plenty of videos out there of the hammer falling.
There is a way to fix it, but if you are careful and ensure the hammer is always fully cocked it is not an issue. Besides, follow rule #2 and the discharge will go where you want it to go… Disengage the safety while pointing at the target, not before.
I wanted a 938 in the worst possible way for forever ever since selling my AMT backup rechambered in 10mm thank you for reminding me to check the safe for the savings envelope for that particular critter.
Got a good chuckle reading these slice of life posts thanks for sharing and for the reminder to PM gear. Bit of a freak as I love cleaning and maintaining gear to the point I’d be in the middle of a pile of rifles and kit humming away like a dwarf in a mine content as can be knowing all the stuff I was “bribed” by buddies to take care of their gear with would be bartered away in short order.
Spark button it is forever more
I pretty much reload only ammo similar to what I’d carry for this reason.