plunger launching story

[G1user]

So I was in the workshed disassembling a spare FAL bolt to clean it.
As I am using my extractor tool to remove the claw, my hands are all oily and slick so suddenly my hand slips, I drop the bolt/tool on the work table, and launch the the plunger and spring into the wall--bang.

The hunt begins;
I probe around with a magnet on a stick to collect the small parts, I find all but one of them in a minute or two, but the plunger is no where to be seen.
I look everywhere.
No luck. Just gone. Oh well.

Now I have this small tool box set aside on the shelf that is only for special small FAL tools and nothing else.
A few days later i am cleaning out the place, and sitting there in that tool box, where it had landed, there was the plunger smiling back at me..

What luck. It is the small victories that make it worthwhile.

[Snakeshot]

I'm proud to say that I have only sent TWO extractor plungers to the parallel universe from which they cannot be easily retrieved.

I did find one- not making this up- between the pages of a Shotgun News on the upper shelf of the workbench about a week later. Ever since I bought the right tool, it doesn't happen.

Still missing a trigger spring plunger that I assume put someone's eye out in the Twilight Zone. :eek: No idea where that one is!

[ce]

What a heartwarming tale of incredible depth and emotion!
I laughed, I cried, I gasped in amazement!
Bravo!

If you find a trigger bushing,L1A1, that would be mine.
It disappeared in a rare lateral launch that I have been unable to duplicate.

A magnet, on a stick.

[shortround]

There are only two types of gun people. Those who have never launched a spring or plunger and those who will.

[dexguano]

Taking apart the bolt wasn't a problem with me. It was putting the thing back together that was the challage.

I made a Super Duper Bubba Extractor Tool to help me get it done. Almost had it in when .... TWANG ... it slipped loose and struck me in the forehead. It made kind of a dull, hollow sounding noise as it bounced off and fell on the table in front of me.

Course, I didn't know this at the time because I was on my knees in front of the table, holding my forehead and going "Geez .... geez ..." And I'm not ashamed to admit that a tear or two squeezed out and ran down my face.

About this time my 5 year old daughter walks into the garage. The conversation went something like:

Daughter : "Are you praying?"

Me: "No" [sniff] "I'm just looking for something I dropped."

Daughter: "Don't cry Daddy. I'll help you find it."

Me: [sniff] "I'm not crying. I'm just " [sniff] " looking for this part."

Daughter: "When you tell Mommy that you lost it, just keep
crying. She'll get all soft and she won't yell at you about it."

Me: "I'M NOT CRYING!"

Daughter: (showing me the palm of her hand) "Whatever ...."

[Viking Warrior]

"Daughter : "Are you praying?"

Me: "No" [sniff] "I'm just looking for something I dropped."

Daughter: "Don't cry Daddy. I'll help you find it."

Me: [sniff] "I'm not crying. I'm just " [sniff] " looking for this part."

Daughter: "When you tell Mommy that you lost it, just keep
crying. She'll get all soft and she won't yell at you about it."

Me: "I'M NOT CRYING!"

Daughter: (showing me the palm of her hand) "Whatever ...."


LMAO
:rofl:
Wecsog rule # 587, Bolt dissasembly shall only take place in the shower ( cutain closed ) with sufficient number of rags over the drain and protective full face helmet with Lexan shield.
Failure to follow these directions may result in permanent disfigurement and ridicule from family members.

[slimshady]

Many years ago, the gunshop I worked at built many "racegun" 1911s. One day, the owner is assembling one with a full length guide rod, the kind where the recoil spring plug has a hole in it to allow the rod to protrude. Not paying much attention until the plug goes sailing past my head and bounces off the ceiling to disappear into the general clutter about the shop. Long story short: Last plug in stock, shooting gun in match next day, tore shop apart for 3 hours, no find plug, WECSOG one by drilling a hole in stock plug, gun works, new one arrives week later and is installed. Now, in the years following this, many other parts have took off without FAA clearance, all were found within days. :biggrin: You would think it would have turned up. After owner closed shop, I helped him move stuff. We literally had that room down to the bare floor and walls at one point, AND STILL NO FRICKIN' SPRING PLUG!!!!! OTOH, I did walk in one day and find the owner "praying to the parts gods" looking for a part he had lost while assembling a Springfield Armory M1A1. Looking about and not seeing anything resembling a gun part on the floor, I asked him which part he was looking for. He replies: "You know, the flat stick that fits under the op handle and trips the sear". "The Auto Connector?" I ask. "Yep", he replies. I guess Marine Corps DIs really did a good job on that old Devil Dog, cause he had been looking for an M14 (full auto) part that the semi doesn't have. I guess they really pounded that field strip procedure into his head 35 years ago!;)