Cylinder and Slide finally slogged through their backlog and got a look at my ailing Detective Special.
The bolt stop was rounded off and one notch for it on the cylinder had been rounded as well.
It's terminal since they can't economically get a new cylinder.
Apparently Colt didn't give a lot of engagement with the design and there's just no way to fix it.
The gunsmith, Paul, says it's $100 in parts to them, so I get a check for that. He thinks they can make a nice "how detective specials work" cutaway from it, so I am also promised a picture of it cut up.
Paul sounded like he was kind of bummed he couldn't fix it for me and even offered me some priority to the head of the line should I have something that they can fix (like a Hi-Power).
I originally bought the gun to help a friend who needed money; mission still accomplished.
That was always a sad thing to have to tell a customer.
ReplyDeleteAlthough sometimes it turned out different to how I expected it would. We had an old guy bring in an absolutely minty old flat-latch Airweight J-frame, a Bodyguard if I remember rightly, for a trigger job back in '06 or so. On the test-firing after Bob put it back together, it cracked the frame longitudinally right there at the barrel shank.
We contacted Smith and they sent the guy a brand new 642 and he was positively tickled to have the new gun. I didn't have the heart to explain to him the sadness of what had just happened.
If I'd taken a shot every time Paul said he was sorry in some way, I'd still be passed out come Tuesday morning.
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