A curious Hi Power malfunction.....and a warning!

[Henry Dearborn]

A buddy brought me a Hi Power by just now. He recently sent it out to have the slide reblued and a set of Novak sights installed. Work is beautiful and was very reasonable. He took it out to shoot for the first time since getting it back this last weekend and it would not fire!

First thing I thought of was that the mag safety (yeah, I know, I told him to pull it) was malfunctioning but that does not seem to be the case. What DOES seem to be a problem and something that would have been taken down in the work done is that the sear lever spring was not replaced in the slide.

Guys, I know the gunsmith that did the work really well and he is VERY good at what he does. He has done much work for me as well. But anyone can make a mistake. Thankfully my buddy took his gun out to check before he just threw it in his holster and started carrying it on the street that way.

PLEASE check your guns regularly and especially after ANY work or modification, even something as simple as grip replacement.

[AggieC05]

good word of warning!

[Charles L. Cotton]

I'm moving this to the Never Again sub-forum. It's a very good read!

Chas.

[starrbuck]

Yes, *always* run two to three hundred rounds (or more) through a pistol before you start carrying it!

[dukalmighty]

One way to check to make sure a gun will fire without shooting it is after UNLOADINGthe gun drop a #2 pencil eraser first down the barrel with the barrel pointing up pull the trigger and it should launch the pencil out of the barrel

[Bunkins]

Good info!

Snap-Caps are the thing to use after doing any work to a firearm, doesnt matter if you cleaned it, modified it, or even just sitting for a long time without being used. I swear by them..

[moredes]

Dang! I can't believe it---that the advice ain't unanimous, to go out and shoot it to prove it's like it was before you let it go.

[saltydog]

Just speculation, but:

maybe the 'smith didn't do the re-finishing but farmed it out to another vendor...

Just guessing, dunno what happened. Neither do you.

salty

[nils]

That's crazy....makes me nervous now...time to go to the range!!!!

[marksiwel]

What was the name of the gun smith? I have a Hi Power and was thinking of doing the same.

[HadEmAll]

Dang! I can't believe it---that the advice ain't unanimous, to go out and shoot it to prove it's like it was before you let it go.

Absolutely! This is a great post, and couldn't be more meaningful to me.

I just recently left my .40 Hi-Power at a local gun shop to have the front sight replaced. After picking it up 4 days later, I almost carried it until I shot it because I didn't think the point of impact could have changed that much, and I loved the new Hi-Viz front sight. But I resisted the impulse.

When I got to the range, it fired perfectly. ONCE. I had a feeding malfunction. I was shocked because this particular pistol had never jammed. It hadn't extracted the fired casing. Cleared it and tried again. Jammed again.

Long story short, the extractor hook is broken off. I can't prove it, but I believe it happened at the gunshop. The pistol had been working fine. I picture somebody at the shop dropping the slide on a chambered round or snap cap and breaking the extractor. Anyway, can't prove it, and I'll shut up about that.

The point is, I would have been carrying a single shot pistol that could have gotten me killed if I'd assumed it was working like it did before I left it.