Reader Forum

Cozad Manufacturing I spent six years serving with Staff Sgt. Andy Cozad as a teammate and Platoon Sergeant. He is one of the most honorable and knowledgeable persons I’ve had the honor of serving with. I am a distributor of his products and I stand by them 100%. MSG Andres G. Sepulveda (ret.) SBtacticalSolutions.org We’re consistently getting this kind of feedback about SSG Cozad and his company. Thanks for sharing.

Erma Werke EP-25 I have a German-made .25 caliber EP- 25 semi-automatic pistol manufactured by Erma Werke, serial number 135XX. What is a good resource for assembly/disassembly and maintenance for this model? Irwin Perlman Boynton Beach, FL This pistol is listed in a few references with the Standard Catalog of Firearms being a good place to start. Erfurter Maschinenfabrik made these prior to WWII primarily for export. Suggested values range from $200 for Excellent condition to $75 for Poor.

Bob’s Gun Shop and Numrich have schematics available. Safety Police Memorabilia From Brian Smith. The Safety Police in Part 4 (October 2020) in my article series on Hopkins & Allen revolvers was from the late Bob Buchanan collection at Pioneer Gun Sales, Altoona Pennsylvania, courtesy of Lorrie Buchanan Stirling. Bob had an extensive personal collection of firearms, a fraction of which decorated the walls and hung from overhead.

That store was to many patrons as much a museum as a gun shop and Bob cultivated that ambiance. I obtained the revolver from Bob’s daughter, Lorrie, who took over and remodeled and modernized the store. It’s no longer the cluttered "museum" but it still has much of the feel of the old place, but with the attraction of being brought into the 21st Century. I purchased that Safety Police as the subject of the last part of the H&A revolver series and plan to gift it back in honor of her father’s memory.

Lorrie has a keen interest in preserving some of her father’s heritage. SIG Sauer Mosquito I am in need of a magazine and magazine release for a SIG Sauer Mosquito 22 LR pistol that has come into my shop. I tried American Tactical, SIG, Numrich, e Bay, and Gunbroker, so far with no luck. I can find the magazine in numerous places but the mag latch is out of stock everywhere. SIG says they haven’t had parts in several years. Kenneth W. From Mark Hollensen. Hog Island Gun Parts has the mag release.

Try them for the other parts as well. HogIslandGunParts.com/Sig-Sauer- Sigarms-s/644.htm FN FAL Dual Springs Are FN FAL recoil spring sets (the inner and outer springs) really necessary? If so, why? There are many semi-automatic rifles in the world with a single spring and I don’t understand why FALs need two. This design is more than 50 years old and is not perfect. Was it because, at that point in time, there were no stronger springs and the designer concluded they needed two?

Do current FAL copies continue to put two springs without knowing why they simply copy the original? From Mark Hollensen. While I don’t have specific, historical reasons for this, usually two springs are used for proper load up. In other words, one single heavy spring may not perform as reliably (spring load up during firing) as two smaller diameter and lighter springs working in conjunction with one another.

My assumption is that, through actual live testing, the engineers found that the two spring combination worked best and produced the most reliable functioning of the firearm. You could speculate that a variable rate coil spring could be used in place of the two but without trials and testing that would just be a guess. From Brian Smith. Good question. In theory, any given firearm can’t tell the difference if its recoil counterforce is supplied by a single spring or two counter-wound springs.

The answer lies in spring design. In addition to the FAL and other rifles, two recoil springs are more commonly seen in handguns, both blowback and locked breech. Firearm designers specify these dual spring setups because the use of two counter-wound springs is an easy and reliable way to get along-lasting, consistent, progressive rate spring without resorting to stronger single springs which may have shorter service lives between failures.

Springs fail by repeated cyclic loading and unloading, not by sitting compressed or partially compressed on the shelf or in the suspension of the vehicle in your garage. Two springs provide the ability to tweak the force necessary for firearm function and yet provide longer spring functional lifetimes, thus fewer firearm failures.

An example of along-lived handgun design switching from a single recoil spring to dual springs is the Glock Gen 4. Previous generations used a single spring, but Glock introduced a twin spring recoil setup with the Gen 4 and carried it forward with the recent Gen 5. Another example is the Colt 1911. It’s well known that the 1911 Government Model has a single recoil spring, but the three-inch "Ultra Compact" versions of the 1911 platform usually have two recoil springs.

Colt also makes the M45 1911 for the USMC using a twin spring setup. In short, it’s a design load and longevity thing, based primarily on spring design and fatigue characteristics, not necessarily the firearm itself. From RK Campbell. Thanks for reading! I consulted one of the FN FAL experts I know who is up on history and keeping them running. He reports more problems with improper gas setting than the dual springs. The dual springs are unusual.

A few years before the Walther P38 was given dual recoil springs, one on each side of the receiver, and it worked very well. Later, when or post a letter to Falls Church, VA 22041. For subscription questions or mailing problems contact American Gunsmith