Reader Forum

Generational Changes and Firearms I want to thank Brian Smith for his special report "Generational Changes and Firearms" (April 2023). I read a lot and cannot remember enjoying reading an article as much as that. Being born in 1956, I felt like I was living my life all over again while reading his piece. The contrast between the way things were then and how they are now is shocking. Wish I was back in 1970. Thanks for the memories!

David Morrison powderburns.gunsmithing@ "Generational Changes and Firearms" by Brian Smith was an excellent story on generations and guns. So good, that it applies to about any aspect of what is important to young people versus older people. For example, the only way that we can keep ham radio alive is to move it into digital modes, otherwise, ham radio would be dead by now. In the same issue I asked about my Stevens Model 94B in the Reader Forum and received a lot of good advice on it.

I finally got the hammer pullback just right with the removal of two coils and then pushed the mechanism back together again. The old gem is nowa jewel. Compression springs are complex devices. Compression load with deflection can vary from one design to the next one. One of my other restoration projects, an Enders Arms Double 410, had a mangled ejection spring.

Since my search for an original replacement was unsuccessful, I went to the local hardware store where I found a 7/32 in compression spring when cut to length it fit perfectly and produced just the right amount of force for ejection. Now I am on a tear to find away to create a screw to replace a lost screw for the forend slide of a Remington Model 14. I have this gun almost back to brand new, except for the missing screw. So far, finding a screw to work directly or to be modified is proving to be a big task.

Now I need a lathe. It’s a good thing my time is charged off as a hobby and not to be paid for by a customer! Kleingeunther Ejector I have a shotgun that was imported by Kleingeunther probably during the 1970s or very early 80s. The top barrel will not eject due to some problem in the mechanism. I can’t seem to find the right combination to disassemble this part. Can you tell me from the pictures how to go about disassembling this part of the shotgun and possibly who the manufacturer was.

I looked yahoo.com up Zolid but those shotguns look too high-end for this to be one of theirs. Kenneth W Wright From Mark Hollensen (Bench- MarkPerformanceServices.com). I don’t know a whole lot about this particular shotgun other than it was in import and KDF (before being bought out) sold them through their shop in Seguin, Texas.

Without the gun in front of me, I would be guessing about how to remove the ejector(s) and before starting, parts should be located as many ejectors are spring loaded into the slot and can break during removal if not careful. Robert Tusch The current KDF gun shop is at 2485 N State Hwy 46, Seguin TX 78155 (800/KDF-GUNS, KDFguns. com). I would contact them first to ask about what shotguns are in their possession along with parts and/or a gunsmith there that has worked on them.

Bolt Carrier Tilt I’ve read all of the articles by Joe Carlos after meeting him at Camp Perry during the National Matches and would like to thank him for sharing his wealth of information with us! Has he tested the impact of the lift the bolt carrier in an AR- 15 gets from having a magazine inserted? Seems like the magazine could both reduce carrier tilt and also potentially push the "enhanced" carrier he was proposing up too high to where it’s no longer aligned?

I was fiddling with my large frame AR and there’s quite a noticeable lift to the bolt carrier when the mag is inserted with or without rounds in the magazine. Thomas Keefe Joe Carlos responds. I have been studying the influence of magazines on the AR for decades and have been reporting on those studies in American Gunsmith.

Magazines have a huge vote in the performance of Stoner Platform rifles. As you have observed, there is so much slop in the size of the "bore" of the upper receiver and the carrier that magazine pressure on the underside of the carrier moves it up. Different magazines evidently exert different amounts of lift. This can cause variations in downrange point of impacts. The target scan that I have attached illustrates this clearly.

The difference in the center of the two groups on the left and the group on the right was measured as 2 1/4" at 100 yards. I reported on this in an article titled, "Magazine Checks" in April 2015. As you point out, these same magazine pressures likely interact with the carriers relative to the tilt that I wrote about in another article titled "Combating Bolt Carrier Tilt" published in May of 2017.

That said, however, when I was trying to find solutions to tilt I did shoot a number of AR-15s employing a variety of magazines in the machine rest. The average improvement in group sizes was 14% using the anti-tilt pads on the bottom rear of carriers. Customers who have purchased carriers from me with the Anti Tilt Pads have no doubt also used magazines with varying degrees of lift. Many of those customers have written to me describing improvements in group sizes.

So the conclusion I arrive at is that the lift that magazines provide is not an adequate solution to bolt carrier tilt. The various parts of the Stoner Platform do interact with each other as this carrier/magazine discussion points out. You can’t "fix" AR groups by only concentrating on one part of the rifle. You have to improve many parts and take into consideration their interactions.

The subject of bolt carrier tilt and magazines was covered in at least one other article I wrote for the magazine which was titled, "AR- 15 Fliers". This started in February 2021 and went for three months. Some gas gunners think that the only way to shoot an AR is to fill up a 30-round magazine and proceed to empty it in the general direction of the target.

Serious National Match Course (NMC), F Class, and Palma AR shooters actually use single shot mags called "Bob Sleds" that have no spring or follower and only shoot one round hand fed one at a time throught the ejection port. These Bob Sleds exert no upward pressures on the bottom of the carrier and are my go-to choice in slow fire events. AG