After decades of experience shooting and customizing guns so they can withstand the rigors of Fast Draw and other competitive shooting sports like CAS, Bob Munden has a lot to say.

Enjoy this edition of In His Own Words and read previous articles in the archive section below. Check back every month for more of Bob's straight talk!

TOPIC:
Misfires

Bob Munden: People often call me wanting me to work on their gun because it keeps misfiring, but I don’t take money unless the customer really needs the work. Most of the time, the problem of misfiring is not with the gun. It is either because the owner is using the wrong primers, or they are reloading and have neglected to clean out the primer pockets. I actually take a knife and scrape around the primer pockets on the empty brass I use for reloading live ammunition or for blank ammunition. I don’t do this extra work every time I reload, just once every five times or so. I recommend that you use Federal, CCI or Remington primers. They detonate easier than any other brands of primers. Heavily plated or magnum primers don’t work well with light actions.

Repeated dry-firing or shooting snap caps all the time can bend the cross pin that holds in the firing pin on some revolvers. If the cross pin becomes bent, the firing pin recedes into the hammer so that it doesn’t hit the primer with enough force to detonate it. By the way, I do not recommend dry-firing for practice. Once you know how to operate your handgun, why dry fire? When you dry fire, the gun just goes “click”. When you fire live ammunition, there is a loud report and the gun recoils. I suggest you always practice with what you are going to use in competition. Then you can learn the timing required to cock the revolver for the next shot as it comes off recoil and you can get used to the loud report (using hearing protection of course.)

If the mainspring is too light, that can also result in misfires. I hear about a lot of gunsmiths who put a light mainspring in the gun and because it feels easier to cock, an inexperienced customer will think he’s gotten an action job, when what he really got was just a light spring that will make his gun misfire. With my custom work, I lighten the action without weakening the flat springs in Colts and clones. I also make them adjustable so if my action seems too light for your personal trigger pull, you can tighten it down just enough so that it will fire every time. I install my own custom springs in Rugers. I do test fire every gun I work on so there shouldn’t be a problem. If there is I ask my customer to please notify me and I will help them make an adjustment or ask them to send back their gun so I can adjust it for them. If I ever make a mistake of some kind on a client’s gun, I will pay for the cost of shipping and insurance both ways and put the gun on the bench ahead of others so I can get it back to the customer immediately. That’s the honorable way to do business. That’s the way I do business. My biggest nightmare would be if there is a gun out there that I have worked on that doesn’t work right and my customer does not tell me about it.

I will be happy to talk to gun owners who think they may need some custom gun smithing, but I will not sell shooters anything they don’t need. Plus I back up my work. -- Bob Munden

Shooting USA:
In July the crew from Shooting USA came to Butte, Montana and we spent a couple of days taping footage for 7 segments on Shooting USA on The Outdoor Channel. Visit the News & Events section or the Schedule of Appearances page for more information. I’ll give you a hint about what to expect: I used 7 different guns for long-distance, aerial and other fun exhibition shooting. Tune in!

WARNING: DO NOT EVER FAST DRAW WITH LIVE AMMUNITION. NOT EVEN ONCE. IT IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS.

-----------------------
Do you have questions about Bob Munden's Six-Gun Magic gunsmith work on single actions, Marlin Lever-Action Rifles, Stoeger (or IGA) Double-Barrel Shotguns, Smith & Wesson Double-Action Revolvers, the Bond Derringer and other guns? Call Munden Enterprises at (406) 494-2833 (8am- 8pm MST), or visit our contact page.

ARCHIVE:
Click on any topic below to access previous In His Own Words articles.

• Stock Guns - 05/05

• Efficiently Cocking the Single Action & Primer Recommendations for Light Actions - 09/05

• Bob Munden -- The Collector's Edition DVD - 11/05

• Choosing a Barrel Length - 01/06

• Choosing a Caliber - 06/06

• Fast Draw and the World Fast Draw Association (WFDA) - 11/06

• Misfires - 02/07

• Remembering Jeff Cooper - 05/07

Return to Site Map