Front Sight, Press

My son, Daniel, came home from a soirée in the woods to which he had taken his Beretta 92F, a.k.a. M9, and said, "Dad, there’s something wrong with this gun." Now, we have owned this particular M9 for many years, and it has always been a wonderfully reliable gun. "What’s the matter with it?" I asked. "It’s jamming with every shot," he answered. "Hmmmm," said I. "Let me take a look at it." I field-stripped it and checked all of the significant parts. Everything looked OK. Then I got my "eyes," the magnifying head set that I use for close work because my close-up vision isn’t what it used to be. Once upon a time, I could spot a doubled-strike on a Roosevelt dime with my naked eye, but no more. Under magnification, I looked at the extractor. "Interesting, I’m not seeing any daylight under the extractor.” I got my set of dental probes and started pulling crap out from under the extractor. There must have been a couple of pounds of hard crap impacted under the Beretta’s extractor. We flushed and brushed the extractor with cleaner, and you can guess the rest: we took the gun to the range and it ran like a champ, like this notably reliable autoloader has always run.

Some observations appeared from this experience.

1. Even the best autoloaders can jam sometimes.
2. Always carefully inspect any firearm prior to any deployment.
3. Regular maintenance is important. If you don’t clean your gun, it will fail you some day.
4. Regular maintenance is important. If you don’t clean your gun, it will fail you some day.
5. Regular maintenance is important. If you don’t clean your gun, it will fail you some day.
6. Regular maintenance is important. If you don’t clean your gun, it will fail you some day.
7. And finally, regular maintenance is important. If you don’t clean your gun, it will fail you some day.