David The Gnome, As far as "horror stories" go about disassembling firearms, let me put "you" at rest. Horror stories come from the uninitiated, clutses, & the impatient, period! Let me say for the "record" that in 40 + years of gunsmithing both part and full time, I have "yet" to come upon the firearm I could not disassemble and reassemble. Am I "smarter" than everyone else? Of course not! I simply employ a method taught to me by an old timer gunsmith when I first started out. No.1: Study the engineering of the gun you have in your hand. You can do this through schematics or when not available, taking the gun out of the stock or the grips and or side plates off when accessible. Functioning the gun through it's cycle. No.2: Look at "all" the pins and screws in the gun and determine from the position of parts, (hammer, trigger, sear, etc.) what screw or pin "holds" what part. No.3: Through the "previous" study of parts alignment and how the parts interact with one another, determine what part or parts are "spring" loaded. No.4: Form a "plan" of action for taking parts out and have a box with numbered bins to take out and place in order each part. No.5: Normally, The parts or assemblies that have the "heaviest" spring loading will be somewhere at the "beginning" of disassembly. That's pretty much the method I have utilized over the years. I'm not saying the "gun" is not out there that I can't take apart, only that "I" havn't come across it yet! There are some very excellent takedown books available now that were not available back in the old days when I started out. "All" of the disassembly books by J.B. Wood are "excellent". The NRA disassembly books also are a "must have". David Chicoine's book on Antique Firearms Disassembly is "excellent". Exploded Views by Karns & Traister another good one. Gun Drawings by Murtz and the Gun Parts Corporation Manual also great. Brownell's Encyclopedia Of Modern Firearms Parts another. Hope this helps out the "fraternity" in some way.............Dick
