Category Archives: Firearms

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Beretta 92 Hammer Swap

R.K. Vest Pistol

by Woodsbum

Every once in a while I get roped into doing an off the wall task to help someone out. This time I ended up helping out a friend of mine with her grandfather’s old vest pistol. They did not know anything about this pistol and had found that it would jam up consistently. It appeared that the feed ramp on the barrel was hanging out too far and was catching the lip of the casing when a new round was fed from the magazine. Being the highly motivated and overly DIY type person that I am, I went ahead and volunteered to polish up the feed ramps to get rid of this lip a bit.

Here is the pistol.

R.K. Vest Pistol

There is not much information available about this pistol, such as how to disassemble it or even what company made it. I finally found something on The Vestpocket Pistol Collector site. It really doesn’t say much:

History:

Gunmaker unknown, but from Spain.
Typical Eibar-pattern, proofing code “star over D” indicates this pistol is from 1931.

Technical Data:

SYSTEM: self-cocking pistol with internal hammer
CARTRIDGES : 6
CALIBRE : .25 ACP
BARREL LENGTH : 57 mm , 6 grooves right hand twist
WEIGHT EMPTY : 390 g
TOTAL LENGTH : 116 mm
TOTAL HEIGHT : 83 mm
TOTAL WIDTH : 26 mm
TRIGGER : Single Action
SIGHT : fix groove
SAFETY : safety-lever
FINISH : blued
GRIPS : hard rubber

Here is what I see with the feed ramp.

Feed ramp

The way that the barrel comes out is a bit bizarre. If you lock the slide to the rear, the barrel twists on lugs and then slides right out. I have yet to get the whole pistol apart to get a size for new springs. I did polish up the feed ramp for her, though. It would be nice to get the pistol apart to do some work on it with some fine sandpaper to smooth out the action a bit, but this should help it a lot.

Polished up a bit

Here is a bit of information such as schematics and such about the pistol. I still can’t get it disassembled, though. I am working on it and have faith.

Basic disassembly

Full schematic:

Full schematic

This is really a neat little pistol. I have hopes in getting it apart to smooth everything out as well as find a new spring to tighten up the action a bit. If you know anything about these or have any resources for these pistols, please comment and let me know.

Beretta 92 Steel Parts

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by Woodsbum

When I was in the Navy, I carried the M9 constantly. I qualified Expert with it several times, got really proficient with it, and after discharge I finally settled on version this pistol as a personal firearm. The one gripe I had with it was the lack of steel parts and over use (in my opinion) of plastic and MIM. The first chance I had, I purchased the steel parts kit from Beretta and got to swapping things out.

The steel parts kit is about $70 and includes the following:

Trigger
Magazine release
Safety lever assembly
Recoil guide rod

After ordering and installing the recoil guide rod, I see that the website says that the recoil guide rod doesn’t fit the 92a1. It seems fine on mine, but I will have to research and figure out why it “doesn’t fit.”

Now here is the kit. The packaging was a lot to be desired. The parts were just tossed into the box and the plastic bag that you would think should contain the parts was empty. The parts were just bouncing around.

Kit as it was just shoved in a box.

The actual parts themselves do feel much nicer than the MIM and plastic ones. This is especially evident with the trigger and magazine release. The factory originals just feel cheaply made and easily broken. Of course that is probably just conjecture and prejudice on my part, but the steel does feel much nicer. These

Old MIM trigger and magazine release

The recoil guide rod from the factory is actually a piece of plastic that holds the compressed spring. The new one is actually like the M9 I carried in the military. It is nice, sturdy and steel. It is kind of tough to get the plastic one apart to get to the spring. There are little tabs that hold the end of the plastic together that need to be pried off with a regular screwdriver. Once that is done, the rod just slips into the spring and you insert it spring first into the slide. The rod slips into place as before. Below are the parts. You can see the way that the plastic rod has the end attached.

Guide rods

Putting the trigger in is a bit odd. The old trigger has an actual spot for the spring to rest where the spring must be moved and rested on the rod that goes through the top of the trigger. Here are a couple pictures. This first one shows how there is an actual spot for the trigger spring on the old trigger.

Old trigger

This is how the trigger assembly looks with the springs removed.

Trigger assembly without springs

Once you get the spring installed and it all put together, it should look like this.

Trigger assembled

There are several companies that make after market trigger springs that make this a lot easier. I think I am going to do some research and pick on up eventually. If I do, I will post up the information here.

The next pain is the installation of the magazine release. There IS a trick to it. Check out this video to see how it works. Once you figure out to put in the correct side first, the rest is easy.

Next comes the REALLY tough part. I have to swap out the decocking mechanism. This is a bit on the rough to do side. As you can see, this is definitely MIM.

Decocking lever

To perform this upgrade I did a Youtube search and found a video about installing a Wilson low profile safety lever. It gave me the information I needed to be able to do this install. I did have to go find really small punches, however. Thankfully there is a Harbor Freight down the road.

Now I only have a few more modifications to make this the way I want it. I will be getting a skeletonized trigger, VZ G10 grips, and a couple Wilson Combat springs to finalize this build.

This last video is a complete (except for the safety lever) upgrade of the Beretta parts. I used this initially, but found that the guy doing the work was almost too good at putting the parts in. He made it look way too easy. It really was much more difficult than he made it seem.

I really love the feel and function of the Beretta 92/96 frame pistols. Many people tend to hate on them for whatever reason. Considering the abuse I put mine through while Active Duty and then still qualified Expert with it at the range on a consistent basis, I feel that these are great systems.

1911 Grips

Customized Henry Survival / AR-7

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by Woodsbum

A couple of years ago I decided that I wanted some sort of a take down rifle to store in my truck, take on hikes in a pack, or just have available so I had a very small form factor rifle to carry with me and put it together if the need arose. Several different models cropped up when I searched, but none really fit the mental “mold” I was looking to fill. Then I came across this rifle that disassembles and is carried in the actual stock of the rifle. It is the Henry Survival. This rifle is based upon the AR-7 that was used by US military pilots as a survival rifle.

Here are a few pictures of Henry’s production rifle:

Henry Survival AR-7

As you can see, the rifle is very compact and is marketed as even being capable of floating. I personally have not tested this, but I have a friend who did. He said that it took on a little water, but it did float. As unscientific as this is, I only have this one personal account of someone testing the floating ability of this rifle and was not there to witness it. Henry does have a nice picture of one that is sitting on the edge of a stream with water beaded all over it as proof. I must remind you that this is sitting in a puddle and not floating, however.

“Floating” AR-7

There are a few things that I don’t like about the production Henry Survival AR-7. First off, the stock is horrible to hold and try to use. It is oversized and difficult to get a decent grip on to shoot a decent grouping. The receiver is not in perfect alignment with the stock and thus makes it even more awkward to try and properly hold the rifle. Secondly, the sights themselves are horrible. The rear sight is a “peep” that nothing more than a hole drilled in sheet metal and held to the rear of the receiver by a single screw. If you bump it or it gets wet the sights are then useless. This really doesn’t matter anyway because the barrel won’t hold “minute of beer can” at anything more than 20 feet. You shoot more of a pattern than a grouping. Everything combined makes for a really nice idea and lightweight “survival” rifles, but practicality makes it not much more than a gimmick. Needless to say, I was really disappointed with my $210 purchase.

At this point, I was hell bent on finding a way to make this a decent rifle that still fit the “mold” of what I originally desired. So, I broke down what was important to me: accurate, small footprint, able to be disassembled, simple construction, dependable. I reviewed what I had: inaccurate, “floats”, small form factor, able to be disassembled, simple construction, undependable. The two lists seemed to me as pivoting on two major design flaws: the barrel and the stock. This is the point where I went online and flexed my “Google-fu.”

I came across this website. AR7.com seemed to have about everything I needed to fix my little Henry so I ordered a barrel and a stock. Here is a picture of all the parts and pieces that I had accumulated through the purchase of the rifle and upgrade. The barrel and stock on the assembled rifle at the top are what I purchased from AR7.com

AR-7 Stuff

As you can see, the stock is collapsible and the barrel has a heat shield over it so I can actually hold the barrel without getting my little paw burned if the barrel gets hot. The hand grip is actually one from any AR platform, but has just been reamed out a little bit to fit over the mounting bracket attached to the new stock. The green cord is just a US military surplus M9 pistol lanyard that I had laying around. I did make a spacer with a hole drilled in it for attaching the lanyard so I would have a usable 1 point sling. Here is a parts list from AR7.com and other online vendors:

AR-7 Adjustable Stock – 134
AR-7 Sporter Barrel – 90
Pistol Lanyard
Barska .22 Plinker Scope
Homemade spacer/mount point for the lanyard (picture is below)
Extra magazines (discussed below)

Before I discuss the several other things I did to make this such a wonderful rifle, I would like to show you how small the disassembled footprint is and what it looks like all assembled. It will literally fit in a small Camelback pack and leave room for Clif bars, flask, toilet paper, and any other number of necessities.

AR-7 Disassembled

AR-7 Assembled

The scope I chose was a cheap Barska 22 Plinker I got from Big 5 for $20 on sale. I really don’t need anything expensive or high speed because it is just a .22 and it is going to get beat up while bouncing around in backpacks. In all reality this scope has performed much better than I had anticipated and I have been very pleased with my $20 purchase. I honestly recommend this scope for anyone with a .22 if they can get it at a good price.

This is a picture of the spacer/mount point I had to make to attach the lanyard. There is a gap here by design from AR7.com, which I don’t understand. It makes no sense as to why this gap was here, but I am glad that it was so I could make this little guy to attach my sling.

Homemade Spacer/Mount Point

Last but not least, I will tell you about my issues with finding magazines that will work. The Henry 8 round magazines work perfectly fine and seldom stovepipe if you lube your action enough. Being overly motivated at times, I wanted some higher capacity magazines. This led me to purchase these from various manufacturers.

AR-7 Magazines

I am not going to give you the manufacturers because none will work properly out of the box. You will have to file, bend, cuss, test, re-test, cuss some more and eventually end up with a magazine that will work about 90% of the time without issue. I did find that mine are about 95% functioning since I poured a bunch of synthetic grease into them and keep the action of my rifle dripping with lube. It reminds me of how you have to treat an M249 to keep it functioning. In the picture you can see that all have been filed and bent a bit to allow proper bolt clearance. I am unsure as to why the manufacturers can’t ship magazines that actually work, but this is what you have to work with on this rifle. These 5 represent 3 different manufacturers as an interesting note. If you find some that just work without issue, please let me know.

As a final note, I love how this rifle turned out. It really ended up as a VERY accurate shooter that is comfortable to shoot, dependable, with the right magazines, and disassembles into an easy to carry form factor. If you decide that you are going to get one of these rifles, I suggest you add an additional $150 to your budget and get the aftermarket stock and barrel. It has turned this little guy into a tack driver that almost rivals the accuracy of my Ruger 10-22. The overall price is higher, but look at how much more tactic-cool the final product looks!

Seriously, I do highly recommend this setup.