Back in action - finally!

I've crested the wave at the office, and have been back on a (sort of) normal schedule. I managed to find the time Thursday evening to visit my shooting club; it was nice to see the guys and knock off some of the "ring rust".

It was the last week of the Sporterifle season (thought I missed it!), but I didn't have my rifle with me. I wanted to give the Pardini free pistol its first (for me) workout at the range. A quick call to Larry (of larrysguns.com fame) was necessary in order to get a walk through of the disassembly procedure for this firearm; the set trigger was not engaging the sear, and it was not possible to test-fire the weapon at all. A quick run through the 10P files at Pilkingtons produced a schematic of the trigger assembly and brief instructions on the adjustment procedures. Five minutes and a couple of shots of WD-40 later, all is well. I'll work on fine-tuning the trigger after I've gotten used to the pistol - for now it is enough that the damn thing is functional!

At the range, I put up a 50ft. NRA slow fire target backwards (blank side to me) just to get a group on paper, and sight-in. It must be something I've done wrong in a past life, but here-we-go-again time - I'm a foot and a half high (shot the damn target hanger with the first round) and the elevation adjustment is producing zero change to the point of impact. Crikey. After a little careful poking around with the rear sight, a small spring clip fell out of the assembly onto my gun rug! Oh boy.

Back in my workshop, I disassembled the pistol and tried to figure out what was going on and where the clip came from. After a few minutes of complete panic, I figured it out. There is a wedge-and-screw assembly that provides the elevation adjustment. This is spring loaded; the spring had slipped from its retainer, and gotten stuck between the wedge and the bar on which the wedge rides (I'll have to get a photo next time I have the thing apart). The net effect is that there was no elevation adjustment, and my continued efforts actually backed the assembly off of the retaining clip. I reassembled and tested and it appears to be functioning correctly. I'll be back at the club Thursday to continue the initial run-through.