Have a stuck part that absolutely needs to be removed but refuses? This guide will will help you remove it.

by RK Campbell

If there is anything I learned working in my family’s scrap yard, it was metal. When uni-body construction replaced a real chassis beneath vehicles it was difficult to adjust my working procedure. Later came some pretty flimsy stuff. Making a dune buggy, I learned that among the hardest tempered metal in the world, and very difficult to cut with a torch, was the Volkswagen Beetle.

All this experience in metal working would come in handy in gunsmithing. Stuck parts demand extreme measures. I have stood on lug nuts, broke the lug nut and stud off, and did more damage than good. I learned from this experience. If you have a stuck or frozen lug nut or chassis bolt you cannot discard the whole vehicle and neither do want to discard a firearm for the same reason – although I have been forced to a time or two.

While not as large, the same extreme level of stuck parts has occurred to some when they broke bolts in a firearm. Some of the things I learned with vehicles can apply to firearms and I have applied some of those techniques there. The rub is, these techniques should only be used when standard procedures fail. When the end result is either get the part out or wreck a major component the stuck part lies in, we have to think hard about our procedure.

The story begins with a…

Read more in the June 2022 issue.

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