klm@uunet.UU.NET (Kevin L. McBride) (05/21/91)
It was bound to happen sooner or later. I haven't embarrased myself this bad in quite a while. Don't laugh... You could be next. :-) I was hiking out from one of my favorite trout fishing spots in the White Mts. on Sunday afternoon when I screwed up my footing real bad and ended up on my ass in about 2 feet of water. I was carrying my nearly new SIG P228 in a small-of-the-back holster and it got fully immersed. I was so worried about my weapon that my fishing partner noticed the blood dripping from the rock-induced gash on my forearm before I did. When I drew the weapon to inspect it (not to shoot my partner for laughing at me :-), water poured from the barrel and the magazine. Fortunately, I had thoroughly cleaned and oiled the weapon prior to the trip, so very little water stuck to the inner workings. I laid a hand towel out on a rock in a sunny spot, stripped the weapon and, after wiping them off, laid the pieces out to dry while I tended to the relatively minor flesh wounds, not to mention the major ego bruise. After re-assembling the weapon, I swapped the drenched magazine for the dry one inside my pack. I stripped and cleaned the weapon after I got home and left it disassembled overnight just for good measure. QUESTION: Should I drop the weapon off at my friendly neighorhood smithy and have him check it over, or did I do pretty much the right thing? Also, would there be any problem with trying to fire the cartridges that got wet, other than the fact that they might not fire? I'd hate to chuck a dozen Hydra Shok loads unless they're going to screw up my weapon. (Of course I wouldn't rely on these for defense, I'd use them at the range.) What are the chances of a primer igniting, but failing to ignite wet powder and pushing the bullet only part way down the barrel? This is my first ever (and hopefully last) experience with a weapon becoming fully immersed in water, so any advice you can give would be most appreciated. The SIG is the most expensive weapon I own and, quite naturally, I want to take real good care of it. -- Kevin L. McBride |Contract programming (on and offsite) |Brewmeister and President |X, Motif, TCP/IP, UNIX, VAX/VMS, |Bottle Washer MSCG, Inc. |Integration issues, Troubleshooting. |McBeer Brewery uunet!wang!gozer!klm |Reseller of ISC UNIX and Telebit Modems.|Nashua, NH
bae@uunet.UU.NET (Brian Ehrmantraut) (05/23/91)
In article <34695@mimsy.umd.edu>, gozer!klm@uunet.UU.NET (Kevin L. McBride) writes:
# This is my first ever (and hopefully last) experience with a weapon
# becoming fully immersed in water, so any advice you can give would be
# most appreciated. The SIG is the most expensive weapon I own and,
# quite naturally, I want to take real good care of it.
After you clean up the SIG, leave it at home next time you want to
go swimming, and buy a Glock. It's ugly, but it doesn't much mind water.
:-)
--
Brian A. Ehrmantraut
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