There it was! An ominous compressed spring, ready to unleash its fury. A simple plastic hook was the only thing containing the powerful energy of the constricted spring. The hook (sear) was a simple lever that pivoted on the trigger pin, attached to the trigger itself. It was a marvelous example of simple plastic injection molding manufacturing.
As I tickled the trigger, I could see the spring hook move. Thinking back, peering down the bore of a cocked dart gun wasn’t my brightest idea. But it did give me a great view of how a dart gun worked.
Trying to figure out how to do a plastic trigger job, I wiggled the trigger too much, releasing the sear, unleashing the rage of the tempered steel spring. I can still see, and feel, it after all these years.
All I saw were orange spots. I staggered back into the house and yelled what every mom fears hearing, “Mom, I just shot my eye out!” Sitting in the backseat, I surmised the coiled death spring must have had a case of barrel runout, tagging my borescope (eyeball). With the car on autopilot, mom took me on another trip to the ER. I had to wear a white eye-patch for about a week. I was disappointed I didn’t get a cool black one.
When Spring Has Sprung
Take Cover!
Whoever invented the coiled, tempered spring was devious indeed. When it comes to guns, springs cause more frustration than any gun part. When on their best behavior, they’re compressed and contained, their spiral shape provides us with supposedly free energy. Alas, this free motion has a price, as springs can be the cause of frustration and even injury.
Benignly packaged in clear plastic bags, they look innocent enough. But try compressing one while cramming it in place and their temperament takes on a new dimension. Possessed to infuriate us, they enjoy doing so, and springs already in place are just as fiendish.
Eye-Witness Testimony
I learned the hard way as a youngster just how dangerous springs could be. I had a plastic dart gun – didn’t everyone? Curiosity got the better of me, as I wondered how it propelled my rubber-headed, suction-cupped projectiles. I needed to know how it worked — to satisfy my curiosity, and to keep my dart gun running smoothly.
No sense risking a malfunction while protecting myself, I got my gunsmithing tool, consisting of the straightest stick I could find in my backyard. Shoving the stick down the barrel “cocked” the spring. I didn’t use a dart, as it would lock in place, and looking down a loaded dart gun would be stupid — duh! Remember, these were the days before bore scopes, so I had to make do with my eyeball and simply looked down the barrel.
Evil Engineers
I acknowledge springs have their place, but sometimes I wonder if engineers don’t display their sadistic side when they design the working innards of firearms. While battling bouts of “engineer design-block” to make a system work, these sadistic psychos take glee in designing spring loaded booby-traps with parts small enough to function, but impossible for man-sized fingers to pick up, or even see, in dim light.
Imagine them chuckling in the lab, as their supervisor asks them, “Figure it out?” The menacing, white coated mechanic thinks to himself, “No, but I just designed the ultimate parts launcher, and it only takes a quarter turn of this innocent looking screw for all the parts to go… KABLOOEY!”
The evil engineers know when massive amounts of parts go flying your confidence is shot — a far cry from when we wanted to take this baby apart and see how she runs. These usually turn into the dreaded “brown paper bag projects.”
I’m talking about the whipped puppy dog march of shame to the local gun shop, where you unceremoniously turn over your gun, and hopefully all the parts, in a brown paper bag and explain that your damn brother-in-law said he knew what he was doing. As the gunsmith checks your partially autopsied gun, he slyly notices the small cut under your eye and smirks. He knows.
Buy The Book
So, listen up boys and girls. If you like to dabble with your guns to unwind and relieve a little tension, watch out for those tortile, tempered-tantrum tidbits known as springs. These jumpy jackals like to leap with the velocity of a magnum-load and have a guided missile penchant for striking eyeballs.
Funny how gunsmiths have a proclivity for containing these wily wound-up wires, but for you DIY guys, get yourself some gunsmithing books to help tame and corral these coiled contraptions.
And remember, if one does get away from you, eye patches are cool, especially in black. You can even make one out of those masks we’re all wearing nowadays.
