sterling .22 auto

[jl1966]

The other day I came into possesion of a sterling model 302 .22 semi automatic pistol. It is along the lines of those little Jennings, Davis, or Bryco pistols that I believe everybody must buy at some point in their gun owning life, only to learn the lesson that a really cheap gun is just that, a really cheap gun. That being said , the price was right and I bought it, knowing full well what I was getting. If you are not familiar with this pistol, it is a little vest pocket type of deal, all steel at least, no potmetal or aluminium. A six shot magazine, plastic grips, some are blued like mine, and some are nickel plated. I bought it and a little stevens model 12 boys rifle in .22 LR., I stopped on the way home and ran a full magazine through the pistol, just to see if it would even shoot. I was pleasantly surprised when it popped off the whole six smooth as silk, no jams or misfires, not a bad trigger either. I even plinked a stray plastic soda bottle a few times. I hurried on home then, it was saturday and the wife was waiting for me to escort her on her outing for the day. Reluctantly placing my new purchases in the safe until a better time. A couple of days later I repaired to my gun bench to give my new treasures a good cleaning. I disassembled the little pistol, cleaned and lubricated it well, and reassembled it. Taking it outside with the anticipation of how well it would function after proper attention, I loaded up a magazine and let fly. Bang!....nothing, what.., rack the slide and eject an unfired shell, hmmm, oh well it is a cheap .22, it is bound to have a few malfunctions, try again. Bang,....nothing, Rack, bang...nothing. disassemble reassemble disassemble lubricate reassemble cuss fume! Finally, come to find that the little sheet metal actuating bar between the trigger and the sear was ever so slightly bent, I suppose in the original cleaning. After much gentle straightening rebending and trial and error I have it working again. So the moral of this long story is, if you have one of these cheap little pistol dont try to take it apart. squirt it out with gun scrubber or something.