TAKES A LICKIN’ AND KEEPS ON TICKIN’
By MARJ LAW
After a couple months of weekly trips to the range, you lock back the slide and look into the chamber. That ramp thing that used to be a shiny slope of metal is now black. Oops. Yep. It’s shooting residue. The gun is dirty and begging to be cleaned, but first it’s necessary to learn how to fieldstrip the gun and then reassemble it.
You’ve been dreading this day. If you’ve taken one gun apart, does that mean you can take them all apart? Well, no. Darn it.
But all is not lost! Quite a few handguns are fairly easy to take apart.
I really like the ease of taking apart the Smith & Wesson Shield EZ .380 and 9mm handguns. The new Sig Sauer P365 X-Comp also breaks down in a similar fashion as do the Heckler & Koch VP series, the FN 509, the Sig P320 and the Springfield XD series.
Today, let’s take apart the S&W M&P .380 Shield EZ. Why?
Because this is an easy gun to handle and a lot of people have purchased it. The slide pulls back without requiring too much strength. Trigger pull is light and trigger travel is not long. Recoil is light as well. You can buy this handgun with or without a safety. The grip is fairly small, but if you have small hands, you’ll probably not find your pinky finger dangling beneath the grip.
First, read your manual. If you haven’t fieldstripped a gun before, it might not make a whole lot of sense to you just now, but it’s a start. Since I’m right-handed, I’ll explain it as a right-handed person.
Notice the heavy grooves cut into the top rear of the slide. Holding the gun in your left hand with your finger off the trigger, grab those grooves with your right thumb and index finger. Pull the slide all the way towards you until the slide lock rises and the slide locks back. Look into the chamber. Is there any round in the chamber? No? Great! Now press the magazine release button so the magazine will slide out of the grip. When there’s no magazine and no round in the chamber, you can be sure the gun will not fire. No matter what gun you fieldstrip, you want to make sure it is empty before you take it apart. In front of the slide lock is a lever. This is the takedown lever. It has a bunch of thin grooves. Place a thumb on those grooves and press downward until the lever is at a 90-degree angle to its original position.
Hold the slide with your left hand and the grip with your right. Take your right thumb and depress the slide lock. At the same time, guide the slide forward with your left hand. Do not press the grip safety as you do this. Guide the slide assembly forward until it comes away from the lower part of the gun. Presto! Now you have an upper part and a lower part!
Put the lower aside. Take the slide and turn it upside down. See the spring? This is the recoil spring and you’re about to take it out. While covering the spring with your left hand, gently squeeze it where it meets the barrel block. It comes out easily, but you cover it with your left hand just so it doesn’t jump and land on the floor. Reach in and lift the barrel block (with its barrel) out of the slide assembly. In front of you are the barrel, recoil spring and the slide. These three parts comprise the slide assembly.
Congratulations! You have fieldstripped your gun successfully!
Now you can refer to your manual and find all the areas of the gun that need to be cleaned and lubricated. That’s an article for next time. Basically, I allow another half hour to do the job. I’ll tell you my favorite items to have on hand when cleaning a gun. After several cleanings, you’ll find products you like the best. Whatever you use, have them ready ahead of time. You’ll thank yourself!
To put the gun back together, hold the barrel by its barrel block and lower it into the slide frame. Pick up the spring. Which side goes in first? Notice that one end has 2 flat sides and 2 curved sides. Place the opposite end into the hole in the slide that is above the barrel.
You will match one of the two curved sides of the other end into the curved indentation of the barrel block. Squeezing the spring gently, fit this curved side into the barrel block’s curved indentation. Ha! Now all 3 parts of the slide are together again! Holding the lower in your right hand, notice grooves in both the upper and the lower. Align them and move the upper into the grooves of the lower. Push the slide all the way until you can engage the slice lock with your thumb.
One small trick to putting the slide back on this .380 is that you Not push on the grip safety at the same time. As you’re fitting the 2 pieces together, it seems natural to hold the gun by the grip, depressing that safety. Don’t do it! If you do, you’ll find you can’t get the slide on all the way. So, change the way you’re holding the gun and don’t push on that grip safety. See? Now it works.
Before we go, and while the slide is still locked back, it’s time to return the take down lever to its original position. Just take your thumb and flip it upwards until it is parallel to the slide once more.
Release the slide lock. Did you do everything correctly? To check, point the gun in a safe direction and pull the trigger. Yes, even when you know the gun is empty, stay in the habit of pointing it away from anyone when you squeeze a trigger. Now, did you hear the click of the trigger? You did it! Fieldstripping these guns is not so difficult after all.
Marj Law is the former director of Keep Wakulla County Beautiful who has become an avid shooter in retirement.