Guns More Fun to Shoot Than Clean

Okay, I know there are literally no guns more fun to clean than shoot but there are guns that are not bad to clean.  Walther PP/PPK, all Browning semiautomatic pistols in my experience, AR15. 

There are guns where a full field strip is a real pain, such as an M1A if you get down to disassembling the bolt.

And the subject of this cri de couer: the Marlin Camp Carbine.   If you are younger than me, you may not be aware of it. It was short-lived, coming into existence just before the assault weapons panic of the 1990s made detachable magazine semiautomatic firearms inherently evil.

I used to recommend it as an appropriate home defense gun for those who lived in states where buying a handgun was difficult.   It was short and thus handy for inside house movement against an intruder.  It was chambered in either 9mm Parabellum or .45 ACP.  The .45 uses M1911 magazines which were cheap and everywhere.  But I only only once saw a 15 round M1911 magazine. The 9mm used S&W double stack magazines.   I over the years purchased some 17 and 25 round magazines for that pistol. 

Additionally, the use of pistol magazines meant that if you carried the corresponding pistol in your car, the carbine simplified keeping a ready reserve of magazines for both.  I had a folding stock for it that made it a very compact trunk gun on my commute to my Bend, Oregon job some years ago.

I took it to the range Saturday to see if some tragically unreliable Russian-made Brown Bear ammo would work in it.  It seemed to do so but it started refusing to reliably feed.   Then the bolt locked back and no manipulation of controls would release it.

When I got home, I remembered that the last I fired it, the prospect of field stripping was so upsetting that I had settled for spraying out the receiver and bolt assembly instead of removing the bolt.  Accumulated crap probably explained the jam.

After removing the roll pins that hold lower assembly to bolt and receiver, i was able to remove the bolt by lightly tapping the operating handle with a small mallet.  The bolt left the receiver with enthusiasm. 

After a thorough cleaning, the hard part came.  After getting the bolt and operating handle back in the receiver, it seemed impossible to get the roll pins back in place. Eventually, I found that pulling back on the bolt, putting the lower assembly in position and inserting the roll pin at the rear allowed  me to press the front of the lower assembly into position for the front pin to secure everything.   It really is not that hard.  I suppose if I did this regularly enough I would remember and it would not be such a pain.