It was a harrowing night, full of suspense, bravery and most of all idiocy, but I did it. I'm sure it was quite a sight, me with a paintball mask on, gloves, a paintball padded tactical vest and a hoody, holding a wake board up like a shield, sweating profusely as I disarmed the IED, I mean pellet gun. I used a variety of approaches, starting with the trigger. As I reached around either side of my blast shield I took a screwdriver and gently tapped out the pin that held the safety. After the pin dropped I pulled out the safety and set it aside. I hid behind the shield holding a hammer by the head and tapped the trigger with the handle. Nothing. I hit it again and there was a loud click. Something definitely happened. I looked again and the spring didn't look quite so compressed! Encouraged, I then went and got a heavy blanket and canvas bag. I put the blanket over the c-clamp and hooked the bag onto the bench so that the spring and guide and blanket would be caught with the the bag. I SLOWLY eased out the c-clamp and saw that the two screwdrivers were indeed keeping the endcap in on their own. I then slowly undid the c-clamp completely. I took a rope and strung it up over the garage door opener and tied the other end to the screwdriver that was in the top hole. I opened the garage door about 3 feet up and went outside with the rope. I gave it a quick yank and the top screwdriver popped out. Now the spring was contained only by the side screwdriver. I put a zip tie over the small screwdriver and tied it onto the rope. I went outside again. I gave the rope a sharp yank.... CRASH!! The whole bench toppled over!! What an idiot!! I went in and saw that although the bench had fallen over the screwdriver was still firmly in the hole. I slowly and ever-so-carefully grabbed the bench and righted it. After wiping the sweat from my eyes I spied a heavy blue tiedown I usually use for putting the kayak on the car. I hooked that up to the bench and the other end of it to the interior garage door. Now I *knew* that the bench couldn't fall over again so I headed outside. I gave the rope a sharp pull and the end of the rope and the screwdriver came flying out. I didn't hear a bang, crash or angels singing. I went back into the garage and looked in the bag-- the spring was in there!
I will look at the gun over the next week and see what's up and why I had this issue to begin with. I had done several things to it including using a homemade spring guide and I replaced the trashed leather seal with a synthetic one that I filled with two pennies and two dimes. Obviously some work needs to be done on the trigger before I reassemble this monster.
Thanks everybody for your words of wisdom and well wishes!
