Jim's Browning '74C series 9mm

[Ninurta]

@"Ninurta" @"Snarl"  .... to pick up where we left off in the shoutbox, you guys were asking about the safety.

Here is the safety (the mag is out) --- being as it looks as tho the safety is OFF
And yes, it looks rusty in this picture

Yeah, that safety is "off" or in "fire" mode. When it's on safe, the little hook fits into the notch on the slide. It looks like it may not be fully in "off" position - the "hook" on the safety looks like it might be impeding rearward movement of the slide, but not fully engaged or full disengaged, either. If it won't move at all, that might need a gunsmith.

There isn't enough rust on the outside to be a safety issue, but there is no telling what the internals of the action may look like without disassembling it.

It isn't disengaged. It needs to be a full 1/4 inch lower at least.

I'm not going to tell anyone that I would hit it with a little WD-40 and work it up and down for a half hour before going outside and play with the trigger and slide a little bit...

~innocent look~

There's an idea. Someone willing to tinker might hit it with some WD40 and let it sit a few minutes, then lightly tap it with a rubber hammer a few times to see it it will loosen up enough to become sightly operational - just enough to disassemble it, for instance.

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