Hello friends.
As mentioned a while back, I'm attempting to restore a couple old guns that my dad left me when he died. I have a S&W 19-3 here, and before I get it refinished I wanted to make sure everything was it good order. It's worn, but otherwise looks okay, I think. Everything is here except the bolt plunger and spring, which was here until I left it go flying like a complete retard and it was never seen again. It's only like $10 but dammit... Now to be clear, this thing was 95% disassembled when I got it, so I don't know for sure that this was ever all one piece, although I believe it was. Here's the thing. The side plate doesn't fit the frame.
No, hold on. I don't mean it's hung up on the hammer block. I mean that even with the guts completely pulled out of the gun, the side plate won't drop in. I gave it a couple light taps with a hammer just to be sure, and the thing just plain does not fit. I've watched several videos on how it's supposed to go, and it just... doesn't.
Should this ever happen? Could it possibly be from a different gun of the same type? I've read some things that say the slide plate is fitted to the specific gun. Or am I just retarded?