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Your good friend Tom took you to a range. You rented several handguns, and finally decided you like the S&W .380 EZ the best. It works for you because it is so dang easier to shoot than other guns. The trigger pull is light. Loading is just about as easy as loading your .22. Just pull down the button and drop in the rounds. You love racking the slide because… Yay!!! You can pull that slide back all by yourself. Shooting this gun at the range is great because not only is it so easy to manage (even with the arthritis in your hands), but you managed to hit the target with your first trigger pull! Pretty soon, you’ll be hitting dimes in the air like Annie Oakley! Well, maybe not. Tom said you’ll have to break down and clean your gun before taking it on its maiden shoot. He forgot to tell you that he wouldn’t be around to help. What have you gotten yourself into? Someone has to learn how to take the gun apart. Someone has to clean out any excess shipping goo. Looks like someone is going to be you. First, read the owner’s manual. You might not understand everything at once, but it’s a good start. Onto takedown. First, you have to make positive certain there are no rounds in the gun, even though you know you haven’t loaded the magazine yet. Press the magazine release button to dump the magazine onto the counter. Great. Now, pull back the slide and look into the rectangular space. You want to make sure there is not a round in the chamber. Good. The gun is empty. Sounds silly to doublecheck a new gun, but see what the lack of doublechecking did for what’s his name? Pull the slide all the way back until you can push up the slide lock button. This locks the slide back. Now, notice the takedown lever has some horizontal lines on one side? Pull down on these lines until the lever points downward at right angles to the frame. Holding the grip, take your other hand and push down on the slide release lever. You will be able to move the top of the gun off the frame. Keep your hand off the grip safety while you do this. Put down the frame. Your slide is now in your other hand. Put the slide upside down on the counter. See that thing that looks like a spring? If you push gently backwards on this spring, it will pop out of the small groove that holds it in place. Inside this recoil spring is the guide rod. Pull them out and put them aside. Now, grab the square thing that remains. It’s the barrel block or locking block. Pull it out of the slide. You’ve got the slide apart into three pieces. Make a small container (about 3 by 5 inches) out of a piece of tin foil. Take synthetic solvent and put some in a small dish. Really small: about 1/3 ounce. Dip a Q-tip into the solvent. At the end of your barrel is a lip that looks like a ramp. It is a ramp. It’s where the bullet slides into the barrel. It needs to be shiny clean. Take your wet Q-tip and wipe that ramp until it’s shiny metal. Swipe around the mouth of the barrel: where the bullet enters from the ramp. Take your snake and dip the knot into solvent. From the ramp side of the barrel, pull the snake through all the way until it comes entirely out of the barrel. Dip a microfiber cloth into your solvent. Wipe the recoil spring and the guide rod. Take off any excess with a paper towel or another cloth. Time for the frame. Wipe off the frame’s surfaces. You can use Q-tips or cloths: whatever you can use to get in the grooves. The rails where the slide and frame move together are really important. Sometimes grease or oil gum up in these rails. You need the slide to move easily over the frame, so make sure the rails are clean. Wipe the rails down but do not use solvent on plastic parts of the frame. A plastic dental pick and a thin piece of T-shirt material can help you to get in these narrow places. Good work! Your gun is clean! Before you put it all back together, your owner’s manual will tell you where to lubricate the metal to keep away rust and to make surfaces slide nicely together. Dampen a small square of the T-shirt fabric with oil. Run the cloth along the rails inside the slide and everywhere inside the slide. Wipe down the barrel all over the outside. Wipe the recoil spring and guide rod. Keep lubricants away from the hole where the firing pin comes through. Take your oily cloth and get at the rails on the frame. Now it’s time to reassemble. Drop the barrel back into the upside-down slide. Pick up the guide rod/spring. See the rounded sides on the circle end? Gently compress the rod onto the barrel, with the rounded end of the guide rod into the rounded groove of the barrel block. Turn over the assembly with rod and barrel. Carefully line up the rails of the slide and frame and move the slide onto the frame. Push the slide all the way until you can push up the slide release button to lock the slide back. Remember not to push on the grip safety while you do this. (It’s easy to do, but don’t do it). Your takedown lever is still at 90 degrees to the frame. Rotate it upwards until it is horizontal to the frame and slide. Now, release the slide. Pull the trigger. Hear it click? Easy? What? You pulled the trigger and heard no click? Chances are, you didn’t grab the grip tightly enough. Remember a safety feature of the EZ .380 and the EZ 9 is that the gun won’t fire unless you have a nice firm grip. So, try it again. Ah! The excess packing goop is out of the gun, and your EZ is nicely oiled. You’ve fumbled around, but managed to take it down and reassemble it too! Let’s go find Tom and offer to clean his gun! Well, maybe not today.

Marj Law is the former director of Keep Wakulla County  Beautiful who has become an avid shooter in retirement.

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