How many folks have lost that tiny detent ball for the safety while working on an old (or new) Crosman, Benjamin, etc? This is a little trick that I have used quite often as a substitute for those little balls when someone brings me a gun to repair, and it is missing.

When you buy a new shirt, they are usually pinned in place on the carboard former, and the straight pins that are used generally have small, alloy balls, or sometimes teardrops, formed at the heads. I have found these to be the perfect size, and if you clip the straight pin off about 3/16" from the ball end, you have a nice, built in spring guide. A couple new shirts will net you a dozen or more of these pins.

Other applications where these "pin heads" can be used as replacements are for the tensioner in the thumb slide of the Crosman 600, the tensioner in the bolts of vintage Crosman and Benjamin pistols and rifles, and pretty well anywhere else that a small spring loaded ball is needed.