I was cleaning my guns the other day and came to the end where I was packing away my tools, and throwing away dirty patches. When I was folding up my cleaning pad, to my dismay I saw a tiny spring and had no idea which gun it came from. A felt a small sinking feeling in my gut.

I’m turning to the TFB community to see if a sharp eye can identify this spring. Can you help?

Here’s the info I can provide regarding the circumstances:

– I was cleaning the following guns:

1) Noveske N4 AR-15: I pushed out the rear takedown pin and pulled the bolt carrier and charging handle. I took the bolt carrier down to the pin and bolt assembly, and no further. I snaked the barrel, and then reassembled everything.

2) Benelli M2 shotgun: I simply snaked the barrel.

3) Glock 34 pistol: I took the Glock down to the frame, slide, barrel, guide rod and spring. I cleaned those parts and reassembled the pistol.

I cleaned these guns in the same manner I have always cleaned them, and I’ve never seen any spring show up.  When I re-checked my guns, I didn’t see any obviously missing springs. My guess is that the spring is from my AR-15, but that’s just an educated guess.

The spring looks like it is uncompromised, meaning that it doesn’t look like it was sheared off or bent.

I eagerly await your comments, thank you!

10/2/13 UPDATE: I have function tested and fired all three weapons, and they are running like normal, so the mystery continues. At some point, I will probably strip everything down to try and identify the spring, and when I do I will provide another update. I appreciate everyone’s help!