Shooting Pouch and Contents

I am planning to shoot in another woods walk tomorrow at Boyertown and in preparation went through my shooting pouch, so I thought it was a good opportunity to do a post on the contents. I will be shooting my .50 caliber George Dech flintlock longrifle, so the bag is setup to support it.

The bag itself was made by The Leatherman. I bought it many years ago at Dixon's. Although it was made to be worn on the right hip I wear it hanging on my left. If I can get motivated I may reverse the strap but that will require a lot of restitching.

I've previously posted about the horn, which came from October Country and then refinished by me.

The contents of the pouch are limited to support shooting and maintaining the rifle for a day or two of shooting. I could carry a few more things but then it would require fishing around in the bag too much.

First, note that I have a vent pick and pan brush hanging from the shoulder strap of the bag. I use the vent pick before priming the pan for each shot. This ensures that the vent is clear and allows me to confirm that I didn't dry ball.

On the top left is an Altoids tin containing cotton cleaning patches, some tow, a .50 caliber cleaning jag, and a US M1817-style worm to use with the tow. I also carry a small bottle of 70% rubbing alcohol in my jacket for use as a cleaning solvent. Running a damp patch down the bore between shots keeps loading easy and makes it so that my final cleaning isn't as difficult.

To the right of that is a tin with 30 0.018" shooting patches lubed with pure neatsfoot oil, and to the right of that is my powder measure, attached to the bag with a leather thong.

In the middle row is a leather bag containing 30 .490" round balls and next to that is my priming flask full of 3Fg powder. That will be carried in a jacket pocket during the shoot.

Below that is a flint/tool wallet and its contents: two lens wipes for my eyeglasses or the frizzen if it gets really dirty, ball pulling screw, patch pulling worm, three flints, and a piece of leather for holding the flint in the hammer.

This pic shows the back of the bag as well as the inside of the flint/tool wallet. It also shows the flint knapping hammer I carry in the bottom of the bag but forgot to take out for the first picture. I can use it to refresh the edge of a worn flint without removing it from the hammer.

I've previously used a small set of hand forged pliers for flint knapping, but Boyertown's rules require using a brass, non-sparking implement if knapping the flint when a charge is down the bore. I can't argue with that so I picked up the hammer shown since their last shoot.

Passed the GIAC GCIH Certification Exam Today

Today I passed the GIAC Certified Incident Handler (GCIH) exam. I previously reviewed the SANS Course, SEC504, which is the prep class for this exam.

In my previous career I was an attorney. After switching into IT, I took several certifications including COMPTIA's A+, Network+, and Linux+, along with getting my MCSE in Windows NT4 (yeah, I'm old). The GCIH exam was the most difficult test I've taken since the Pennsylvania Bar Exam.

The test consists of 106 multiple choice questions, about 10 or 11 of which require the use of a "CyberLive" virtual machine to perform a task. The test is open book with a minimum passing score of 70%, and there's a four hour time limit. I used up about 3 hours, with one very brief bathroom break.

If you search online for tips on passing GIAC exams, the one common theme is that you need to prepare a really good index of the course materials. SANS actually includes a course material index in their downloadable materials but you want to create your own, because the primary value of the index is the absorbtion of knowledge you get while creating it.

The way I built my index was as follows:

1. Created a MS Excel spreadsheet with one tab for each of the five course books, plus a "Combined" tab.
2. I then went through each book and indexed concepts and terms.
3. Next, I assigned a different color to each book.
4. Copied the contents of each book's tab over to the Combined tab.
5. Used the Excel Sort function to sort the entries alphabetically.
6. Copied this sorted table into MS Word and printed it.
7. I put the printed index along with a bunch of cheat sheets into a 1/2" 3-ring binder.

I also used color-coded Post-It notes to make tabs for key sections in each book. The colors of the Post-Its matched the colors in my index. So, for example if I looked in the index for a term and it was color-coded yellow, I knew immediately to grab the book with yellow Post-Its sticking out.

Overall, I think I reviewed the SEC504 books three times, and did the labs at least twice each.  Another thing I did was sign up for a TryHackMe.com account and worked through some exercises relating to topics that the GIAC practice tests showed needed more attention from me, especially Metasploit and SQL injection. 

I'm currently working my way through TryHackMe's Junior Penetration Tester learning path, but that'll be the subject for another post.

Shot the .36 Flintlock Again Today

Today I took the .36 flintlock rifle to the range again.

Before heading out, I setup a new Delrin ramrod for it that I got in my last order from Track of the Wolf. It's 5/16" in diameter with brass tip threaded to take 8-32 accessories. I cut it to a couple inches longer than the bore and then added another brass tip on the other end. That one is threaded to take 10-32 accessories. Because the ramrod thimbles are sized for a 3/8" rod and ramrod hole was drilled a bit large for a .36, I'm able to fully seat the rod in the gun without it being tapered on one end.

If your ramrod has brass or steel tips I strongly recommend pinning them in place. Even if they are glued on and a tight friction fit, they can pull off if you try to pull a ball, or get a tight cleaning patch stuck down near the breach. Drilling and cross-pinning them will prevent that.

For my first group of 5 shots I tried .358" balls in .015" patches. These were a real bear to seat flush with the muzzle, so I don't think I'll be trying that combination again unless/until I cone it. Once past the muzzle they seated on the powder without excess effort.

My remaining shots were with .350" balls in .020" patches. These were easy to seat with my short starter and of course, seated easily on the powder. I used October Country's Bumblin Bear Grease for lubing all the patches.

All told I fired about 24 or 25 shots today and experience no hang fires or misfires. However, I found that it was difficult for me to get consistent groups. I am 99% certain it's due to the front sight, which is only .06" wide and rounded on top, so how I see it is really affected by changes in lighting.

As an experiment, I didn't swab between shots for about the last 11 rounds. I was still able to seat the last ball easily.

Those final 11 shots were fired at steel gongs. I whacked an ~8" gong a few times and it didn't visibly move, although it rang nicely, especially when I bumped my powder charge from 35 to 40 grains of 3Fg Goex. A smaller gone, probably about 6" square did visibly move. This is actually giving me second thoughts about using this rifle in woods walks where you shoot at steel gong targets.

After I got home and finished cleaning the rifle I measured the width of the front sight on my George Dech .50 longrifle and found that it's .08". It also has a nearly vertical rear face. This front sight is much easier for me to see than the one on the .36, so I ordered a similar front sight from Track of the Wolf.

Along with the new front sight I ordered a 5 pound box of Hornady 000 buckshot, which they swage to .350" diameter. While the Hornady .350" round balls sold for use in muzzleloaders are pure lead, the buckshot has a little antimony in it. According to a few folks on the Muzzleloading Forum the buckshot works fine in .36 muzzleloaders. ASSuming this works out it's definitely cheaper than buying 100 count boxes of .350" round balls.

Note: Some manufacturers of 000 buck make it at .360". Likewise, Lee 000 buckshot molds nominally cast .360" balls. Hornady may use the same swages for .350" muzzleloader balls and 000 buckshot.

Anyway, I am hoping that with the new front sight I'll be able to shoot the rifle better.

Shot the .36 Flintlock Rifle Today

I shot the rifle today and a load consisting of a .350 ball, 0.020" patch lubed with October Country Bumblin Bear Grease, and 40 grains of Goex 3Fg shows promise.

I started with 30 grains of powder and also tried 0.015" and 0.018" patches but they don't group as well. Recoil with 30 grains was on par with a .22 while 40 grains has slightly more push.

A member of the Muzzleloading Forum today posted that he has had good results in a Green Mountain .36 barrel using a .358 ball in a 0.015” patch. Track of the Wolf carries .358s so I’ll add a bag to my next order with them.

Once I settle on a load I'll adjust the sights so POA = POI at 50 yards. Currently it's shooting 2" or 3" to the right.

 

A .36 Caliber Flintlock Rifle by C. Gibson

Today I picked up this left handed flintlock rifle at Dixon's.

Greg Dixon wasn't sure who built it but after getting it home I found it marked "C. Gibson '08" in the stock behind the patchbox. It's not signed on the barrel.

Some googling has not revealed any contemporary makers by that name, so I'm thinking it was put together by a talented hobbyist. Regardless, it's pretty well built and appears to have been fired very little.

Greg had actually done the engraving on the patchbox and toe plate, so I asked him to note that on the receipt.

The stock profile and trigger guard look very much like those found on the Isaac Haines rifle kits that Track of the Wolf formerly sold, which is nice because it's probably my favorite style of rifle.

The major components are all good stuff:

• Barrel: Green Mountain 42” long x 13/16” octagon
• Caliber: .36
• Twist: Unknown but my SWAG is 1:48"
• Finish: In the white
• Lock: Large LH Siler flint
• Triggers: Davis double-set
• Stock: Unknown wood, pretty plain grain but with some nice carving and a cheekpiece inlay.

Although a smallbore it's no lightweight rifle:

• Weight: 8.7 lbs.
• OAL: 58”
• LOP: 14”

It came with a vent pick attached with leather thong tied to trigger guard.

This is my first muzzleloading rifle smaller than .45 caliber. Along with the rifle I bought suitable ramrod accessories, a box of Hornady .350 balls, a bag of 0.018" ticking patches, and a bag of 0.015" patches to try.

The rifle came with a 5/16" ramrod but the channel in the stock is sized for 9mm or 3/8" rods, as are the thimbles. The top two thimbles have thin pieces of leather glued inside to keep the rod snug.

Depending on the weather I maybe able to get it to the range tomorrow, else it'll have to wait.

I'm looking forward to figuring out an accurate load and using it for target shooting, woods walks, and maybe small game.

Shot my first Woods Walk

I've been shooting muzzleloaders for over 40 years. However, yesterday I shot in my first ever woods walk match and had a lot of fun. I've been wanting to try one for a while and watching the videos from the Folk Firearms Collective certainly spurred my interest even more.

I'll definitely be doing it again.

The walk was held at the Boyertown Rod and Gun Association. The fellow there were very welcoming to this newcomer. The course of fire was 20 shots at varying distances. Each station was 3 shots, except for #1 and #20. The first target was an easy gong at maybe 15 yards, while the final target was a pushpin at about 10 yards. I missed that one.

The turnout was pretty good, around twenty shooters. I was pleased to see a group of Scouts participating, working on their muzzleloading merit badge.

The guns used ran the gamut from custom flintlock rifles like mine, to Investarm Hawkens, and one T/C Seneca .36 caplock. In order to help prevent the targets from being excessively damaged, Boyertown has a rule to keep calibers at .54 and below. Being in Pennsylvania, I expected to see flintlock predominate but the field seemed pretty evenly split between flinters and caplocks.

The last couple of trips I made to the range at my club with my flintlock longrifle, I did most of my loading from my shooting pouch but doing a woods walk provides a better shakedown for your gear.

My patches were lubed with 100% pure neatsfoot oil. I've used this in the past and was able to run over 20 shorts through my rifle without swabbing, but that may have been with a lighter powder charge. The air may have been more humid as well, which helps keep fouling soft.

Yesterday, I wound up swabbing between shots and a little extra between stations, to keep the crud down. Normally I use pillow ticking patches with .490 balls. I have some .480 balls I may try in the next shoot to ease loading. I got decent accuracy with them at 50 yards. The looser fit may allow me to load more times between swabbing.

Here is what I carried:

• My George Dech flintlock longrifle. One thing I did at home so I didn't have to do so at the range was run a couple patches down the bore to remove the oil I use when it's being stored. I then ran a patch with October Country's Bumblin Bear Grease patch lube down it.
• I brought a range rod with me but left it in my truck. I might bring it along with me the next time I do a woods walk.
• Powder horn containing FFFg black powder. At 70 grains per shot I went through most of my powder. I need to see if I can get suitable accuracy and a similar POI with a lighter charge.

Shooting pouch contents:

• Antler measure holding 70 grains of black powder, dummy corded to the bag.
• Priming flask, dummy corded to the bag. I may just move this to my pocket.
• Ball bag containing 25 round balls. I might replace this with a ball flask that can more easily dispense balls. E.g., https://www.octobercountry.com/hard-leather-bullet-bag-flask/ 
• A screw top tin containing 25 lubricated shooting patches. They were lubed with neatsfoot oil.
• Small, hand forged pliers (can also be used to reshape a flint but the Boyertown rules require you to use a brass instrument to do so if the gun has a charge in it. Today I ordered a brass knapping hammer from Track of the Wolf.
• Short starter. Even though my muzzle is coned I still used it because it gets a crud ring a few inches down the bore after a shot or two.
• Vent pick and brush hanging from bag strap (I never used the brush but picked the vent before each shot.)
• Rag, used to wipe down the flint, frizzen, pan, and my hands.

Inside the pouch I had tool wallet containing:

• 3 spare flints.
• Two or three pieces of leather for holding the flint in the hammer.
• Hand forged turnscrew.
• Ball puller.
• Patch worm.
• Two lens wipes with alcohol on them in case the frizzen really needed cleaning, but the rag was sufficient.

In a jacket pocket I carried a cleaning kit so I could swab the bore:

• Small bottle of rubbing alcohol.
• Altoids tin containing:
• Cotton flannel cleaning patches (I mostly used these instead of tow.)
• Hemp tow
• Cleaning jag
• M1817-style worm with tow pre-wrapped around it

Next time I might bring a ziplock bag or a tin with pre-moistened cleaning patches in it.

I recently joined the Pennsylvania Federation of Black Powder Shooters. In looking at the booklet they publish with match schedules in it, it looks like there are a few clubs within reasonable driving distance.

The Woodland Escape YouTube Channel

Last week I discovered The Woodland Escape YouTube channel, created by Peter Kelly and Catherine Wolfe up in Ontario, Canada. I've been binge watching it since then. They've put out some great content on 18th and 19th Century living history. This morning I watched this one on what he carries in his shooting pouch and also about making them:

This is the kind of content that The History Channel should be showing, instead of Ancient Space Alien Nazis on the Dark Side of the Moon. Two thumbs up!

More Flintlock Practice

Yesterday I got out to the range again with my flintlock longrifle for some more practice.

My shooting was frankly, bad, due to poor follow through. Black powder guns in general, but flintlocks in particular, require you to maintain your form after you pull the trigger because the lock time in slow. The 41.5" barrel of this rifle compound the need for follow through even more.

I had a hard time with all that yesterday. After shooting a rather crummy offhand group on paper I spent the rest of the time banging an 18" or so gong, which I was able to do regularly.

That said, a mediocre day at the range beats a good day in the office!

The Delrin ramrod I fitted to the gun a week and a half ago got its initial use. It's whippier than I'd like but I don't need to worry about it breaking on me.

One thing I noticed was that with the October Country Bumblin Bear Grease lube I was using, the rifle develops a crud ring of fouling a few inches down the bore if I didn't wipe between shots. Even though the rifle's muzzle is coned, I found myself using a short starter to get the ball past that ring of fouling.

I also tried using spit for patch lube and wiping between shots. For targets this seems to work fine. I'll note that the cotton flannel cleaning patches don't have much of a taste but the pillow ticking I use for shooting patches is a bit tangy.

Another patch lube I've used in the past is 100% pure neatsfoot oil. I was able to fire over 20 shots without wiping, but that was before I had coned the muzzle and used a short starter as a matter of course. I plan to try it again and see if I still get that crud ring.

Last week I joined the Pennsylvania Federation of Black Powder Shooters, and I'm looking forward to getting the booklet they publish which lists matches. I'm hoping to find a woods walk or two within reasonable driving distance of southeast Pennsylvania, so I want to get my loading from the pouch routine dialed in.

Deer Camp Dinner Pics

Last Friday a friend and I went to his cabin on 65 acres in Tioga County, PA for the opening of firearms season. We hunted Saturday and again on Sunday but then really bad rain blew in and we bailed.

He missed a big buck at ~210 yards Saturday morning (for which I busted his chops) and the rest of the deer we saw over the weekend were does. Both of us already tagged out on does during the early muzzleloader season, so they all got to walk. We may go up again for flintlock in January.

Anyway, Friday night's dinner was backstrap from the fat corn-fed doe I shot in October.

We cooked it on the cabin's wood stove, along with sliced red potatoes, onions, and garlic.

Paper plate, because it's a primitive cabin with no running water and we like to limit the dishes we need to wash.

This was one of the best pieces of meat I have ever had. Absolutely no gaminess and if I didn't know better, I would have thought it was top quality beef.

How to make for those so inclined:

• Pre-season both sides of the meat with Montreal Steak Seasoning to taste (or don't).
• Pre-heat your skillet with olive oil in it until you can flick a drop of water into it so that it pops. Then put in the meat which will sear on the bottom side. Flip over after about 4 minutes. Cook on that side for another 4 minutes. Remove from the heat to rest for a few minutes.
• Optional: Deglaze the pan by pouring in some red wine or some other spirit, let it reduce, then pour over the meat. We didn't have any wine with us so we didn't do that and I wasn't about to pour Longbranch bourbon into a hot frying pan.

How we made the side:

• Slice up small red potatoes so that they are pretty thin. Also slice up one large or two small onions and a few cloves of garlic.
• Fry the potatoes and garlic in olive oil, turning occasionally. Cook until they are starting to turn golden brown then add the sliced onions. Cook until the onions are soft.

Proceed to stuff your face.

Serves two.

Delrin Ramrod for my Longrifle

My longrifle, which is a reworked Dixie Tennessee Mountain Rifle, came with the original ramrod. It was made of some mystery wood by Miroku and was 9mm in diameter (a standard metric dowel size). I've managed to damage a ramin wood replacement that I bought several years ago and then this happened yesterday at the range with the original rod:

(Several years ago there was a shortage of hickory ramrods so ramin was offered as a replacement. IMHO, it is inferior to hickory.)

Thankfully, I didn't get stuck. Last night I ordered a couple hickory replacements from Track but I later also found a Delrin 9mm rod that I'd bought from them but never fit to my rifle, and forgot about. I fixed that this morning.

It needed some tapering down towards the bottom so it'll fit inside the stock. Some 60 grit sandpaper worked for that. After I was finished fitting it I sanded it to 220 grit which gives it some faux grain so that it doesn't look too plasticky.

The brass tip was not pinned to the rod which is a recipe for losing it down the bore. The tip has a snug fit on the rod but I drilled a hole and pinned it with a piece of .098" diameter brass rod, peened over on both ends.

Thin Delrin ramrods tend to be whippy but won't break. They are less abrasive to the bore than fiberglass or aluminum. I'll be more comfortable taking the rifle into the woods with this ramrod in place.

Shot the Coned Muzzle Longrifle Today

I took this afternoon off and went to the range with my longrifle, having coned the muzzle for easier loading last weekend. As others have reported and I hoped, the group size and point of impact were unchanged at 50 yards. This target was shot offhand at 50 yards with .490 patched round balls on top of 70 grains of 3Fg black powder. The bullseye is 5.5" in diameter. My point of aim was at 6:00.

I also got the chance to use the M-1817 style worm I recently bought from Track of the Wolf. In the 18th and early 19th Centuries, cloth was too expensive to waste in cleaning gun barrels, so tow was wrapped around a worm and used to scrub out the barrel. Tow is waste material left over from processing flax or other fibers. The stuff I have is hemp tow.

When used in this manner the tow acts like a bore brush. Afterwards it can be rinsed out and reused, or repurposed as wadding in smoothbores, or used as a bird's nest for starting a fire.

Coned the Muzzle of my Longrifle

Back in the 18th - 19th Centuries in the US, most rifle shooters did not use short starters. Instead, most rifles had internally coned muzzles. In other words, the muzzles were funneled so that a patched round ball could be started with thumb pressure, and then seated home with the ramrod. Eventually barrel coning fell out of favor but has been rediscovered in the past couple decades.

Cabin Creek Muzzleloading list barrel coning as a service. There are also a couple of tools you can buy that will allow you to do it yourself. I recently purchased one of these from Joe Wood, who posts under the name "flintsteel" on the Muzzleloading Forum. There is a thread about purchasing the tool, here.

I should note that when I mailed Wood my check he was away on vacation. He called to let me know that there would be a delay, and after he returned from his cabin he called to let me know that he was shipping the tool I ordered. I couldn't be more pleased with his service.

This morning I finally got around to using the Wood tool to cone the muzzle of my George Dech Pennsylvania rifle. This pic is a few years old, taken while hunting at my friend's land in Tioga County, PA.

The tool is a tapered brass mandrel that you afix a piece of wet/dry sandpaper to using carpet tape or an adhesive. I tried both and carpet tape is much better. I used three grades of paper: 220, 320, and 400 grit.

You will also need a tap wrench to use as a handle for rotating the tool. Wood recommends dismounting the barrel from the stock and rotating both the tool and the barrel simultaneously, in order to grind out the cone evenly.

Before starting I pushed a couple cleaning patches down the bore to a little below where the tool stopped, and left them there. This way they'd catch grit and metal particles and can be removed later with a patch worm.

The instructions state to periodically check your progress with a ball and patch. I used a .490 ball and dry 0.020" patch material. Once you can seat it with a dry patch about halfway it's done. However, I went further and can fully seat the ball. I did this because I want it really easy to seat, especially since I normally use 0.018" pillow ticking for patches, lubed with Track of the Wolf's Mink Oil Tallow, or October Country's Bumblin Bear Grease.

I wound up using three pieces of 220 grit, three of 320 grit, and two of 400 grit. The 220 is what does the bulk of metal removal while you polishing with the higher grits. After two rounds with 400 grit, the coned out area shined like a mirror.

Over on YouTube, Mike Beliveau did three videos on coning a rifle barrel with Joe Wood's tool and shooting it afterwards.

I recommend watching the first video before using the tool.

After I get to shoot the rifle I'll post a follow up.

Hornet Nests

The leaves on the magnolia tree in front of my house finally all fell on Friday and yesterday we found these:

Not one, but THREE hornet nests in one tree. The one in the middle is huge, at least 18" tall by a foot wide. Never seen nests close together like this.

Yeesh. I've lived in this subdivision since 1979 and never saw even one hornet nest until about 15 years ago.

I was running a leaf blower underneath them last weekend, and my lawn guy was here Thursday mowing. Both those activities are known to aggravate hornets so I'm virtually certain the nests are no longer active.

We had a couple hard frosts a week or so ago so I think they are just about dead. However, I hosed them down with wasp spray (I have a pole that holds the can and allows me to get it right up to the nest). I saw one hornet come out of the nest on the right when I sprayed, but nothing else.

It's going to be warm this week but hopefully it'll cool off again next week and I can take them down.

They'll give me a nice supply of wadding material for my muzzleloaders. They can be used between the powder charge and a patched roundball, or over-powder and over-shot wads in a smoothbore. I've been wanting to try that for awhile so I'm not entirely unhappy about finding these things out front.

Successful Muzzleloader Deer Hunt

Pennsylvania's early muzzleloader antlerless deer season was last week. PA was one of the first states to have a muzzleloader-only season but for decades this started the day after Christmas and was flintlock-only. That season is still available and is for antlered or antlerless deer, but the early antlerless-only season is a more recent addition. In the early season, any .44 caliber or larger muzzleloader is legal, so a lot of guys use percussion or inline rifles.

My friend N. owns about 65 acres in Tioga County, which is in north central PA, just south of NY. We went up there last week to catch the tail end of the early antlerless season.

Late Friday, he took a shot at a doe but it was a clean miss. He shot high because the sights on his rifle are difficult to see especially in the wrong light. (He has plans to fix this.)

Saturday morning we got on stand. At 8:05 AM I heard a shot from the direction where he posted up and when I got to him, saw that he'd bagged a button buck. The .440 round ball from his Euroarms Kentuckian Carbine flintlock had passed through both lungs and must have hit a major blood vessel, because the deer bled out almost immediately and collapsed after running 15 feet.

I went and got my truck while N. field dressed it. We loaded it into the back of my Xterra and took it up to the campsite where we skinned and quartered it, and put it on ice. We had that done by lunchtime.

After eating lunch, then relaxing for awhile with a Guiness and a cigar each, we headed back out to a different part of the property at about 3:00 PM (closing time was 6:49 PM). He came with me to help with dressing and dragging out a deer if I got lucky.

At about 5:40 PM I had to stand up and stretch. I noticed a doe grazing in the field in front of us, about 60 or 70 yards out. I sat back down and a second doe appeared. I signaled to N. that we had a couple deer in sight.

Both of the deer were large. There's a cornfield and a couple pear trees across the street from N.'s land so they've been feeding well.

For a few minutes I peered over the burlap blind as the deer slowly worked their way towards us. At one point both were broadside but one was behind the other and I didn't want to risk wounding it if I shot the one closest to me.

Eventually, I had a clear broadside shot presented to me and I stood up to clear the blind, placed my front sight bead behind her shoulder and touched off the shot. The .490 round ball from my Cabela's (Investarm) Hawken caplock hit right where I aimed.

Strangely, the other deer didn't immediately bolt. Rather, it stomped and snorted at us, and even advanced a little towards us before turning and running. If N. hadn't already tagged out that morning he probably could have shot this one.

As we eventually discovered, the ball didn't exit and because it was a high lung shot the blood trail was poor, but we tracked it down in about 15 minutes. We decided not to wait before tracking it because we were running short on daylight. Normally we'd wait 30 minutes to allow the deer to lay down and expire. But all's well that ends well, and we got the second deer of the day up to the campsite, skinned and quartered, and on ice.

Something we noticed on these deer was that they both had large quantities of fat reserves under their skin. I saved a gallon Ziploc bag of fat to be rendered down into deer tallow, which will make good patch lube.

N. has an extra fridge that the deer is now in. He wound up having to bone out all the meat because the legs wouldn't fit in his meat bins. With the bones and fat cut out we have over 80 pounds of meat! I'll be going over to his house next weekend to help process it.

We always try to learn lessons and do better. N. is going to put better sights on his rifle. I'm planning to experiment with heavier powder charges in my rifle to improve the chances of a complete pass through if I shoot another large deer with it. Aside from increasing the powder charger to more than 70 grains, I also have some Hornady Great Plains bullets and may try some Maxi balls.

Made an aluminum field rod for my Cabela's Hawken

I wanted a ramrod that was a bit longer than my Cabela's Hawken's 29" barrel, and one I won't have to worry about breaking in the field. I rummaged around in my shop and found a piece of aluminum rod that was 36" long x 3/8" diameter, the same as the factory wood rod.

I put the rod in the bore and then marked it a few inches about the muzzle then cut it off with a hacksaw. Then I used my lathe to face the ends, then drill and tap each end to accept 10-32 threaded accessories like cleaning jags, worms, and ball screws. Finally, I sanded it with some 220 grit sandpaper so that it's smooth but not too shiny.

The aluminum rod is slightly heavier than the wood rod but not nearly as much as a brass rod would be.

Testing my threading job with a .58 caliber jag that was on my workbench:

With a long .50 caliber jag on the end it sticks out several inches, to give me a decent grip:

And finally, stowed in place under the rifle. I'll keep the jag in my shooting pouch when in the field.

By drilling and tapping both ends I can affix an extension or T-handle to one and a jag or ball puller to the other.

The primary use for this rod will be when hunting. I use a thinner, stainless steel range rod with a muzzle guide when practicing. I might use it if I even shoot on a woods walk.

This is another example of why it's handy to have a small lathe and some drills and taps if you're a shooter.

New Video from the Folk Firearms Collective

My favorite black powder shooting videos on YouTube are from Denny and Alina at the Folk Firearms Collective. After a few years with no new videos, they have a new one up today.

Check it out.

 

Tested the Workmate Shooting Bench Today

I took the Workmate and gun holder insert over to my friend's house today, where we can shoot in his yard.

The rifles are my Steve Krolick Cossack rifle and my friend's Euroarms Kentuckian carbine. This setup could not have worked better. I left it with him since he has more room in his van than I do in my Xterra. Hell bring it with him when we go upstate in a couple weeks.

Black and Decker Workmate 225 Craigslist Score

This morning I picked up this slightly used Black and Decker Workmate 225 that I found on Craigslist, from a seller about 10 minutes away, and it only cost me $15. I just had to clean off some dirt and cobwebs, and then I lubed all the pivots with Pedro's Ice Wax dry film bike chain lube. I used that because once it dries it doesn't leave behind an oily film that will collect dust.

I'm going to make another gun holder insert and take this one up to my friend's off-grid cabin. He's got a vise we can leave up there as well, and we're also going to make a set of sawbucks to use with it.

Compared with the cheap Harbor Freight portable folding workbench that I already had, this is a lot more robust.

This unit is older but Black & Decker still makes it. If you cannot find a used one they are available at home centers or on Amazon.

A Portable Shooting Table for Muzzleloaders

Now that my canoe gun is back in one piece I want to prevent a recurrence of having the gun fall over and breaking something.

I have this portable foldable workbench that I bought years ago from Harbor Freight. The current price is $19.99 but I paid only $5 for it. It's a cheap knock-off of a Black and Decker WorkMate. Inspired by this thread on Bushcraft USA, I threw together an insert that I can use to turn it into a portable loading and cleaning table for my muzzleloaders.

I used scrap lumber I had laying around along with a few drywall screws and some Titebond II wood glue.

The center piece is a length of 1x3 that's been laying under my shed, hence the weathered appearance. The end on the right is made from some 1x4, doubled on the "wings" to help prevent splitting. I know my cuts look like crap. I should have used a saw with a finer blade to prevent splintering.

The notches on the right side and the other end give me plenty of options for holding guns and range rods, and I can put a range box on top.

Got the Lock Back from Cabin Creek Muzzleloading

I am really impressed with Brad Emig at Cabin Creek Muzzleloading. Last Monday, he received the Siler lock that I shipped him and he called me on Wednesday to let me know that it was fixed. The cost was more than I expected but the lock was a real dumpster fire inside, not just due to the tumbler I broke. He also had to replace the sear and bridle.

Brad shipped it back to me last Friday and I received it today. It looks great inside and after remounting to the canoe gun, it has a nice trigger pull.

I really couldn't be happier at this point.

SANS SEC504: Hacker Tools, Techniques, and Incident Handling Course Review

Yesterday I finished up the SANS SEC504 Hacker Tools, Techniques, and Incident Handling training course. This was paid for by my employer as part of an internal cybersecurity training program that I'm in.

I first learned about the SANS Institute shortly after changing careers into IT. However, they've always been too expensive for me to take if I had to pay out of pocket. When I first learned of them a 5 or 6 day class cost around $2500. Nowadays, they are north of $8000 and it's another $949 if you want to take the related certification exam. Way too rich for my blood.

Anyway, the agenda for the course I took was as follows:

• 9/26 - Incident Response
• 9/27 - Recon, Scanning, and Enumeration Attacks
• 9/28 - Password and Access Attacks
• 9/29 - Public-Facing and Drive-By Attacks
• 9/30 - Evasion and Post-Exploitation Attacks
• 10/1 - Capture the Flag event capstone

On Monday class ran from 0830 to 1915 but I tapped out at 1830. By that point we were looking at bonus material related to Linux and PowerShell, both of which I'll go through again in preparation for the certification exam.

Tuesday through Friday class ran from 0900 through about 1730, and the CTF event on Saturday was 0900 to about 1500. Of course, we got breaks in the morning and afternoon, and for lunch.

Although the days were long and by Thursday I was feeling it, they went by quickly.

The session I took was presented live at SANS Baltimore made available for remote students via Zoom and Slack for text chatting. This approach worked extremely well except for an hour or so on Thursday afternoon when the hotel hosting the convention lost its Internet connection, and they had to fail over to a backup connection. Rather than losing any productive time, we just worked on labs.

I've been lucky enough to take a lot of training classes over the years, paid for by my employer. Vendors have included Nortel (yeah, I'm old), Alcatel, Red Hat, and Cisco, among others. I have to say this was probably the best out of all of them.

The instructor, Jon Gorenflow was knowledgeable and engaging. The material was well organized and interesting, and reinforced with a large number of labs.

Labs were done using one or both of two virtual machines. One was Slingshot Linux, which is a hacking-oriented distro based on Ubuntu 18.04. The other was a Windows 10 Enterprise VM for which SANS arranged a four-month product key.

I ran the VMs using VMware Fusion on my work MacBook Pro. You can use Fusion or VMware Workstation to run the VMs. My Mac had plenty of power to run both VMs simultaneously, even after I increased the RAM on the Windows VM to 6GB from the default 4GB.

Note that if you plan to take this or other SANS classes, you need a computer with an Intel CPU. I would not have been able to run the VMs on my personal MacBook Air which has an M1 ARM CPU, even though otherwise it has plenty of horsepower to do so.

If you take a SANS course, do not use a laptop with less than 16 GB of RAM, a 512 GB solid state drive, and an Intel i5 CPU with an i7 being better. (I'm sure an AMD processor would be fine but I can't speak to specs.) If you can get a larger SSD it would be better. The SANS VMs and course materials take up a lot of space.

Your laptop's host OS should be Windows, Linux, or macOS if you have an Intel Mac. You'll need administrative rights on the machine and be able to access the network. If you're taking the class remotely and can connect to Ethernet that's better than WiFi.

My original plan was to run the VMs on my Intel NUC which runs the free version of VMware ESXi 7U3, and access their graphical desktops via NoMachine and Remote Desktop Protocol. However, I ran into a problem with the Windows VM. Because they were built on VMware Workstation they wouldn't boot without first converting their virtual disks into ESXi format*. That's not a problem with Linux but on Windows it breaks Windows activation because it sees that the hardware changed. I probably could have run the Windows VM with the OS not activated but I did not want to chance having problems during the class, so I just ran them on my laptop.

However, I learned in the class that running the VMs on a headless ESXi box would not have been optimal anyway. The VMs are configured to use a private network for most of the class, so that they cannot access or be accessed from other hosts on your LAN. This is done because they are in deliberately insecure configurations, especially the Windows VM.

Saturday's capture the flag event was a lot of fun and helped tie everything together. We broke up the class into teams of four people and accessed the CTF environment through a VPN from the Slingshot Linux VM, which was reconfigured to access the network for Internet access.

After the CTF event completed the instructor did a walkthrough, taking a bit of a different approach to hacking into the systems than the CTF instructions presented.

Two of the tools we learned about during the course that I plan to do deeper dives into were Metasploit and netcat. I've used the latter just a little but have only scratched the surface.

As you'd expect, we used nmap quite a bit. This is another tool I use regularly whether to do ping sweeps or for port scanning.

Another tool which we got exposure to is an old school UNIX/Linux utility: awk. We used it a few times in the class to extract useful fields such as email addresses and user names from text files and .csv files. I decided it would be good for me to get a copy of O'Reilly's sed & awk Pocket Reference.

As a long time Linux user, I'm familiar programs that can display the contents of a text file, such as less, more, and cat. The instructor showed us a way to use cat that I've never seen before.

Here's a demonstation done on my MacBook Air, which includes cat as a command line utility (macOS is UNIX under the hood). First, I'll create an empty file using touch, then add text to it using cat and a shell redirect:

Davids-Air:Documents dave$ touch foo.txt

Davids-Air:Documents dave$ cat > foo.txt

Hello

Hello

Hello

^C

Davids-Air:Documents dave$ 

Davids-Air:Documents dave$ 

Davids-Air:Documents dave$ cat foo.txt

Hello

Hello

Hello

Note how by issuing the cat command and immediately using the redirect ( > ), it presents you with a way to input text until you hit CTRL-C. I then used cat to show the contents of foo.txt on STDOUT.

Neat!

Another tool we learned about was RITA from Active Countermeasures for analyzing network traffic logs collected by Zeek. When used properly, this combination should help you spot network traffic indicating naughty behavior.

I've experimented with Zeek a bit and it's a part of Security Onion, which I've used on the job. To learn more about RITA I built a Debian 11 VM** on my Nuc running both of them. I may get this running on the networks I help to support.

To continue my learning I grabbed a copy of Metasploitable, another deliberately vulnerable Linux VM. As with the class VMs, it was built on VMware Workstation so you'll need to convert the disk to ESXi format if you want to run it on that platform.

For the past few years cybersecurity has been an increasingly important part of my job. It's also a rapidly growing field. I'm looking forward to immediately putting to use much of the info I learned SEC504.

* For this you need to ssh into your ESXi host and use vmkfstools to clone the disk. An overview of how to do so can be found here: https://thunderysteak.github.io/workstation-vmdk-2-esxi

** Most of the VMs I've built in the current iteration of my home lab have been based on Debian Linux 11. I find it easy to create a stripped-down VM and the dependency resolution is excellent. Ubuntu Linux is based on Debian but for my use it doesn't really add much value, so I go right to the source, so to speak.

Nice Little Pliers

The mailman brought this to me today (US quarter for scale).

It's from White Elk Trading in Utah. It's the large size, about 4.7" long. I wanted a small pair of pliers for my shooting pouch but wanted something that looked like it might have been used in the 18th or 19th Century, not something from Lowe's.

I might grind the ends to be screwdrivers, we'll see.

Made a Short Starter and a Leather Capper

 I was feeling crafty so I made these today. The antler is from a buck I shot last year. The other parts are a length of 3/8" poplar dowel, a short length of 3/8" brass rod, and a .38 Special case with the end turned down. All parts are glued and pinned together with brass pins I cut from brass rod.

The capper was made from a piece of scrap leather. The top right hole is to tie it to my shooting bag. The row of holes all have a slit going to the edge of the leather. It's sized for #11 caps.

Sent the Broken Lock Out for Repair

As mentioned in my last post, at this point I’ve decided to have a professional repair the canoe gun's lock, so I shipped the lock today Brad Emig at Cabin Creek Muzzleloading, which is just East of York, PA.  For lock repair he came highly recommended on the Muzzleloading Forum, and it’s nice that he’s relatively close.

Another reason I went with CCM is that I got a reply and a phone call very shortly after emailing him. I still haven't heard back from Jim Chambers Flintlocks. I called CCM this morning to confirm his shipping address and to ask whether I should include payment and Emig picked up the phone and was very friendly. He'll call me when it's done with the final cost and I can then either pay via a credit card or send him a check.

His base price for a lock tune is $95 + any parts he might need + return shipping.

It should get there Monday.

I’ve seen Emig’s guns at the Dixon’s Gunmakers Fair and they are gorgeous, absolute works of art (and priced commensurately).

And since the lock is a Siler, the other day I ordered from the Log Cabin Shop a large Siler flint and a vent liner to match the drum’s threads. Hope to get that next week.

Ugh, Canoe Gun NOT Fixed, and Other Stuff

Last weekend I was upstate at my friend's cabin. We had a good trip and I got to shoot the canoe gun a little. Unfortunately it is not fixed. The hammer stopped holding at full cock so I’m looking at sending it out for repair before I completely screw it up. Today I reached out to Jim Chambers Flintlocks, who is the current maker of Siler locks, to see if they'll service it. It's an older lock that may have been built from a kit so I'm not expecting a freebie. <grrr>

While it was still working, I patterned a load of 1-1/8 oz. of #5 shot on top of 70 grains of Goex 2Fg. This is a square load. I used a 1/8” lubed over powder wad, the shot inside a paper shot cup made from a Post-It note, and a thin over shot card. The target was at 15 yards and POA was center hold.

The SR-1 target I shot at has an 8" bullseye. Here's a closer pic:

I’m happy with the pattern.

I also put 150 rounds thru my Ruger LCP .22.

• 50 rounds of CCI Mini Mag solids were flawless although the slide failed to lock back after the 50th shot.
• 50 rounds of Federal 550 bulk pack had a couple failures to fire. Both rounds fired when struck on another spot on the rim. This is par for the course with that ammo in other guns.
• 50 rounds of Federal Punch, which is a 29 grain nickel plated flat point in an extended, nickeled case. This had several failures to eject. I’m not writing this off yet because the gun was pretty dirty by the time I got to it.

I’m at the point where I’d be comfortable carrying it loaded with Mini Mag solids as long as it’s cleaned and lubed.

I also put 50 rounds of .38 full charge wadcutters through my S&W Model 15. I shot about half at the man-sized silhouette we have about 70 yards out. My hit ratio was probably around 50%, and except for 6 shots was all fired double action. I'm pretty sure that the Model 15 would be the absolute last gun I ever sell.

And here’s a doe that stood looking at me for a minute or two Friday afternoon, downrange near the silhouette.

The other major activity was a trip to Zett's Fish Farm to pick up some fish for my friend's quarter-acre pond. He bought some minnows, shiners, and large mouth bass. We're hoping that in a couple years he'll have a balanced ecosystem in the pond with not only those fish, but bluegills, catfish, and frogs (those last three are already in it).

We have our next trip planned for late October when the early antlerless deer season is open, along with small game and upland birds.

Fixed the Canoe Gun

My order with the replacement Siler tumbler from Track of the Wolf arrived today. It took me about a half hour after work to fit the hammer to the tumbler. I think the lock may have been assembled from a Siler kit based on the shape of the square hole in the hammer which slides over the end of the tumbler. Anyway, it now functions correctly, locking securely into the half and full cock notches.

If I get upstate this coming weekend I hope to be able to shoot it on paper to check point of impact with ball loads, and patterns with shot.

Shot the Canoe Gun Today, and Broke It

I got a chance to shoot the canoe gun today over at a friend's place. He has some land and we can shoot safely in his yard. Unfortunately it was raining and the only place I could load while under overhead cover was his patio. I'd then step out to shoot and some tin cans we placed on a hillside.

My load of 1 oz. of #5 shot on top of 65 grains of Scheutzen 3Fg black powder penetrated both side of a #10 can from about 20 yards, so it's got enough power for hunting.

I also tried a couple varieties of ball loads. I shot a half dozen .570 balls loaded in paper cartridges on top of 65 grains of powder. I also tried a few shots with .575 balls loaded on top of a tow wad, with another tow wad over the ball to hold it in place. The balls loads shot high with how I was holding the gun.

I absolutely need to put both shot and ball loads on paper.

Everything went mostly well until the gun fell over onto the brick patio, landing on the hammer which was on half cock. That broke the half cock notch on the tumbler. (Insert vast amounts of profanity here.)

When I was done I used tow wrapped around a worm to scrub the bore. This was the first time I've tried using tow for cleaning and it works pretty well, much like a bore brush. I'll be using it at least for my smoothbores in the future.

Tonight I ordered a replacement tumbler from Track of the Wolf and I paid extra for 2 day delivery. I may be going upstate next weekend and if so I'd really like to bring the gun with me to pattern shot loads and figure out how to hold it when shooting ball.

Primitive Worm and Tow for Muzzleloader Cleaning

Back in the 18th Century and into the 19th, fabric was too expensive to waste as cleaning patches so people swabbed their gun bores with tow, which is fiber left over from processing flax, hemp, or jute.

I am expecting an order with some supplies to go with the new Jackie Brown smoothbore I bought last weekend. Among them is a primitive tow worm that screws onto the end of a ramrod and allows you to run a ball of tow up and down the bore to scrub it out. It can also be used to retrieve a lost cleaning patch.

Naturally, since I ordered one I found one I already had and forgot about. Doh.

This shows how it goes onto the outside of the ramrod. I had to open up the coils a little with pliers.

And this shows it with a tow ball threaded onto it:

So basically, that's the 18th Century equivalent of a bore brush. If it's not too dirty you can rinse it out and reuse it.

It's my understanding that Russia used tow for cleaning rifle barrels into the 20th Century, possibly as late as World War 2.

Powder Horn

I've had this powder horn for several years. If I remember correctly it was an economy horn from October Country. Whatever color you get with these is the luck of the draw, and as it came it was mostly white with some black.

The horn had a simple staple on the wood plug. I replaced that with the brass acorn that screws into a ferrule I drilled. This it to make filling the horn easier.

One of the things they teach you in hunter safety education is to try and avoid wearing anything white during hunting season because it can look like a deer's white tail and sometimes you are around idiots who will shoot at anything that moves. This probably isn't nearly as much of an issue now that hunter ed classes have been required, along with blaze orange, for decades, but a mostly white horn never sat right with me.

So last night I went over the horn with Fiebing's medium brown leather dye and let it sit overnight. This morning it was still tacky when I went over it with 0000 steel wool. This removed most of the dye sitting on the surface that hadn't been absorbed. I wiped it down vigorously with a paper shop towel, then applied some Sno Seal and buffed that out with the shop towel.

I'm happy with the new look. Right now it has just a thin leather thong to carry it. I need to buy or make a better strap for it.

Tow Wads

Tow is a fibrous material left over from processing flax, hemp, or jute. It was used as wadding and for bore cleaning during the muzzleloading era. For wadding, a shooter can make small balls of it for over-powder and over-shot or over-ball wads. For cleaning it is wrapped around a worm and then used to scrub the bore like a modern bore brush.

Since I've never used it for shooting, over on the Muzzleloading Forum I started a thread asking for others' experiences and got a lot of good feedback.

One concern I have is that the tow may ignite and smolder when used as wads. This could start fires. Several replies indicated that this can be a problem. Others noted that if you lube the tow with something like Track of the Wolf's mink oil tallow, it not only helps keep fouling soft, it also prevents the wad from igniting.

So wanting to try tow wads, I made up a small batch of tow wads and lubed them with Track's mink oil tallow.

The tow I'm using was bought a couple years ago from Turkey Foot Trading Company and is made from hemp. Previously I used it along with a flint and steel and some charcloth for fire starting.

I have an order on the way from Track which includes a primitive worm so I can try using it for bore cleaning as well.

Another natural material used for wadding is wasp's or hornet's nest. If I can find a nest and not get stung it's something else I want to try.

More to come...

More Test Loads for the Canoe Gun

Over my lunch break I put together some ball rounds for the Jackie Brown canoe gun. Again, I used Post-Its for the paper along with a glue stick. These include a .575 round ball and 65 grains of 3Fg Schuetzen black powder.

After the glue dries a bit more I'm going to smear a little lube around the ball end. These are pretty snug in the bore so the lube will help reloading. Were I planning on extensive shooting without wiping the bore I'd need to go to a smaller ball. I have some .570s for this purpose, or even .562s.

Note that these are not combustible cartridges as you'd use in a percussion revolver. Rather, these are designed to have the end opened or torn off, the powder dumped down the bore, and then the ball and paper rammed down on top. The paper acts as a patch and wadding between powder and ball. The paper will be blown out of the barrel, not burned inside it.

The ammo I made up today could also be used in my Indian-made Tulle Fusil de Chasse, which is a 20 gauge flintlock shotgun.

Test Loads for the Canoe Gun

During a break this morning I made up a half dozen loads to try in the Jackie Brown Canoe Gun. I should be able to shoot it on Sunday. I have them in a tin I got from Amazon.

There are two each:

• Buckshot consisting of 6 .380 round balls, which I use for my .36 caliber cap and ball revolvers. For reference, OOOO buckshot is .375. These are mainly for shits and giggles. The balls weigh ~83 grains each so 6 of them are bit more than one ounce. Five balls would be a little under one ounce.
• 1 oz. of #7.5 shot, useful for doves, quail, or clay targets.
• 1 oz. of #5 shot, useful for larger birds like pheasant, or rabbits and squirrels.

I measured out six 65 grain loads of Scheutzen FFFg black powder and in 5ML flip-top sample vials. I could squeeze a little more powder into them, maybe 70 grains. I actually bought these for pre-measured revolver loads and have larger vials for rifle and shotgun loads.

The tin also has space for ziplock bags holding lubricated 1/8" thick x 5/8" diameter wool felt wads, and 17 gauge overshot cards. The felt wads are lubricated with neatsfoot oil.

The plan is to load the powder, then a felt wad, then the shot cup. For the birdshot loads I plan to tear off the top end of the cup and then seat an overshot card, to prevent them from turning into slugs. I may try that with one of the buckshot rounds, and one without tearing off the end, to see if there's a difference.

A Sling for the Canoe Gun

Since the canoe gun came setup for a sling I made one last night.

I cut a length of cowhide ~1.25" wide by ~48" long. One the butt end I punched a hole and then made a slit so it fits over the sling mounting button. On the muzzle end I punched a series of holes for a leather thong to go through.

The leather was a light natural tan color, so I used some Fiebing's dark brown leather dye to darken it. After that dried I worked some neatsfoot oil into both sides of the leather to moisturize and soften it. The leather drank it up. Finally, I gave both sides a coat of Montana Pitch Blend dressing. This is a mix of pine pitch, mink oil, and beeswax. I also worked the leather back and forth to soften it a little since it was very stiff.

I'll probably punch a few more holes in it so I can let it out to go over a heavy coat.

It came out pretty nicely, if I do say so myself.

Picked up a Jackie Brown Canoe Gun

Today I took a drive to Dixon's Muzzleloading Shop and saw this canoe gun (I know it's not an historical term) on the shelf. I've been looking for a 20 gauge percussion smoothbore and the fact that it's a lefty is icing on the cake.

Some measurements I took:

• Overall length 40"
• Barrel: 24.5"
• Length of pull 13.5"
• Weight 6.5 lbs.
• Width of buttplate 2"

The barrel has a slight flare at the muzzle end. The front and only sight is a trade gun-style turtle. It's a large Siler lock and the cone is sized for No.11 caps.

I'm hoping to develop good patterning shot loads and also a round ball load.

Replaced the Hand in my Rogers and Spencer Percussion Revolver

When I last shot my Euroarms of America Rogers and Spencer revolver I managed to chip the tip off the hand, rendering the gun useless. Since EOA has been out of business for several years sourcing a replacement could be challenging. The only website I found that even listed a replacement was S&S Firearms, but they were out of stock. Dixie Gun Works still has a couple R&S spare parts but no hands.

The revolver in question:

Broken hand on the left:

A friend of mine has a TIG welder. I'm going to ask him if he'd try to build up the broken hand after which I'd dress it to shape.

After I bought the gun a number of years ago, I put together a spare parts kit which included a hand. I installed it today, but first I made a detailed drawing of it in case it ever needs to be replicated. 

With a different view of the hand:

I'm sharing these for the benefit of my fellow Rogers and Spencer fans. The drawing of the hand was done by tracing around it. Quarter provided for scale.

Perhaps I was lucky but it required no fitting. The cylinder rotates and locks up nicely. I took it to the range this afternoon and put 30 - 36 shots through it. The gun worked perfectly.

As an aside, detail stripping and reassembly was made with the help of these two videos:

This is how firearms disassembly and reassembly should be done.