Musket Capper and Powder Can Spout

Yesterday I went up to the Gunmakers Fair at Kempton and drooled over a bunch of guns I cannot currently afford. However, I did pick up a couple items that will be handy when shooting my smokepoles.

The first is a musket capper. It doesn't have any markings on it except for "ITALY" but it appears to be the same capper that Dixie Gun Works used to sell as item # NA0401. When I got my Euroarms Zouave a few years ago I wanted to get one of these but they appear to be out of production, or at least nobody is importing them into the USA.

Dixie's description on how to load the caps is incorrect. You don't remove the lid, which is riveted on. Rather there is a sliding door through which you feed the caps.

I found it at one of the vendor's tables for $20. It even had seven musket caps in it. I've removed them for storage in a test tube since the make and whether they're any good is unknown. I'll pop them on the nipple to clear it of any oil before loading, saving a few of my known-good caps.

Incidentally, you can see why musket caps are sometimes called "top hat" caps.

The capper was a bit grungy so I rubbed it down with 0000 steel wool, just enough to remove any bumpy verdigris but not the patina.

The second item is a valve to install on a powder can lid for use at the range. The spout itself is a recycled 7.62 NATO blank, mated with a brass nipple, a couple washers, and a spring loaded cap.

EDIT: I discovered that you can unscrew the top of the capper. What I thought was a rivet is actually a threaded stud. I think though that using the sliding door on the side is how you're meant to fill it.

Stainless Wheelgun Sunday

Today I took a couple wheelguns to the range and spent most of my time smacking the 25 yard plate rack.

The guns are a 2.75" Ruger Speed Six in .357 Magnum and a 4" Smith & Wesson Model 64-3 in .38 Special. All the ammo I shot today were my own .38 reloads with Speer 158 grain LSWCs in mixed brass, Servicio Aventuras primers, and Bullseye powder. 100 rounds had 3.3 grains of Bullseye while the other hundred had a more typical 3.5 grains.

With 3.5 grains of Bullseye, a 4" .38 will push a 158 grain bullet to about 775 FPS average, duplicating typical non-plus P performance. It's accurate and very pleasant to shoot in a service sized revolver.

I was also pleased to see that the two other people on the range while I was there were a couple fellow Members of the Tribe. It's always good to see fellow Jews exercising their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. One guy was instructing the other. They had some kind of semiatuomatic 9mm with a red dot sight, and learning defensive shooting.

My free PDF book for Jews looking to arm themselves is available from my Google Drive, Guns for Jews v5.0.

(How'd I know they were Jewish? Well, the kippah was the big giveaway. But a lot of us have Jewdar, too. ;) )

High Desert Cartridge Company .38 Special 148 Grain Wadcutters

Today I ran some High Desert Cartridge Company .38 Special 148 grain HBWCs over my Garmin chronograph from 2 .357 Magnum revolvers.

First, from my S&W 640-1 with a 1-/7/8" (nominal 2") barrel, 10 shots averaged 753 FPS.

Second, from my S&W 66-2 with a 2.5" barrel, 8 shots averaged 788.7 FPS. For some reason 2 shots didn't register.

Everything else being equal, I would expect 25 - 50 FPS more velocity from a gun chambered in .38 Special, due to less freebore.

High Desert Cartridge Company advertises this load at 725 FPS from a 2" snubbie with 18" of penetration in ballistic gelatin.

In my opinion this would be an excellent carry load in .38 Special of .357 Magnum snubbie revolvers. It's controllable in rapid fire but will poke a clean hole all the way into the vitals.