Free Soldier Softshell Jacket.

A couple months ago I realized I needed a new softshell jacket. However, I didn't want to spend REI-money as this will be mostly used around town, with light field usage. So, after doing some searching on and off Amazon I ordered a Free Soldier brand Soft Shell Hooded Military Tactical Jacket.

It has over 6,000 reviews on Amazon with an average rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars, so for $56 I thought it was worth a try. It's available in a variety of colors. I went with OD green which strikes a nice balance of being low key in either the city or the woods, without being as overtly military as a camo pattern. I prefer green over brown in the woods since it's not deer-colored.

Like most of the tactical soft shells on the market it's a copy of the TAD Gear Stealth Raider Hoodie, but at a much lower price.

My initial impressions were favorable. The sewing seems to be good quality, the zippers all move smoothly, there were no loose threads, and it fits me well with room for layering. I'm 5'5" but with a spare tire and broad shoulders for my height so I got a 2XL.

Jackets should have a hood if you're going to be out in inclement weather for an extended time. They keep you dryer and warmer. Ideally, the hood should fit comfortably over a hat without forcing it down onto your head. The hood on this jacket meets that requirement. The hood can be rolled up and secured with a flap although I normally just leave it unrolled. The front of the hood can be adjusted with shock cords that run down into the front pockets. It's big enough to comfortably fit over a ball cap and the brim is long enough to fully cover the cap's brim. Aside from helping to create a nice microclimate in front of your face, this is also great for those of us who wear glasses.

The FS jacket has six external pockets. There are two front pockets with long zippers. Inside each is a D-ring to dummy cord items to and a pen or penlight pocket. The right front pocket also has an internal vertical cell phone pocket that easily fits my iPhone 16 Pro.

Both arms have bicep pockets with Velcro panels on the outside. There's also a small pocket on the lower left arm.

Finally, there's a poacher's pocket on the back with zips on both sides. This would be good for stashing a beanie, gloves, or scarf but I wouldn't want something too bulky back there.

There are no inside pockets, which is a negative IMO. A Napoleon pocket would also be nice.

The cuffs are adjustable with Velcro and the hem is adjustable with shock cords to keep out the wind. There are pit zips for ventilation. The front zipper is two way and the pull is on the right side, i.e., American style.

Softshells should be wind and water resistant.

My initial test of the jacket's water resistance was to stand outside from about 10 - 15 minutes in a pouring rain while it was 70*F. While a short test it did not wet through. I felt some cold from the rain on my shoulders but after I came back inside and doffed the jacket it was completely dry inside. Based on this it should handle brief showers fine, and snow shouldn't be a problem, either.

Wind resistance is very good. I've taken it on a couple half hour walks in ~40*F weather with wind at 20 MPH, gusting to 35 MPH. It kept out the wind just fine.

I haven't owned it long enough to determine long term durability but the initial impressions are good, and the price was right.

Loading .32-20 WCF Ammunition with an Antique Ideal Tong Tool

Over the weekend I cast some bullets in an antique Ideal reloading tool, so I thought I'd put together a post on how to actually use these things.

From what I can tell it's a No.4 although it differs a little from other No.4s I've seen, in regards to how priming is handled. Anyway, here it is:

With this one tool, you can do the following:

1. Cast bullets and size them
2. Decap spent cases
3. Reprime empty cases
4. Flare the case mouth
5. Seat a new bullet in place

Originally it came in a cardboard box with a powder scoop for the right amount of black powder, and a decapping pin. The scoop and decapping pin are usually missing when you find these tools today. For a decapping pin you can use a Lee Precision case length guide intended for trimming brass.

If you need to decap, place the decapper inside a spent case the put the case into the bullet seating chamber, and close the handles. This will pop out the spent primer. The extractor claw on the right side handle will pull the case out a bit so you can remove it from the tool.

I got 49 usable bullets from this session. You need to get and keep the mold hot which is challenging because of the small bullet and the mass of the tool, which is made from cast iron. The entire tool acts like a heat sink. Despite this, when I weighed the bullets they were pretty consistent at 107 grains plus or minus a grain, using soft lead. Only visibly wrinkled bullets weighed less.

The bullets are of a round nosed, flat pointed design, intended for use in lever action rifles and revolvers. It would make a good small game bullet.

To flare the case mouths, I used the outside of the bullet seating chamber as shown here:

Next up I needed to prime the cases. As you can see there's a position on the end of the mold blocks for this.

I was not happy how the Ideal tool handled the combination of virgin Starline .32-20 brass and Aguila No.1-1/2 primers. I couldn't really get the primers flush or below flush. The pin that drives the primers into the pockets needed to be a couple thousands longer. It may be worn down from use. So, I only did a couple then resorted to using a modern Frankford Arsenal hand priming tool to prime the rest of the brass. Another option would be to finish seating the primers flush using a dowel inserted in the case and tapping the case down onto a metal surface like an anvil. (This is how primers are seated using a Lee Loader.)

With bullets and primed cases in hand, the next step is to charge the cases with powder. I'll be shooting this ammo in a 1920s S&W Model 1905, 4th Change Military & Police revolver. I don't want to clean up black powder fouling so instead, I used Alliant Unique. (One of my better pre-election year purchases was an 8 lb. keg of Unique in the Fall of 2019.) Unique could easily have been used by early Ideal customers since it was introduced in 1900 and has been in production ever since.

To measure the powder I used a Lee 0.5cc dipper. With my technique and this batch of Unique, I get an average charge of 3.85 grains per scoop. I could use a slightly higher charge but since I'll just be paper punching or plinking with this ammo there's no need to hot rod a 100 year old gun.

OK, now it's time to seat the bullets. That large lube groove is there to handle a good amount of grease, e.g., tallow or a beeswax/tallow mix, which you need when shooting black powder. Since I'm shooting smokeless I just lubed the bullets with Lee Liquid Alox.

Charged case with bullet in the seating chamber:

And the extractor claw pulling the complete round of ammo out of the seating chamber:

The cartridge on the left is what they look like after the previous step. Something to keep in mind with this sort of tool is that it does not apply a strong crimp. When loaded of a full charge of black powder the bullet cannot telescope back into the case. That's not true with smokeless which leaves a mostly empty case, so as a final step I ran the assembled rounds through a Lee Carbide Factory Crimp Die on my press to fully secure the bullet in the case mouth.

There are some downsides to handloading using this kind of tool:

• It's slow.
• It works only with the bullet cast in the integral mold, since seating depth isn't adjustable. However, the bullets from the mold are well suited to the cartridge.
• The aforementioned lack of crimp.
• Because the entire tool including the handles is made from cast iron, it acts as a heat sink so getting good bullets from the mold can be a challenge.

That said, now I have 49 more rounds of .32-20 ammo, mostly loaded using late 19th Century technology.

BTW, here's what I'll be firing this ammo in, a 1920s vintage S&W Model 1905, 4th Change, Military & Police revolver. I replaced the original service grips with a set of later Magnas plus a Robertson Trading post grip adapter (copy of the Tyler T-Grip) to make it easier to hold onto when shooting double action. The paint on the front sight is to make it easier to see with 57 year old eyes. The M-1905 is the predecessor to the familiar Model 10, most commonly chambered for .38 Special.

 

Removing a Stuck Ball in a Muzzleloader

If you shoot a muzzleloader long enough at some point you'll "dry ball," i.e., load the ball without a powder charge. At that point you'll need to remove it.

Note that the following applies to traditional muzzleloaders, not inlines with easily removable breech plugs.

Some guns allow you to remove the nipple or flash hole liner and dribble in a little bit of fine grained powder, then shoot the ball out. E.g., if you do this in a percussion revolver it's pretty straightforward to remove the cylinder, remove the nipple, dribble in a small amount of powder, reassemble, cap and shoot the ball out.

However, many times you can't easily get enough powder behind the ball to bloop it out.

One option is a CO2 ball discharger. This uses CO2 from a cylinder to shoot out the ball using gas pressure. Many guys like these to unload a gun after hunting if they haven't fired it.

Otherwise, you need to pull the ball, for which you need a stout range rod or ramrod and a ball screw.

I've setup my rifles with Delrin ramrods that have threaded brass tips on both ends. The tips are both glued and cross-pinned to the rod so they don't pull off. (They will eventually come off if you don't cross-pin them.)

When I'm hunting or shooting a woods walk with a muzzleloader, I keep a small leather bag in my shooting pouch that contains a few items to keep my rifle running in the field:

L to R are:

• Nipple wrench
• Ball screw
• Patch pulling worm
• 8-32 male to 10-32 female thread adapter
• Cleaning jag
• Replica US M-1817 tow worm

Note how the ball screw has a brass collar around it. It's just smaller than the bore and serves to keep it centered as you screw it into the ball. 

The corkscrew-type worm is for pulling patches from the bore if one slips off a jag. The M-1817 worm will do that, but can also be used to scrub the bore with tow fiber wrapped around it like a primitive bore brush.

I've made up similar sets for .45, .50, .54, and .58. I may omit the thread adapter and don't usually carry both types of worm. 

You can get most if not all those accessories from Track of the Wolf, Dixie Gun Works, October Country, Crazy Crow Trading Post, Muzzle-loaders.com, The Possible Shop, or even Amazon.

Along with the bag of ramrod tips I also carry an aluminum T-handle from Track of the Wolf in my bag. This screws onto the other end of the rod and gives you something to grab onto.

To pull a ball here's how I do it:

1. If the bore is fouled run a damp patch down it to remove most of the crud, then run an oiled patch down to lube the patched ball on the way out.
   
   
2. Screw the T-handle and ball screw onto the rod.
   
   
3. Optionally, put a small drop of oil or smear some bullet lube onto the tip of the ball screw to make it easier to screw into the lead ball.
   
   
4. Put the ramrod down the barrel and using some pressure, drill into the stuck ball with the ball screw. You'll want to ensure you have good engagement but don't overdo it and strip it out
   
   Note: Once you start drilling the screw into the ball never turn the ramrod counter-clockwise because the ball screw will come off the end of your ramrod.
   
   
5. Give the ramrod a sharp tug to get it started. If necessary, invert the rifle and hold the T-handle between your feet then give the rifle a sharp upwards tug. This usually gets it moving.

If the ball is really stuck, tie the T-handle to a tree or other immovable object and then yank on the rifle.

If the ball screw strips out of the ball you can retry it but at that point you may need to resort to a CO2 discharger or in a worst case scenario, unbreech the barrel. This is known as a bad day.

If you pull the ball from an unused hunting charge you may be able to dump some of the powder immediately, but you may need to break it up with the ball screw and/or worm first, because it'll be compacted in the breech.

Knowing how to pull a ball is an important skill for muzzleloader shooters. Aside from dry balls, you may want to pull a ball after an unsuccessful hunt rather than shooting it out and fouling your gun.

And yes, you can shoot a ball that you've pulled. It's basically a hollowpoint now if you load it with the hole facing up. AAMOF, yesterday I fired a ball I pulled after the Pennsylvania early muzzleloader deer season. I shot it at the Boyertown fun shoot and whacked a gong out at about 70 yards with it.

Found the Real Problem with my .54 Caplock

I shot my Investarm .54 Hawken again today at the Boyertown fun shoot and it turns out that I wasn't having cap problems at all. Rather, it was that the fly in my lock was not working properly and on many of the drops wasn't allowing the hammer to fall past the half cock notch if the trigger was set before firing. I pulled the lock, made sure the fly was moving freely and lubed it with a couple of drops of Ballistol. After I did that I had no more ignition problems.

Tomorrow I'm going to remove the lock and blast it out with brake cleaner, then relube with Shooters Choice FP-10. Unlike Ballistol, FP-10 doesn't gum up and is good down to -40F, which is 50 degrees colder than I ever plan to be out shooting or hunting.

I plan to do that with my other sidelocks as well.

Note:

Sidelocks meant for use on muzzleloading rifles or pistols with set triggers have a part called a "fly." It is a small, pivoting piece that when working correctly, prevents the half cock notch from catching on the sear. A fly is not needed on a lock used with a gun that doesn't have a set trigger, because of how the set trigger kicks the sear when the gun is fired.

Glad I Shot a Woodswalk Today

I shot the Boulder Valley woods walk course today with my .54 caplock and I'm really glad I did. I opened a new batch of CCI #11s and half of them were really snug on the nipple. About half my shots required multiple strikes to set off the cap. I even tried changing the nipple (I keep a spare in the cap box) but it was about as bad.

On the last target I hit the cap 4 times and it didn't go off. I replaced it and that one went off.

The rifle is a Cabela's (Investarm) Hawken that was originally a .50. I took a huge doe with it three years ago but even though the shot was good and did a massive amount of damage to both lungs, there was no exit wound and the blood trail was poor. So, last year I bought a replacement barrel in .54 in the hopes that the heavier ball will be more likely to completely pass through the deer and give a better blood trail if it runs.

After I got home I chucked both nipples in my drill and filed them down to accept RWS No.1075+ caps. I want to make sure I'm using known-good caps when I go hunting later this week. It's Pennsylvania's early muzzleloader, antlerless-only season.

My loads today were a .530 home cast ball in a pillow ticking patch lubed with Mr. Flintlock, over 70 grains of 2Fg Goex black powder. My hunting load for the rifle is 80 grains of powder but I wanted to save the steel targets a little wear and tear.

Anyway, even with the cap frustrations I shot an 18/20, one better than the match last weekend in which I took first place. (I shot my Slotter rifle replica in the match, as usual.)

LED Upgrade for Surefire G2, and Why Lithium Batteries Rock

Why lithium batteries rock:

Tonight I replaced the old halogen bulb in a Surefire G2 flashlight with an LED conversion unit. The output is much brighter with a great throw. I checked the batteries in the flashlight and they are the original Surefire CR123A batteries, with a 2015 expiration date, which was 10 years from when they were manufactured. Yes, this thing is still functioning with 20 year old batteries.

This particular light lives on a nightstand and gets used very infrequently, which is why I haven't used up the batteries. But for them to last 20 years and still be useful is impressive, to say the least.

This is the LED conversion I used: https://amzn.to/4oaiHzv

To fit the G2 I had to remove the outer coil spring, after that it just dropped in. 

Casting Sessions

Today I did some bullet casting. The temp was around 70F so I was able to do so out in my shop without sweating like a pig.

I cast up a bunch of .530" round balls for use in my .54 caliber rifles, and a few Lee 578-478M Minie balls to try in my Zouave. I'd forgotten about the Minie ball mould. I think I picked it up used last year at Dixon's.

After I culled the bad ones, I wound up with 106 of the .530 balls and 16 of the Minies.

The Minie mould is a little challenging to cast with. I think it would work better if Lee had used larger blocks to retain the heat better once it's up to temp.

The Lee round ball mould works fine, although I wish it was a 6 cavity instead of the 2 cavity mould I have. In my experience, the 6 bangers maintain temp better and you can cast a large quantity of bullets in a relatively short time.

Zouave Rifle Range Report

Yesterday I shot my Euroarms Remington 1863 "Zouave" rifle with replicas of the Williams cleaner bullet and some Lyman 575213 Minie balls.

My rifle was made in 1986 and I traded into it two years ago.

The original nipple took musket caps as you'd expect on a military rifle, but I found that as a left handed shooter, my right forearm and hand got peppered with debris. That was extremely unpleasant. I put a nipple that takes No.11 caps on it, which still gives reliable ignition but without the annoying spray on my arm.

The Williams cleaner bullets I have came from Gimcrack & Bunkum, a one man shop located in Pennsylvania. They are replicas of those issued during the Civil War. Unlike the Minie balls, they have a disc on a post that's attached to the base of the bullet. The disc expands into the rifling and scrapes out the fouling. These are 487 grains and .574" in diameter. I found them to shoot to about the same point of impact as the Lyman 575213 Minies, which weigh 510 grains, when both were fired over 60 grains of 2Fg Goex. I got the Minies from Track of the Wolf.

Some of my shots showed that the base separated from the body of the bullet and impacted elsewhere on the target. At 50 yards they broke the paper but not the plastic target backer.

When I bought the Williams bullets I chose to get them pre-lubed. The gap between the bottom disc and the base of the bullet has to be lube-free for it to work properly. The Minie was lubed by me a couple years ago with something, I forget what.

Offhand accuracy with this rifle is challenging due to a heavy trigger, probably around 10 lbs. I've considered taking the Zouave out for Pennsylvania's early antlerless-only season in October. I'll be hunting from a blind and will be able to shoot from a rest. But I'll probably use just a .54 caliber Investarm Bridger Hawken which has a nice trigger and is easier to shoot well.

Aside from the conicals I brought some .562" round balls, which shoot well in the rifle. However, I forgot my short starter so I stuck with the Williams and Minie bullets.