Remington with Kirst Konversion Range Report

I just realized that I never posted a follow up range report on the cartridge conversion 1858 Remington I built last month.

For those of you tuning in late, last month I took a Pietta 1858 Remington percussion revolver and with the help of a Kirst Konverter and my Dremel tool, converted it to fire metallic cartridges. .45 Colt in this case.

So far I've had it out a few times and put 100 rounds total through it. It's working like a champ. Ammo was Black Hills .45 Colt loaded with a hard cast 250 grain LRNFP bullet at a sedate 750 FPS. At 7 yards it shot a couple inches high but into one hole. This Pietta has a heavier trigger pull than my other 3 Pietta Remingtons which makes it harder to shoot accurately. I'm going to look into a trigger job.

Recoil is noticeable. It's not painful by any means but the gun has a good deal of muzzle flip with this load. It'll be interesting to try with 200 grain loads, maybe even .45 Schofields. Since you cannot safely run hot loads in these conversions, I may as well go with light loads.

The .45 Colt cowboy loads are low pressure and don't require you to use the ejector rod to extract them if the chambers are clean. During the first range trip, in which I put 40 rounds through it, I was able to get many of the empties out of the gun by elevating the muzzle then tapping the revolver's butt on the carpet-covered shooting table. Any that didn't come out this way could be easily pulled free with a fingernail. Because the loads are low pressure, the cases don't obturate and seal the chambers very well, so they do end up getting sooty. Once this happens you need something to eject the rounds.

I brought the Remington with me on a camping trip back at the beginning of July where my friends and I did some plinking with it. A .45 Colt bullet will send an old hard drive flying. :-) I also put a couple of the Black Hills rounds through a pine log that was about 10" in diameter, from about 10 - 15 yards. The bullets penetrated the wood and were found under the bark on the far side of the log, showing no deformation other than rifling marks. Remember, these are considered light loads for a .45 Colt.

Recently, I saw somewhere online a passing comparison of .45 Colt cowboy loads with .455 Webley ball. It turns out that the reduced loads intended for cowboy action shooting with .45 Colt are similar to the .455 Webley cartridge used by the British army from the 1890s through the end of WW2. For example, the Black Hills 250 grain .45 Colt load at 750 FPS gives 312 foot pounds of muzzle energy. In contrast, the .455 Webley propelled a 265 grain bullet at a plodding 600 FPS for a paltry 212 foot pounds of muzzle energy. Despite these unimpressive numbers, the .455 had a reputation as a good round for fighting handguns.

Overall, I am really pleased with the Pietta and the Kirst Konverter. The combo gets two big thumbs up from me.

SkyDrive for Mac Issue and Resolution

I have been using Microsoft's free SkyDrive cloud file storage and synchronization service for a couple of months now, and up until last week it ran very smoothly. I've been able to easily sync files between my MacBook Pro running Mac OS 10.7 Lion, and my PC running Windows 7 Professional 64-bit.

Last week the service stopped working on my Mac, and I kept getting an error about having to choose my SkyDrive folder. When I tried to do so I encountered an error complaining that SkyDrive cannot use a folder on a case-sensitive volume.

I double-checked my Mac's hard disk, and sure enough, it was partitioned as a single volume, using the "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" file system. This is not case sensitive. Repairing permissions didn't fix the error.

After much googling, I ran across several other folks who've encountered the same error message, one of which indicated that running Apple's Software update resolved the issue. Specifically, there is a Mac OS 10.7.4 Supplemental Update, the description of which is

This update addresses an issue where certain new APIs for file access are not present on some systems.

So, with SkyDrive uninstalled from the Mac, I ran Software Update and installed this patch, along with several others. When it finished I restarted the system just to be on the safe side.

After getting back to my desktop I ran the SkyDrive installer and it was able to complete without issues.

So, if you start getting weird error messages from the Mac SkyDrive client incorrectly complaining about a case sensitive file system, run Software Update from the Apple menu.

Rossi 92 Range Report

Today I got out to the range and shot the Rossi 92 I bought last Thursday for the first time. I ran 150 rounds through it: 100 Sellier & Bellot .357 Magnum 158 grain JSP and 50 Winchester white box .38 Special +P 125 grain JHP.

When cycling the gun empty at home  the action felt pretty smooth. However, once I loaded it up it became evident that there were some burrs in the action. In particular, the S&B .357s were hanging up when trying to load them into the chamber. There were a couple burs on the breech face, alongside the ejector slot. After about 20 shots I took a needle file and knocked them down a bit. I worked through 50 rounds of .357 plus 10 rounds of .38 (which fed smoothly). After about 60 rounds the gun was noticeably smoother and I was able to do rapid mag dumps.

The S&B .357s were loaded with a truncated cone bullet, while the Winchester .38s had bullets with more of a curve to the ogive, basically a RNFP with a hole in the tip. The gun seems to feed better with a more rounded bullet profile so I'll try to use that sort of ammo in the future.

I am going to have to tweak the ejector a bit. Ejection of .357 brass was positive but when trying to eject the last .38 in the gun, the empty case stayed in the receiver every time.

When shooting .38s I also experienced one time when the cartridge on the carrier ejected from the gun along with the empty.

After about 60 or 70 rounds I noticed the bolt pin stop screw on the left of the reciever was loose. It will get some Loctite.

AIUI, it's not uncommon for the Rossi .357s (or Marlin 1894s in .357, for that matter) to experience issues with the shorter .38 rounds. As long as it works 100% with .357s I don't mind the occasional bobble with .38s.

The trigger is good. Probably about 5 or 6 pounds and crisp, with very little creep.

I shot the gun at 50 yards, mostly with my arms rested on a shooting bench. The gun will group into about 3" with the loads I shot today. With the rear sight set on the lowest position it shot a few inches high and about 2" left. Since it was pretty close I didn't adjust the sights today, concentrating more on functioning.

Aside from making sure the ejector is not binding on anything and is properly shaped, I plan to strip the gun and polish the wear points to slick it up (but I will NOT be touching the locking bolts, which set headspace). I will also probably replace the plastic magazine follower with one made from steel, and replace the ridiculous bolt-mounted safety. Finally, I'll be giving the stock some attention to make it look nicer. Whatever finish Rossi uses on their wood comes out really dull.

Overall I'm pleased with the Rossi. It's a light, quick handling rifle in a useful caliber at a reasonable price. With a little "fluff and buff" it'll have a really slick action.

Rossi M92 .357 Carbine

I recently joined Langhorne Rod and Gun Club. It looks like this going to be hazardous to my wallet because it's very close to the shop, Surplus City, where I get most of my guns. I stopped there yesterday after going shooting and he had a couple Rossi 92s on the shelf. One blued .357 and one stainless .44 Magnum. Continuing the cowboy gun kick that I've been on, the .357 came home with me. $459.95 OTD.

Back in the days of the Old West, having a rifle and pistol both chambered for the same cartridge simplified logistics for people out on the frontier. The most famous pairing was a Winchester M-1873 and a Colt Single Action Army sharing the .44-40 WCF cartridge. Winchester continued the trend when they introduced the Model 1892 in .44-40, .38-40, and .32-20. The concept fell out of favor for a few decades but regained popularity in the 1960s and nowadays, the most common pairs are in .357 or .44 Magnum. The .45 Colt has been made available in leverguns in the past 15 years or so, and even the .44-40 has become popular again with the growth of cowboy action shooting.

Aside from logistics, lever action rifles chambering what we now consider pistol rounds make a lot of sense for many modern shooters, especially the carbines in .357 Magnum which can also shoot .38 Special.

.38 Special and .357 Magnum are widely available and relatively inexpensive. They are very easy to handload for and have mild recoil. Many indoor ranges will allow you to shoot rifles chambered in them, but not rifles in “real” rifle cartridges. This is important in our increasingly urban society.

Out of a rifle barrel the magnum handgun rounds pick up a lot of steam. E.g., the bullet fired from a 20” .357 carbine will gain several hundred FPS in MV, compared with a revolver, and will have approximately as much energy at 100 yards as one fired from a revolver will at the muzzle. (See the tables near the bottom of the page, here, for example.)

In the late 19th/early 20th Century, the lever action rifle was one of the premier choices for a defensive weapon. Even today, with AR-15s and AK clones easily available, leverguns fill this role well.

A .357, .44 Mag., or .45 Colt lever action carbine is light, handy, and can be stored with a full magazine and empty chamber, but is very fast to get into action. As noted above, the magnum rounds especially get a real boost from the rifle length barrel.

For several decades the Brazilian gunmaker Rossi has offered a copy of the Winchester Model 1892. Several years ago I had one imported by EMF, an 1892 Hartford Model Short Rifle with a 20” octagon barrel in .357. It was a nice shooter and I’ve been kicking myself for trading it off.

The Rossi I got yesterday is the basic carbine model (R92-56001), with a 20" barrel, 10 + 1 capacity, and weighs in at a whopping 5 pounds.

The wood is nondescript but is fitted well.  My dad owned a Browning B92 .357 when I was a teen, and it sure doesn't look as good as that, though.

This is a view of the safety that Rossi came up with. You can also see the Taurus integral gun lock on the back of the hammer. The two silver colored pieces are the locking bolts.

I find the safety ugly and obnoxious. With proper gun handling it is unnecessary.

After I confirm that the rifle works properly, I'll order a plug that's made to replace the safety so that the gun is closer to the way that John Moses Browning designed it. An alternative is an elevation-adjustable peep sight that takes its place; windage is adjusted by drifting the front sight in its dovetail. Steve's Gunz sells both items.

The peep sight paired with either a fiber optic or a large bead front sight should make a good combination for fast sight picture acquisition.

The action is already pretty smooth. As long as the Rossi functions OK I don't think I'll do any tuning on it, except by working the action and shooting it.

Two or three years ago Rossi was bought by their fellow Brazilian gunmaker, Taurus. Since then, the Rossi 92s have incorporated a gun lock built into the hammer, originally designed for Taurus’s revolvers. As with the safety, I'd rather not have the gun lock, but IMO the Taurus design is one of the better ones. It's unobtrusive and I haven't read of any cases where it's been accidentally activated. That said, I'm going to put a drop or two of boiled linseed oil on it to make sure (BLO is nature's Loctite).

I plan to pick up some Watco Danish Oil in medium walnut color. I saw the before and after pics of what a single coat did to a similar Rossi stock, and it was incredible. The wood went from very "meh" to really nice looking.

The only other addition I plan to make is a set of sling swivel studs so I can attach a quick detachable sling when needed.

After I shoot the Rossi I'll post a range report.

Happy Birthday to the USA

Cartridge Reloading

Over on Survival and Emergency Preparedness, I've put up a post on the topic of cartridge reloading which you may find of interest.

Tax THIS

I had planned to comment on the Supreme Court's Obamacare decision yesterday but had to attend a funeral. I now feel like I should say Kaddish for the United States of America.

I am disgusted. This is results-oriented jurisprudence at its absolute worst. Roberts' opinion rewrote the law, which its backers insisted all along was not a tax. Now, it's the largest tax increase in the history of, well, ever.

Nearly as bad as the decision are comments from Republican pundits casting this either as a master Machiavellian move by Roberts to make Obama and the Congressional Democrats look bad by having implemented the largest-ever tax increase, or that Roberts was fearful of having the Supreme Court being seen as a partisan political instrument. To those pundits: Please STFU. Only morons are buying your spin.

Fine, the Dems think that despite their prior protests that it's sufficient to justify Obamacare as a tax. I say that once the Republicans obtain control of Congress and the White House, we pass the following legislation:

1. 26 USC Section 53 et seq, the National Firearms Act of 1934, is hereby REPEALED.

2. Title 10 USC Section 311, Militia: Composition and Classes, is hereby ammended:
(c) Each member of the unorganized militia is required by this act to purchase and maintain in proper working order
(i) a rifle of the pattern then currently in use by the United States Army (heretofore "service rifle", and
(ii) no less than six magazines or ammunition feeding devices compatible with the service rifle, with a capacity of no less than twenty cartridges, and
(iii) a maintenance kit for the service rifle, and
(iv) no less than five hundred cartrdiges for the service rifle.
(d) Each member of the unorganized militia who fails to comply with Part (c) of this section shall be taxed no less than $1,500.00 for each year not in compliance, and such tax shall be collected by the Internal Revenue Service.

{Hat tip to Arfcommer "NagOrzo15-1" for the idea.)

Bad idea? If justifying Congress's forcing the individual mandate down our throats under the guise of a tax is acceptable, why not this?

Marlin 1894 and Century NDS-2 Range Report

Today I was able to get to the range and shoot the Marlin 1894 that I traded for last week. I was also able to get a 25 yard zero for the Bushnell TRS-25 red dot sight that I mounted on my Century NDS-2 AK-74 last month.

I setup an IDPA target with a 3" orange dot in the center at 25 yards. Shooting with my arms rested on the bench but the rifle otherwise unsupported, I fired a 5 shot group. It was a few inches low and slightly to the left. Getting the point of impact to coincide with the point of aim required me to raise the rear sight two notches on the rear sight elevator.

To adjust windage you need to drive the rear sight to the side in the dovetail. To move the POI right you drift the rear sight to the right, and vice-versa. This isn't a precise process, and requires you to use a non-marring mallet, or a hammer and a brass or nylon punch. I had a nylon faced mallet and gave the rear sight base a couple taps to the right. I wound up going a little to far and had to drive it a little bit to the left. For now, it's shooting dead on at 25 yards.

I tried two kinds of .44 Magnum ammo in this trip. First was some of the Federal American Eagle 240 grain JHP that I bought when I got the gun. This ammo shoots OK and groups well, but does not feed smoothly. I really had to muscle the action when shooting it, which gave me some cause for concern. Having read some complaints about Marlin's quality since the Remington takeover and move to Illion, NY, I was bit worried that it might need a trip back to the factory.

However, when I switched to some Remington 240 grain JSP loads the Marlin's action worked a lot more smoothly. I figure that the Federal cases vary in some small dimension that the Marlin doesn't like.

I've picked up a good supply of the Remington ammo so I'm set for awhile. I plan to start handloading for the Marlin so I can afford to shoot it. Also, I intend to load down the .44 Mag to .44-40 velocities, which will make it more pleasant to shoot. The Marlin has a rubber butt pad but even so, after 70 rounds of .44 Mag in a 6.5 pound rifle, my shoulder was feeling tenderized.

Overall I'm pleased with the Marlin 1894. The .44 Magnum is a versatile round, the rifle is nice, compact, and quick shooting, and of course it's got an all-American cachet. I will be adding an aperture sight at some point for faster target acquisition and better accuracy.

I took a break from shooting the Marlin to zero the red dot on the NDS-2. This is the third rifle I've put a Bushnell TRS-25 on and I've come to like the design a lot. Sure, it can be considered an Aimpoint micro-dot knock-off, but for a range toy that's not a problem. The Bushnell generally goes for about $100, about 1/5 to 1/6 the cost of an Aimpoint. That said, many folks have found the TRS-25 to be a very good value, in that it tends to hold up to abuse very well, including being mounted to Ultimak rails on AKs, where it can get very hot.

My TRS-25 is mounted on a low BP-02 mount which attaches to the AK's receiver rail, and places the optic centered over the bore. I bought the mount and sight from Primary Arms, who gets two thumbs up for good pricing and fast shipping.

The TRS-25 required about 30 clicks of left windage adjustment and 30 clicks of up elevation to get POI to equal POA at 25 yards. I'll fine tune the zero later at 100 yards.

The ammo I used in the NDS-2 was Silver Bear 5.45x39 60 grain FMJ. I put 90 rounds through the AK with no problems, just as expected. I may use this combination in this year's Contagion 2012 zombie shoot.

Now He Owns It

In claiming executive privilege today, President Barak Obama took ownership of the Fast and Furious scandal. He can no longer claim that he didn’t know of it until he learned about it from a news story. If that was the case, there wouldn’t be a need to claim privilege.

For over a year, Representative Darrel Issa has been leading the Congressional investigation into the Obama Administration’s back door attempt to build domestic support for gun control, in which it ran guns to known Mexican drug cartel members. During this time the president has feigned ignorance of the operation, and the attorney general has stonewalled Congressional requests for information.

Heretofore, the administration has spun Operation Fast and Furious as a rogue operation run out of a regional office of the BATFE. In essence, they’ve pleaded, “We were too incompetent to keep control of an operation which funneled weapons to foreign criminals, resulting in the deaths of two Federal law enforcement officers, and hundreds of Mexicans.”

When pressed for documents, Holder has repeatedly claimed that the dog ate his homework.

Things finally came to a head today, when in the shadow of a vote to hold the AG in contempt of Congress, President Obama invoked executive privilege as an excuse to continue withholding them.

I guess Holder can now claim that Obama ate the dog that ate his homework.

Executive privilege is a leftover from the days when we were ruled by a king. It should be invoked only in the direst circumstances, such as when releasing information could endanger national security. It is not appropriate to invoke EP as a means to avoid being held accountable for criminal malfeasance. By doing so, he’s taken ownership of this whole sordid mess.

Obama has shown by his past conduct that he is not averse to throwing others under the bus if it advances his own interests. Take, for example, his pastor of two decades, Reverend Jeremiah Wright. I have no doubt that if indeed Fast and Furious went no higher than Holder that Obama would hang him out to dry in a heartbeat. Today’s action invoking executive privilege raises the strong inference that Obama knew about Fast and Furious while it was happening, if not from the get-go.

In the words of Senator Howard Baker, “What did the president know and when did he know it?”

Operation Fast and Furious is being called “Obama’s Watergate.” In truth, it’s far, far worse than that. Watergate involved a burglary and a coverup. Fast and Furious involved the United States government running weapons to foreign criminals and the deaths of hundreds of people.

Under common law, if a person is a major participant with others in the commission of a felony, and someone is killed during the crime, he can be convicted of felony murder.

By invoking executive privilege, President Obama has cast in his lot with criminals responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent people. He doesn’t belong in the White House, he belongs in the Big House.

Pietta 1858 Remington with Kirst Konversion

Caveat: Without getting too deep into legalities, converting a percussion revolver into a cartridge firing breechloader is legal in my jurisdiction. Before you undertake a similar project please familiarize yourself with all the relevant laws.

Last week I did my first cartridge conversion of a percussion revolver. Such conversions were common in the years following the Civil War as the use of metallic cartridges became widespread, but there was still a large supply of percussion wheelguns left over from the war. Both Colt and Remington performed these conversions, as did plenty of indpendent gunsmiths. The Colt 1872 Open Top was not much more than an 1860 Army modified to use metallic cartridges. Remington even shipped New Model Armies with a .46 Rimfire cylinder and a percussion cylinder from about 1868 through 1875 or so.  With the rise in popularity of cowboy action shooting, cartridge conversions have become popular once again.

This revolver started life as a Pietta replica Remington 1858 New Model Army. As it came from the factory it was a percussion arm, taking separate powder, ball, and cap. To do the cartridge conversion I bought the cylinder, backplate, and Remington factory style ejector from Kirst Konverter

After getting the parts and reading through the instructions, I broke out every home gunsmith's favorite tool, a Dremel.

I got this Dremel and I ain't afraid to use it!

Note: Wear safety glasses when you're grinding away with the Dremel. You don't want metal shavings, sparks, or grit in your eyes.

First, I cut out and glued to the inside of the frame a template provided by Kirst. Then, I masked the frame with a few layers of duct tape to protect against the inevitable skips. Next, I used a grinding wheel and sanding drums in the Dremel to cut out the loading port in the right side recoil shield.

I also needed to slightly sand down the feet on the bottom of the cylinder backplate because they were too high, causing the cylinder to bind. This is mentioned in Kirst's instructions. I used 600 grit emery paper to polish the cylinder base pin, and some cotton patches with Flitz metal polish to slick up the center hole in the new cylinder. I also polished the front of the cylinder with the 600 grit paper, but even so, the barrel/cylinder gap is very tight.

The next major step was to cut a notch in the loading lever to fit the "flag" on the end of the ejector rod. Unlike most single action revolvers which have a spring loaded ejector, the Remington factory design is a simple rod retained in the open position by the original loading lever. To use it you need to drop the lever. Obviously, this is much less convenient than a spring loaded ejector.

I used a hacksaw to rough in the notch, then finished it with a flat and a square needle file.

Once all the parts were fitted I polished the areas where I'd cut and then touched them up with Birchwood Casey cold blueing solution. All told, I have about 8 hours invested in the project.

[B]One thing that's very important to note is that any of the cartridge conversions are rated for black powder or factory cowboy loads only, and lead bullets only,  with a MV of under 1,000 FPS. The guns are built for use with black powder and soft lead bullets. The forcing cones are not designed to handle jacket bullets. Running hot loads, or God forbid Ruger-only .45 Colt loads runs the risk of catastrophic failure.[/B]

I'd hope to take it to the range today to try it out for the first time, but I had to work on my washing machine instead. {grrr}

I’ll post a range report after I shoot it.

What is best in life?

To crush the progressives, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the Democrats!

Well done, Wisconsin!

It will be interesting to hear the spin from the left today in the wake of their failed attempt to recall WI Governor Scott Walker. We're already hearing that the only reason Walker prevailed was that the Republicans outspent the Democrats. Nevermind that (a) Walker did not accomplish several major goals which he campaigned on the first time around, and (b) in light of the amount the Dems spent in the 2008 election it's awfully ironic for them to bitch about campaign spending.

Last night also points to the continued strength of the Tea Party despite MSM protests to the contrary. First, the Tea Party helped unseat Dick Lugar (RINO-IN). The the Tea Party also had a hand in last night's win.

The productive people in this country are sick and tired of the Free Shit Army mooching off of us. We need to maintain this momentum through November.

Saturday Night Range Report

Tonight I was able to get out to the range with my dad and get some pistol shooting in.

Dad brought his Beretta M-9 and S&W Model 67. He got the M-9 pretty recently and so far its proven to be a pretty good pistol. The trigger on it is awful – heavy and the DA pull is long – but it’s been reliable and is quite accurate. To me it has all the ergonomics of a slightly rounded off 2x4, so I’m not a fan.

The Model 67 is the stainless steel version of S&W’s classic Model 15 Combat Masterpiece, built on their K-Frame. There are few handguns nicer to shoot than a K-Frame loaded with .38 wadcutters, IMHO.

As for me, I started off with my Ruger LCP, which due to it’s light weight and thinness, has become my main carry gun. I shot the 6 rounds I had loaded in the gun, Federal .380 90 grain FMJ, then put a few magazines of CCI Blazers through it. I’d wanted to try the Blazers because they are the cheapest American made .380 ammo I’ve seen. As long as the gun worked OK with them I planned to buy a few more boxes for practice. I also wanted to try the extra magazine I bought for the LCP.

As expected the new magazine and the Blazers worked fine in my limited testing. Because the LCP is so light, it’s no fun to shoot. Once I put about 3 magazines through it in one session I get shaky due to the recoil. Tonight I ran 3 mags full shooting left handed and 1 mag shooting from the wrong side. No malfunctions tonight.

Incidentally, the reason that I carry FMJ in my LCP is because penetration with .380 ACP jacketed hollowpoints is marginal. If a manufacturer develops a .380 JHP that can penetrate 12” in ballistic gelatin, I’ll reconsider my choice to carry ball.

Much more enjoyable to shoot was my Pietta 1858 Remington “New Army Police” .36 caliber percussion revolver, shown above. I put the model name in quotes because Remington never made such a gun. Rather, they did make .36 revolvers during the percussion era, but they were referred to as a “Navy Model” and built on a slightly smaller frame than the .44 caliber New Model Army. Pietta builds the NAP on the NMA frame, which results in a really beefy gun.

I loaded the Pietta with 28 grains of Swiss Schuetzen FFFg black powder, a lubricated felt wad, and a .380 cast lead ball from Rush Creek. Ignition was from Remington No.10 caps.

I put 30 rounds through the wheelgun, pulling the cylinder pin after 18 rounds to put some more Ballistol on it to keep the cylinder turning easily. The Pietta suffered no malfunctions in this range session. I’ve found the Remington replicas to be much less prone to cap jams than the Colt repros.

Accuracy at 7 yards was pretty good with most of my shots in one hole a couple inches across. Unlike most cap and ball sixguns it shoots a bit low, so one of these days I need to bring a file with me to the range and take a little off the front sight, to raise the point of impact.

One thing which has continued to impress me is just how good the Swiss black powder is. I remember back in the 1990s when Elephant brand black powder was imported from Brazil, and people complained about how weak and dirty it was compared to Goex. Well, comparing Goex black powder to the Swiss stuff is like comparing Elephant to Goex. It burns much, much cleaner and is also more powerful than Goex, almost on par with Hodgdon Triple 7. I took me only four patches wet with Windex to get the Pietta’s bore clean after firing 30 shots. Unfortunately, Swiss BP is about as expensive as Triple 7.

Overall, it was a nice Saturday night.

Book Review: The Mongoliad

Tonight I finished reading The Mongoliad: Book One (The Foreworld Saga)by Greg Bear, Neal Stephenson, Mark Teppo, Erik Bear, Joseph Brassey, Cooper Moo, and E.D. deBirmingham. The reason for the long list of authors is that The Mongoliad “was originally conceived and presented as a community-driven, enhanced, serial novel that could be read on your Web browser, smart phone, or tablet,” and was hosted at mongoliad.com.

I originally started reading the book online, then downloaded the app for my iPad. In its original, serialized form, I found it hard to keep track of where I was in the story after coming back from a break, so I never finished it. The web site and app were pretty but lacked a good bookmarking function.

Thankfully, The Mongoliad is now available in book form, either printed on dead trees or electronically for your Kindle or as an audio book. It’s being published as a trilogy, with the first book available now. Book 2 is slated for release in September 2012,

The genesis of The Mongoliad came from the authors’ interest in medieval Western martial arts:

It all started with sword fighting, of course. My co-authors and I are part of a Western martial arts study group that practices in a non-descript loft in Seattle. A lot of the initial impetus for the group came from Neal Stephenson who had realized the sword fighting in his earlier novels was lacking the input from individuals with actual expertise. In the course of learning about the history of Western martial arts, he coaxed a couple other writers into the same circle. From there, the idea of writing a saga about the complex history of Western martial arts was born. Since the idea grew out of a group experience, it seemed best to continue the collaborative aspect of the project, and that was how the core team of Neal, Greg Bear, E.D. deBirmingham, Joseph Brassey, Erik Bear, Cooper Moo, and myself came together.

I discovered if from a link on BladeForums.com as I was perusing the Sword Discussions subforum.

The book is set in the year 1241 as Europe faces the onslaught of the Mongol Hordes of Ogedei Khan. Rather than strictly sticking with the historical 1241, the authors have described it as a fantasy version of 1241. This doesn’t mean that it’s full of wizards and monsters, but that events in the book may diverge from our history.

The action is good and fast paced. I am far from an expert in martial arts but the fight scenes seem pretty realistic. Parts which deal with archery could use some improvement. For example, on more than one occasion archers are described as drawing their bows and holding people at arrow point for an extended period of time. As anyone who’s shot a powerful bow understands, this isn’t possible. You’ll tire quickly. This would especially be true of 13th Century bows, whether European or Mongol, since either would have draw weights of 65 pounds on the light side. Many bows of the period had draw weights exceeding 100 pounds.

Some of the character development is good while others lag. For example, one of the Mongol characters’ development is laid out well, while most of the European characters feel static. However, even though they haven’t really developed, they are still likeable for the most part.

Overall, though, it’s a good read and I do recommend it if you have any interest in this historical period.

If you’re an Amazon Prime member and you have a Kindle you can “borrow” The Mongoliad for free. To do so, open the Kindle Store on your device, search for it by name, and select the option to borrow it. You cannot do this if you’re using a Kindle app on a computer or mobile device, it has to be on Kindle hardware.

Shooting the Magyar Horsebow

I made this video the other day of shooting my Magyar horsebow. The bow was made by Istvan Toth in Hungary, and imported into the USA by Seven Meadows Archery.

Holocaust Remembrance (Yom Ha Shoah) Day in Israel

Thompson/Center Renegade Black Powder Rifle

Yesterday I took a vacation day, went down to my club, and shot the Thompson/Center Renegage rifle which I'd picked up earlier in the week.

T/C helped give the modern muzzleloading scene a big boost when they introduced their Hawken in 1970. While it isn't an accurate replica of an original Hawken*, it was a well made traditional rifle that sold very well for several decades. T/C now mostly makes inlines, but the Hawken is still available from them.

In 1977, T/C came out with the Renegade as a lower-cost alternative to the Hawken. Instead of the Hawken's brass furniture, it had blued steel. It also lacked a nosecap on the stock and instead of a crescent buttplate, had a shotgun butt. This makes it more comfortable to shoot with heavy loads.

General specs of the Renegade were cap or flint ignition, .50 or .54 caliber with a 1:48" rifling twist, and a 26" long octagonal barrel measuring 1" across the flats. Overal weight was around 8 - 9 pounds. It was available fully finished or as a kit.

My father had a .54 caliber Renegade when I was growing up. T/C discontinued the model a few years ago (I believe in the wake of a factory fire). Recently, I'd come to have a hankering for one and periodically would check Gunbroker.com to see if any left hand .50s were available. Occassionally I'd see one but other things had to take priority.

Well, I had last Monday off and took a drive up to Dixon's Muzzleloading Shop. As I was looking around, I spotted a lefty Renegade on the shelf. It was a late production model in .50 and looked barely used. I spoke to Chuck Dixon about it and he dropped an LED borelight down the barrel so I could see how it looked. It was spotless. The nearly new condition and the very reasonable $220 price tag meant that it came home with me.

As a late production gun, my Renegade has T/C's "Quick Load" muzzle. Basically, they coned the muzzle at the factory to make it easier to start a ball, or especially conicals. It has fiber optic sights although I don't know if they are factory original. It also has studs for quick detatchable sling swivels, which I also don't know if they are OEM.

My goal yesterday was to get the rifle sighted in at 50 yards and hopefully find a decently accurate load. I first shot it with 60 grains of Goex 2Fg black powder, a patched .490" round ball, and CCI No.11 caps. My patches are pillow ticking and lubed with Track of the Wolf's Mink Oil Tallow.

Recoil with the 60 grain load was very mild, not much more than a .22 Magnum. The Renegade's heavy weight and broad, flat buttplate made it very comfortable to shoot. I bumped the powder charge up to 70 grains, which would be a better hunting load. The recoil increased a little but not too much.

Accuracy with the PRB was only so-so, about 4" at 50 yards. T/C's barrels have a 1:48" twist, which is commonly called a compromise. It'll shoot either patched roundballs or conicals (Minie Balls or Maxi Balls) with usable hunting accuracy. I would like to halve these group sizes, though, which will require experimenting with ball diameter and patch thickness. I will have to buy a box of .495" balls and see if they give better accuracy. (In contrast, my Cabela's Traditional Hawken made by Investarms with the same twist shoots .490" round balls just fine with a 60 grain load and pillow ticking patches.)

I also shot a 5 round group with some Hornady Great Plains bullets. These are 385 grain lead hollowpoint slugs, which a small cavity in the base. Essentially, the GPB is a modernized Minie Ball. These shot a little better than the PRBs, with my shots going into about 3". I used the same powder charge -- 70 grains -- and let me tell you, recoil was a lot more noticeable with the heavy bullets. But they ought to really lay the smackdown on any North American game.

The coned muzzle really came in handy when starting the GPBs. They slipped in straight with light thumb pressure. They were then easy to seat all the way.

As expected, the Renegade was reliable. I did have one failure to fire, and it happened on my very first shot. Before I shoot a percussion gun I always swab the bore with a dry patch and pop one or two caps on the nipple to clear out any oil. Well, this time something must've gotten stuck in the flash channel because the charge didn't go off until the second cap. This was a first for me.

Overall, I'm pleased with the Renegade. It's a nice addition to my collection.

Homemade Arrows With Dowel Shafts

I made up a couple arrows using 3/8" poplar dowels that I got at Lowe's. I selected them for straightness and grain, but didn't doing anything to straighten them beyond how they came home from the store. Fletching is 3M duct tape (it's OK for this use but otherwise it's garbage).

Arrow #1 is my scrounged materials Zombie Killer model.  The point was cut from 16 gauge steel, glued and tied into a slit in the tip. It's not sharpened but if it hit an animal (alive or undead) I have no doubt it would cause a nasty wound.

Arrow #2 is a blunt for small game or stump shooting. I made this one about an inch longer and it seems to shoot better from my 50# longbow. The point is a .357 Magnum empty, glued on with Ferrl-Tite hot melt glue.

I reinforced the nock and tip on Arrow #1 using dental floss (continuing the scrounged material theme) and cement. I used artificial sinew for the same purpose on Arrow #2.

I was pleasantly surprised with the sheet metal point of the Zombie Killer. I shot it several times into the ground and it only bent a little. Empty .38s and .357s have been used for blunt heads for decades, so no surprise that it works just fine. I have some more dowels and will be making up more of these.

The tools I used to make these were my Victorinox SwissTool (scissors, knife, file, and saw), a pair of Wiss metal snips, and some sandpaper.

Some pics:

Some caveats if you try this:

1. I would not shoot these from a compound bow. I'd worry about them splitting.
2. Carefully select the dowels for straightness, lack of grain runout, and general integrity.
3. Inspect the arrows before and after each shot. If you see any defects developing, do not shoot it! You don't want the arrow to split and get part of it stuck in your bow arm.

Also note that I did some online research about using dowels for arrow shafts before I made these. One source I found indicated that the average 3/8" poplar dowel spines anywhere from 65 to 80 pounds. So I felt confident that as long as I used good condition poplar dowels with little to no grain runout, I'd be safe shooting these in my 50# bow.

Shooting the Samick SLB-II Longbow

Samick SLB-II Longbow

Since I got back into archery at the end of last year I have been shooting my 40# draw Seven Meadows Archery Magyar Horsebow. I'd bought it because my old bow, a Martin Damon Howatt Hunter recurve with a 55# draw, was too heavy for me after a 15 year lapse in archery practice.

With a few months' shooting under my belt I strung the Martin this week and shot it a couple of times. It still feels heavy but not nearly as much as it would've had I not been working on getting my arm, shoulder, and upper back muscles back into shooting shape with the horsebow. As I'd remembered, the Howatt Hunter draws smooth and shoots fast. I found it easier to shoot consistently good groups with the recurve compared with the horsebow. A good part of this is due to the recurve having an arrow rest other than my knuckle.

Today I drove out to Lancaster Archery Supply, which is a bit more than an hour from home. I'm not sure what happened but a Samick SLB-II longbow hopped off the rack and followed me home. :)

The Samick is a 69", 50# draw longbow with flatbow-type limbs. It's made from laminated fiberglass, walnut, and maple. When unstrung there is a slight reflex but when strung it is a "D" shape.

The service at Lancaster Archery Supply was great and I was able to shoot the bow before deciding whether to purchase it. We put a target out at about seven yards and I put several arrows into a first-sized cluster. It draws smoothly but did have some hand shock. Along with the bow I got a set of wool string silencers that I put on after I got home. Adding the silencers got rid of virtually all the hand shock.

LAS didn't have the correct arrows already setup to go with the bow so I decided to try the cedars I already had at home, that I use with my horsebow. As it turns out, they shoot better in the Samick than the SMA horsebow, for which I think I need shafts with a lighter spine.

Along with the bow I bought a stringer, Neet armguard, and a leather back quiver by Big Tradition Archery. This quiver is to replace the nylon back quiver I got from 3 Rivers Archery, which while well made, is too floppy for my taste.

Upon getting home and installing the string silencers, I went out back and put about 72 shots through the Samick. I like it. It was quiet even without the silencers, it's now ever more so. Compared with the Martin recurve it's a little easier to pull, and is the most forgiving of my three bows.

The Samick seems like it's a great value and I look forward to shooting it a lot, and hopefully bagging some venison with it.

Century Arms NDS-2 AK-74 Rifle

Back in November I picked up a Century Arms NDS-2 AK-74 rifle. This is a typical semiauto-only Kalashnikov made from a mix of surplus and newly made parts.

The NDS-2 is built on an American made NoDak Spud stamped receiver with a scope rail and a new barrel. It also has a Tapco G2 fire control group (trigger, hammer, and disconnector), American made black plastic furniture, and an American made barrel. The remainder of the parts a Bulgarian surplus. The rifle is finished with a nicely done, even parkerizing.

I finally got to shoot the rifle this past weekend. As expected it ran like a top. I put 120 rounds of Russian surplus 5.45x39mm 7N6 ball through it with no malfunctions, feeding from a couple Bulgarian surplus magazines. Whenever I shoot a new rifle for the first time I try to do so at 25 yards to ensure that it’s on paper, and then move back to 100 yards to fine tune the zero. Since I didn’t feel like picking up an moving my stuff I stayed at 25 yards for this outing. I’ll finish zeroing it the next time I get it to the range.

Shooting the rifle is a pleasure. The G2 FCG has a nice, consistent, light pull. The 5.45mm round has minimal recoil, which is made even less by the very effective muzzle brake. The brake does result in a rather pronounced muzzle blast, however. I have a Bulgarian flash hider which fits the 24mm front sight base of this rifle and may give it a try.

The American made furniture is craptacular. Since Century or their contractor had to setup a mold to make the furniture anyway, I don’t understand why they didn’t just use a set of surplus furniture as the model and copy it. Instead, the butt has insufficient drop for use with iron sights, while the handguards lack a heat shield. I’ve read of other people melting them in sustained fire. So, I ordered a set of olive drab K-Var furniture that will not only look a lot better, is of much higher quality.

Unlike some Century Tantals, I saw no evidence of keyholing due to an oversized bore.

The barrel is plain carbon steel, not chrome lined. Since I’m not taking this rifle into battle with the potential of not being able to clean it regularly, it’s not a problem for me. Even though military surplus 5.45x39mm cartridges are corrosively primed, as long as I clean the gun the same day I won’t see corrosion.

I did run a few patches wet with Hoppe’s No.9 through the barrel, and also wiped the bolt face down before I left the range. Despite Internet myths about cleaning up after corrosive primers, all you need is either Hoppe’s No.9, MPro-7, or USGI Rifle Bore Cleaner. Hoppe’s No.9 was introduced in the early part of the last century and has always been rated for cleaning up after corrosive ammunition. Back in the late 1980s/early 1990s, the only ammo I shot in my SKS was Chicom 7.62x39 with corrosive primers. Hoppe’s was all I used for cleaning and I never had any rust.

Despite the lack of a chromed bore this rifle with better furniture is a good choice for a defensive carbine. New production non-corrosive 5.45mm ammo is available, but even in most SHTF scenarios it’s not an issue. If you can stock up on ammo you can lay in a decent supply of solvent and a cleaning kit.

Aside from the light recoil, the 5.45x39 round has the reputation for better accuracy in AKs than the more common 7.62x39 cartridge. Also, it’s currently the cheapest centerfire round available, if you buy military surplus ammo. For example, AIM Surplus currently lists a 1080 spam can of 7N6 for $139.95 + shipping, or $10 less if you buy more than one can. At that price you can afford to stock up.

AK-74 magazines are a bit harder to find than AK-47 mags. At one time they were very common and as cheap as dirt but that’s no longer the case. That being said, some time spent searching online will find magazines available for sale. I would stick with military surplus magazines for serious use, however.

Overall, I am quite pleased with the NDS-2.