Shooting My Chinese Horsebow Again

For the first time all year I flung some arrows downrange with the 50# Chinese horsebow that I bought in 2012 from eBay seller "handmadebow." I remain impressed with the bow, which shoots as well as my much more expensive 40# Toth Magyar horsebow from Seven Meadows Archery. (The Toth bow is better finished, to be sure.)

Much of my shooting today was with some Easton carbon arrows that I bought last year on closeout from 3Rivers Archery. The carbons are a lot lighter than my cedar arrows, and of course much straighter and more consistent. They fly much faster from the horsebow, flat as a laser out to 12 yards. The speed comes at a price in the form of greatly increased hand shock. The lightweight carbons are much less pleasant to shoot than wood arrows, and I enjoyed shooting the bow more after I switched to my cedars. They fly noticeably slower but the bow is quieter with less hand shock, and they still hit with an impressive thump.

Even though I had not shot the bow since last Fall I was able to keep most of my shots in a group the size of a paper plate at about 12 yards. I plan to practice more with it and hopefully take it hunting this year.

Rambling Thoughts on the Ammo Situation

Over on Survival and Emergency Preparedness.

Pietta 1873 Millenium Single Action Revolver

Yesterday at Cabela's I bought a Pietta 1873 Millenium replica of the Colt Single Action Army revolver. The gun is chambered for .45 Colt, has a 4-3/4" barrel, and a matte blued finish with a brass grip frame and wood grips. Cabela's also sells them in .357 Magnum and .44 Magnum, with the same matte blued or a nickel finish.

Overall the Pietta is a pretty faithful copy of the Colt SAA, with the obvious exception of the utilitarian finish. The other way in which is diverges from the SAA's design is the presence of a safety that works by pushing the cylinder base pin back towards the hammer, to prevent it from dropping all the way and striking a primer. IMO it is neither easy to operate nor very robust, so I intend to treat the gun as a traditional single action, and keep an empty chamber under the hammer if I carry it.

Out of the box the action was very smooth and the trigger was very crisp, with absolutely no creep or takeup. It's a couple pounds heavier than I'd like, however, so I will do some careful stoning to lighten it a tad.

I already had a few boxes of Black Hills .45 Colt cowboy loads at home. They feature a 250 grain hard cast RNFP bullet at about 750 FPS. I wanted to pick up another box or two of ammo but the only .45 Colt that the store had in stock was Buffalo Bore +P, which shouldn't be used in SAAs or clones. However, they did have one box remaining of Ultramax .45 S&W Schofield with a 180 grain bullet at 650 FPS, a real mouse fart load. (For those unfamiliar with .45 Schofield, it shares the same case dimensions as .45 Colt, but is shorter. It can be safely fired in the Colt chamber.)

Today I brought the Pietta to my gun club and fired it at 25 yards, then 10 yards. At 25 yards it shot about 8" low and 8" left with the Black Hills .45 Colt loads. At 10 yards it was about 6" low and 6" left. The Schofield rounds impacted closer to center, but still low. This 10 yard group of 12 shots was fired before I started filing the front sight to raise the point of impact. I was aiming at 6 o'clock on the bullseye.

The two flyers were my fault.

The gun digested 100 rounds today, mostly trouble free. I did have a problem after the first three shots, because after playing with the safety last night I apparently failed to properly seat the cylinder base pin catch in the correct detent, and the pin started walking out. This prevented the cylinder from rotating so I had to dismount it from the gun. This goes in the operator error column.

The other issue I had was ammo related. One empty .45 Colt cartridge case was very tight in the chamber after I fired it, and I couldn't eject it until I again dismounted the cylinder and smacked the empty out with a mallet, using the base pin as a drift. Most of the remaining empties actually fell out if I elevated the muzzle, even without using the ejector rod. So, that one gets chalked up to an ammo problem.

If you want a Colt Single Action Army replica that won't break the bank, the Pietta 1873 is worth a look. As a copy of the SAA, it is not suitable for heavy loads, but the original ballistics for the .45 Colt round are nothing to sneeze at. A 250 grain .45 caliber bullet going about 900 FPS will take game up to deer size cleanly, or prove effective for self defense.

Crosman 2300T Improved Front Sight

Over the weekend I used my new lathe and my mill to make a nicer front sight for my Crosman 2300T. Details here.

Crosman 2300T Air Pistol

Back in January and February I posted a few times about using airguns for cheap, quiet indoor marksmanship practice. While I have a couple of suitable air rifles, I was lacking a good air pistol. My old Benjamin has mediocre sights and pumping it up 2 or 3 times between each shot gets old quickly. The Crosman 38T revolver that I bought back in the 80s and that I had hoped to use will no longer hold gas, and nor will the late 90s vintage RWS C225.

So, when I got a $100 Amazon gift card for Father's Day, I decided to put it towards a Crosman 2300T CO2 powered air pistol. I ordered it Monday morning and with Amazon Prime, it arrived on Tuesday, even though I did not pay extra for overnight shipping. This is a photo from Crosman's website:

The .177 (4.5mm) caliber 2300T is one of a series of CO2 powered pistols from Crosman. The .22 (5.6mm) caliber 2240 is on the low end, with the 2300S at the top. You can also order custom variants from Crosman's custom shop. The key features of the 2300T are:

• .177 caliber
• Single shot bolt action
• 10.1" barrel
• Single stage adjustable trigger, with overtravel stop
• Adjustable rear sight and blade front sight
• Steel breach, grooved for optics (as opposed to the plastic breach of the 2240)
• Crossbolt safety mounted behind the trigger.
• Weight of 42.5 oz.
• MV up to 520 FPS
• 40 shots or so per CO2 cylinder

The first order of business upon unpacking the pistol and verifying that it wasn't loaded, was to install the rear sight. To do so I had to turn in the large screw on the rear top of the breach, to provide more clearance for the rear sight, then slide the sight into a dovetail and tighten two set screws with a provided Allen wrench.

I then noticed that the front sight was canted a bit to the right. Using a pair of slipjoint pliers with a couple layers or duct tape padding the jaws, I was able to straighten it.

Before shooting any pellets I dry fired the gun and determined the trigger pull was adjusted too high. Following the instruction pamphlet, I removed one of the grip panels and turned the brass trigger adjustment dial to lower the pull. It's down to a couple pounds now with minimal takeup but a fair amount of creep. I haven't tinkered with the overtravel adjustment yet.

The ambidextrous plastic grips are comfortable for me, but I have fairly small hands. A shooter with large hands may want beefier grips.

The LPA rear sight is shaped a bit like the Novak rear sights found on many modern service pistols. There are white dots on either side of the notch. The front is a plastic blade on a barrel band. I'd rate the sight picture as acceptable for plinking but mediocre for target shooting. I plan to use a Sharpie marker to blacken the white dots. The rear sight notch is a little too wide, IMO. The front sight is too shiny, but since it's plastic you can't smoke it with a match or candle.

The balance of the pistol is neutral. It could use a bit more weight towards the muzzle. I am considering making a replacement front sight/muzzle brake unit out of aluminum to improve the sight picture and add a little more weight towards the muzzle end.

I put 10 rounds through the pistol Tuesday night, plus another 40 or so tonigh. The target below was shot from 25', one handed, with RWS Meisterkuglen pellets. Power was from an old Daisy CO2 cylinder. I put a drop of some Air Rifle Headquarters silicone spring cylinder oil on the tip of the CO2 cylinder before I put it in the gun; Crosman recommends using a drop of their Pellgun Oil. I received a tube of that today.

Point of aim was at 6 o'clock on the orange bull.

One oddity was that on shot number 6 the valve stuck open and gas started to leak. I recocked and snapped the gun, which stopped it. I regard this as a fluke and probably due to a burr.

Despite the canted front sight and the stuck valve, my initial impression is favorable. As long as no more mechanical issues arise, it should make a good pistol for indoor marksmanship practice. It's nice to shoot and accurate.

The Crosman 22xx series is sort of the Ruger 10/22 or AR15 of the air pistol world, in that they are modular, easily customizable, and there is a large variety of aftermarket and Crosman-branded parts for modifying the gun to your own preference. For example, Crosman sells a shoulder stock to convert it to a carbine. Longer barrels are available, including in .22 caliber, and even valves which enable more CO2 per shot for higher velocity.

Shooting a CO2 powered air gun isn't as cheap per shot as a spring piston or pneumatic gun, but at most it's on par with a .22 rimfire.

Overall, the Crosman 2300T is a good choice for target practice, but it can be made better with some modifications.

Updates to The Shooters' Bar

I made several updates this morning to The Shooters' Bar(SM), the Internet's oldest freely-available list of pro-Second Amendment attorneys. Today's updates are in CA, IL, MO, and MS.

Machine Shop Update

On Saturday I completed the installation of digital read outs (DROs) on my Grizzly G8689 mini mill. Previously, I'd installed a belt drive conversion from Little Machine Shop. The DROs will enable me to make much more precise cuts, while the belt drive conversion made the mill a lot quieter, smoother running, and increased the top RPM to 4300 should I ever need it. Both are worthwhile mods, IMO.

However, a lathe is still the basic machine tool to have in a machine shop. After much additional online research today I ordered a Big Dog 7x14 benchtop lathe. Unlike most of the benchtop hobby lathes on the US market, this one is made by Yangzhou Real Bull, rather than Sieg. Included feature and accessories are a digital RPM display, lever lock tail stock, a steady rest, a follow rest, tail stock chuck and a live center, 4" four-jaw chuck, and metal transmission gears. I still have the lathe tool kit that I ordered when I placed my original order with Grizzly, so I should be able to get up and running with it immediately.

Delivery should take 5 - 10 days, after which I'll post a review.

Home Machining Website

I decided that the format of a blog isn't ideal for documenting the work I'm doing in my home machine shop. So, I created a site using Google Sites, Dave Markowitz's Machine Shop. I will be documenting various projects there. So far, these include doing a belt drive conversion on my Grizzly Mini Mill, and adding digital readouts, which is currently a work in progress.

I hope you'll check it out.

Remington 550-1 Shell Deflector

The shell deflector for the Remington 550-1 that I ordered last week from Numrich Arms arrived today.

Here's a closeup of the receiver without the deflector:

And here it is with the deflector mounted:

As you can see, it covers up the ejection port well, and should keep unburnt powder granules out of my face when shooting the rifle.

Before installing the deflector I degreased the mounting hole in the receiver with some lacquer thinner that was sitting on my workbench, then put a drop of blue Loctite on the mounting screw to keep it in place.

Considering that the 550-1 has been out of production since 1970, I feel fortunate in that Numrich still has some spare parts on hand for it.

Musket at the Betsy Ross House

Yesterday I chaperoned my daughter's class trip to Philadelphia. Among the places we visited was Betsy Ross's House. In the basement, they have displayed a musket and information on how paper cartridges were made during the Revolution.

The musket is either a French Charleville, as supplied to the Continental Army during the Revolution, or a US M1795, which is nearly a direct copy. This page also has a good description of how paper musket cartridges were made.

Remington 550-1 and Range Day

I picked up another classic .22 autoloader today at Surplus City. It's a Remington 550-1. AFAIK, the 550 was made from the 1940s up until the early 1970s.  It has the floating chamber designed by Carbine Williams so it can shoot .22 S, L, or LR. I tried some CB Longs and while it will eject the empties, the bolt didn''t come far back enough to pick up the next round. The floating chamber may need to be pulled and cleaned. The tube mag will hold 15 .22 LRs.

The rifle was made before 1968 and has no serial number. The date code on the barrel indicates that it was made in March 1948. I'd rate it as NRA Very Good with an excellent bore. I put over 200 rounds through it today with only a couple failures to feed. One was with a CCI Mini Mag and one was with a Federal Champion. Incidentally, comparing the two types of ammo side by side they look identical except for the headstamp. They sound the same and shoot to the same POI at 25 yards. So, AFAIC, the Federal Champion is the equal of CCI Mini Mags. I also shot a bunch of Federal 550 bulk pack and it ran fine with them, too. (ATK owns both CCI and Federal.)

I ran a couple patches through the bore and applied a generous amount of FP10 to the bolt before shooting it. It hasn't been cleaned in a long time. For all I know there's four decades' worth of gunk inside the receiver. Fouling started working its way out of the action and some funk actually fell out the trigger slot. I took the stock off and removed the bolt, tonight and hosed the action out with Kroil, letting it soak for a couple hours. A fair amount of yucky stuff came out.

The 550-1 is a tackdriver. I shot it from the bench at 25 yards where it would keep the Mini Mags and Champions inside ~1.5" which is about as good as I can do with an open rear sight and a front bead. The receiver is neither grooved nor drilled and tapped for a scope. I plan to drill and tap the receiver with my milling machine. I have an extra Nikon 4x32mm Prostaff rimfire scope that will go on it.

The varnish on the stock shows some dings and chips, so I'll probably strip and refinish it. It's also missing the brass/gas deflector that Remington shipped with the rifles. Numrich has spares and the mounting screw, so I'll definitely get one. It does spit a little out the ejection port. I'll also probably swap out the recoil spring for a new one.

Compared with more recent .22 autoloading rifles the Remington feels a lot nicer. It's definitely a product of a bygone era when American gunmakers shipped rifles made from high quality blued steel with nice wood stocks. It feels a lot more solid than my Ruger 10/22 or the Marlin Model 60s I've handled.

I also shot my Remington Nylon 77 with the extra mags that I had to modify. (The 4 spare mags that I got from Remington would not lock into the rifle. I had to grind away part of the locking lug. Worse, 3 of the 4 needed the metal reinforcing clip bent out so I could load them.) They worked well today, so now I'm happy with them.

Here's a pic of the two Remington .22 autoloaders:

Older blued steel and walnut .22s like the 550-1 make excellent additions to any prepper's battery. They were made very well and in many cases are extremely accurate. Older Remingtons in particular have a reputation for being very, very accurate. The tubular magazine is much less likely to be lost than a detachable box, although if you aren't careful you can damage it.

Finally, I also put a box of WWB .45 ACP through my Springfield M1911A1 using two new Chip McCormick magazines, which worked perfectly.

Milling Using a Chuck vs. Collets

The Sieg X2 Mini Mills like my Grizzly G8689 come with drill chucks. The Grizzly and some other brands also come with collets for holding end mills, while the Harbor Freight version comes only with a drill chuck, as far as I know. Today, I tried doing some milling using the chuck to hold an end mill, because I wanted the extra reach it provided.

Compared with a collet, the chuck is noticeably less rigid and watching the mill rotate, it also looks like it hold the end mill less concentrically. I.e., there's some noticeable wobble.

Based on this brief experience, collets are much better than the drill chuck for milling. End mill holders are another option, but I have no experience with them.

Forbes: Why 3D-Printed Untraceable Guns Could Be Good

Forbes is running an op-ed about why untraceable guns created on 3D printers could be good for the US.

...
Although the technology is still in its infancy, Wilson’s innovation has already sparked heated debate. Some gun rights advocates (including Wilson) argue this means current gun laws will soon be obsolete. They welcome the fact that home hobbyists may soon be able to build functioning firearms without any background check or government record. Others are alarmed, concerned that this would enable criminals to more easily obtain firearms. Congressman Steve Israel has already stated his intent to modify current laws to ban such guns.
However, Congressman Israel may be too late. Once thousands of motivated hobbyists start downloading open source gun designs and posting their refinements, we’ll likely see rapid technical advances. But Cody Wilson’s real impact on America may not be technological but political — and in a good way.
...

Read the whole thing.

I agree with Hsieh. If there is one thing we can learn from 20th Century history, it is that governments cannot be trusted with a monopoly of force. While it has always been legal for Americans to make untraceable guns for their own use, 3D printing lowers the entry bar, especially since traditional shop classes have been on the wain in American schools, while a larger number of people have developed computer skills. 3D printing will make home manufacture of firearms more accessible to the masses, especially as the technology matures.

That said, for those like myself willing to learn basic machine shop skills, fully functional firearms can be made at home with equipment within reach of most of the middle class. Small milling machines and lathes are available at prices under $1,000 each. For a modest additional expenditure, they can be made more precise with digital readouts, and for another grand or so can by CNC-enabled.

To would-be tyrants like Steve King, Charles Schumer, and Dianne Feinstein: You can't stop the signal.

Belt Drive Conversion for Grizzly Mini Mill

Now that I've been using my Grizzly G8689 (Sieg X2) mini mill for a few weeks, I've decided to do a belt drive conversion on it. The plastic gear drive system on the mill has two main disadvantages:

1. It's very noisy.
2. It's prone to breakage, from what I've read in many places.

Little Machine Shop has a belt drive conversion kit which remedies both issues. I ordered one, along with a spare belt this afternoon. They should arrive some time next week.

The next improvement to the mill will be adding digital read outs for all three axes. I bought the DRO plans from Fignoggle Designs, but I'm still debating whether to use them or go with a cheaper solution. E.g., just get a set of iGaging scales with remote readouts. Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Lawyers, Guns and Money

Student of the Gun discusses how to find a pro-RKBA lawyer in the event you need to use a gun in self defense in their April 25, 2013 episode, below, and discusses my website, The Shooters' Bar.



As I mention on TSB's home page, I started the list back in 1997 as a way for gun owners to help keep their money within the shooting community. That said, if you are looking for a lawyer to represent you after a defensive gun usage, the most important thing to remember is that you need someone who is a good criminal defense attorney. If you go to the TSB and don't find such a lawyer in your locale, you could call someone listed who is near you but practices in other areas of the law and ask for a referral.

Remember, too, that every attorney listed on TSB has asked to be there. I don't go adding folks on my own. If there isn't someone listed in a particular state or locality it means that nobody from there has contacted me. Links to TSB are always welcome, and if you inform pro-RKBA lawyers of the site to help me fill in the gaps it's appreciated.

Dem Rep Lets the Cat out of the Bag

In this video, Democratic Representative Jan Schakowsky openly admits that the Democrats' end goal is not just an assault weapons ban, but a ban on handguns. So, for those of you who insist that "nobody is trying to take away our right to bear arms," or that they "respect the Second Amendment," how do you explain this?





This is why opponents of gun control cannot compromise and we will fight infringements of our rights tooth and nail. The collectivist gun banners have been using incrementalism for decades in their quest to disarm the American people. Thankfully, the Internet has given us a powerful tool to circumvent the mainstream media and expose their agenda.

We won't be the frog in the boiling pot.

You have to start somewhere

Last night I used my new milling machine for the first time. Since I'm new at this I am starting with the basics. I cut a couple inches off the end of a scrap 2x4 and milled it so that the adjacent sides are perpendicular and opposite sides are parallel.

On the way home from work last night I picked up a piece of 1/8" thick aluminum, and a piece of 1/8" thick hot rolled steel. If I have time tonight I'll look into making a flat square and/or slots in the material.

Follow Up on the DIY Speedloader for .22 Tube Magazines

Back in January, I posted about the speedloaders I made for my Norinco ATD. I finally got the chance to try them on Saturday night. They work well as long as I held the rifle almost vertically, with the muzzle down. There appears to be some roughness inside the loading port on the rifle's stock which can interfere with dumping rounds into the mag. Once I fix that, the speedloaders should work better.

New iPhone 5, and iPad Follies

I had an Apple iPhone4 since the end of April, 2011. It was a great cell phone -- really a pocket computer -- but lately I've noticed that it's been getting slower and slower, and I was feeling cramped with the 16 GB of storage space. I have been eligible for an upgrade since December, so this past weekend I decided to take the plunge and got a 32 GB iPhone 5. No doubt,  Apple will now introduce the 5S or 6 next week.

So far it's a noticeable improvement, speed-wise. I haven't tested the LTE connection, since where I spend most of my time Verizon's network is 3G-only, or I'm near a wifi access point.

The iPhone 5's larger screen is nice while not being obnoxiously large, like some of the Android-based smartphones available today. (Hey, if you like having something not much smaller than a tablet as your phone, more power to you. They won't fit in my pockets comfortably.)

The major downside with the change to the new device is that I had to setup my Gmail account using IMAP, not using the Exchange ActiveSync protocol, because Google discontinued ActiveSync for new device access for free accounts.  Syncing Gmail works better via ActiveSync. For one thing, contacts are synced without having to create a separate CardDAV account on the iPhone.

On the way home from the Apple Store I plugged the phone into my old USB car charger, using the new USB-Lightning cable. It worked with the old charger, so I ordered a couple USB-Lightning cables from Amazon which should be waiting for me at home today. I don't have any docks, radios, or other devices with the old Apple Dock connector, so I don't need any other adapters. I do wish, however, that Apple would get with the program and use Micro-USB connectors on the iPhone and iPad. Fat chance, I know.

Since my data plan changed with the phone upgrade, I figured that I'd just add my iPad2 to it using either a shared plan, tethering, or adding the iPad as another line on my account. As it turns out, it is actually cheaper for me to just keep the $20/month prepaid plan that I've been using with the iPad. Of course, I figured this out after I discontinued 3G service for the iPad, so I had to go back in and set that up all over again. Derp.

Metalworking

I decided awhile ago that metalworking would be a good set of skills to pick up. A couple friends have some metalworking skills and one has been doing some CNC work. We're planning to build some AR15 lowers from aluminum bar stock (perfectly legal for our own use, we're not planning on selling them).

The last time I did any metalworking was back in junior high school shop class in the early 80s, when we did some sand casting, forging, and soldering. I looked into taking some classes at my local community college but they are not offered on a schedule that works for me, so I'm going to take the same approach that allowed me to change careers from law to IT, and teach myself.

Aside from books and just trying things out, there are a lot of instructional videos that are available online for free. For example, I've been watching a series of videos from MIT Tech TV.

I downloaded them to my iPad and have been watching them during my commute on the train. Along with this I read through Audel's Machine Shop Basics.

After doing a lot of reading and subscribing to the Yahoo 7x12 lathe group, I ordered a Grizzly G8688 last week from Amazon (at the time it was $30 cheaper through them vs. ordering direct). It won't handle big stuff like a friend's lathe that weighs in at 1800 lbs., but this will actually fit in my shed and I can cause less damage with it.

I also got a copy of the book Metal Lathe for Home Machinists which has a bunch of exercises to do to learn manual lathe operations, some which are tools to improve the lathe itself.

Once I have some practical experience with a lathe under my belt I  eventually may build a .22 rimfire suppressor on a Form 1.

I got my order today from Grizzly Industrial. However, somebody up in Muncy, PA got confused because they sent me the G8689 Mini Milling Machine instead of the G8688 Mini Lathe that I actually ordered. This was not evident until after I opened the shipping crate and the delivery truck had already left.

After I opened the shipping crate I called Grizzly to inform them of their error but that I would keep it. The CSR I spoke with told me that he'd have to talk to a supervisor and then call me back so I could pay the extra $30, but it's been several hours and they haven't called back.

I'm actually not really upset. When I first got interested in taking up machining my first inclination was to buy a mill. After some online research I changed my mind to getting a lathe first, but thinking I'd get the mill later. No big deal if I do it in reverse.

I do need to get a milling vise and end mills now. A friend has some end mills that he's offered to me to get started.

Here's a pic of the mill sitting on the new bench I built this weekend to hold the lathe and my drill press:

I cleaned off the packing grease with kerosene, but it still has to be shimmed level and bolted down. It weighs 101 pounds, and getting up on the bench was a cast iron bitch (pardon the pun).

Naturally, I'll be doing different kinds of project on the mill vs. a lathe. An HDPE AR-15 lower receiver comes to mind. I’m also interested in doing some kind of a single shot rifle, perhaps in a caliber like .38 Special or .32 S&W Long, either of which would easy and cheap to load for, and be good for small game.

The mill and a lathe should be complementary. It remains to be see, however, if the mill will render my benchtop drill press redundant.