Day at the Range

I've been off all week and despite the crappy weather forecasts, made it to the range yesterday and today. This post has pics from today.

Today I shot my Cimarron Firearms 1873 Sporting Rifle in .44-40 WCF with two types of handloads. The first target was shot with loads containing a 200 grain soft cast bullet from Desperado Cowboy Bullets on top of 8.5 grains of Alliant Unique powder, sparked by a Federal large pistol primer, in Starline brass.

The second group was loaded with home cast 219 grain bullets from an Accurate Molds 43-215C mold. I used a 1:20 tin:lead alloy, so they are pretty soft. Powder charge was 35 grains of Swiss 3Fg black powder, with the same brass and primers.

I managed to capture the smoke cloud from one of the black powder rounds. It was hot, humid, and with little to no wind, so the smoke just hung around.

After cleaning the 1873, I also spent some time banging the 25 yard plate rack with my CZ P09 Duty and my 9mm reloads (mixed brass, 115 grain Berry's plated bullets, 4.5 grains of Hodgdon Universal Clays powder, and CCI small pistol primers). No pics of that, however.

It sure beats working.

Turning Components Into Ammo

Over the past few weekends I have been busy turning components into ammunition. I dipped into my stash of empty .38 Special brass and loaded up several different varieties:

• 50 rounds of 178 Keith semiwadcutters (SWC) on top of 3.8 grains of Unique.
• 50 rounds of 178 Keith SWCs on top of 5.0 of Unique.
• 100 rounds of 195 grain lead round nose bullets (LRNs) on top of a 5.0 grains of Unique.
• 100 rounds of 148 grain Lee tumble lube wadcutters on top of a 2.7 grains of Bullseye.
• 100 rounds of 148 grain Hornady hollow base wadcutters (HBWC) on top of 2.7 grains of Bullseye.
• 100 rounds of Speer 158 grain lead SWC hollow points on top of a 4.5 grains of Universal Clays.

DO NOT USE ANY OF THE ABOVE LOADING DATA WITHOUT VERIFYING IT IN ONE OR MORE LOADING MANUALS!!! I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE THAT OCCURS TO YOU OR YOUR GUNS IF YOU RELY ON IT.

The Keith SWCs, 195 grain LRNs, and Lee TL WCs came from Matt's Bullets. I ordered 100 count sample packs of each and was impressed with the projectiles. They are sized to .359 and loaded with Carnauba Red lube, except for the 148 TL WCs, which appear to be lubed with Lee Liquid Alox.

I was quite pleased with the service from Matt's Bullets, BTW. My order shipped in about a day and a half and was sent in a USPS flat-rate box. I received 2 days after I got the shipping notice. The bullets all looked good.

The Hornady 148 grain HBWCs have been laying around since I bought 1250 of them at the end of 2016. I've had the 500 count box of the Speer LSWCHPs for years.

So what prompted this binge reloading? First, the weather has been nice and it has been neither too hot nor too cold to work out in my backyard shop. Second, my gun interests go in phases and  something rekindled my interest in revolvers. It's been too long since I shot one of my K-Frames, S&W Model 28, or 50th Anniversary Ruger Blackhawk.

And frankly, the state of the political left in this country is really starting to worry me. As far as I'm concerned, they've been acting completely batshit crazy since Trump's election. I want to get in some more practice in case the left decides to take their attempt at a soft coup hot.

I was pleasantly surprised that the .38s loaded with the Keith SWCs feed well in my Rossi 92 .357 carbine. I'd figured the SWCs might hang up during feeding, but they seem to be held at just the right angle to slip right into the chamber. (Testing was done with 3 dummy rounds, not live ammo.)

I got the 195 grain bullets because I thought it would be neat to try and duplicate the old .38 Special Super Police load, which had a 200 grain LRN at mild velocity. I wound up loading them over enough Unique, though, that they will only be shot in my .357s. If nothing else, they should make steel plates jump around nicely.

The Speer 158 LSWCHP loads should run about 850 FPS from a 4" barrel, very similar to the old FBI load. I can bump the powder charge up a little to get over 900 FPS but at +P pressures. These would be good for defense from any of my K-Frames, and should also work well in my J-Frame S&W Model 640.

To measure the powder charges I used both my Redding Model 3 measure and my RCBS Little Dandy. I don't like how Unique meters in the Redding, although it seems to meter a little more smoothly in the Little Dandy. In contrast, Universal Clays seems to meter very nicely in the Little Dandy -- smooth and extremely consistent. I haven't tried it yet in the Redding but I expect it to behave similarly.

Of course, the proof will be in the shooting of this ammo. I'm hoping to get to the range in the next week or two to dirty up some wheelguns.

New Personal MacBook Pro

Last weekend I broke down and finally did my income taxes. I used Turbo Tax on my old mid-2009 MacBook Pro. When I installed the software, it warned that unless I upgrade to macOS High Sierra, I won't be able to use it again next year. That Mac is too old to be upgraded beyond Sierra. I've been thinking of getting a new personal laptop and this pushed me to finally do so.

Therefore, on the way home from work last night I stopped in the Apple Store in King of Prussia and bought a 2017-model 15" MBP (MacBookPro14,3). The specs are impressive:

• CPU: 2.9 GHz Intel Core i7 with 4 cores
• RAM: 16 GB
• SSD: 512 GB (I was running low on space on the old machine's 256 GB SSD.)
• Graphics: Onboard Intel HD Graphics 630 1536 MB AND a 4G AMD Radeon Pro 560 GPU.

It has the Touch Bar (yawn) and 4 Thunderbolt 3 / USB-C 3.1 ports and a headphone jack.

I got it in silver to clearly differentiate it from the work-provided Space Grey 15" MBP.

Since I use Google Drive and Dropbox for documents, migrating them over was as simple as installing the clients and letting them sync. To move over my videos, pictures, and music, I went old school and sneaker-netted them using a 64 GB SanDisk USB stick with both USB-A and USB-C connectors.

This machine is very similar to my company-provided work laptop so I knew what I was getting. To partially reiterate from my post last Spring after I got that one:

• Replacing the MagSafe 2 power connector with USB-C sucks.
• On the other hand, with the right cable I should be able to charge the battery from something like a cell phone power bank or my Harbor Freight jump pack/12V power source.
• I am underwhelmed with the Touch Bar. At work I rarely use it because 90% of the time the lid is closed while the machine is connected to an external keyboard, mouse, and dual displays. Since I use the machine at home as a laptop, I expect the Touch Bar will see more use.
• It's fast as hell.
• The screen is great.
• Battery life is good.
• The keyboard is OK.
• For me, macOS 10.13 High Sierra has been very stable. I expect the new machine to be even more so, because it won't have corporate IT management crap like the Eracent agent installed.

Since last night I've installed the following software:

• MS Office 2016.
• TextWrangler (in which I'm writing this.)
• Truecrypt 7.1a, which requires some tweaking to install.
• ZOC 7 for telnet and SSH. I don't use it much at home but at work for managing Linux servers or network devices, it's awesome.
• LibreOffice for some old OpenOffice files I have. Even on this machine, LibreOffice is a bloated, slow POS. Amazing.
• 1Password.
• Mozilla Thunderbird.
• Google Chrome.

I still need to install a few ham radio apps, including Fldigi, CHIRP, and WSJT. Using them with my radios will require a Thunderbolt 3 to USB-A adapter, and maybe an external sound card.

One thing I need to pick up is a 1 TB Thunderbolt 3-compatible hard disk, to use for Time Machine backups. MicroCenter appears to have several suitable models in stock.

My employer has a purchase plan negotiated with Apple which saved me a couple hundred bucks on the laptop and AppleCare. It still came out to about $3,100 after tax. That's a ton of money but it's worth it to me to have a top-quality machine that I fully expect to be able to use for nearly a decade.

Levergun Weekend

Saturday afternoon I loaded up 150 rounds of .38-40 with a 180 bullet on top of about 8.5 grains of Unique. After dinner, I loaded 100 rounds of .44-40 with a 200 grain bullet on top of the same powder charge. Bullets for both calibers were soft cast from Desperado Cowboy bullets. I mostly shoot black powder in .44-40 but still had a bunch of the DCB 200 grainers, which don't carry enough lube for BP in a rifle, so smokeless it was.

Sunday morning was my club's lever action rifle match. Even though it was Easter Sunday, we had 9 shooters. We had a couple Rossi 92s, a Cimarron 1873, a Henry Big Boy, a Marlin 1894 CB, and even a Winchester 1894 in .44 Magnum loaded with .44 Specials. I shot my Cimarron 1860 Henry with .44 Henry-equivalent black powder loads, and got some ribbing from the other guys about second hand smoke.

We started out at 10 - 12 yards, then moved back to 50. The targets were ~8" square steel plates.

I shot well, coming in 4th. I missed only one target but of course I was slower than the guys shooting mouse-fart level .38s. Also, the Henry has more drop in the stock than my 1873, which slowed me down compared to last month.

I put 55 rounds through the 1860 Henry. The .44 rimfire-level loads foul noticeably less than full-power .44 WCFs. It took only about a half dozen patches wet with moose milk to clean the bore.

The rifle's developing a nice patina on the brass receiver now.

We were done pretty early so in the afternoon I decided to replenish my supply of bullets suitable for shooting on top of black powder. So, I topped off my Lyman lead pot with some 1:20 alloy that I got from Roto Metals, and ran off a few hundred bullets in my Accurate Molds 43-215C. Hopefully, I'll be able to lube and size them this week after work.

Shooting the 1860 Henry Rifle

Yesterday I went out to a friend's place and we put 100 rounds through the Cimarron Firearms 1860 Henry. The ammunition was 50 rounds each of two different loads:

First, .44 Henry Flat rimfire-equivalent loads:

• Starline brass
• CCI large pistol primers
• 28 grains Goex 3Fg black powder
• 0.5cc of cornmeal, to take up airspace
• 219 grain bullet cast from an Accurate Molds 43-215C mold

The second 50 rounds were as above, but with a full charge of 35 grains of 3Fg Goex and no cornmeal filler.

My first ten shots, fired offhand from about 40 - 45 yards:

My point of aim was at 6:00 on the bullseye. Can't complain about that.

We spent most of my rounds shooting at an 8-inch steel gong from the same distance. A short video:

In the video I was shooting the full-power .44 WCF loads with 35 grains of powder.

The rifle hangs really nicely for offhand shooting although at about 9 lbs. it's heavy. Recoil is very mild. Functioning was excellent and the action is slicking up, being noticeably smoother now than when it was fresh out of the box.

After shooting, we dropped the spent cases into a jar of soapy water to clean off most of the black powder fouling.

This took care of most of the fouling but I'm going to run them through my case tumbler for about 30 - 60 minutes.

This was the most black powder loads I've put through a rifle in one outing. The action got no fouling in it. The bore took only about 10 - 12 patches wet with moose milk (Ballistol/water mix) to get clean. 

I'm going to load up some more of the .44 Henry-equivalent loads and use them at my club's next lever action shoot. I'll also run some mild smokeless loads with Unique through it, and I've recently read some pieces that indicate Herco is a good smokeless powder for use in .44 WCF, so if I see any at the next gun show I'll pick up a pound. It's a little slower and I think bulkier than Unique, and may meter better, which would be a plus. 

Incidentally, we also shot my circa-1895 Winchester 1892 .38 WCF at the gong, with smokeless loads of a 180 grain cast bullet on top of 9.0 grains of Unique. These were noticeably more powerful than the Ultramax .38-40 cowboy ammo I'd shot in the rifle previously. However, even the .44 Henry-equivalent loads in the 1860 smacked the gong around a lot more.

Cimarron Firearms 1860 Henry Civil War Model

A couple of weeks ago I ordered a Cimarron Firearms 1860 Henry Civil War model rifle from Buffalo Arms, the same place I got my Cimarron 1873 Sporting Rifle from two years ago. The Henry arrived at my FFL last week and I did the transfer on Thursday. Like the 1873, the Henry is chambered for .44-40 / .44 WCF. I shot it for the first time yesterday.

As shown in the above picture, a sling swivel is mounted on the stock. I got a sling from Dell's Leather Works, which came from NY to PA in about 3 days.

This shows the German silver front sight blade and the sling attachment loop on the barrel.

The rear sight is a folding ladder. When folded, it's set for 100 yards. It's then graduated out to a very optimistic 800 yards. It also has a notch on the very top which may be for 900 yards.

Most Henry replicas come with a trapdoor in the buttplate which covers a cavity in the stock that accepts a four piece cleaning rod. My rifle doesn't have that, however. I plan to pull the buttplate off and see if the stock is drilled for a cleaning rod. If so, I may swap out the buttplate.

Overall, the rifle is extremely well finished. Wood-to-metal fit is excellent and the action works smoothly (and it's getting smoother as it gets worked).

Aside from the high quality, the other initial impression is that the rifle is heavy. It weighs in around 9 pounds, partially due to the weight of the brass receiver and partially due to how the magazine tube is machine from the same piece of steel as the barrel.

In my next post I'll talk about shooting it, but I wanted to leave off with this, a facsimile of an 1860s Henry Rifle advertisement.

Lever Action Rifle Shoot

Yesterday I attended for the first time one of my gun club's lever action rifle matches. I shot my Cimarron 1873 Sporting Rifle with my .44-40 handloads of bullets cast in the Accurate 43-215C mold on top of 35 grains of Goex 3Fg black powder in Starline brass.

Normally, the lever action matches involve shooting steel plates at 25 yards and 50 yards, but due to recent weather the range was a bit swampy. So, we shot at 25 yards only. Each of the first 9 relays was 5 shots on ~8" steel plates, against the clock. The final relay was 5 shots on one plate, against the clock, and if you didn't miss any, 5 seconds would be deducted from your total time.

Cimarron 1873s were the most common rifle choice, but mine was the only one with a 24" barrel. The rest were 20" short rifles in either .45 Colt or .357.

One guy was shooting an Uberti 1866 Carbine in .44-40. He and I were the only guys shooting .44 WCF.

We had a couple rifles from Henry and one Marlin 1894 Cowboy with 24" barrel. Finally, we had one guy shooting a Rossi 92 in .454 Casull but loaded with .45 Colts.

I was the only one shooting cartridges loaded with black powder. Everyone else used smokeless and mostly were light cowboy action shooting loads.

I saw a few feeding issues at least one of which was due to short-stroking, and the 1866 went down at one point due to a squib load. I am pleased to say that my rifle ran flawlessly.

Cleanup of my rifle afterwards was a snap. The thin .44-40 brass really seals the rifle's chamber so no fouling got back into the action. The bore needed about a dozen patches wet with moose milk (Ballistol/water mix) to get clean. Then, a couple dry patches and then two more with straight Ballistol.

The match was an absolute blast. Today I got an email with the scores and was happy to see that I came in third. Considering that the two guys who placed ahead of me were shooting mouse fart-level smokeless powder loads, I have absolutely no complaints.

I think I'll being doing it again.

Self Sufficiency, Part Two

It was unusually warm today for February, so I took advantage of that after getting home from work, and pan lubed and sized between 150 and 200 of the bullets I cast last weekend. These were cast from my Accurate 43-15C mold and will be shot in my Cimarron 1873 Sporting Rifle over black powder.

I use a hot plate that I got from Amazon for $14.95 or so to melt my roughly 50/50 mix of beeswax and mutton tallow. I recently picked up a .44 caliber Lee lube cutter off eBay, which made separating the bullets from the lube simpler than my previous solution. That was a .44-40 case with the mouth expanded a bit larger than normal and the flash hole drilled out so I can still a pin punch through it to poke out the bullets.

After separating them from the lube, I ran them through my Lee .429 sizer.

I still have about another 100 bullets to lube and size, which I'll try to get to tomorrow night.

The weather is supposed to be crappy this weekend, so I'm going to try to get some reloading in. I want to load at least one 50 round box of .44-40s using 2.2cc of Goex, to see how well this bullet works with it. I know it works well with Swiss black powder but I have a good supply of Goex on hand. The bullet was designed to carry enough lube to use with Goex in 24" barrels.

Consistent Cast Bullet Weights

Tonight I weighed a sample of ten bullets from the batch I cast yesterday and plugged them into Excel to figure out the average weight and the standard deviation in weights.

Accurate Molds 43-215C Bullets
Bullets cast from 20:1 lead:tin alloy
Sample	Weight in Grains
1	219.6
2	219.4
3	219.0
4	219.0
5	219.2
6	220.2
7	219.6
8	219.1
9	219.4
10	219.1
	219.4	Average weight
	0.371782493	Standard deviation

According to Tom at Accurate Molds, this bullet should drop at about 215 grains when cast from wheel weight alloy. Since the 20:1 alloy I'm using lacks any antimony, they naturally weigh a little more.

Never let anyone tell you that homemade bullets won't be as good as factory-made.

Self Sufficiency

Today I cast up a couple hundred bullets for .44-40 in my Accurate Molds 43-215C. Probably about 10 pounds worth.

The next time the Dems get into power, you know damn well that there will be a panic. What are you doing to protect yourself against that?

Put Together a Box of Smokeless .38-40s Today

Yesterday my orders arrived from Starline Brass and Desperado Cowboy Bullets. This afternoon I loaded up a 50-round box of .38-40s.

It was a bit cool outside and I didn't feel like working in my shop, so I did my handloading today at my dining room table using a Lee Hand Press that I bought many years ago. Mine is an older version, pre-Breech Lock.

The Lee Hand Press uses standard reloading dies and has enough leverage to resize rifle brass. I didn't have to resize the new brass, but did have to run them through the expander die after I deburred the case mouths.

The components I used today were:

• Virgin Starline cases
• Soft-cast 180 grain RNFP bullet from Desperado Cowboy Bullets
• Federal No.150 large pistol primer
• 9.0 grains of Alliant Unique powder

Muzzle velocity should be around 1300 - 1400 FPS. So, about equivalent to a 10mm pistol.

Note that this load should be safe in a Winchester 1892 or Marlin 1894 in good condition, but you should always confirm loading data in a loading manual or two. You and you alone are responsible for the safety of your handloads.

To prime, I used a Lee Ram Prime attachment. This allows you to prime cases on a reloading press on the upstroke. It gives a good feel for seating the primers, but does require you to handle each and every one. If/when I do another indoor loading session I'll probably use my Lee Auto Prime tool.

I used a Lee Perfect powder measure, with my charge weight verified using a Frankford Arsenal digital scale. I've previously tested this scale again a Redding beam-type scale and it's very accurate.

It's been awhile since I used the Lee Hand Press. It works well but I kind of like using nutcracker-style tools like my Ideal Number 6 more. I may look into picking up a Lyman 310 tool with dies for .38-40 and .44-40. Unlike the 19th Century tong tools, the 310 allows you to neck size brass and use different bullets, not just the ones cast in the matching mold. Unfortunately, they don't use standard loading dies.

Hopefully I'll be able to take the Winchester 1892 out to the range again next week, since I now have two handloads to try through it, today's smokeless loads and the black powder loads I put together last week.

Loaded Up a Box of Black Powder .38-40s

Today I loaded up a box of black powder .38-40s using bullets I cast yesterday. I planned to use the Ideal Number 6 tool but I found that because it doesn't resize the brass, I had insufficient neck tension and crimp on the bullets. With a slightly compressed load, the powder sometimes pressed the bullets back out of the case.

I therefore ended up using the Lee seating die and the factory crimp die. Going forward, I'm only going to use the Ideal tool for priming at most. Between the flashing I got on most of the bullets and the inability to use it to seat and crimp bullets, it's a collector's item.

After I loaded 50 rounds I had to clean up the flashing on many of them with a file, which was a tedious PITA. Since life is too short to shoot crappy bullets, the remaining ones that I cast yesterday are going back into the pot.

I'll probably order a mold from Accurate Molds, probably the 40-185C. It's basically a .40 caliber version of the 43-215C that has worked so well for me in .44 WCF. This will give me bullets that will work well with smokeless but still carry enough lube to use Goex black powder in a 24" barrel, in case I get another rifle in .38-40.

Cast Some .38-40 Bullets

This afternoon I cast some bullets using the Ideal Number 6 reloading tool for my .38-40 1892 Winchester. I have a small Lyman electric lead pot and filled the mold with a dipper. The alloy is ~20:1 tin:lead, which gives me a soft bullet but the tin helps the molten lead fill out the mold.

They dropped from the mold at ~0.412" and sized down in the Ideal tool to ~0.401".

If you look closely you may see some flashing on some of the bullets. The mold blocks do not meet perfectly. This will be cleaned up during sizing and if necessary, with a fine cut file. If I can keep these on an 8" plate at 50 yards I'll be happy. I'll be ordering a modern mold for sure.

My plan is to shoot these over black powder, so I lubed some up with Crisco and ran them through the sizer on the Ideal tool.

This shows a bullet ready to be sized:

Even with the soft alloy your hands get a real workout. I did about 25 and will do another 25 later. I am going to order a Lee sizing die to use in my reloading press.

Using a tool like this for molding your bullets and loading the cartridges really makes you appreciate modern reloading tools. Even a Lee Hand Press is a major step up.

Borescoped the 1892 Winchester

Last night I ran my borescope through the barrel of my antique Winchester 1892 in .38-40. What I'd hoped were leading deposits are really pits from corrosion. <sigh>

Unfortunately, much of the bore looks like that. Despite this, it shoots well. But, those pits are going to collect a lot of fouling, which is why cleaning patches always come out with some black on them, even after I've soaked the bore in Kroil since I got it a few weeks ago.

So, it looks like this rifle will see primarily smokeless powder ammo. I'll try some black powder handloads but ensuring all the black powder fouling is gone is going to be a challenge.

I have some 180 grain .401" soft cast lead bullets on order from Desperado Cowboy Bullets. Their 200 grain .430" bullets work well over Unique in my .44-40 and I expect the smaller bullets to work well in .38 WCF over 8.6 to 9.0 grains.

The FISA Memo

This morning I downloaded and read the FISA memo prepared by Congressman Devin Nunes. I have some thoughts on the contents.

Before delving into the memo itself, we need to remember that before it was released, the FBI had the opportunity to review it. They stated that while some (as yet unknown) facts were not included, no allegations in the memo are inaccurate. This is key, because if we take the allegations in the memo as accurate, they are damning.

In the warrant application, senior FBI and DOJ officials -- including then-Director Comey and Deputy Director McCabe --  had to certify to the court that there was probable cause to suspect illegal conduct by the target of the surveillance (Page). The Steele dossier was an essential piece of evidence provided to the court in support of the warrant application.

However, it turns out that the Steele dossier consisted of fabricated allegations by a foreign national, and was paid for by the Clinton campaign and the DNC. When applying for the warrant, the FBI was under the duty to inform the court of all material facts, including those which would weigh in the surveillance target's favor.

Further, FISA warrants are only valid for 90 days. If the FBI wants to continue surveillance it needs to apply to the court for a renewal. Each time, the FBI must disclose to the court all material facts, including those which would favor the surveillance target.

The FBI made a total of four applications to the court: the initial application and three renewals.

At no time was the court informed of the role of the Clinton campaign or DNC in the dossier.

In other words, the FBI failed to exhibit candor towards the tribunal and via the electronic surveillance of the Trump campaign, acted as a part of the Clinton campaign. This weaponized the highest law enforcement agency in the land against the opponent of the previous administration and its desired successor.

That is appalling. It's worse than Watergate. It's the kind of conduct you'd expect to see in a banana republic.

Everyone involved in seeking the warrant and who submitted false and incomplete information to the FISA court should hang.

In opposing the release of the memo, the Democrats stated that release would endanger national security. That is clearly false. Their opposition to its release was clearly partisan politics. They have no claim to supporting the rights of Americans against rogue government agencies.

The entire document is only six pages. The memo itself is only about 3-1/3 pages. If you give a shit about the state of this country and the conduct by the people who would rule us, you owe it to yourself to read it and form your own opinion.

Shot the Winchester 1892 Today

I put 50 rounds through my 1895-vintage Winchester 1892 in .38 WCF today out at a friend's.

The target was my first 5 shots, from about 50 yards offhand. Point of aim (POA) was 6 o'clock on the bull. I'm hoping full power loads will shoot lower, and closer to POA due to less dwell time in the barrel, meaning the bullet will exit the muzzle before the barrel raises as much under recoil.

FWIW, I'm happy with the group considering the condition of the bore near the muzzle, and especially since my almost 50 year old eyes can barely use the microscopic notch in the rear sight. I am seriously considering taking advantage of the fact that the tang is drilled and tapped for a tang peep sight.

Recoil with the Ultramax cowboy loads was about like shooting a .22. Full power loads will have more kick, but it will still be a mild recoiling rifle. We didn't have any malfunctions.

We mostly shot at an 8" gong, which the .38-40s smacked it pretty good. We also shot my Cimarron 1873 Sporting Rifle in .44 WCF a little with my handloads (200 grain cast lead bullet on top of 8.6 grains of Unique). Those really smacked the gong around.

The flintlock in the picture is my friend's Euroarms Kentuckian carbine. A couple years ago he took a deer during the antlerless season, shooting out the window of his living room. He didn't even set off his smoke detectors. Today was the last day of  this year's late flintlock season. He was considering taking the rifle on a walk around his property after we were done to see if he could fill his flintlock tag.

After we finished up and I was standing there cleaning the rifle, and my friend had packed up all his stuff and taken it inside, a nice big doe came out about 25 yards behind our shooting position. Figures.

It's a shame that my friend's land is within the SE Pennsylvania special regulations area, where breechloading rifles are not permitted for deer hunting. Either of these two leverguns would be perfect for deer hunting on his land, where 50 yards would be a long shot.

To add some icing on the cake, tonight I won an eBay auction for this Ideal Number 6 reloading tool for .38 WCF. Other pics from the auction listing show the mold cavity to be in good shape. This will be really neat to load up some black powder handloads.

Interesting Failure Mode on Winchester Toggle-Link Rifles

Last night I discovered a failure mode that can affect Winchester rifles with toggle link actions. This applies to the Winchester 1866, 1873, and 1876 and replicas thereof.

I had my Cimarron 1873 Sporting Rifle out. I opened and closed the action, then went to open it again and could not lower the lever more than about a quarter inch. I could press the carrier block upwards with a finger. After a few minutes of pondering, I snapped the hammer and was then able to work the lever, but again the action jammed. I repeated this a couple times and then removed the sideplates.

Apparently the screw that holds the loading gate to the right sideplate was a little loose and backed out. It then interfered with the movement of the right toggle. Snapping the hammer jarred it back out of the way of the toggle.

The loading gate is part number 127 on the exploded diagram at VTI Gun Parts. The loading gate screw is mis-numbered in the diagram; it should be 128.

The solution is simple: degrease the hole for the loading gate screw in the right sideplate and Loctite it in place. I degreased the hole with rubbing alcohol and then used blue Loctite on the screw. It should stay put now.

I recommend the owner of any of the potentially affected models do this as a proactive measure.

Winchester 1892 Pictures

The rifle arrived yesterday and I was able to take some pictures today.

Overall, it's clean and the surface condition was as described -- mostly turned to brown with scattered pitting, but nothing major. Some of the screws have boogered slots. The bore is mostly clean and the rifling looks good, except towards the muzzle which shows wear from the use of a cleaning rod. The sights are in excellent shape, something you often find damaged on old guns. The action is solid and works very smoothly. I'm not going to attempt any disassembly until the Kroil I put on all the screws has several days to soak in.

Click for full size pictures.

Below left is an Ultramax .38 WCF cartridge, next to one of my .44 WCF handloads.

I hope to get a range report fairly soon but I'm fighting a cold, so I'm not sure when I'll be able to shoot the rifle.

Ordered an Antique Winchester 1892

I've been getting the wants for another levergun and ran across a circa-1895 Winchester 1892 in .38 WCF (.38-40) at Simpson's Ltd. I called them up today, asked a few questions about it, and decided to order it. It should ship on Tuesday or Wednesday. Since it was made before 1898, it is legally an "antique" and can be shipped right to my door, no FFL required.

Here are a couple of pictures borrowed from Simpson's:

It's a Sporting Rifle with a 24-1/4" barrel and a 12 shot magazine. (I can get 14 .44 WCFs in my Cimarron 1873 Sporting Rifle, so it'll be interesting if the 1892 can actually be loaded up to the same capacity.) The rifles are not as handy as carbines but I find them easier to shoot accurately due to the longer sight radius. It might get a period tang sight.

After I got off the phone with Simpson's I went over to MidwayUSA and ordered a couple boxes of Ultramax .38-40 cowboy loads. However, I plan mainly to shoot handloads since .38 WCF factory ammo isn't exactly cheap.

I load black powder .44 WCF ammo for use in my Cimarron 1873, so I'm familiar with what's entailed. But I'll probably also try smokeless loads with Unique and Reloder 7, though I will not be trying to hot-rod a 125 year old rifle.

I'm going to look for an original Winchester 1882 loading tool and mold, or an Ideal tong tool with an integral mold.

This should be a lot of fun.

Black Powder Shotgun Shells in Brass Cases

Note/Disclaimer: This post contains loading data believed to be safe in my guns. It may not be safe in yours. Do your own research before you try this. I'm not responsible if you get hurt or your gun gets damaged.

A couple of weeks ago on Survival Russia, Lars posted a video about loading brass 16 gauge cases using minimal tools. He followed up with a second video in which he shot his reload and got what I considered pretty good results.

In the past I have experimented with hot glue slugs* using minimal tools, and as I've posted about before, I have muzzleloading smoothbores. I also have a few break open shotguns that I've been wanting to try black powder loads in, since I have a good stock of black powder and you can reload brass cases with minimal tools that you can make at home.

So, I put in an order with Ballistic Products, Inc. for a few items, including:

• Two boxes of Magtech empty 2.5" 12 gauge brass shotshell cases, and
• A 500 count bag of 10 gauge over shot cards.

Magtech brass cases have a larger internal diameter than the equivalent gauge plastic hulls, so they recommend using 11 gauge nitro cards and fiber cushion wads, and 10 gauge over shot cards.

I use home made cards and felt wads in my 12 gauge Euroarms Magnum Cape Gun, cut with a 3/4" punch, which is about 11 gauge. So, I decided to save a few bucks and use these in the brass cases. As it turned out, I would have gotten a better fit with 10 gauge components all around.

Most references I've seen indicate that one should use FFg when loading 12 gauge black powder shotgun shells. However, Goex's load data specifies FFFg (PDF), so that's what I used. (Goex recommends FFg in muzzleloading shotguns.)

Yesterday, I took one box of the Magtech hulls and loaded a few different recipes, as follows:

• 1 oz. #7.5 shot using sawdust in lieu of a fiber cushion wad (a la the Survival Russia video).
  1-1/8 oz. #7.5 shot using a sawdust "wad."
• 1-1/8 oz. #7.5 shot using the same 1/8" thick lubricated felt wad that I use in my 12 gauge muzzleloader.1-1/4 oz. #5 shot with sawdust.
• 1-1/4 oz. #5 shot with felt wad.
• Patched .690 round ball.

All shot loads were primed with Federal No.150 large pistol primers and charged with 80 grains of FFFg Goex black powder, and a home made cardboard over powder wad.

The round balls have two over powder cards, a lubricated felt wad, and a lubricated 0.020" patch, and 90 grains of FFFg.

All shot loads are sealed in place using one of the BPI 10 gauge over shot cards held in place with silicone RTV sealant. I used Gorilla Glue gel super glue for the ball loads because I ran out of RTV.

Some pictures:

The 3/4" oak dowel I used for seating components. I drilled a hole in one end to fit over the primer pocket that protrudes into the case. Yes, the Magtech hulls are balloon head cases. I used my lathe to slightly turn down the dowel so it would go all the way into the case, and to drill the hole.

 Some cases waiting to be primed, a case with the dowel inserted, and a primer sitting on a 1/8" piece of aluminum. To prime the cases, I placed the primer down on the aluminum, centered the case with the dowel in it over the primer, and gave it a few good whacks to press the case down over the primer.

If this makes you cringe, consider that it is exactly how you prime cases in a Lee Loader.

A primed and unprimed case:

 

Make sure the primers are seated flush with the case head. You don't want to accidentally set off a high primer by closing your shotgun.

Next up I poured a powder charge into the case and topped it with a card. For the sawdust shells, I then filled each case to the top with sawdust. I have a No.10 can filled with it that I've been saving to make fire starters.

Then I used the flat end of the dowel to compress the sawdust.

This was topped with another card and then the load of shot poured in.

And here's one of the patched round balls in place:

By using the drilled end of the dowel I was able to keep the sprue centered, facing up.

Finally, it's topped off with an over shot card and glued in place. (This one hasn't been glued yet.)

Advantages of this method include that you don't need any tools you can't find or make at home, and the shells should be reloadable pretty much indefinitely, especially since the case mouths aren't being crimped. Because I'm using black powder, small variations in powder charge aren't dangerous the way they would be with smokeless powder, especially when shooting them through nitro-proofed shotguns.

The main downside compared with loading shotshells with modern components is inferior performance. Modern shotcup wads that protect the shot from deformation in the bore result in better, more even patterns.


Special safety note about the round balls: Before Foster slugs became widely available in the 1930s, "pumpkin balls" were the most common type of single projectile load in shotgun ammo in the US. After the introduction of choke barrels, they were generally loaded with balls significantly under bore size so that if they were fired through a choked barrel, the barrel would not be damaged. They don't compress as easily as Foster slugs. For this reason, I would not fire a patched .690 ball through anything tighter than improved cylinder.

For example, I have an H&R Model 1905 made sometime between 1906 and 1915 with the barrel marked "12 GUAGE CHOKED." I measured the muzzle last night with calipers and it came out at about .695, which is extra-full, or even a turkey choke. I'll shoot the balls through my chopped, cylinder bore H&R Topper.

Hopefully, I'll get to try out these loads in the next few weeks, and will post a follow up.


*Hot glue slug: A field-expedient slug which you cut the crimp off a bird shot load, pour out the shot, then add the shot back after mixing it with hot glue. When the glue hardens you have a slug that's useful at short range. Very similar to wax slugs. Do a lot of research before you make and shoot any, so you don't do anything dangerous.

Reaction to the NRA and NRA-ILA's Joint Statement of October 5, 2017

Yesterday, Wayne LaPierre and Chris Cox issued a joint statement, which contained, inter alia:

In Las Vegas, reports indicate that certain devices were used to modify the firearms involved. Despite the fact that the Obama administration approved the sale of bump fire stocks on at least two occasions, the National Rifle Association is calling on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) to immediately review whether these devices comply with federal law.  The NRA believes that devices designed to allow semi-automatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations.

Link: https://home.nra.org/joint-statement/

We should know by now that when gun banners say, "We want a conversation about gun control," they mean we should shut up while they lecture us. We should also know that when they say we should compromise, they mean for us to give them something while we get nothing in return.

It is not acceptable conduct to this NRA Endowment Life Member for the organization to preemptively surrender any part of our rights by endorsing any new gun regulation. The NRA needs to protect all of our right to bear arms. 

Suggesting that the corrupt and incompetent BATFE get another chance to evaluate the legality of bumpfire stocks is particularly galling. Including a sentence in the press release calling for Congress to pass National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity doesn't balance giving in on one iota of other elements of the RKBA.

NRA, withdraw this statement. Do your damn job.

Reduced .308 Winchester Loads

Last year I tried out a couple batches of "The Load," in my Ruger Gunsite Scout Rifle in .308 Winchester.  The first patch was 13 grains of Alliant Red Dot under a 170 grain cast bullet, although I forget exact which one. Accuracy of that was abysmal, on the order of 4" or more at ~50 yards. The bullets were originally sized .311 and had been purchased by my dad for use in Mosin-Nagants. I sized them down to .308 for use in the Ruger. I may have gone a little too far. Afterwards, used a chucking reamer to to open the Lee sizing die up to .309 in my lathe, but I have not yet tried it out. It's one of the many items on my round tuit list.

The second batch was again 13 grains of Red Dot, but this time I loaded the cases with 152 grain FMJ flat base .30 caliber M2 projectiles. Groups were more like ~2" from prone, with the factory irons.

Recoil of "The Load" in the GSR feels like you're shooting an M1 Carbine.

Today, I ran across this article, linked by Brownell's on their FaceBook page: Reduced 308 Winchester Loads with Trail Boss. This looks pretty interesting, any may be something to try.

RIP Jerry Pournelle

Instapundit reports that Jerry Pournelle has passed.

Ever since I was able to join the Daynotes Gang I've felt priviledged to be included in a group of writers with Jerry at the masthead. I had several great email exchanges with him.

We are diminished.

Range Day with the Kel-Tec RDB and Ruger Gunsite Scout Rifle

Today I was off and was able to get to the range with the Kel-Tec RDB and my Ruger Gunsite Scout Rifle.

The IOR Valdada 3x25mm scope on the Kel-Tec needed to be zeroed, along with shooting the rifle for the first time. Due to limited time, I was only able to get the scope zeroed at 50 yards, and put only 60 rounds through the rifle. The ammo I shot was 20 rounds of Federal American Eagle .223 55 grain FMJBT and 40 rounds of Prvi Partizan 5.56mm M-193 Ball (55 grain FMJBT, but loaded hotter than .223-spec rounds). I fed the rifle from the Magpul Gen 3 20-round P-Mag that was included with it, and a Gen 1 20 round P-Mag.

The Kel-Tec's manual states that it comes from the factory with the gas system setup to function with M-193 spec ammo. I tested this by initially loading one round, to see if it would lock the bolt back after firing. It did so, and thereafter while I was sighting in, I loaded 3 rounds per magazine.

Sixty rounds isn't anything more than a basic function check but the rifle did work perfectly. The RDB has a 1:7 twist and doesn't seem to care for 55 grain ammo, however. Groups were about 2" to 3" at 50 yards, reminiscent of an AK. I plan to try it with 69 to 75 grain bullets to see if it shoots them more accurately.

The recoil impulse of the long-stroke gas system reminded me of an AK. Unlike an AR-15 or AK, I got absolutely no gun-schmutz in my face, since the top of the action is sealed.

Ejected cases fell at my feet.

Again, 60 rounds isn't much of a test but I was curious to how much fouling got into the gun. When I field stripped it, what fouling that existed was concentrated at the face of the piston and the gas head. (Part 156 in the diagram in the owner's manual. PDF document.)

After getting the RDB zeroed and finishing up 60 rounds, I turned my attention to the Ruger Gunsite Scout Rifle, which is chambered in .308 Winchester. I'd mounted a Leupold 1.5-4x Intermediate Eye Relief scope in low Warne QD rings on the factory rail back in April, but today was the first time I got to try the combination.

Yes, it's a lefty, the picture ain't reversed.

I put one 20 round box of old Hansen (made by Prvi Partizan) 147 grain FMJBT through the rifle to zero it, and a few shots of Prvi 165 grain JSPs through the Ruger. I was very pleased to see that the scope was almost on right out of the box.

Ruger GSRs have the reputation of shooting 165 grain and heavier bullets better than 150s or lighter. At 50 yards the 165s were all touching.

I especially like the Leupold IER scope. It permits mounting it far enough forward to allow plenty of space for bolt manipulation while not suffering as much from the annoyances of a long eye relief scope, such as limited field of view or susceptibility to glare if the sun is behind you. It's also mounted quite low to make quick acquisition easy.

I definitely need to get both rifles back to the range for final zeroing at 100 yards, and of course to see if the RDB continues to function well. I'll be carrying the Ruger this year for deer hunting.

Kel-Tec RDB Field Stripped

This afternoon I took a few minutes, field stripped the Kel-Tec RDB, and took some pictures. The rifle's design is different enough so that I think you'll find them of interest. Clickenzee to embiggenate.

Slightly closer view of the barrel and bolt groups:

Bolt, bolt face, and extractor. Note the dual ejector plungers on the bolt face.

Piston head. It's a little hard to see but there is a weld blob on the top of the piston. Some earlier rifles left the factory without the weld, which leads to malfunctions.

The gas system.

Bottom of the handguard, showing the molded-in M-1913 rail. I have a Rogers Rail Light mounted.

Disassembly to this stage requires you to push out three takedown pins, plus one pin in the bolt carrier group. If you take down the BCG be careful. The firing pin is spring loaded and if you fail to contain it, it will launch itself several feet. (Yeah, it happened to me the first time I stripped the BCG.)

Scoped the Kel-Tec RDB

Yesterday I decided to move a scope I already owned over to the Kel-Tec RDB I bought Friday night. My Colt AR15 6721 has been relegated to backup status and was wearing an IOR Valdada 3x25mm CQB scope.

The IOR scope is built with Schott glass from Germany, has very clear optics, and a nice reticle. The 3x magnification works well from close-up to my club's longest range, 200 yards. It's also built like a brick shithouse, so I am not going to worry about BUIS.

Range report to follow as soon as possible.

Kel-Tec RDB Rifle

I did some trading last night at Surplus City and came home with a Kel-Tec RDB 5.56mm bullpup rifle. (I actually went there with the intention of ordering an FN PS90. Maybe next time.)  SC was asking $950. I traded in my CZ-52, Bulgarian Makarov, Ruger SP101, Pietta SAA, and Springfield XD-9, none of which I'd fired in years. He gave me $1000 trade in value, so I also got 500 rounds of CCI .22 Short HV to run through my Remington 550-1.

Kel-Tec gives the OAL as 27.3" with its 17.3" barrel. The weight unloaded is 6.7 lbs. The barrel is 1:7" twist. There's a long, T-marked M-1913 Picatinny rail on top but it comes without any sights. I am debating what kind of optic to mount, but it will probably be something along the lines of a 1-4x variable, not just a red dot.


The RDB is a new design, although the bolt itself is very Stoner-ish and it takes AR15 magazines. It came with one 20-round MagPul P-Mag, an owner's manual, and a sling.

There are numerous sling mounting points for the hook-style attachments. In the pic above I had it mounted as a 2-point sling but I later switched it to a single-point using the swivel located in front of the middle takedown pin.

It's a long-stroke, gas piston design. The gas is adjustable to account for variations in ammo or the amount of crud in the gun. However, reviews I've seen state that very little fouling gets into the action. Empties eject out the bottom, through a port behind the magazine well.

The action is very simple and breaks down with only something to drive out the takedown pins. (They may loosen up over time.)

As a southpaw, the best part to me is that it's totally ambidextrous except for the HK MP5-ish charging handle. It can be reversed without tools. All I had to do was field strip the rifle and then put it in the other way when I reassembled. My initial impression of the rifle is that the ergonomics are outstanding.

Because of the long linkage between the trigger and the rest of the firing mechanism, most bullpups have lackluster trigger pulls. Not so in the case of the RDP. It's actually pretty good with some takeup but it's only around 5 pounds.

Between the adjustable gas system, the lack of fouling in the action, and having the ejection port on the bottom of the rifle so gas gets vented downward, it's supposed to be an awesome suppressor host.

In typical Kel-Tec fashion, they are scarce as hen's teeth, though. Kel-Tec announced it a few years ago but they just started shipping in 2016. They are still really hard to find in shops although there are a bunch on Gunbroker.

MAC posted a nice, in-depth review of a pre-production sample on YouTube in 2015:

I should be able to take it out in the next week or two and will post a follow up after I am able to shoot it.

Nazis vs. Communists: Who's Worse?

In the wake of the protest/riot last week in Charlottesville, I am seeing a lot of condemnation of the Nazis and people denying that the Antifa counter-protesters are just as bad.

How about we look at some history and numbers?

First of all, we need to understand that Antifa are avowed communists. Let me repeat that, they are COMMUNISTS. You know, the people we fought the Cold War against. We allied with the Soviet Union during World War 2 against a common enemy, but let's not delude outselves that they were any better than the Nazis. The numbers doesn't lie.

The top five murdering governments of the 20th Century were:

1. People's Republic of China (1949 - 87): 76,702,000
2. USSR: (1917 - 87): 61,911,000
3. Colonialism (1900 - ?): 50,000,000
4. Nazi Germany (1933 - 45): 20,946,000
5. China under the Kuomintang (1928 - 49): 10,075,000

So yeah, communists are not just as bad as Nazis when it comes to people killed, they are actually worse.

But, the Nazis are racist!!!!! No shit. So were a lot of communists. Google "Holodomor," the Soviet genocide of Ukrainians in 1932 - 33.

If you're wearing your hipster cool Che shirt, you're wearing the face of a racist, homophobic, murderer who helped establish a dictatorship on your chest. Knock that shit off.

Look, does it really matter if you were murdered because you were Jewish or gay or if you were a member of the bourgeoisie? YOU'RE STILL DEAD.

Nazis are scum. Communists are scum. When they are fighting, stand back and avoid aligning yourself with assholes on either side.

Here's the source for my numbers above: https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/20TH.HTM

Mossberg 500 Super Bantam Shotgun

My 13 year old daughter wants to come hunting with me this year and needed a suitable shotgun. Today, we went to the local Dick's Sporting Goods and picked up this 20 gauge Mossberg 500 Super Bantam for ~$325 + PA's 6% sales tax.

I actually had her try out the Mossberg 510 youth model in .410 bore but she's already outgrown it. That's good because the 20 gauge will throw significantly more shot and 20 gauge slugs are adequate for deer.

Both the stock and forearm are synthetic. The stock is currently setup with a 12" length of pull but it included a spacer to increase it to 13". If she needs a longer LOP it will accept adult-sized stocks. The stock has a good, thick recoil pad on it.

The 22" barrel is threaded for choke tubes. It came with the modified tube in place. Using the included wrench, I swapped that out for improved cylinder. It also comes with a full choke tube. The barrel is topped with a white bead up front and a brass middle bead.

At 5.25 lbs. unloaded it won't be hard for her to carry afield. Heck, that weighs less than her school bag on most days. The stock has a place to attach a sling swivel but the gun didn't come with a stud for the front. So, I found one on eBay and it should hopefully be here by the end of the week. It will thread into an existing hole on the barrel mounting screw. I also ordered an inexpensive sling with swivels and an Outers cleaning kit.

The magazine came plugged so that the only way to load it was singly through the ejection port. The manual states that once your new shooter learns gun safety you can shorten the plug (a dowel) to 9", to allow up to two shells in the magazine. I did so, since my kid is not new to shooting. (Frankly, if they aren't safe to handle a manually operated gun with 3 shells in it, they aren't safe to handle a single shot.)

The unplugged magazine capacity is six 2-3/4" shells. I have some Federal 20 gauge #3 buckshot with which I'll pattern it. It would make a nice home defense shotgun.

Aside from hunting, this will be a good shotgun to introduce my daughter to trap and sporting clays.

Of note, Mossberg has a similar gun in their economy-oriented Maverick line. However, spending more money on the 500 was worth it to us because the Maverick uses a right-handed cross-bolt safety instead of the Mossberg's ambidextrous tang safety. I'm a lefty and my kid is left-eye dominant, and hence shoots portside.

I'll post a follow up after we get the chance to shoot it.