Homemade Percussion Caps

The current crazy ammo supply situation has even extended to black powder shooting supplies, including percussion caps. Although I was able to pick up a 1200 count sleeve of RWS 1075+ caps from MidwayUSA earlier this year, I wanted a fallback option as well.  So, in early January I ordered a #11 cap maker and a packet of Prime All from 22lrreloader.com. It took about a month to come in due to their backlog.

To go with the cap maker I bought a 12" x 30" roll of .005" thick copper foil at Amazon. This is a bit thicker than the beverage cans recommended by the cap maker's manufacturer.

After the cap maker came in I punched out about 100 cups. I am able to do so by hand but it's much easier using a mallet.

Anyway, the cups sat until yesterday. Instead of using the Prime All compound, I charged about a dozen with some Scheutzen 3Fg black powder topped with two toy caps, secured in place with a drop of Duco cement. It's a nitrocellulose laquer that acts as a binder, waterproofing agent, and is flammable.

I used a scoop made from a large pistol primer cup glued to a piece of bamboo from a chopstick to put the black powder in the caps.

Last night I tried the caps in my Euroarms Rogers & Spencer. I used them with Triple 7 as the main charge. I wanted to see how they'd do with a propellant that has a higher ignition temperature than black powder.

They worked pretty well. The first cylinder was charged with 20 grains by volume of Triple 7 3Fg, a lubricated wad, and .454 ball. All chambers ignited easily and the caps didn't fragment.

I then tried some paper cartridges with the same powder charge and ball but with 0.5cc of cornmeal filler. These must develop a higher chamber pressure, because I noticed that the gun was harder to recock due to the caps deforming more. Also, in this cylinder I had one misfire where the cap popped off but the main charge failed to ignite. It went off with a second cap but there was a noticeable delay. I think the nipple was clogged.

The Rogers & Spencer with my homemade caps on the nipples. I used a Delrin punch that I use for pushing out the wedges on Colt-style guns to seat the caps on the nipples. They are tighter than RWS 1075+ or Remington No.10 caps on these nipples.

I also shot two more cylinders tonight with 20 grains of Scheutzen 3Fg BP and RWS caps.

I regard this experiment as a success. I'm getting a 1/8" hole punch so I can more easily get the toy caps off the paper roll, which will speed production. I also need to try the Prime All compound.

Making percussion caps is tedious. I don't expect to make a whole bunch but I want to have the capability, just in case.

Lithium Battery Price Hikes and Shortages

 This announcement was posted on March 1st by NKON, a large supplier of batteries in the Netherlands. (Link goes to FB so you might need to login to see it there.)

Most of my lithium battery supply is from Battery Junction. I've found that they often have better deals than Amazon.

Cap and Ball Revolver: Round Ball vs Conical Bullet

 This video from Paul Harrell provides a good comparison between round balls and conicals in percussion revolvers (in this case fired from a Ruger Old Army).

A few comments:

The conicals he used appear to have been cast from a Lee mold. They are similar in form to modern round nosed bullets that have been loaded in cartridges since the late 19th Century.

Conical bullets used in cap and ball revolvers in the 1850s and 1860s were generally more pointed. This would increase penetration but reduce terminal effectiveness because the bullet would be more prone to slip through tissue rather than punching a larger diameter hole.

Nowadays, more effective conical designs are available, intended for hunting, e.g. Kaido Ojaama's design, which has a wide, flat meplat.

In his book Sixguns, Elmer Keith recounted that Civil War veterans that he knew as a boy stated that round balls were more effective for antipersonnel use than the pointed conicals of the period.

Combustible .44 Caliber Paper Cartridge Target Loads

 Today I finished up making another batch of paper cartridges for my .44 cap and ball revolvers.

For these, I used permanent end papers AKA curling papers for the tubes and the end caps. This paper seems a little easier to work with than cigarette rolling papers and is cheaper, under $5 delivered for a box of 1,000.

As before I used .454 round balls. The powder charge in this batch is reduced, however, at 20 grains of 3Fg Triple 7 measured using the 20 grain spout on my flask. Because of the lesser amount of powder, I added 0.5cc of cornmeal filler, to ensure that I get enough compression.

The first picture shows some rounds in various stages of construction. The top two in the leftmost row have been charged with the powder and filler, and have balls dropped in. The third one down has the powder and filler, while the 4th has the funnel from my Guns of the West kit inserted, ready for the cornmeal. Finally, the one on the bottom has powder only. (Click on each pic to enlarge.)

And two completed cartridges:

I've noticed recently a lot more interest online in making paper cartridges for percussion revolvers. I suspect that this is driven at least in part by the current ammo shortage situation, driving folks to take another look at their cap and ball sixguns to get some shooting in. Paper cartridges allow you to get a lot more shooting in during a range session than if you load with loose powder and ball.

In some of these discussions I've seen comments about how making the combustible cartridges is tedious. To a certain extent it is, which is why I break it up into batch jobs. I'll make up some tubes until I have 50. At a later time I'll get around to loading them. Done this way it's not really any worse than loading metallic cartridges on a non-progressive press. At least with this I don't have to recover, clean, resize, and decap my brass. The overall amount of work is probably less, in fact.

Adapting a US M1917 Holster to Fit Pietta Sheriff's Model Percussion Revolvers

On Blackie Thomas’s YouTube channel he shows carrying a Pietta NMA Sheriff’s Model in a replica holster for the US M1917 revolvers. He got his from Sportsman’s Guide. I bought this one from Sarco for $25 + tax and shipping. The quality seems pretty good — nice thick leather and good stitching. There’s no indicator where it was made but I have a feeling it’s from India.

As received, with a Pietta 1858 Sheriff's Model in it. The flap cannot be buttoned.

So, I added an extension by riveting on a piece of leather. I got the color to almost match just by applying some neatsfoot oil.

With the extension added:

It also fits my Pietta 1851 Navy Sheriff, maybe even a little better than the Remington.

I used a Tandy rivet setter and rivets to attach the extension, after punching holes using a hollow punch from a Harbor Freight set. I did not punch the hole for the button in the extension until the new piece of leather was attached to the holster flap. I did it afterwards, after marking the correct spot.

This will be a good option for field carry.

Pietta Dance Brothers Revolvers

Last week I ordered two Pietta Dance Brothers percussion revolvers from Jedidiah Starr Trading Co. in Michigan. I paid extra for two day FEDEX shipping and got them on Wednesday.

One is a gift to my father from my brother and I for his 80th birthday, while the second revolver was for me.

Both guns have "CC" in a box date code stamped on the frame. That translates to 2008, which means they have been sitting in stock for over a decade, which I found surprising.

The Pietta Dance revolver is a replica of guns built by the Dance Brothers in Brazos, Texas for the Confederacy during the Civil War. Only about 500 were made, mostly in .44 caliber. Some were in .36 caliber.

Original Dance revolvers were between the Colt Navy and Dragoon in size. As you can see from my pictures, stylistically, it resembles a Dragoon with the octagon-to-round barrel and straight cylinder.

Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons put out a nice video about the history of the Dance revolvers:

Mike Beliveau has a video in which he shoots a Pietta replica.

The most notable feature of the Dance revolver is that it lacks recoil shields on the sides of the frame, behind the cylinder. There are a couple of theories why the originals were made that way. One is that Dance felt that by omitting them the chance of cap jams was lessened. Another is that the frames were cut from iron or steel boilerplate, which was only thick enough for the frame without the shields.

The fit and finish of the Piettas is decent but not as good as my 1992-vintage Uberti 1851 Navy. I took down both of them. Removing the wedges took quite a bit of effort with a hammer and drift punch. After removal, I deburred the wedges and arbor slots.

I did a full, detail strip of both guns because they felt a bit gritty. Takedown is like any other Colt-type percussion revolver. While the guns were apart I took the opportunity to debur the internal parts, clean everything, and relubricated with Ballistol.

I lubricated the cylinder arbors and wedges with Bumblin Bear Grease from October Country. (I bought the jar of BBG on a lark a couple years ago. It works great but I'm not sure it's worth the price compared to Track of the Wolf's Mink Oil Tallow.)

With the mechanisms cleaned out and properly lubricated the guns cock smoothly.

The triggers have some creep but aren't too heavy.

The front sights are thankfully more like an 1860 Army than an 1851 Navy. The lever latch engagement is solid. The lever did not drop under recoil on my first range trip.

Last night I went along with Dad to his indoor range where we both shot mine.

I really like the gun, it’s a good shooter. This target is 18 shots, 1 handed at 7 yards. For ammunition we used combustile paper cartridges I'd made up ahead of time. The load was Hornady .454 ball on top of 25 grains of Swiss 3Fg, with no lube or wad. (The benefit of lube is to keep fouling soft in the bore. Chainfires are due to improperly fitting or missing caps.)

The lack of recoil shields makes it easy to cap and to see if you still have unfired chambers left. I'll note that if you do get a chainfire you'll likely get caps back in your face. Wear eye protection with one of these!

Dad’s cylinder was the last of the night, making 24 shots through the gun. By the end the gun was feeling a bit crusty and the cylinder didn't want to rotate without some manual assistance. I field stripped it for a quick clean before heading home (I'll do full clean today) and you could not see rifling. The fouling felt hard.

The gun has almost no barrel/cylinder gap so the arbor doesn’t get too badly fouled. I did wipe off the cylinder face and put a few drops of moose milk behind the cylinder, because it was getting sluggish.

I shot the first two cylinders with RWS 1075+ caps, the third with Remington No.10s, and the final with CCI No.11s. All worked fine but check this out:

Those are two RWS caps. I’ve never seen caps perforated in this way. Normally they bust wide open. The CCI and Remington caps fragmented normally.

Dad brought along a Nagant revolver with some 1978-vintage Soviet surplus ammunition. I put a cylinder through it. I find it remarkable that the Imperial Russian Army replaced the Smith & Wesson No.3 Russian with this clunker. Even the single action trigger pull is atrocious -- heavy and creepy. Given the choice, I'd take any one of my full sized cap and ball revolvers over the Nagant for anything other than punching holes in paper, including self defense.

After leaving the range, Dad came over for a bit of bourbon and conversation. All in all, a pretty darn good night.

Battery Operated Fuel Pump

We are forecast to get up to over a foot of snow and sleet here in Southeastern Pennsylvania. I just got inside from opening the locks to my sheds so they don't freeze shut, and putting gas in my snow blower. I keep gas in military surplus jerrycans.

This battery operated pump works really well for transferring gasoline from a can into the fuel tank of a generator, snow blower, or whatever without making a mess. I bought one in October and have used it a few times now. I wish I had one years ago.

Directions for Loading Colt's Pistols

 This is a photo of the instruction sheet that came with Colt percussion revolvers in the 19th Century:

Click on the image for a full size picture.

Some things worth pointing out:

1. Colonel Colt referred to them as "pistols." Internet know-it-alls who insist that you shouldn't refer to revolvers as pistols, please take note.

2. "N.B." at the beginning of the second paragraph is an abbreviation for Nota Bene, Latin for Note Well. This is no longer a commonly used phrase and I've seen questions about it elsewhere.

3. N.B. ;) that you can safely load them with as much powder will fit under the projectile.

4. There is no mention of using wads or grease to prevent chain fires. As long as you are using a properly oversized ball or bullet, it will seal the chamber and you cannot get a chain fire due to flash over at the front of the cylinder. Chain fires are due to flashover at the rear of the cylinder, from loose or ill-fitting caps.

Euroarms Hand Spring Replacement

Today I put a new hand spring in my Euroarms Remington. I made it from a bobby pin and then soft soldered it in place, after widening the slot in the hand using a cutoff wheel in my Dremel tool.

Using soft solder will allow me to replace it if this one breaks.

I got the gun back together after much cussing — the hammer spring in it is really strong — and it seems to function ok.

When putting the gun away I noticed I had a small envelope in the box. I opened it up and found a set of spare screws. I must have ordered them at one time but totally forgot about them. Since Euroarms parts are now unobtanium, this was a really nice surprise.

I didn't get to the range today as I was hoping yesterday -- household chores took precedence. Hopefully the weather will be good for shooting next weekend.

Made Some .36 Caliber Paper Cartridges

I drove up to Dixon’s Muzzleloading Shop today. Their rifle and revolver selections were really picked over and they had no 3Fg left in stock (although a truck with BP is supposed to arrive on Monday). The only caps they had in stock were RWS 1075s, which were being rationed to one tin per day per customer.

One item they had was an Uberti Paterson revolver. It was the model with no loading lever. Unfortunately, the price tag was flipped over and I couldn’t see what they were asking for it. The store was busy so I didn’t bother them about it.

I ended up buying 15 grain and 20 grain powder flask spouts, a spout to fit the new plastic Goex powder cans, the current issue of Muzzleloader magazine, and the 2021 Dixie Gun Works catalog, plus two 100 count bags of Rush Creek .380 round balls.

After getting home I made up 50 cartridges for my Uberti Colt 1851 Navy. I’ve had a can of Hodgdon Triple 7 for a few years and decided to use up some of it. T7 supposedly loses potency after you open the can. However, it’s about 10 - 15% more potent than Goex to start with. When I’ve shot it in the past it’s been very easy to clean up afterwards.

For these cartridges, I used Zig Zag rolling papers for the tubes, with end caps from the Guns of the West kit I got recently.

One downside to this method of paper cartridge construction is that when using cast balls, it's difficult to ensure that the sprue remains facing upward when you drop it in. I expect accuracy to be fine for plinking or short range target shooting. For hunting or match shooting, swaged balls would be more consistent.

Black Powder Shooting Supplies are Now Getting Scarce

Last week I ordered 5 boxes of Hornady .454 round balls from Track of the Wolf. I got my order today, but only 1 box, with the rest cancelled, with a note that they cannot backorder balls.

So I checked out Midway. Hornady .454s are gone, no backorder. They did have Speer in stock so I ordered 10 boxes at $9.99 each.

That should keep me set for a while. I have a Lee .454 ball mold but it's either oversize or the alloy I used last time has some tin in it, because the balls dropped at .456 - .457. That's OK for my Ruger Old Army but unnecessarily hard to load in my Remingtons and Rogers & Spencer.

The online sources for black powder that I've checked have been depleted. I still have a decent supply from a bulk order from several years back.

Percussion caps have also been difficult to buy in the past couple of months. I was able to get a 2,500 count box of RWS #107+ caps last week from Midway, so I'm set for a while. Midway is now out of stock for all caps.

I'm still waiting to receive the percussion cap maker that I ordered at the start of the month from 22LRreloader.com.

Springtime for Biden

 With apologies to Mel Brooks...

America was having trouble

What a sad, sad story

Needed a new leader

To restore its former glory

Where, oh where was he?

Where could that man be?

We looked around

And then we found

The man for you and me

And now it's

Springtime for Biden and America

The US is happy and gay

We're marching to a faster pace

Look out

We'll help save China's face

Springtime for Biden and America

Winter for Trump and Pence

Springtime for Biden and America

Come on, Americans

Go into your dance

No more MAGA

And that's why they call me Kamala

Don't be stupid, be a smarty

Come and join the Democratic party

Springtime for Biden and America

Prancing the new step today

Bombs falling from the skies again

China is on the rise again

Springtime for Biden and America

Drones are striking once more

Springtime for Biden and America

Means that soon we'll be going

We've got to be going

You know we'll be going to war

Ran Out of Balls

 (Insert Beavis and Butt Head laughter.)

I had such a good time shooting my Euroarms Remington with combustible paper cartridges yesterday that I decided to make up another batch tonight. I also picked up some MTM Case-Guard plastic ammo boxes for .44 Mag./.45 Colt. I use them for .44-40 and .38-40 but they work well for the .44 paper cartridges.

The two flattened blobs on the right are what a dead soft .454 ball looks like after impacting a steel gong from about 10 yards. I managed to salvage a few, which will be recycled into the casting pot.

The twist over the ball gives me a handle to pull them out. Unfortunately, I ran out of balls. I put 60 rounds through through the Euroarms yesterday,  36 paper cartridges plus 24 rounds of loose powder and ball, so I only had 40 balls left. Somewhere in my midden is a bag of 100 .454 balls but heck if I can find it.

I also tried casting some .454 last year in a Lee mold but when I shot them in my Euroarms Rogers & Spencer they were hard to load. I mic'ed them afterwards and they came out at .456 - .457, so I think there might have been a bit of tin in the alloy. I'm going to use up the rest of that lead by casting bullets for .44 WCF, then try the mold again with known dead soft lead.

Anyway, I have 500 Hornady .454 balls on the way from Track of the Wolf, although I need to give one box to my brother, who gave me this box.

I'm hoping to make a trip to Dixon's Muzzleloading Shop in the next week or two. It's worth the hour drive just to look around and hopefully I can pick up a pound or two of Olde Eynsford or Swiss 3Fg.

Combustible Cartridge Range Report and a Problem

I shot the paper cartridges yesterday and also got to try some RWS 1075+ caps. Both worked great. Loading using the cartridges is much faster than with loose powder and ball. I'd smeared a bit of Bore Butter on the ball end of each cartridge last night and that helped keep fouling soft.

I had three varieties of cartridges:

1. Some made with the papers included with the Guns of the West kit, paper trimmed to length and glued to the ball.

2. Some with the same paper left full length and then twisted over the ball.

3. Some made from Zig Zag rolling paper, left full length and then twisted over the ball.

The cartridges with the full length papers twisted over the ball were easier to make and more robust. Going forward that's how I will make combustible cartridges. The Zig Zag papers aren't quite as wide as I want for .44 cartridges but should work well for .36s.

The paper did not completely combust but this did not impede subsequent shots.

The RWS caps were very hot and fragmented quite a bit. I did not get any cap jams with them. I also tried some CCI No.11 caps, which resulted in a few cap jams.

For the last cylinder of the day I used plastic ring caps sold for use with toy cap guns. They also worked fine with loose powder and ball (by that point I was out of cartridges). A few had to be pried off the nipples after firing, however.

Towards the end of the day I noticed that the hand was flopping back and forth in its slot, instead of being spring loaded. It's not uncommon for hand springs on the Italian Remington replicas to break, so that what I thought happened.

Today I detail stripped the gun for the first time and it looks like there never was a hand spring. WTF?

There should be a flat spring in that slot. The picture below shows a spare parts kit for Pietta 1858 Remingtons. The hand is to the left of the hammer.

My Euroarms revolver was made by Armi San Paolo, who went out of business in the early 2000s. Replacement parts are largely unobtanium.

After doing some research it looks like I can make a new hand spring from a bobby pin, so I bummed one from my daughter.

I'll post a follow up after I'm able to do some 'smithing.

Combustible Paper Cartridges for Cap and Ball Revolvers

 During the 1850s and '60s, percussion revolvers were often loaded using combustible cartridges. This was especially true during the Civil War when both sides bought millions of them for issue to their armies. Originally, Colt's cartridges were made from foil but this proved troublesome and they switched to nitrated gut or paper.

Before the cartridges were constructed the gut or paper was soaked in a strong solution of potassium nitrate (KN03) AKA saltpeter. This helped ensure that the cartridge casing would burn as completely as possible.

Cartridges for .36 caliber Navy revolvers usually contained around 17 grains of powder and a ~145 grain conical. Those for .44 Army revolvers carried around 25 grains of powder and a 200 - 260 grain conical bullet.

However, loose powder and ball were also widely used. Revolvers sold on the civilian market often came with a mold which could cast one bullet and one ball. Powder was carried in and dispensed from a flask with a spout that could measure the right charge.

Usually the entire cartridge was loaded into the revolver chamber without first tearing it open to dump in the powder, or pricking the base through the nipple. This wasn't necessary for a couple reasons. First, on percussion revolvers the flash channel from the nipple is right at the base of the chamber so the flash from the cap will be strong. Second, the cartridges were tapered. When it was rammed home it ruptured and powder was exposted to the flash.

Several years ago I experimented with combustible cartridges made from cigarette rolling papers and they worked pretty well. I recently saw the kits sold by Guns of the Old West and available on Etsy. They include a forming mandrel, funnel/powder measure, a forming die, rolling papers, pre-cut cartridge bases, a glue stick, and a tube of bullet lube (50/50 beeswax and lamb's tallow), all in a nice plastic case. The mandrels, dies, and funnel are 3D printed.

I ordered a kit for making cartridges for my .36 and .44 caliber revolvers, and some extra papers. They arrived about a week later and I put together two dozen .44 caliber cartridges the other day.

The rounds I made are loaded with a Hornady .454 round ball on top of about 25 grains of 3Fg black powder.

The seller didn't include any instructions but he has a good video on YouTube demonstrating how to make the cartridges.

Basically, you make a tapered paper tube around the mandrel, glue on a base using the forming die, and cut the tube to length. After the glue dries you pour a measured amount of powder in and glue in your ball or bullet. The .44 mandrel has a 25 grain measure built in, while the .36 has a 17 grain measure.

I also tried using an empty .303 British case for a mandrel and found it easier to roll tight tubes on it. A 7.62x54R empty should work as well. The outside diameter near the base is perfect for a .454 ball. I then transferred the tube to the mandrel from the kit and used that to add the cap and trim to length.

Some pictures, first, some of the envelopes/cases while the glue dried:

I used a loading block to hold them:

Until I shoot them I'm keeping them in a small cardboard box.

I made some others using a slightly different technique. Instead of trimming the ball end I left it uncut and just twisted them over the top. I put a little glue on the excess material and then twisted it shut.

This is not period correct but has some advantages:

1. It’s less work.
2. It’s less mess.
3. There is enough room for a lube cookie or wad. I tried putting a wad in one but it’s too large and couldn’t get it to go in straight. A smaller diameter wad would work.
4. I could bump the charge to 30 grains.
5. The twist over the ball holds the projectile more securely, as I just proved to myself when I tried smearing some Bore Butter on the cartridges.

I'm planning to shoot them tomorrow in this Euroarms Remington Army.

Cheap Spot Lighting for Work Areas

Ever since I added a workbench to my home office, I've enjoyed tinkering with things inside, rather than out in my shop, where it's not climate controlled. The workbench has an LED light strip mounted on the bottom of the shelf that's attached to the backboard, but it doesn't give me good direct overhead lighting.

So, I found some inexpensive, LED sewing machine lights on Amazon. The referral link sends you to Amazon for a set of two. See below, top center.

The lights have a magnetic base. I have this one stuck to the metal top shelf, but the set also comes with two adhesive-backed metal disks that you can use to mount them to non-magnetic surfaces. The lights run off standard 120VAC.

I'm planning to use the other one on my milling machine.

Paul Harrell: Top 5 Tips for Training During the Ammo Shortage

 Some tips if you find yourself low on ammo:

Loaded Some .32 Smith & Wesson Longs

 Today I loaded up 50 rounds of .32 Smith & Wesson Long. My recipe today was:

• Mixed brass, mostly Fiocchi
• Sellier & Bellot small pistol primers
• 2.7 grains of Alliant Bullseye powder
• 96 grain round nose flat point bullet from Desperado Cowboy Bullets

Actually, since I used a RNFP bullet, I could call them .32 Colt New Police loads. :)

   

I ran into an issue priming the cases, however. I generally use a Lee hand priming tool, but today it decided it didn't like the combination of Fiocchi brass and S&B primers. Fiocchi brass tends to have snug primer pockets. I would up using my antique Ideal tool for .32 S&W to prime the cases. It's slow, but it works.

According to the data I have from Loaddata.com, this should give about 910 FPS from a 4" barrel. I'll probably shoot this batch from my Ruger Single Six Vacquero, chambered in .32 H&R Magnum.

I have plans to head to a friend's place tomorrow to burn it up.

RCBS Little Dandy Powder Measure

 I’m a fan of the RCBS Little Dandy powder measure, which uses small, fixed-capacity rotors for volumetric measuring. I use it when loading smokeless in .32 S&W Long, .38 Special, .38 WCF, and .44 WCF.

I recently picked up a storage block for the rotors from an eBay vendor. It’s made from red oak and will allow me to keep the rotors more organized.

Link to the eBay listing: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Red-Oak-Storage-Block-for-RCBS-Little-Dandy-Powder-Measure-Rotors/254740430297

The dimensions of the block are ~7.5” x 4.75” and with the rotors in it, about 2.75” tall. I ran out to Lowe’s today and picked up a small toolbox that holds the storage block in the bottom and the measure on the top tray. There’s plenty of room left in the toolbox for related items. E.g., you could easily fit a pocket-sized electronic scale in it.

On the Passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Well, as if 2020 wasn't interesting enough, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died from pancreatic cancer yesterday, only 45 days before what is likely to be a hotly contested presidential election.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell issued a statement last night that whomever President Trump nominates to replace Ginsburg will get a confirmation vote on the Senate floor.

This is good, and I hope it happens before the election.

Unlike Obama when he nominated Merrick Garland for SCOTUS, Trump is not a lame duck president working with a Senate controlled by the opposing party. The Republicans were given control over both the presidency and the Senate by the people because the people preferred their vision. They should do their jobs to the best of their ability. That includes filling vacancies on the Federal bench, all the way up to the Supreme Court.

As for not politicizing her replacement, consider a few things:

RBG could easily have stepped down while Obama was president and allowed him to pick her successor. However, she was so confident that Hillary Clinton would win in 2016 that she stayed on the bench in the hopes that her seat would be filled by an HRC appointment. And in the wake of Trump's victory in 2016, RBG held on as long as she could in the hope that he would lose reelection, and a Democrat president would fill the seat. By her actions, RBG politicized her seat and the replacement process.

It's being reported that her last dying wish was that her replacement would not take place until after a new president is "installed." First off, "installing" leaders is some real banana republic shit right there. We elect leaders in this country. Second, what if Trump wins reelection? Do we wait another four years? That's ridiculous.

Let's not forget the Democrats' appalling conduct since Trump became the Republican nominee in 2016. A four year long tantrum of one faked, debunked scandal after another, all in an effort to stymie the peaceful transition of power that is a hallmark of American government.

Let's also not forget the Democrats' unforgivable conduct during Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings, when they brought forth a slew of witnesses with no credibility to smear Trump's nominee as a rapist. This was merely the latest of a line of Democrat smear jobs against Republican Supreme Court nominees, e.g., Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas.

Finally, even before RBG's death, Democrats were already signalling that they do not intend to accept the results of the election if Biden loses, and are already assembling an army of lawyers to challenge a Trump victory in the courts. This, after a summer of civil unrest that was and continues to be enabled by Democratic politicians in several cities. We'll need a fully staffed Supreme Court if this comes to pass.

It would be insane for Trump to not nominate a replacement for RBG and for the Senate to confirm that person.

Loaded Some More Black Powder 12 Gauge Ammo

Last weekend I primed 25 Magtech brass 12 gauge shotgun shells and on my lunch break today I finished loading them. The details:

• Magtech 2.5" all brass hull
• CCI Large Pistol Primer
• 80 grains of 2Fg Goex black powder
• 11 gauge nitro card (over powder card)
• 11 gauge fiber cushion wad
• Lubricated felt wad
• 1 1/8 oz. of mixed No.7.5 shot
• 10 gauge overshot card
• Sealed with Duco cement

Magtech hulls require the use of oversized components because the case walls are thinner than 12 gauge plastic or paper hulls.

The felt wads were punched out of 1/8" thick wool felt with a .75" punch, then soaked in a mixture of 50/50 beeswax/mutton tallow. This is to help keep powder fouling soft.

The shot is a mix of plated that I bought from Rotometals, along with some unplated shot scavenged from miscellaneous promo loads. No. 7.5 shot is primarily for clay busting but it will work on doves, as well. Otherwise I'd load No. 5s for small game hunting.

I'll let the Duco cement cure overnight before boxing them up.

These will be good for informal clay target shooting. They shoot well in my Russian-made Baikal MP-310 over/under. Cleanup in a chrome-lined smoothbore isn't bad.

Keeping my Nissan Xterra on the Road

 Last Saturday when I got up to our campsite in Tioga County my two friends who I met onsite smelled antifreeze from my 2007 Nissan Xterra after I pulled into camp. My sense of smell sucks, to put it mildly, and I didn't smell anything. We popped the hood and after the engine cooled down, checked the antifreeze level. Sure enough it was low. One of my friends had a gallon of premix so we topped it off. (Given the age of the vehicle I should have been carrying some.)

We also noticed that a hose going from air cleaner to the engine was cracked. I'm now carrying some Rescue Tape (self-fusing silicone tape) in my truck toolkit in case any other hoses crack.

The joys of owning an older vehicle. 😐

Yesterday, I brought the truck to a local mechanic who confirmed that it has a leak, so I had him replace the radiator. It must have been a very small leak since the truck didn't overheat either way on the trip (about 240 miles each way).

I've actually been thinking of getting this done to prevent the Xterra Strawberry Milkshake of Death from happening, anyway. The Xterras were designed with an automatic transmission fluid cooler integrated with the radiator. Unfortunately, sometimes there's a failure which allow cross-contamination between antifreeze and ATF fluid, causing the SMOD, which kills the transmission. It's both a clever and dumb design.

Although my truck is 13 years old it only has 110,000 miles on it, so I'd like to keep it for several more years, therefore replacing the radiator is worth it to me.

Video: Ken Hackathorn on M1 Carbine Reliability

 Lately I've recently been paying more attention to my M1 Carbines and so watched this nice video on the Forgotten Weapons YouTube channel with Ken Hackathorn discussing the M1 Carbine:

I have NOWHERE near as much as experience as Mr. Hackathorn, but I’ve owned several M1 Carbines since the 1980s and my experience matches his when it comes to ensuring reliability.

My first Carbine was a commercial copy by Iver Johnson, purchased new. It had a problem with an improperly hardened bolt. The locking lugs peened and it had to go back to the factory for repair. I got rid of it a little while after I got it back from IJ.

Since then, I've owned a few USGI Carbines: 1943 Underwood, a 1944 Underwood, and a 1944 Rock Ola. I still have the '43 Underwood and the Rock Ola. On all of them I replaced the recoil springs with new springs from Wolff.

In my experience, the USGI Carbines have been very reliable as long as they were kept clean, lubed, and fed good ammo. The only time I had significant reliability issues was when shooting steel cased Wolf (Tula). The steel cases don't obturate as well as brass and the chamber got filthy. After shooting a box of that stuff I changed over to some RA 52 Ball and got extraction problems. Cleaning the chamber fixed that.

Good .30 Carbine ammo that I've shot includes RA 52 Ball (Remington from 1952), Winchester FMJ, Remington FMJ and JSP, Prvi Partizan FMJ, and Federal FMJ and JSP. I recently got a 1080 round can of mid-1980s vintage Korean milsurp ball made by PMC, and I'm sure that will be perfectly fine.

Finally, if you're interested in keeping an M1 Carbine around for more than just casual use, get ahold of Jerry Kuhnhausen's The U.S. 30 Caliber Gas Operated Carbines: A Shop Manual. It's the definitive work on gunsmithing M1 Carbines.

On Kenosha

 Kyle Rittenhouse did more than simply defend a used car lot. He stood up to defend civilized society against marauding barbarians determined to destroy our way of life and replace it with a communist "utopia."

As Edmund Burke said, "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."

I am relieved that he is getting top notch legal assistance. I donated to Lin Wood's Fight Back foundation, which is working with his family, and secured him a good criminal defense lawyer. It is well past time that supporters of liberty engage in lawfare against the left.

20 Gauge Black Powder Patched Round Ball Shells

 Today I loaded up 25 rounds of 20 gauge shells for potential use as short range deer hunting loads. They consist of:

• Magtech brass cases
• Federal large pistol primers
• 80 grains of Goex 2Fg black powder
• Ballistic Products nitro card
• Ballistic Products fiber cushion wad
• 2 x 0.010” patches prelubed with Wonder Lube
• .575 round ball
• Ballistic Products over shot card sealed with Duco cement

Before I settled on the patch/ball combination I check it for fit in my H&R Topper’s modified choke. With only one patch I could push it through with hand pressure. With two patches I needed to tap it through using a mallet, but it required less pressure than a typical tight fitting PRB in a muzzle loading rifle.

Waiting for the Duco cement to dry:

Office Visit

Today I went into the office for only the second time since March 12th.

As with the first post-lockdown visit, my reason for going in was to download large virtual machine templates (OVFs), and then upload them to a different system. I couldn't vMotion them between clusters, because they are on different network security zones and running different version of VMware ESXi.

The other task I had was to setup a new PC that a coworker and I will use for this sort of thing going forward. It's configured to allow Windows Remote Desktop connections and hardwired to the company LAN.

Our local IT guy did a great job of quickly turning around my request for the PC. It's a new Dell OptiPlex with an Intel Core i7-800 at 3.2 GHz, with 16 GB of RAM and a 500 GB disk. I was surprised to see that it came with a DVD drive. The OS is Windows 10 Enterprise. It seems like a decent little corporate desktop machine and is on a network security zone that will allow me to access anything I need to.

I have an old Netgear 8 port Gig-E Ethernet switch on my desk that allowed me to connect both my MacBook Pro and the Dell to my network drop. After setting up the PC I just used Remote Desktop from the Mac all day to do work on the PC. After I got home tonight I confirmed that it's working over our VPN connection.

Going into the office was a nice change of pace but I'm happy working primarily from home. I expect that to continue into next year.

Black Powder Shotgun Go Boom

A few years ago I loaded up some black powder 12 gauge shotshells in Magtech all-brass hulls, that I bought from Ballistic Products. This exercise was inspired by a video on the Survival Russia YouTube channel, which has since been taken down in accordance with their rule prohibiting videos that show how to load ammunition.

(The picture is a frame grab from an iPhone video.)

I did a few variants:

1-1/4 oz. of #7.5 shot on top of a compressed column of sawdust (in lieu of a cushion wad)
1-1/4 oz. of #5 shot on top of sawdust.

Also, some of the same payloads on top of lubricated wool felt wads. (I have a supply of such homemade wads for use in my Euroarms Magnum Cape Gun percussion 12 bore.)

And a patched .690 round ball on top a couple lubricated felt wads. All were loaded on top of 80 grains of 3Fg.

I tested one each of the #7.5 and #5s, and 3 of the PRB loads.

From 10 yards the #7.5 penetrated one wall of an empty soup can. The #5s went through both sides. Patterning seemed OK for a cylinder bore gun.

Accuracy with the PRB would be good enough to take a deer out to 40 - 50 yards or so.

Because these shells were loaded with black powder, I ran a couple patches wet with a Ballistol/water emulsion through the bore when we finished shooting. I repeated this at home and left the bore with a good coat of Ballistol.

The empty shells got put into a soapy water bath overnight. I found that a 12 gauge tornado brush was perfect for brushing out the inside of the cases to remove residue left from the glue I used to hold the over-shot cards in place.

Tomorrow I'll punch the primers out of the spent shells and clean the primer pockets. I'll also use some acetone to remove the load info I'd written on the side of the shells with a Sharpie marker.

Shooting these BP shells was a lot of fun and the cases should be reusable more or less indefinitely.

One thing I like about the Magtech brass shells is that they use large pistol primers rather than 209 shotshell primers. I use LPPs for .38 WCF and .44 WCF, so that's one less component I need to stock. Also, in normal times, pistol primers are less expensive than 209 primers. (All bets are off in this election/pandemic/civil unrest year, however.)

RT Systems Programming Software for the Icom 7200

With my getting back into ham radio I wanted to update the memory settings on my Icom 7200. You can do so via the front panel, and it's good to know how, but it's tedious.

The popular open source program CHIRP will talk to the IC7200. However, functionality is pretty minimal with this radio. For example, it works with the rig in live mode with changes you make in the application immediately written to the radio. It also misconfigured some fields in the memories, as I discovered later.

Years ago, shortly after buying the rig, I'd purchased  RT Systems' WCS-7200 programming software on CD from the New Castle, DE Ham Radio Outlet store. That CD disappeared, along with the product registration info. So, I decided to drop $25 for a new digital download of the program. (What the heck, it's good to support small businesses anyway.)

Unlike CHIRP, it runs only on Windows, but it can use the same USB A-B cable used for digital mode operations.

The WCS-7200 software is more mature and full-featured than CHIRP. For example, I entered in a bunch of frequencies into the spreadsheet-like UI, and it then allowed me to select a group of them and move them up or down for organization. It also has a Comment field, which I used to identify which frequency is for, for example "20M PSK31" or "WWV."

Unlike CHIRP, it doesn't operate in live mode, so I could tinker with memory organization, save the file locally, and then upload it to the rig.

Before closing the app I exported the memory to a .csv file in the Ham Radio folder I keep on Dropbox, opened it in Numbers on my Mac, and printed out a copy for reference.

I still like CHIRP for programming my Baofengs and it seems to work fine with my Yaesu FT-7800R, but in this case, it was worth $25 for the commercial software.

Incidentally, a good source of frequencies to input into your radio for making contacts or just monitoring is Bandplans.com. Also check out Repeaterbook.com and RadioReference.com.

Radiowavz 40M Dipole Antenna

Today's vacation day activity was to put up a Radiowavz 40M dipole. I got it in trade several years ago for an AR15 lower receiver. :)

Hams know that antennas offer better performance when erected in crappy weather, ideally a New England winter day. Not having one of those handy, hopefully a hot-as-balls SE Pennsylvania day will suffice.

It's currently supported on both end but not the middle, which as you can see, sags a bit. The end supports are 5 foot lengths of schedule 40 PVC pipe with an eye bolt on the end. Braided dacron cord is strung through each eye bolt and then secured to the end insulators of the antenna with a bowline knot. The halyards are then attached to a large plastic landscaping stake in the ground.

The feedline is a 25 foot piece of RG-8X coaxial cable running to an MFJ-4602 window pass-through panel.

After it was up and connected I texted a couple friends and we tried it on 80M phone using NVIS propagation. I was able to hear them but they could not hear me, which wasn't surprising.

I'd like to get the middle up higher so I'm going to look into a military surplus fiberglass mast. If I get the center elevated the resulting antenna will be an inverted-V, which will give me better performance.

I haven't made any QSOs on this antenna yet, but this screenshot from pskreporter.info shows the results of calling CQ with 50W on JS8.

And this one from WSPRnet.org shows the results of transmitting 50W on WSPR.

Removing Stubborn Screws from an Uberti 1866 Sporting Rifle

AKA, "When I said get out, I wasn't asking."

Earlier this year I bought an Uberti 1866 Sporting Rifle chambered for .38-40 WCF. Uberti build beautiful guns but unfortunately, many of them seem to be assembled by a gorilla who applies 87,000 pound-feet of torque to screws that are slightly harder than cheese.

This rifle is one of them.

I wanted to remove the sideplates from the action to inspect the inside and lubricate it with Ballistol. I also wanted to replace the loading gate cover (AKA ladle) with a stronger, aftermarket piece.

After weeks of soaking in Kroil, I was able to remove the lever screw. However, I still couldn't budge the sideplate screw. Even though I used a properly fitting gunsmith screwdriver bit, all I managed to do was booger the screw head.

A few weeks ago I ordered a set of replacement screws that are properly hardened from VTI Gun Parts. (Part # 220-H.)

So, today I braved the hot, humid Southeastern Pennsylvania weather and went out to my backyard shop so I could use my Grizzly G8689 mini-mill as a drill press.

First, I drilled into the sideplate screw on the end where it screws into the right sideplate. This relieves some pressure on the threads.

Note the use of a center drill for starting the holes. This is important because they are more rigid than twist drill bits and you don't want the bit walking off to the side and damaging the receiver.

Then I flipped over the rifle and drilled into the screw head, and then used a screw extractor held in a tap handle to back it out.

While I had the rifle open I also replaced the lever spring screws. A trick to reduce tension on these so you can move them is to slide the lever springs to the side. This worked for the right hand screw but not the left one. So, back to the mill.

This time I put the screw extractor in the drill chuck and manually rotated it (my mill cannot rotate to the left).

After reassembling the rifle I adjusted the tension on the lever so that it's a little easier to work than before but still holds the lever up.

I won't be disassembling the rifle regularly. Even when fired with black powder cartridges, the .38-40's thin brass seals the chamber very well. Virtually no fouling makes it into the action. (The same goes for .44-40, which I shoot in an 1860 Henry and 1873 Sporting Rifle.) However, I can now easily get into the action should it be needed for repair.

Podcast Episode 1 - Tips for Working From Home

It's hosted on YouTube but is audio-only. Hopefully you find this interesting.

New Workbench

Ever since we decided to move my daughter downstairs and allow me to reclaim my home office, I've been considering putting a workbench in. Although I have a workshop out back, it's not climate controlled. So, it's often uncomfortably warm in the summer, and frigid in the winter. I could really use a space in the house to tinker with stuff and fix things.

So, last week I ordered a Seville Classics UltraHD workbench from Home Depot. (It's also available from Amazon.) It arrived around 7:00 PM last night. I mostly put it together last night and finished up this morning.

It's very solid and went together pretty easily. The frame, pegboard backsplash, drawer, and shelf are all made from steel. The work surface is 1.5" butcher block, well-finished, and heavy. It came with a power strip that has two USB ports and an LED light that's mounted under the top shelf. It came with an assortment of hooks to mount on the pegboard.

The dimensions are 65.6" high x 24" deep x 48" wide. The top of the work surface sits 37" high. It's really the only thing I'd change. Being short I would prefer it to be a few inches lower.

It came with two tools for assembly: a stamped steel wrench and a long Phillips head screwdriver, which is magnetized. That came in handy although I mostly used my drill with suitable screw driver bits. It also came with a few spare screws.

My first project was to clean my 1948-vintage Remington 550-1 .22 autoloader. I put at least 100 rounds through it on our last camping trip, including a bunch of CCI .22 CB Shorts, so it was filthy inside.

Next up will be my Uberti 1866 Yellowboy. Since getting it earlier this year I haven't removed the sideplates. Unfortunately, Uberti has a bad habit of over-torqueing the action screws on their rifles, which combined with their cheese-like hardness means that there's a good chance some will be destroyed in removal. I therefore have hardened replacements on order from VTI Gunparts. After getting the gun apart I also intend to replace the loading gate cover (AKA "ladle") with a stronger, improved one. For now, I have penetrating oil soaking into the screws.

Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) Resources

I ran across this first link yesterday and thought it's worth sharing with the current State of the Union.

Bellingcat's Online Investigation Toolkit - Links to a variety of OSINT tools. If you have a Google account, you can go to File > Make a Copy and save it to your own Google Drive.

And this video is interesting:

Using Skiptracer to Gather License Plate OSINT Data.

(That channel, Null Byte, has a number of interesting videos.)

Scanner stuff:

Radio Reference - Site with information on frequencies, licenses, and discussion.

Broadcastify - Site to stream scanner feeds on your computer or mobile device.

Police Scanner and Radio on Apple App Store.

Police Scanner and Radio on Google Play.

Freescan - Free software to program and control many police scanners. Can also be used to record. I use this with my Uniden Trunktracker IV.

ProScan - Another piece of scanner software.

Chirp - Free software for programming primarily ham radios, but you can use it to easily add other common frequencies like FRS, GMRS, MURS, and NOAA weather to hand held radios like the ever-popular Baofengs.