Pietta Remington 1858 New Model Army With Kirst Konverter

 

Shooting the Uberti 1873 With Black Powder Loads

Today I put 60 rounds of black powder .44-40s through my Uberti 1873 Sporting Rifle.

Fifty were loaded with Swiss 3Fg while the remaining 10 were loaded with Goex 3Fg. Either the bullets I used do not carry enough lube for a 24" barrel, or cowboybullets.com's lube isn't good enough for BP. (It's advertised as being suitable for BP or smokeless.) I got a bad ring of crud for a few inches back from the muzzle. Accuracy went to hell after about 15 rounds. For the first 15 rounds I could easily hold the black of an SR-1 target offhand at about 25 to 40 yards. After 15 rounds the bullets impacted all over the paper.

Shooting the rounds with Swiss powder and Goex side by side reinforced how much better the Swiss is. It fouled noticeably less, and judging by the recoil and boom, was a more powerful load. Frankly, Goex is crap in comparison with Swiss powder. Goex Olde Eynsford is supposed to be comparable with Swiss but at a lower price. The next time I'm up at Dixon's I'll pick up a pound to try out.

I have an antique Winchester mold and tong-type loading tool on the way, that I bought on eBay. They were made in the late 19th/early 20th Century. We'll see how bullets cast in that mold do using my homebrew lube based on the Gatofeo Number 1 lube.

(Picture from the eBay auction. I'm hoping to get them in hand on Monday.)

If the bullets from the Winchester mold don't shoot well, I'm going to get a more modern design that holds more lubricant.

Either way, it's fun experimenting.

Edit: I forgot to mention that I removed the rifle's sideplate and found very little fouling inside in the action. The little that was there was on the bolt, and no doubt to my cleaning the rifle in the field, and running down. The thin .44-40 brass sealed the chamber very well.

First Batch of Black Powder .44-40 WCF Handloads

Tonight I loaded up my first batch (hopefully of many) of black powder .44-40 handloads for my Cimarron Uberti 1873 Sporting Rifle.

Here are a bunch of charged cases in the loading block:

Black powder is usually measured by volume, and that's what I did. I used the same volumetric measure I use for my muzzleloaders, set to 35 grains.

A lot of guys who load black powder cartridges use a drop tube to allow the powder to fill the case slowly and take up less room. I don't have a drop tube, but if you look in the picture above, you can see that the funnel I'm using is a couple inches long. It's actually a powder flask filling funnel from Ted Cash. I can pour the powder from my measure from a few inches above the funnel and have it all go down into the case, so it's almost as if I have a short drop tube.

This resulted in a slightly compressed charge, which is what you want with black powder.

And here's 50 loaded rounds, with an unloaded bullet:

My recipe consists of:

• Virgin Starline brass
• Federal Number 150 large pistol primer
• 200 grain .428" RNFP soft cast bullet from Desperado Cowboy Bullets
• 35 grains by volume of Swiss 3Fg black powder

I got a sample pack of 100 of the bullets to try out. Most commercially cast bullets are hard, with a BHN in the high teens to 20 or more. However, these are around 8 to 9 BHN. At .428" they may be a little undersized for the Uberti's barrel but I'm hoping they'll bump up due to being soft and using black powder. One thing I'm concerned about is if they'll carry enough lube for my rifle's 24.25" barrel. If not, I'll see a fouling buildup towards the muzzle. I have another 50 of these bullets. If it turns out they don't carry enough lube I'll load the remainders on top of some Unique.

Aside from the sample pack of .44-40 projectiles, I also got a 100 count sample pack of .358" 158 grain RNFP bullets to load in my Rossi 92 .357 Magnum. Yup, I plan to load up some black powder .357s, just because.

I have a good stash of Goex 2Fg and 3Fg, and some Swiss 3Fg. The Swiss powder is much cleaner burning and more energetic than Goex (and this is reflected in its price). For shooting Goex loads in my rifle I think I'm going to want either a bullet with a larger grease groove, or use a bit less powder plus a lubed wad under the bullet.

I'm hoping that I'll be able to get out this weekend to make some smoke. I'll follow up with a range report on how these cartridges worked out.

How a Winchester Toggle Link Lever Action Works

I found this on Imgur, it isn't mine:

This is a Winchester 1866 (note the bronze receiver). However, the basic locking mechanism dates from the Volcanic, and was used in the Henry rifle made famous in the Civil War, then used in the Winchester 1873 and 1876.

Today, the toggle link locking mechanism is considered to be relatively weak, especially when compared with the later Winchester 1886, 1892, and 1894. However, Uberti currently chambers Winchester 1873 replicas in .357 and .44 Magnum. Further, the Maxim machinegun used a toggle link locking mechanism, and was chambered in several full power smokeless rounds like .303 British, 7.92x57 Mauser, .30-06, and 7.62x54R. Metallurgy makes a difference.

Stupid Soft Uberti Screws

Uberti builds beautiful firearms but they use screws with the same hardness as used chewing gum, and then have some gorilla crank them down. I want to be able to shoot black powder loads in my Uberti 1873 Sporting Rifle so I need to be able to access the inside of the receiver.

After a week and a half soaking in Kroil, and the application of heat with a soldering iron and then with a torch, I still couldn't budge the sideplate screw. The more I tried the more the head got boogered. Yes, I used properly fitting hollow ground screwdrivers.

So, I drilled out both ends with my mill and used a screw extractor held in a tap wrench to remove it. I replaced it with a properly hardened screw and put anti-sieze on the threads.

What a PITA.

I installed a properly hardened replacement from VTI Gun Parts and made sure to put a little SuperLube grease on the threads as an anti-sieze. I actually bought a complete set of replacement screws but I'm haven't replaced the rest of them yet. The factory screws have a nice, deep blue while the replacements are matte. I'll replace them as needed. In the meantime I have applied Kroil to all of them.

More Range Time This Weekend

Aside from shooting my new Cimarron Firearms 1873 yesterday, I also got in some range time Saturday night, and shot my Ruger Gunsite Scout Rifle yesterday.

Saturday night I shot my S&W Model 10-4 .38 Special and my Pietta 1873 Millenium copy of the Colt Single Action Army, in .45 Colt.

The Model 10 has a 4" pencil barrel, Magna stocks, and a Pachmayr grip adapter. With 125 grain CCI Blazer Brass loads it was very pleasant to drill out the center of the target with.

I brought two kinds of ammo for the Pietta, both Black Hills cowboy loads. First was a box of 250 grain .45 Colt LRNFP, and second was a box of .45 S&W Schofield 230 grain RNFP. The Pietta is fairly light and I find that even with the CAS .45 Colts (250 grain bullet at 750 FPS) my middle finger gets whacked by the trigger guards. The .45 Schofields (230 grain bullet at 730 FPS) are more pleasant to shoot in this gun. Full power .45 Colts would be no fun, IMO.

On Sunday after getting in some time with the Uberti '73, we put about 30 rounds through the Ruger Gunsite Scout. Like the previous weekend, they were "The Load," 13 grains of Red Dot, but this time under a 152 grain FMJ M2 projectile. The GSR likes this combination a lot better than the cast bullets I shot last time, giving me a tight group at 25 yards offhand. I have close to 1,000 more of these bullets, more Red Dot, and plenty of empty brass, so I'll need to load up a bunch more and get the rifle zeroed.

Cimarron Firearms Uberti 1873 Sporting Rifle

Meet Claudia -- as in Cardinale -- my new Cimarron Firearms Uberti 1873 Sporting Rifle in .44-40 WCF. (Can you tell I watched a few 1960s vintage westerns last week?) I ordered her from Buffalo Arms in Idaho on March third, and she arrived at my FFL one week later. I picked her up the next day.

She has a 24-1/4" octagonal barrel and the wood is are walnut. Cimarron lists the weight at 8.6 lbs. and it feels about like that. Even when shooting original spec loads -- a 200 grain bullet at about 1200 - 1300 FPS -- recoil is very mild. The modern neutered cowboy action shooting (CAS) loads are milder still.

In person the blueing, color case hardening, and wood finish are even better than in the pictures. The wood to metal fit is generally very good, although where the forearm meets the receiver the wood stands a little proud.

One thing Uberti still needs to work on is their screws. They aren't properly hardened at the factory and they over tighten them. I've experienced this with other Uberti Firearms. I'm trying to get the side plates off the '73 but so far the screw won't budge and even using a correct screwdriver, I boogered the head. VTI Gun Parts sells replacements but this is damn annoying on a rifle that I just dropped $1200 on. In the meantime, I'm hitting the screws with Kroil everyday and I hope that after a week, I can remove the side plates without drilling.

Today I took Claudia up to my friend's place and we put 55 rounds through her -- one 50 round box of Black Hills 200 grain lead CAS loads, and 5 rounds of Winchester 200 grain JSPs that I had left from the Navy Arms Uberti 1873 Carbine I used to own. It was drizzling and eventually began to rain, so we only had the chance to shoot offhand at about 25 yards. IOW, no serious accuracy testing. However, the rifle functioned perfectly and I noticed that the Winchester jacketed loads printed smaller groups than the lead CAS ammunition.

One thing that was evident was how much smoother the 1873 action is than my Rossi 92, Marlin 1894, or Marlin 336. The straight-line feed of the '73 allows the cartridges to slide right into the chamber, compared with the angled feed on the other rifles. I can see why the '73s, and similar 1866 Winchester replicas are the preferred rifles for CAS.

I have no plans to install a short-stroke kit it but I need to do something about the sights. They are authentic. I.e., hard to see except against a nice, bright target. I'm looking at replacing the front with a brass or ivory-colored bead, and the rear buckhorn with a flat top open sight. Cap and Ball on Youtube installed a ladder rear sight for a Henry rifle on his Uberti 1873 rifle. That's an interesting option. I'm also interested in maybe installing a tang sight, in which case I'd want a folding leaf rear sight, so it's not in the way.

Uberti and Cimarron list the capacity as 13 rounds in the magazine plus one in the chamber. However, I found that I was able to load 14 in the magazine. Truly, the Winchester '73 was as close as you could get to an assault rifle when it was introduced.

Last night I went out to my shop and found my .44-40 dies and a box of 100 Lyman 200 grain lead RNFP bullets lubed with some kind of moly. I'm going to research smokeless loads to duplicate the original BP ballistics, but I want to start loading ammo with BP for the gun. After I slug the bore I'll order some suitably-sized and lubed bullets for it.

Except for the screw issue I am very happy with the rifle. It's beautiful to look at and fun to shoot.

Got in some range time, plus a new toy on the way

Yesterday I went out to a friend's place and did some shooting with my Ruger Gunsite Scout Rifle .308 and Rossi 92 carbine in .357 Magnum.

First up was the Ruger GSR. I brought along a Ziploc bag of handloads consisting of Laser Cast 165 grain bullets on top of 13 grains of Alliant Red Dot, AKA "The Load" as described by C.E. Harris. The good news is that recoil was very mild, about like shooting an M1 Carbine. I could shoot them all day.

The bad news is that from 50 yards my "group" looked like I blasted the target with a few rounds of buckshot from my Mossberg 500. The group was about 18".  IIRC, these bullets were sized .309 and the Ruger may need .310s when shooting cast bullets. I have to get ahold of a .32 caliber bullet and slug the bore. I have another batch of "The Load," but tipped with 152 grain .30 M2 Ball projectiles. I'm hoping they shoot acceptably.

Before heading out this morning I stopped at Dick's and picked up two boxes of CCI Blazer Brass .38 Special ammo loaded with 125 grain FMJ RNFP bullets. I wanted to see if the Rossi would feed them reliably, for use in training my 11 year old daughter, and general plinking.

It turns out that the Rossi is sensitive to cartridge OAL, which was not unexpected. I've read that some Rossi 92 .357s don't like to feed .38 Specials. (The .357 was developed from the .38 Special by lengthening the case by 1/10 of an inch, and loading to higher pressure. .38s are perfectly safe to shoot in .357s but not vice-versa. Also, the .38 Special's actual bullet diameter is .357, or .358 if shooting cast bullets.)

If we worked the Rossi's lever too briskly, the round on the cartridge elevator would fly out the top of the rifle when the lever hit the bottom of the downstroke. If we worked it a little more gently it functioned OK. In contrast, when shooting .357s the rifle functions fine no matter how fast you run it.

In the 20" barrel of the Rossi, the .38s recoil like and sound like .22 LR highspeed ammo, but with a little deeper tone.

Shooting the .38s in the Rossi was a lot of fun, so I think I'm going to load some similar rounds in .357 cases, for better functioning. I'll probably pick up some cast RNFP bullets and may use this as an opportunity to try powder coated bullets.

I'm hoping to get back out to my friend's next week with the second batch of .308 handloads, and a rifle I should take delivery of next Friday: a Cimarron Firearms 1873 Sporting Rifle in .44-40 WCF. The 1873 was made in Italy by Uberti. I ordered it last week from Buffalo Arms and it's scheduled for delivery to my local FFL this coming Thursday.

This will be my second replica of a Winchester 1873. Back in 1991 I got an Navy Arms/Uberti '73 Carbine in .44-40, but eventually traded it off. Naturally, I came to regret that. I decided it was finally time to replace it but this time I chose a rifle length version with a 24.25" barrel. My old 19" barreled carbine had a capacity of 10 + 1, while the rifle will hold 13 + 1. Not too shabby for a 143 year old design. The Winchester was the Evil Black Rifle of its day.

I still have my .44-40 loading dies from 20 years ago but only 15 rounds of ammo left. So, I also ordered three boxes of Black Hill cowboy action shooting ammo and 500 pieces of Starline brass, which was on sale at MidwayUSA. Incidentally, my old box of Winchester 200 grain JSP .44-40 ammo has a price tag of $21.95. The same load now retails for about $70!!! The Black Hills ammo was about $40/box at MidwayUSA.

I haven't ordered any projectiles for the new rifle yet since I want to slug the bore first. After doing so, I'll order suitable cast lead bullets with black powder-compatible lube, since that's what I want to shoot in it. With 35 grains of Swiss BP I should be able to get abut 1300 FPS with a 200 grain bullet, to duplicate the original .44 WCF load. Goex will probably provide a bit less velocity and more fouling. I may also try Hodgdon Triple 7 BP substitute, which is a bit more energetic than Swiss, and very clean burning in my experience.

Hill People Gear Kit Bag Loadout - Pictures

In my previous post (q.v.), I listed the contents of each pocket of my Hill People Gear Original Kit Bag. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, this post should be worth about 6,000 and change.

First, the zipped up Kit Bag and then the back compartment with my S&W M&P Shield 9 and a spare magazine. When worn, the pistol doesn't move at all, but I will probably buy a kydex holster that covers the trigger guard.

If you click on each pic you should get a full sized version.

Next we have the middle compartment with an assortment of survival gear.

Finally, the outer compartment with a few more items. This is where I stow my keys and iPhone. It provides easy access to the phone without having to worry about everything falling out when I'm consulting the phone's GPS.

Hill People Gear Kit Bag Loadout

A couple years ago I bought a Hill People Gear Original Kit Bag. This is the gear that lives in it 24x7. I use the bag on day hikes and overnighters. I have found the Kit Bag to be the most comfortable way to carry a pistol while hiking when carrying a pack. It also provides a very convenient and comfortable means of carrying a basic survival kit, and an easily accessible but secure way to carry my car keys and phone when off-pavement.

I augment the contents as dictated by the particular trip. E.g., add a Cliff bar or two.

Rear compartment:

• Smith & Wesson M&P Shield 9 with 8 round magazine
• One spare 8 round magazine, held in place with a Maxpedition Universal Holster

(The gun and spare magazine are loaded with Federal XM9001 9mm 115 grain JHP. In PA, I'm not worried about wild animals larger than dogs. The gun is there for defense against people. I've also carried a Beretta M9 and a CZ P-09 but switched to the Shield to reduce weight.)

Middle compartment:

• Princeton Tec Remix LED headlamp
• Adventure Medical Kits SOL Heatsheet survival blanket
• USGI olive drab triangular bandage, with edges hemmed to prevent fraying
• Safety pin on one of the sewn-in loops
• Woodsknife Reindeer Puukko knife in homemade LH sheath
• GI type match safe with strike-anywhere matches, and some sandpaper taped to the outside
• Three Esbit hexamine fuel tablets (Great fire starters.)
• BIC lighter in Exotac fireSLEEVE
• 0.5L Platypus water bag (Empty. Stole this idea from the Hill brothers.)
• Potable Aqua iodine-based water purification tablets

Outside compartment:

• Three AAA batteries in a small Ziploc bag
• Map of where I'm hiking
• Fox 40 micro whistle*
• REI zipper pull compass*
• Nitecore T0 flashlight* (This may get replaced with a single-AA Cree light, which has a button switch rather than a twist switch.)
• REI zipper pull thermometer*
• About ten feet of 550 cord

Items marked with an asterisk are dummy corded to light aluminum caribiners with bank line. I replaced the Slick Clips that came with the KB with the 'biners because they are easier for me to open and close.

Once I get to the trail, I'll stow my car keys and iPhone 6 in the outside compartment. Depending on the trip I may also bring a larger compass and a Garmin GPSMAP 62 GPS unit, but not necessarily in the KB.

Also, I removed the Grimlocks from the outside of the KB, since I don't use them.

MacBook Pro Performance

Every so often you'll read comments from Windows fanboys that Macs are good only for Facebook or graphic artists. Well, this is what I had running on my late-2013 13" Retina display MacBook Pro (2.8 GHz Core i7 CPU, 8 GB of RAM, 256 GB SSD) as of a little while ago:

• Safari web browser with multiple tabs.
• Thunderbird for 2 personal email accounts.
• MS Outlook for work email and calendar.
• MS Lync for work IM.
• Slack for work IM/file sharing.
• Textwrangler text editor for a scratchpad.
• Evernote for note taking.
• OS X Terminal.app running SSH tunnel to a Linux server.
• OS X Terminal.app for ping and traceroute to troubleshoot connection to a vSphere server.
• ZOC for SSH connections to multiple Linux servers.
• MS Remote Desktop Client with connections to 2 VMware vCenter servers.
• MS Excel with two spreadsheets open for looking up server IPs.
• MS Word to review a quote I got on some electrical work in my data center.

And...

• Windows 7 Professional running in Parallels Desktop, so I could run Internet Explorer and the HP .NET iLO remote console for a VMware vSphere server that is acting up.

I have the application windows spread out across multiple virtual desktops on my 27" Apple Thunderbolt display. It's perfectly stable and responsive.

Saturday Night Range Report

I hit the range last night with my dad, and got to put some rounds downrange through my S&W M&P Shield 9 and CZ P-09.

I was testing two new magazines for the Shield and one of them needs some work. It's an eight round magazine but even with the aid of an UpLULA, I can only load six into it. I'm hoping it's just a burr causing the follower to hang up.

The CZ just worked, as usual, shooting a mix of American Eagle 147 grain FMJ-FP and Herters (Sellier & Bellot) 115 grain FMJ. I have about 500 rounds through it so far with zero issues. Since it's a full sized 9mm with a low bore axis the recoil and muzzle flip is very mild. Recoil with the 147 grain loads feels like you're shooting a K-Frame .38.

Dad brought a new-to-him Beretta PX-4 Storm in 9mm and his S&W M&P 22 in .22 LR. I shot the latter and liked it a lot. The trigger was good and even for a .22, recoil is mild and muzzle flip is minimal.

The PX4 Storm is an interesting design. Rather than using the common tilting barrel lockup, it has a rotating barrel. Dad put the first 50 shots through it  into 1 ragged hole at 7 yards with no malfunctions. I didn't get to shoot the Storm but it feels good in my hands. The DA pull is long and not especially smooth but the pistol appears to have been hardly shot.

For me, though, the highlight of the night was getting to put a magazine through another shooter's S&W Model 52-2. The Model 52 was a specialized semiautomatic target pistol chambered for .38 Special cartridges with flush-seated wadcutter loads, intended for bullseye shooting.  Not only had I never handled a Model 52 before, I don't recall ever seeing one in person. The sights are excellent, the trigger was fantastic, and recoil with the .38 midrange loads felt like a .22. S&W made the Model 52 from 1961 up until 1992, when the machinery needed replacement but they deemed it too expensive to do so.

Afterwards, we capped off the night back at Dad's house with a bit of Woodford Reserve Double Oaked bourbon.

China Archery Supplies Takedown Recurve

How To Lube Your AK

NRA-ILA Moneybomb This Thursday Night

K-E-U-R-I-G Spells Expensive, Bad Coffee

Yesterday the wife unit decided that she wanted to replace her 7 year old (but perfectly functional) Bosch Tassimo single cup coffee maker with a Keurig. The reasons she gave were the wider variety of K-cups vs. the Tassimo cups, and that she could get a unit that would dispense hot water so our girls could more easily make hot tea or chocolate. She also bought a refillable K-cup so that I could continue to use my preferred brand, Chock Full O'Nuts. (Strangely enough, it has no nuts. But I digress.)

What a goatfuck. She wound up getting a Keurig 2.0 unit, which is infested with their DRM. That means you can only use "approved" K-cups unless you hack the DRM sensor.

Likewise, you cannot use refillable K-cups unless you buy Keurig's -- as opposed to the 3rd party one sold right next to the coffee maker, like my wife bought -- unless you engage in some hacking. (For some reason, the incompatible refillable cup worked the first time I tried it, but was rejected the second time. That tells me the DRM sensor is flakey.)

I just love the error message that you get on the touchscreen when you insert an incompatible cup: "Oops!" To be more accurate, it should read, "Ha ha!" while showing a picture of the Keurig CEO grabbing his crotch at you.

Now, being a tech professional I'd heard of this Keurig DRM, and knew that it went over like a wet fart in church. However, an awful lot of consumers haven't. If I'd been with my wife when she bought it, I would have pointed her elsewhere.

I do not want to motherfucking hack my damn coffee maker so that I can brew my choice of coffee. That's as idiotic as having to buy Calphalon-brand eggs to use in a Calphalon frying pan.

This is a perfect example of a corporate greed overcoming good sense, and telling its customers, "Do it our way, or fuck off." The best way to fight this sort of thing is to tell them to fuck right off back, and spend our money with someone else. No, I do not support government regulation. Let the free market work.

On top of the DRM derp, frankly the coffee that comes from a Keurig sucks. Compared with a French press, my old Mr. Coffee drip brewer, or even a percolator it's thin.

We've decided to return the Keurig, keep the Tassimo and replace the Mr. Coffee with another drip brewer because it doesn't keep a pot hot enough after being brewed. For hot water, we'll rely on the good old tea kettle.

Edit: The wife decided not to buy a new drip coffee maker. I don't have a problem with our old one and since I'm the one who mostly uses it, we'll keep it until it dies.

MacBook Pro Upgrades

Three years ago I bought my wife a 13" MacBook Pro (mid-2012, MacBook Pro 9,2). For the time it was an excellent system, with an i5 CPU, 4 GB of RAM, and a 512 GB hard drive. However, she's been complaining lately that it runs slowly.

I checked it out yesterday morning and sure enough, it felt sluggish, even more so than my mid-2009 MBP with a Core 2 Duo CPU. However, my machine has 8 GB of RAM and, most importantly, an SSD. It was time to upgrade her laptop.

Based on my experience upgrading several older Macs and PCs, a solid state drive (SSD) is the single best performance-enhancing hardware upgrade for an older machine. SSD's have vastly better read/write times than spinning disk. In laptops, SSDs also improve battery life because they draw less electricity.

My plan was to first cleanup the hard disk, then upgrade the OS on the machine, clone the hard disk to an SSD, then upgrade the hardware.

To clean up the disk I ran OnyX. Next, I upgraded the machine from Yosemite to El Capitan. In my experience, Yosemite was a real turd, giving me a lot of grief on my work machine. When I was stuck with it I had a lot of instability issues that I didn't have with earlier versions of OS X. El Capitan seems to have fixed that.

While the upgrade to El Capitan was proceeding, I went to microcenter.com and ordered a few items for in-store pickup to complete the upgrade:

• An 8 GB RAM kit from Crucial
• A Crucial 480 GB BX200 SSD
• An external enclosure for the OEM hard disk, so that it can be repurposed as a Time Machine drive.
• A Kingwin USB 3.0-to-SATA or IDE adapter. I have an older adapter that supports USB 2.0, but since USB 3.0 is becoming more common (and is supported on my wife's laptop), I felt it was due for a replacement.

(The links go to Amazon. I bought them from my local Microcenter because I wanted to get this done in one day.)

I installed the RAM first and fired up the machine. It still felt a little slow so as expected, the spinning disk was the main reason.

To clone the OEM disk to the new SSD I downloaded and installed SuperDuper, which I have used previously to clone Mac disks. My wife had less than 150 GB used on her disk, but even using a USB 3.0 interface, cloning it took one hour and 16 minutes.

The physical swap was straightforward, although I had to grab my precision screwdriver set with Torx bits, because Apple used T6 screws to hold the hard disk in place.

The machine performs much, much better now. Cold boots are much faster and applications launch with very little lag. My wife should get several more years out of it.

Shot the Samick Sage A Little More Today

This morning I took my daughter to go see Star Wars Episode VII. No spoilers, just go see it. It's awesome. After lunch I took the Samick Sage out back for a little shooting.

It continues to impress, especially with how fast it shoots my 600 spine, 6.4 grains/inch carbon arrows.

The bow is noisy, though. Most of the noise seems to come from the limb pockets, where each limb is  held in an aluminum tray to the riser. I've read where this can be quieted down by lining them with moleskin.

After I was done shooting I added two nocking points to the string. This setup is like how my Samick SLB II longbow came. When shooting, you nock the arrows between the two points.

My daughter hasn't shot the bow yet but I hope to remedy that by next weekend.

Samick Sage Recurve Bow -- Initial Impressions

My 11 year old daughter was ready to move up to a "real" bow from her kid's bows. After doing a good bit of research, I bought her a Samick Sage 62" long takedown recurve with a set of 25# draw limbs.

Ever since getting back into archery about four years ago, the Samick Sage has the been the bow that I've seen recommended the most for beginners. It's reasonably priced at $139 and available in a wide range of draw weights. Additionally, since it uses ILF limbs, one can easily buy additional sets of limbs for a heavier or lighter pull. The limbs are laminated, with a maple core and fiberglass on the back and belly. The limbs are Fast-Flight string capable.

Each limb attaches to the riser with a single bolt, with a large knurled head. The bolts and the inserts they screw into are finished with a matte blue, and came bone dry. A couple of these parts had signs of surface rust. I wiped down the bolts and placed a drop of Tri-Flow on each before assembling the bow.

The riser is made from laminated wood with a radiused shelf. It has inserts for a stabilizer, bow quiver, and plunger rest.

I bought the Sage from Archery Pros on Amazon. They included a Hoyt/Easton stick-on arrow rest. This afternoon I strung the bow, marked a temporary nocking point on the string using some dental floss, and took it out back for its first shots.

At first I used several fiberglass youth arrows my daughter had. Half are rated at up to a 30# bow, while the others are for up to 40# bows. They flew quite well from the Sage, although shooting conditions weren't good due to wind gusts.

I then tried the Easton 600 spine carbon arrows I've been shooting in my Chinese takedown recurve. They also shot well from the Sage. The arrows had no problems sticking in my bag target from about 40 feet. The carbons fitted with Saunders bludgeon heads flew well, too.

The Sage draws very smoothly with no stacking at my draw length of about 26 - 27". There's a bit of twang on release, but string silencers will take care of that.

Even though it was very windy during my first range session, I shot the bow well. It's very smooth on draw and release. It's very tempting for me to buy a second one with 40# limbs and a Fast Flight string for myself.

As we get more chances to shoot the Samick Sage, I'll post follow ups.

Backyard Archery Plinking

Shooting arrows at a regular target is a lot of fun, but sometimes it's nice to mix it up. Previously, we've used plastic cups, balloons, and small cardboard boxes as alternate targets. This morning I cut up the cardboard tube that my last batch of Chinese bamboo arrows came in, and set them up downrange.

Last week I placed an order with 3Rivers Archery for several items, including a half dozen 125 grain Saunders screw-in bludgeon points. (Also available on Amazon here.) They are made of a hard rubber with a flat point, with several small cones protruding from the face. They have a metal core with a protruding threaded stud to screw into standard arrow inserts. I used them with my Easton carbon arrows and shot them from my 45 pound takedown recurve.

The bludgeon points are designed for shooting small game or stump shooting. The latter is basically wandering around in the woods shooting at targets of opportunity such as stumps, clumps of dirt, pine cones, etc. It's a great way to improve your field shooting skills.

Since I don't have woods on my property, cardboard tubes about the size of a Guiness pub can are a decent substitute. The arrows make a nice loud pop with a solid hit, and frequently the impaled tubes bounce around dramatically with a good hit.

I'm sold on the Saunders bludgeon points. They fly the same as my 125 grain bullet points, but prevent arrows from snaking under the grass. They do penetrate foam broadhead targets a few inches however, making a big hole in the process. They bounced off my bag target.

If you're shooting wooden arrows without inserts, 3Rivers has "Bunny Buster" small game blunts that slip over the end of your arrow.

Please note that these are not suitable for LARP use. A headshot with one of these from the 45 pound bow I was shooting today would result in a concussion or death. I wouldn't want to take a hit from one of these even from a 25 pound bow.