Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967

When Sassparilla Kid was just that - a kid - I once delivered him and his ma to the aeropuerto for a trip to visit relatives on the east coast. This was back in the days when you could actually accompany people to the gate ~ and the last passenger to board the "little" commuter plane to Los Angeles was Richard Kiel ("Jaws" from the James Bond movies). At 7' 2" he was two whole inches shorter than Andre the Giant. Nevertheless, the Kid and his ma described the seating adjustments as "airplane Tetris;" but they got him in. Also described as a very kind and gentle soul.

That reminds me of the time back in 1972 or '73 when I took my old Stevens 5100 doube to a smith to have the chokes changed from F/M to M/IC. Simple enough procedure. When I went to pick it up, he flat refused to release it to me. "I cannot legally release your gun to you without recording the serial number. It doesn't have a serial number, so you can't have it." Well, we had rather spirited discussion about that. Finally resolved it by allowing him to stamp my birthdate onto the "water table." He recorded that in his "books," and I got my gun back.

Ornery, are they gonna bore and sleeve it, or bore and re-rifle? Who's gonna do the work for you?

The "Slap" thread kindled some ancient memories of dumb stuff we did as kids.... Anyone remember "Mumblety-Peg?" Or the "Stretch" variant? Played on the playground during recess...?

I dunno... it worked for Johnny Cash....

When Tide Pod eaters survive to become adults.

Bill, does it look like this one? The Kid has his set up on a "Hazard Fraught" (Harbor Freight) grinder stand. Handy and portable!

Yup. Home of the Chorro Valley Regulators. https://www.slosa.org/ Have fun!

No, thank you. If I had to navigate that on the stairs at home I'd never make it to bed! Now... back in my younger day... with a bit o' whiskey behind the buckle ~ no prob!

Kewlest~!! I just might have to get myself one.

DANG, Rooster! Just how long is that barrel??? That's plumb sweet! What's the history on it? What calibre...? And I agree with you on the tang sight. I truly love 'em on some rifles ~ particularly those that are single shot with long barrels. Oh... and as nice as the Lyman tang sights are, I prefer Marbles - windage adjustable; no shimming required. Which, by the way, is not consistent at different ranges.

Pat, that exercise sounds like a ton o’ fun ~ will be trying that one! It reminds me of a “game” Half-Breed Pete, his brother Mark, and I once played out in the boonies. We took two or three old tires and wired circular pieces of cardboard inside ‘em – essentially filling the center. Then we hauled ‘em to the top of a hill, and took turns “launching” the tires down the hill. The other fellas would be positioned at a point about fifty yards from and ninety degrees to the path the tires would be following, and took turns shooting at the imaginary “running deer” as they raced and bounded along. Shooting my 336 .30-30 with the Lyman receiver sight, I did the best – probably owing to a lot of duck hunting, I quickly figured out how much to lead the things and would usually put at least three bullets through the target out of a full magazine of six. That was a blast – no pun intended! @Sedalia Dave if you happen to come across an extra one o’ those sights, I would absolutely be interested! That would be a marked improvement over the factory barrel mounted sight! Deer season starts here on September 21; Sassparilla Kid and I have decided to use our respective lever .30-30’s - he now has the Winchester 94 that I bought new back in 1977. We have other options, but these should be suitable for the terrain we’ll be in. And we have an ample supply of (dreaded, california-mandated copper bullet) ammunition loaded up for ‘em. Now, personally, I’m going to go in the other direction with the old Marlin. I bought it back in 1971 from F. Bob Chow, in San Francisco. [boy, were times ever different!] Marlin was running a “special,” rifle (carbine) with a factory mounted scope – I couldn’t resist. But by 1972, I had removed the scope and put it on an old J C Higgins .22, and replaced it with the Lyman receiver sight and a Marbles Sheard front sight. It worked quite well for me for several decades, and I took some deer with it. Well, my eyes aren’t what they used to be – plus, the beginning of cataracts (not bad enough to surgically correct yet). I can still pass the driver license test without glasses, and the peepers are still correctable to 20 20. But when I was younger, they were 20 10 ~ my eye doc said I had “hyper-acuity” vision. And when I started wearing glasses, for years it was correctable to better than 20 20. I gotta say… it was reeeally cool! I could literally see stuff no one else could! But, at any rate, for this year I’m going to try a scope again. This afternoon I mounted an old Weaver K2.5 with a sweet tapered post reticle on the Marlin. Smaller than the one that came with it fifty-three years ago! (But don’t anyone tell OLG ~ he likely wouldn’t approve; he once remarked that my putting a sling on the thing was akin to “putting socks on a rooster!”)

Can anyone help identify these scope rings? Just took 'em off an aged but recently acquired Weaver "MicroTrac" K2.5 . It came with the rings, but no base.

Yup~!

Any favorites for Winchester 94 sights? Nineteen Seventy-Seven model, pre- AE. My long-time favorite on a Marlin 336 is a steel Lyman 66LA I installed over fifty years ago. New ones (66A for the Winchester) are aluminum... and surprisingly pricey. Both my Marlin and my son's Winchester are .30-30 ~ want to get both up for this deer season.

Aren't you going to have the original barrel re-bored? It IS a right handsome barrel!

Not me, but my son, Sassparilla Kid ~ between Christmas and New Year's, 2022, he had a week of "dead time" and wanted to do something constructive - so he decided to build a mobile smoker/grill/cooker rig. Started with a scrapped 300 gallon butane tank from JL Hank's ranch... Hatches cut, hinges and handles installed.... Firebox fabricated and welded to smoker Scratch-built trailer frame ~ Toyota Tacoma rims and tires Constructing the Santa Maria grill box Smoker and grill box mounted to trailer frame Almost ready to cook! Ready to go! Just missing propane tank. The first "outing," a pig cook-out for the young lady's birthday ~ JL Hank's daughter; KRR Hank's grand-daughter. Sassparilla and a buddy cooking for a wedding ~ bunch of tri-tips on the Santa Maria; smoker was cooking chickens. Another picture from the li'l gal's birthday cook-out.

Paper patch 'em, if ya need to~! But, depending on the alloy, they just may "upset" enough to fill the bore nicely.

Ahh... "The Snake!" Decades later, Kenny indicated that it may not have actually been a fumble. But hey... who knows? I'd like to believe it was and that he eventually just decided to muddle the story for the fun of it.

Immediately reminded me of this play from almost forty-two years ago. Lotsa beer got spilt, at home and in the stands! People still talk about "The Play!"

I'm inclined to agree - the oversized (.451 - .452) bore notwithstanding. Anecdotal accounts of varying .43 Spanish chamber and bore dimension variances are legion. The .43 Spanish is a bottleneck cartridge; the Reformado was essentially a .43 Spanish with the shoulder "blown out" to the larger caliber, largely eliminating the bottleneck - sorta like the .30-30 / .38-55.: Ornery's cast clearly illustrates the shoulder. .43 Spanish over .43 Spanish Reformado .30-30 compared to .38-55 I wish Ornery a world of luck and fun with this project; that said, if'n it wuz me, I'd start out "making it work." Actually, that's what I did with mine, initially by re-forming .348 Winchester brass into .43 Spanish. Later, I found factory brass and used that. Danged thing was surprisingly accurate and a hoot to shoot - but it printed well over a foot high at a hundred yards with the li'l pointy front sight.. So, I soldered a ramp and tall globe sight just behind the original - easily removed if I (or anyone else) ever want to "restore" it. Well hell! It's been prob'ly twenty years... reckon I'll just have to dig it out, dust if off, and fire it up. 'Specially since a bag o' .43 Spanish brass just showed up recently in the mail ~ thankee, Palouse!