Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474

Well, as long as he offers a few tid-bits to his sire...... And I said Tid-Bits, NOT Tim-Bits. (​Do ya think we'll have to explain that one to our pards south of the Medicine Line?​) ​​Grumpy here right now. Foggy as all get out and rain turning to flurries later. Supposed to drop 15 cm of snow Sunday. Monday's drive into work should be a load of laughs; between the ones who haven't put on their snow tires and everyone who forgot how to drive in snow and ice. Since I'm retired, I don't have to go anywhere. So I won't.

Already made up a Sweet and Sour Stew, from my SIL's receipe. Picking her up from the Nursing Residence to enjoy it. She likes game meals and became a real Canadian Outdoor GIrl before her stroke. (Not bad for a girl from Amritsar!)

Oh LORD ​!, there is even celebrating among a lot of us here in Upper Canada, never mind in Rupertsland!! (Sure hope there will be some spill across the Medicine Line.) Back from getting my Free Range, Antibiotic and hormone free winter meat supplement. Couple of nice bucks for Doctor-Doctor Bob and I. Only trouble is he got both! Oh well. There's always next year. Good thing I picked up a chain block and replaced our grinder with a powered version. Those lads were heavy! Well, She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed is calling, the fresh perked coffee and slices of fresh baked Banana Loaf are waiting. Chimo.

Calibre ain't cowboy if it don't start with a "4"

I think I'll stay with my TB for regular shooting and save th Holy Black for special occasions, (Like when the mosquitos invade the range☺) I find it a bit trickey loading BP and shotshells are a real treat. I find shooting .45 Colt in my '66 and '73 gets a lot of stuff in the action, from blow-back, in spite of a tighter than usual crimp. Maybe if I was using .44-40 it would improve, but that means more irons and .44-40 brass around here seems a little scarce. Packing up right now to head off to the deer camp for next week's opening. Wish me luck.

Still sending some knee mail for Grey Beard and Granny. I guess we won't have to heat up the cauterizing iron Grey Beard, but you get healing! (Hey, it's period correct!) As for me, the ribs are healing and the cortisone shot in the knee is helping me walk without looking like Chester."​Marshal Dillon, Marshal Dillon" ☺ Looks like I'll be well enough to be a nuisance at Winter Camp come February and poison folks as camp cook. Jabez: In regards to the new-to-me Open tops and 3F: I used to shoot Holy Black, when I started out in CAS, but I found I was too tired to clean up things properly after I dragged my aching bones home, so I switched to the Heathen smokeless and gave up being a Soot Lord. In those days, I shot a '58 Remington and a Dragoon in .44, a '92 Rossi in .44 special and a '97 Winnie. A case of "Shoot what ya got" Don't have any of them any more. Now it's two SASS NMV's, a '66 and a SASS '73 in .45 Colt and a Wyatt Earp open hammer in 12 ga. Oh, and a 1911 and another '97 for Wild Bunch.

Snow here, yesterday, in Canada's Capital. Rain washing it away today. Cool and damp to help develop the cold and flu season, but I got my flu shot yesterday and made an appointment to get my snow tires out of storage and have them installed. Jabez: Tried the Open Tops at Eastern Ontario Shooting Club, (Home of the Ottawa Valley Marauders, www.ovmcowboys.ca ) From a rest, they shoot high with the light TB loads, I use in the Spencer. The heavier TB loads tightened the groups and lowered the POI and were pretty good to shoot. I still have some room to load up the TB, a coupe of points, before it gets into red line territory, according to the bible. I'm using a 250 gr RNFP lead bullet, but I wonder what a lighter bullet might do? Grey Beard: You and Granny get better. Prayers still heading your way west. Might ask for a couple for She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed here with me. Her diabetic condition and the complications are worsening.

The new to me Open Tops are really new, tuned, matched pair of 1871's by Cimmaron/Uberti, in .45 Colt with 7 1/2" barrels. The Pard who owned them first shot maybe 20 rounds out of each of them before he put them in his safe to languish. No drag lines on the cylinders or idiot marks. Yet. He just has too many CAS revolvers to play with them all and I was around to help him out! Tried them with snap caps in the family room, pointing them at cabinet knobs and they seem to find the target on their own with those long barrels. The action job on them is nice and slick. Takes a little getting used to with the higher hammer, compared to my SASS NMVaqueros, which I shoot regularly. I still have to see what kind of load the open tops like. I have some 250 gr over a couple of Trail Boss charges, so we shall see what we will see. If I get real lucky, they'll like the same lighter load my little Spencer handles so well. Too bad it doesn't load 10 rounds. It would be fun to shoot Classic using the open tops and the Spencer, instead of the Yellow Boy! Rained a bit here today; windy and warm (24°) as well. Temperature dropping overnight and cool the rest of the week, down to 4° or as high as 9° and no more rain, so I'm hoping to get out to the club and do some shooting with the .30-06, to make sure nothing has gone awry with the scope since it was put away. (Deer opens Nov 7 around here) Later Jabez - you take care Still praying for you and yours Grey Beard and remembering my days out west and north of you around Cold Lake/Grande Centre.

Prayers up for Grey Beard and hisn' Cowboy is over for 2016 here in Upper Canada. Lookin' at deer season. The geese is flyin' around my ranch in big flocks and when I go by the local golf courses, I se the Floggers tippy toeing through the goose drops. LOL! Finally feeling like I can safely handle a gun again and lookin' forward to trying my pair of new Open tops. Have to make sure the deer rifle is shooting where I point it first.. Come on November 7 Oh! And 1859 post before the thread goes POOF!

Still GRUMPY here. Too sore and achy to go playin' cowboy. Missed a bunch of matches and it looks like my year is done. Had to pay to have the covered wagon winterized, 'cause I hurt too much to bend or do much of anything. Sawbones tells me I broke three ribs and jarred my preserves when I fell in our covered wagon prop, September 10 Still hurts to take a deep breath and a cough or sneeze is a real treat. Nothing but time to fix things Dr. J tells me. Sure hope I feel better for deer season in November. Now: GET OFF MY LAWN!

Here. And GRUMPY! Fell last Friday, before the Ottawa Valley Marauders Annual club match and injured the left side and back. Too sore to handle a gun. Too dangerous as well. In pain all week. Can't sleep lying down. Can't sit up too long, Can't cough or sneeze with out it really hurting. To add insult to injury, tomorrow is the Upper and Lower Canada Championship Wild Bunch Match. Was registered and looking forward to it. Can't make it. Still too sore and Grumpy. Now, GET OFF MY LAWN!

Loading up the covered wagon for the annual Old Time Buffalo Shoot this saturday. Brought out the Sharps 1874 and the 1873 Trapdoor just to see what we shall see. Oh, and in case you forgot, 1875 more posts before the thread goes Poof ​So Stay Grumpy and ​GET OFF THE LAWN!​

Knee-mail on it's way to our Heavenly Father for you Grey Beard. May you come through this and get back to being normally Grumpy. Blessings+

Took the covered wagon and stayed on the range at Eastern Ontario Shooting Club, with Red Storm-Regulator, and Rooster. Hot on set-up Friday and for the match Saturday. Ray Charbonneau, range owner has just received the OK from the inspectors from the Chief Firearms Office for our new and (greatly) enlarged, dedicated cowboy range. New digs for the Ottawa Valley Marauders! WHOO HOO ! ☺ Grumpy about all the work that'll have to be done though ! (1895 posts before thread goes "POOF")​

Jabez ! ! Didja get any fish??

Don't fall in and get wet. I'm getting ready for The Wild Turkey Posses Tribute to 19th Century Gunmakers next Saturday. Loading up the motor home and heading out to Grenville Friday, so Red Storm (Regulator), Rooster and I will watch cowboy movies Friday night after supper in Prescott 1900 posts until the thread goes "POOF"​

As for the Lightning, using factory fodder, it groups pretty well. Low charges resemble a shotgun pattern. I'm playin around with several powders, with loads, still under Max charges. I found Hornady listed both Rifle and Handgun loads which helped explain the significant charge differences between the books, using the same powder. I'm using the same bullet you're casting, but I don't have the time to cast and size, in spite of having the equipment, but I do have two good bullet casters I can buy from. One with a Magna-Caster and the other producing good quality big bore rifle bullets in smaller quantities, As for your wet, then dried primed cases, it sounds ​like they've dried sufficiently to use. I'm not sure I would use them for an important match, but practice wouldn't be an issue. Any misfires, you can use the old RCBS hammer and salvage the bullet, powder and brass. The thing I might be concerned about would be any changes to the primers flash temperature, as a result of the soaking, causing squibs. I'd load a sampling and make a trip to the range and give them a try. Now:Now, GET OFF MY DRY LAWN! ​ ​1904 POSTS BEFORE THE THREAD GOES "POOF"

I'm playing around with a "new to me" Lightning in .357 Trying a number of different charges to see what it likes best, although it seems to prefer a cartridge with some "OOMPH" to it. Light loads are all over the place while heavier stuff is making a much tighter group. Cortisone shot in my knee, along with some Xyolcaine on Friday. Seems to help, so I'll get the other shot up as well. Only 1907 posts before the thread goes "POOF" NOW! GET OFF MY LAWN!

No shooting for me, again this weekend. Contractor is digging up the drive to widen it and install inter-lock. $$$$ Original builder just laid asphalt on top of a layer of sand and rubble, irregularly spread out. My poor lawn is taking a beating from tracked Bobcats and a backhoe. I just hope they don't hit the gas line. That would make me REALLY GRUMPY! ​(Oh! and 1919 more Posts before this thread goes POOF!)

No match for me this weekend and next. Everybody's gone to Barrie, but She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed isn't too well; can't travel and I don't want to leave her here alone even though she wanted me to. Now GET OFF MY LAWN!

Hair, (what's left of it!) is now blonde. Barber keeps tellin' me it's gray, but I think it's more a new shade of blonde. Funny though; I used to be brown haired. Root canal this afternoon, so Don't even try to walk on my lawn! Only 1942 more posts before this thread goes "POOF!"

Got my hand and thumb workin' again, after a little accident. Thought for a while I was going to have to shoot two handed. Missed the Wild Turkey Posse "Moon of the Fat Ponies" match. Figured it wasn't safe to handle any boomsticks the way the hand was. Anniversary for She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed coming up. 48 years. Don't seem that long. Guess when you get the right one, time flies by. Now get off my fresh cut lawn!

If'n ya came to Ottawa, it could be Timmies Double Double and a doughnut or even better, one of Grant Hooker's "Beaver Tails" YUM!

Just got the bill for fixin' the motorized covered wagon, after we got an early freeze that hit the water lines, at the last match last year. Grump. Hope we don't get another before the end of May. Off to shoot it out with The Wild Turkey Posse for their "Moon Of The Fat Ponies" match at Grenville this weekend. Just sprayed the weeds starting in the lawn, so: GET OFF THE LAWN! ​Only 1969 posts before this one goes POOF! ​Get Grumping