Garrison Joe, SASS #60708

Sometimes a long round that is NOT fired (by mistake, or having to clear the gun) will not eject through a port. Jams the gun royally then. Use shorter ammo - do not reseat the slug on an already high-pressure load! good luck, GJ

If your loading cartridges problem will NOT get any easier when you press a blunt screwdriver tip on the front end of the loading gate inwards all the way to the left side of the frame walls, then most likely the loading gate tab (the part that is bent at a 90 degrees angle into the action) could be a little "fat", too long a tip. Try painting the very edge (tip) of the loading gate TAB with a sharpie that has a different color - like silver. If you rub that silver off when trying to push rounds, then the tab has too much metal and needs a little filing. Inside the action, the loading gate can collide with either the lifter arm or the inside of the frame. If pressing the loading gate fully DOES allow rounds to load nicely, then you may need to thin the arm of the gate so it does not have so much spring tension. Don't take much off at time. And it's safer (less chance of breakage) if you thin the width of the arm with a taper pattern, rather than thinning the thickness of the arm. Thinning the thickness makes a leaf spring weaker VERY quickly. Leave no file marks to act as stress risers (where a break can occur). Of course, hard LOADING of the mag tube is something that you can live with because you rarely load the mag tube "on the clock" while shooting. Glad to see you seem to have the new lifter working, though! GJ

I keep a spreadsheet (free one - no more Excel prices for me) with all my loads, both shot for groups in the past, and planned to load. Gives me things to do when I run out of doing real work at the range or the house. And another spreadsheet with details on each firearm. Has come in handy many times. good luck, GJ

No ejector on the toggle rifles (other than the top surface of the carrier). That top hook is the extractor. OP - you need to CLEARLY explain the remaining difficulty. You keep saying this is a "loading" problem, which to me means you can't easily load rounds through the loading gate into the mag tube. Then some folks are treating this like a levering/chambering problem. The round on the carrier not feeding well into the chamber and letting the lever close completely. Then OTHER folks are discussing an extraction and ejection problem. Getting the fired brass out of the chamber and ejected cleanly. Tell us specifically which of these you are bothered by. Before this post turns into 14 pages of guesses, and perhaps none help you solve the problem. good luck, GJ

He did mention caliber - .38 special ammo. In 7th post. Cartridge length not making for difficulty loading rounds into the gun. Either loading gate, carrier constriction or something hanging up in mag tube. good luck, GJ

The loading of cartridges shoves rounds through through the loading gate, into the channel of the carrier, then into the mag tube. And when levering the action, of course, the round to be fed to the chamber has to pop rearward into the channel then be pushed forward into the chamber by the bolt after the carrier rises. So, you definitely have to have sufficient clearance in the channel for a round to slide without binding or being tight. Can you slide rounds easily fore and back with the carrier out of the gun, held in your hands? If not, more filing will be needed to allow the rounds to travel freely. How about explaining if EVERY cartridge you load is sticking, or just the first or just the last. Very hard to load last cartridge - could be an over-length magazine tube spring (common from factory). If it's every cartridge - may be a narrow spot in the carrier or the frame. But since this problem sounds like it has started only with the new carrier, check that closely. Take a sharpie pen and color the inside of the block. Load some cartridges, unload them, then take block out and examine for marks in the fresh coating. Look for rub marks on the inside of the carrier channel and on the receiver (frame) where the mag tube meets the receiver. Look for a magazine follower that sticks either in the frame or the mag tube. Also check that the loading gate can be pushed open easily as you shove cartridges in. Uberti makes the spring arm of the loading gate very strong. A bent loading gate or too much arch on the spring arm can catch on the lifter arm or even toggle links. Having sticky LOADING of the magazine is an uncommon problem with a 73. And short rounds will not fix a hard magazine loading issue. And will, if short enough, cause levering rounds into the chamber to jam up with one and part of another round in the carrier. All of this tells me the gun needs to go back to LongHunter for some remedial work. Having to do a lot of adjustment to the carrier's channel is not what is usually needed with a carrier replacement. good luck, GJ

Extractor probably is weak and needs to be replaced. And the lever and lifter springs, if still the factory originals, ought to be replaced. Tighten the lifter spring side until the carrier is held even with bottom of frame. Problems with loading the magazine are "vertical alignment of carrier" problems. Some new carriers need the rear of the bolt travel channel filed a little to make a conical entry (centering relief) to better let the bolt find it's way forward. good luck, GJ

Already proven to be a good dual purpose powder, just not every pistol cartridge has some published data from Hodgdon. Like .45 Colt, but I run WST in the Colt all the time. good luck, GJ

Helps quite a bit - but not as much as blowing out .44-40 cases. As does a heavy powder charge and a heavy bullet. Both of which are bad for high speed gallery shooting. The discontinued Redding dual ring sizer die also helps quite a bit, and is the easiest to get started doing! good luck, GJ

Ditto that. Had to clear an annular split .38 spl case BROKEN AT THE CANNELURE from a 73 in a major match that cost wife-at-time a buckle. Now I carry case extractors. may it never happen to you! GJ

Think they also work in a Lyman turret press (Spar-T)

Yes, shotgun primers are made with an outer cup (the battery cup) that is almost always steel. And some even have the inner cup (containing the primer) made of steel too. I put shotgun primers directly in trash. Unless you are running some European cartridges, the cartridge primers should all be brass. good luck, GJ

I sell both CARTRIDGE primers and brass to metal recycler. They will usually give you a scrap brass price - often close to $2 a pound. Some will kick the primers down to a "dirty brass" category at $0.30 or so. Shop around. Scrap metal dealers are close cousins to used car lots - be prepared to walk. good luck, GJ

Because I have had deeply cannelured cases (including the same Winchester 45 Colts) split around the case and leave the ring stuck in a chamber, I relegate these cases to being turned into Cowboy .45 Specials. These that you pictured look to me like a "stab" tool or a roller-cutter tool was used to indent the case, rather than using a straight-knurl tool like most cannelures are applied. They seem to be very liable to fracture on the groove. Cannelures have fallen out of favor in the 21st century. Used to be very popular in some factories' .38 special loads, where the position of the groove indicated the type of load. I've seen some factory loads that had 2 cannelures at different heights on the case. Neither of which were at the base of the bullet. I don't reload any case now with a deep cannelure on them. A few .45 auto cases with very shallow cannelures I continue to shoot (like a big batch of Federal military production date stamped from 2006 and 2007). good luck, GJ

Yes, (PP might work dual purposes), and yes, (no Clay Dot cartridge data has appeared), to all those. And I was a little surprised when Hodgdon made the GRAND, miraculous discovery that TiteGroup could also be a fine shotgun powder about 12 months ago. Most of us cowboys had known that for a couple of years. good luck, GJ