Garrison Joe, SASS #60708

Obviously, he had the muzzle pointed at the other shooter's gun when it fired. Serious lack of muzzle control. "Never point the gun at something you do not want to destroy" Shooter had also better be ready to pay for any needed repair to that other pard's gun. good luck, GJ

Pressure is only adjusted by filing some material off the arm of the extractor to thin it. Do not be trying to bend it to reduce pressure. I go by the pounds of pressure the extractor hook gives at "fully down" position. I can measure it precisely with a fishing scale and some mono line or small gauge wire caught in the groove. Pull straight up with the action mostly closed, but still have the extractor nose clearing the back of barrel. I like 4 pounds of pressure. Or, with having done extractors for years, I just put my finger tip on the nose of extractor and try to lift it. If it hurts my fingertip a little, it's tight enough. Killing my finger - too tight. With bolt out of gun, you DO NOT want any slack between the hook and edge of case rim, nor any wiggling of case, if you have the case placed between the hook and the cartridge tab and you shake the bolt up and down or side to side. Slack there, or not enough pressure, means the case has a good chance of slipping off the cartridge tab at bottom of bolt face, then bouncing around in the carrier instead of being held firmly enough that the carrier block coming up can slap the case up and out of the gun. A stock extractor will probably have about 10 pounds of pressure, and will work, but many folks don't like the little bit of resistance that a tight extractor gives in the last 1/2" of bolt travel during cartridge chambering. And, I change extractors about every 3 years - just because it's a flat spring with lots of force on it. good luck, GJ

Almost all the guns we use now for cowboy action are just parts kits already assembled by factory. I find VERY few that do not take at least some cleanup and tuning before they will run in a match. Sounds like the factory may have skipped the finish reaming of the chamber! And then paid no attention to very balky ammo chambering! Serious faults which would qualify for a warranty repair in my book. If you had the time to wait. Sounds like you took a practical approach! But, then, how did that first gunsmith do an action upgrade without SHOOTING the finished gun and finding the real problem? Hmmmmm. good luck, GJ

Many powders will work for the light loads we shoot in cowboy matches. 700-X,, WST, TiteWad, TiteGroup (High Over All Gun is another name for the exact same powder) are some of the common ones that are in moderate production and often available. ExtraLlite, Red Dot, Unique, Green Dot, Clay Dot, American Select, are occasionally made and on the market now, but you have to get very luck to find them. good luck, GJ

Most shooters find the .38 spl cycles faster (lighter ammo) and moves off target less between shots) than a .45 Colt rifle. good luck, GJ

Here's some of my favorites with WST for Cowboy - considerably lower velocities! C45 Special 175 grain bullet, 4.2 grains 45 Colt 200 grain bullet, 5.8-6.2 grains 45 Auto 200 grain bullet, 4.6 grains Makes Wild Bunch power factor All stuff I have shot for 10 years. GJ

Yeah, 4.3 grains of 231 should make about 825 FPS. Not really a light load. 2.8 grains of Clays in a revolver will be down around 650 FPS. You WILL notice it's softer and cleaner. GJ

231 will be too slow a powder for light .38 special. Been tried by many. 2.8 grains of Clays or Clay Dot will work, but don't count on being able to buy any for QUITE a while. You could load until you run out, though. TiteGroup (also named High Gun) is often available now and will make good loads for that cartridge and bullet. good luck, GJ

Looks to me like heavy rust spots from where gun was stored touching something that could hold moisture. Maybe a cloth pad on a gun rack. Then owner scrubbed most of the rust off, leaving bluing thinned out around the spot. Something like a front sling loop would have normally been soldered to the rib, not both barrels. And desoldering a sling loop would not have left those pits. That's my guess. good luck, GJ

So disappointed I did not see a photo with tartan skirt on the box! It's a sad day you can't measure your muzzle velocity. Remember, "It's never too close to miss" GJ

Beware a wool content hat - any amount of wool. Unfortunately, that is the mainstay of the "cheapo" hat sellers. You will never be satisfied with a wool hat. Folks above gave you a good review of the minimum (10% beaver) to the very best quality (100% beaver) hats. I find it hard to get a hat now that is better than 50% beaver, what with the decrease in their population. A good high-beaver hat will be north of $600, but will hold up to rain storms of a biblical proportion, and last a long time if maintained and kept out of hot parked vehicles (which shrink a hat). A hat less than $300 would be quite suspect in quality. So, find yourself the best LOCAL hat shop in your part of TX (should be several). Ask at your SASS club (or the local farm/feed store if you don't have a clue). Get the best hat body you feel you can afford. It can be reshaped into just about any shape you desire. And never get in the habit of picking it up by the front of the crown - you will pinch a hole in it. Grab the brim or cradle the crown in your palm. And that LOCAL shop - will (knock wood) be around to reshape or clean your hat over time. good luck, GJ

Just so folks will find that alloy in a search, it's spelled "Cerrosafe." https://www.brownells.com/tools-cleaning/bore-barrel-tools/reamers-cutters/cerrosafe~-chamber-casting-alloy/ This is a different way to spell the "sera" sound than with the metal coating - Cerakote. English is complicated enough (being a dog pile mix of languages that came before), then we have companies making up new words for their products every day. good luck, GJ

After years of use, the pin has worn enough to drift to the side a little. Reassemble it and put some red locktite (removable) on both ends of the pin - just a drop is plenty. Will help hold the pin from drifting. You could order a new one that MIGHT fit more tightly, then again, the wear may be in the holes of the toggle links. And, one could just polish the points on the side plates where the pin ends have been dragging. End round the pin ends slightly. That would reduce the feeling of friction. good luck, GJ

Allan Harton likely will be booked for a year out or more. Nate Kiowa Jones will work well - Steve Young, Steve's Gunz, Lampasas, TX (512) 564-1015 (from past work and he's also on the SASS gunsmith list in the FAQ pages) good luck, GJ

I like Brownell's OxphoBlue cold blue for just one small part. Here's how I have done an aged finish. Prep and clean part. Apply OxphoBlue following instructions. I like to heat the part right after application with a propane torch to where the solution just bubbles a little. Seems to make the blue penetrate and be more permanent. Bronze wool to rub off the rusty looking residue. Reapply for total of 3 coats to get it uniform. Normally one would apply a good gun oil at this point to seal the new bluing. But, if you want some patina, heat a little bit of vinegar (cooking vinegar works fine) to just short of boiling and apply a coat to the new blue. Rinse off within 5 seconds. Should give you the aged look after oiling. If not, repeat with longer application. If the vinegar treatment pulls off too much bluing, then I use some barrel Browning solution (a little harder to find, but I think Brownells and Midway carry some) to just darken and brown up the cold blue color. Sometimes called Plum Browning. good luck, GJ

WST is quite a bit slower burn rate powder than Red Dot. In reloading, "hotter" is not a very well defined term. Typical loads with WST require a little more weight of powder than do Red Dot cartridge load at same velocity, but they come in fairly close. Just a couple of test loads will tell you much more than I can by writing.....and it's pretty safe because we typically are loading to very low pressures for SASS matches. good luck, GJ

Yep, that's the problem with driving bullets through. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. Same with Magic. Haven't had CerroSafe fail yet. Nor have I failed when using a broken case extractor. good luck, GJ

Usually that is from trying to go with too light a load. Beef it up. But, yep, I also use BE in C45S and it's nice, too. Regarding my velocities - well, you can back calculate Velocity because I gave you PF and Bullet Weight. GJ

I run WST through 3 Dillon measures on 550 cartridge presses and get VERY little dribble of powder. Yeah, I'd say you have some sort of problem. good luck, GJ

In Cowboy .45 Special cases, I run 4.2 grains of WST and a 175 grain bullet. Nice load. Lower charge gets sooty. In .45 Colt, I run about 6.0 grains of WST with a 200 grain slug and that makes right at 150 power factor in my 20" rifle. Lighter and I get a lot of sooting of the cases and some blow back from the chamber. good luck, GJ

This is a good reason to look at your fired brass from the session as soon as you detect a hard chambering condition. One will be much shorter. In future: Avoid cannellured brass in .38 special or .357 - they tend to split badly. As well, avoid nickel plated brass - they crack about 3x as fast as do solid brass cases. Can check for cracks in cases if you are reloading, before you start processing them. Shaking a handful and listening carefully for a ting-a-ling sound will let you find split or cracked cases. If you don't find someone with a case extractor, then I suggest you get and use a small amount of CerroSafe chamber casting alloy from Brownells. It melts over boiling water. It gets poured molten into the chamber (with a plug of cleaning patches just in front of chamber, stuffed into the bore). The alloy solidifies in a couple minutes and a solid cleaning rod from the muzzle will drive out the alloy and the case segment that adheres to the alloy. Form a small funnel from four-folded layers of aluminum foil to guide the alloy right into the chamber instead of filling up the receiver with it. I always disassemble the rifle taking out the lifter and bolt parts at least to make more room and avoid splashes freezing those parts in the gun. Do NOT be tempted to start scratching around in the chamber with a pick, a punch or other steel parts! There is great risk you will damage the chamber and have serious problems. This is such a common problem for SASS shooters that no one who shoots a .38 caliber rifle in competition should go to the range without a broken case extractor for that caliber! good luck, GJ

A commonly used service today, what with the chaos in laws concerning transporting and selling guns. Have not yet heard of a disaster using them. good luck, GJ

I would suggest you start first with foam ear plugs with 33 DB noise reduction. I have used them for 40 years of lots of shooting and still have decent hearing. And, I can quite easily hear squibs with them when RO'ing, and stage instructions being read. If those don't work for you, you can step up to other, more expensive technology. As stated above, peoples' ear shapes and ability to tolerate something in the ear vary a lot, so go with what works for you. For example, custom molded plugs will not stay in my right ear because it is ice-cream-cone tapered and the plug pops out when I talk. good luck, GJ

Oglesby and Oglesby's shop still in business, I see......They do fine revolver work. May be a little pricey. 744 W Andrew Rd, Springfield, IL 62707 Phone: (217) 487-7100 good luck, GJ

Make sure you don't have a real old Uberti 66, because if it is, likely the current springs will not fit. Measure the length of the carrier block opening. If it is 1.600", you have the newer design (starting maybe 1985?) and would be fine with current parts. A shorter action length (like 1.500") is the original design, but if I remember right, that was only made chambered for .38 Special. Since you have a .45 Colt gun, it will almost certainly be the newer receiver design. good luck with it! GJ