Garrison Joe, SASS #60708

The standard spring weight for a 1911 recoil spring is 16 pounds. That would be much stiffer than the 11 pounder that you first tried. Bet that was what you should have used. good luck, GJ

I really wish you would state the name of the powder consistently. Even in your last post, you mix TiteWad and TiteGroup. They are TWO DIFFERENT powders! In fact, looking this last reply over again, you also mention Red Dot as the shotgun powder, too. That is just plain dangerous for others to follow! good luck, GJ

And remind ROs to keep the timer close to gun especially if muzzles are going through a window or door. Some of the standard velocity .22 ammo is really quiet. Avoid the Aguila sub-sonic ammo - several types of those are so slow they will stick/stack up in barrels! good luck, GJ

And I believe the "approximately" applies to 1860, and the 1899 cutoff is a hard date. Perhaps a rules committee member would like to comment? As always, requests to your Territorial Governor would be a way to try to effect a rules modification.... Good luck, GJ

I'll give you some "retail-used, excellent condition" prices and you can knock off from there. Dings, rust, damaged cavities or mating surfaces, heavy dirt or leading on molds, etc will be major deductions. Lyman 1 cavity - $50 Lyman 2 cavity - $60 Lyman 4 cavity - $80 Lyman handles around $15 Lee 1 cavity $10 Lee 2 cavity $20 Lee 6 Cavity $40 Lee handles around $8, but 6 cavity set about $15 The mold with a hollow base pin - if single cavity Lyman $60 Gonna have to get lucky to find someone who is a caster any mor

It's not even a lot of reading to look up the use of primers. good luck, GJ

As I understand the reasoning on Big Boy, it is considered a "commercial copy" of Marlin's 1894 design. THAT certainly was not my idea of good enough. But it has been our rule for several years. And just because it's legal doesn't make it viable and competitive. But a copy of a 1906 or an actual 1910 gun falls outside the date period allowed. good luck, GJ

It was introduced by Marlin in 1910. I would expect it to be disallowed due to the rule in the Rifle Requirements section: Cool looking, seems pretty close to the Winchester 1906 pump rifle design. good luck, GJ

Nope, fiber wads will work fine. They are (will be): * slower to load in a progressive loader (non-progressive is less of a problem, but still slower) * more likely to tip a wad during insertion , which can ruin a pattern or make crimp impossible to fold tightly * going to launch fiber in the air after a shot * harder to load a heavy load that shoots well without weak cores (but light loads are much easier) * shoot looser patterns in most guns * cost more than plastic wads any more, and harder to find But, they allow a load to be very adjustable to

The roll crimp put on a brass hull is there just to enable easy entry into the chamber. The less you need there, the better the brass hull lasts. It will not shoot out for many rounds put through each hull. There are shell holders and sizing dies made by RCBS (iirc) to occasionally resize the fired hull in a single stage press. You WILL NOT successfully resize in a progressive shotgun press! Elmer's glue, carpenter's glue, PVA glue, water glass (real name is sodium silicate made into a gel with a little water), hot glue - all will shoot out of the hull when the wads and shot pa

If you publish your loads for an international audience, you should abbreviate GRAINS with "gr". An abbreviation of just "g" is grams. Big difference. You measured powder to the hundredth of grain? Why, and how - a Mettler balance? good luck, GJ

Messy? It's fine grained and tends to leak out of measures a bit. But it shoots very clean in cowboy cartridges and 12 gauge shotgun target loads. And about as accurate as a pistol powder can be. good luck, GJ

Have used 5.2 grains ClayDot and 200 grain bullet to get Wild Bunch PF. Shot accurately too. Clay Dot is really good in cowboy .38 special loads too. Just those pesky little primers. good luck,, GJ

Until you get yours, you can use a single-stage loading press and a shell holder for your cartridge. Unscrew any die in the press. Place cartridge in shell holder and run the ram up. Bullet and top half of case sticks out over the top of the press frame. Take a large pair of diagonal cutters (dikes) and set the jaws on the lead bullet just above the case mouth. Clamp hard on pliers handles, bracing them on the top of the press frame, and lower the ram, thus pulling a mangled bullet right out of the case. Can be done in a Dillon and maybe other progressive presses, but you do a

Yep, buncha companies make 'em. Frankfort Arsenal is one - Midway's private brand. Lasts forever, surprisingly. Only those who don't reload - don't have one. good luck, GJ

"Almost nothing ever stacks up to Kuhnhausen's books. " Mostly the 73 toggle guns are inspected by eye and troubleshot by what happens when you cycle a round. The action is pretty open even assembled, and skeletonized when the side plates are off. Memorize the action movements and inter-action timepoints of a gun that runs right, and work back to what could be causing the particular problem you have. They are not usually dependent upon the tight tolerances that really started with double-action revolvers and then got tighter with the early semi-auto pistols.

Winchester 66-73 or 92 by Miroku, Winchester 60- 66-73 by Uberti, or a real Winchester? One of the better books for doing repair on the toggle links (60-66-733) is "Gunsmithing Guns of the Old West" by David Chicoine. Has some of the critical headspace adjustment info, and good drawings of the details. Although it was written with the original Winchester guns in mind, most of the design and some of the data is correct for Uberti guns, and a little less is correct for the Miroku guns. I've even got the Uberti clone 1885 HiWall rifle that he used to help illustrate th

Tex would be embarrassed that you didn't know he is SASS #4 There have been several past occurrences of spammers and hackers registering and posting (with ill intent) on both the Wire and Wild Bunch forums. So, security levels and moderator attention levels were increased a couple of years ago, and the incidents have diminished greatly! good luck, GJ

To answer OP - site is back up and running this morning. good luck, GJ

Probably their web site server is down, either for maintenance or repair. Difference being one was planned. I don't get it to open right now either. Not unusual late on a Saturday night to take a server down for an hour or so to install software updates, replace failed hardware, etc. Try again in the morning - it's very unlikely that MidwayUSA decided to close up shop. The Potterfields would not like to lose the revenue. Good luck, GJ

An early US Military Krag in fair condition (if using NRA grading) would probably be valued about $1400-$1600. Restoring the stock would remove some of that value. I would restore only if I intended to use the gun as a shooter with some regularity. Really depends upon what damage has occurred. Collector's value has probably already been lost. You gun is probably not in fair condition at this point, with water damage. It's not all that good a candidate for sporterizing - as it's so old most folks don't consider it's action or chambering to be "modern" enough.

Well, yeah, that would certainly be a reduced capacity case. I have no data for that case, so I would suggest you try the load that the instructions called out. You sure can't seat a bullet very far into the neck. You sure they are worth messing with and worth FOREVER keeping clearly separated from your other 45-70 cases? Now that Trail Boss is available for a reduced load in standard 45-70, these cases are obsolete by all measures I would consider. Collector value probably exceeds functional value... Good luck, GJ

You can't always get everything you want in a hoarding/panic situation as we have now. Go with what works, and they can find a cream puff load later. Good luck, GJ

Since a Texas star was being shot, I would presume it was set up for a Wild Bunch match at the time. good luck, GJ

92 and 73 rifles are completely different beasts and need an OAL that matches what the action can handle. This isn't magic, it's mechanics. It's good that a man can realize his gun's limitations. good luck, GJ