Garrison Joe, SASS #60708
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Posts posted by Garrison Joe, SASS #60708
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Good luck with your casting efforts! It's both easier than most folks think, and harder than it looks.
Since you have already been referred to the best learning materials (Fryxell's work and the Lyman Cast bullet Handbook) above, I'll add some quick-start tips.
Good, clean alloy of what ever hardness you choose is VERY important. So, never melt down range lead or wheel weights or any metal that is not already real clean and of known content in your casting pot. Get an old cast iron pot and melt "dirty" lead in that, flux and stir until NOTHING will come out of the metal, and cast small ingots of that to add to your casting pot. I can do all my casting now with three different stocks of lead ingots. Pure lead, slightly hard lead (about Brinell 9-10) and hard lead at about 16 Brinell hardness). And some tin to add when needed (old style solder or pewter).
The most common commercial alloys you can buy from the various vendors and their hardnesses are:
* soft (pure) lead - Brinell 5
* hardball alloy 6% antimony and 2% tin - Brinell 16
* Lyman #2 5% antimony and 5% tin - Brinell 15
So, I can make all three types of ingots I want with just the first and second of these.
Pure lead - easy, In old melting pot, toss in the pure lead. Maybe add 0.5% by weight of tin to make the lead fill molds better. Comes out about BNH 6
Use this for casting round balls for percussion revolvers
Slightly-hard - about 10 Brinell - 2 pounds of soft lead to 1 pound of hardball
Good for almost all SASS shooting. Even use it for 1911 pistol bullets.
Hard - 16 Brinell - straight 6/2 alloy cast into small ingots.
Good for long range smokeless loads for rifles, especially Wild Bunch BAMM bolt action rifles.
And for black powder cartridge loads, a pound of my slightly-hard ingot to a pound of pure lead ingot. Gives about 8 Brinell.
An old muffin tin makes a good ingot mold for small 1 1/2 pound ingots that go into any casting pot.
Avoid calcium alloys (from maintenance free batteries in cars, trucks, golf carts) - it makes any metal that contains it hard to cast and clogs up pots and is dangerous to your health.
Avoid zinc alloys (from the new zinc wheel weights) and even some use of zinc bullets in target loads. Lots of scrap thought to be lead is found later to be zinc. It makes any alloy hard to cast, increases bullet hardness a lot, and makes bullets more brittle and lighter weight than normal.
Clean molds really well with hot soapy water and a scrub brush immediately before first use. Pre-warm molds with an old hot plate. Never use steel brushes, knives, picks, etc to clean up lead on molds. Brass brushes are even too rough.
Keep all of the mold cavities clean of oil and other material while casting. The sprue cutter plate and the top of the mold will sometimes collect lead alloy, especially if you are not waiting a few seconds to cut off the casting sprue (puddle). That can be cleaned with a rag just moistened with 2-cycle engine (for mixing in gas) oil. I use the synthetic version of 2-cycle oil with great results. It keeps the sprue plate and mold top lubricated even when they are hot, so lead won't stick nearly as easily.
AND, NEVER let any damp, moist or wet ingots, tools, or fluxing material get near the molten lead. Water explodes into steam at the temmperatures of molten lead, and throws molten lead around wildly. Wear gloves - and a face shield if you like seeing things. Wear leather boots or work shoes - lead spilled down onto tennis shoes or flip flops becomes a life-long problem!
Good luck, GJ
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I don't know why one would not just change the spring. One can always put the original back in after the match.
Yep.
Or one can just leave the spring in and ALWAYS be able to load 6. About 3" of uncompressed spring out the front of the mag tube works fine.Good luck, GJ
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Well, replacing the bead in a Uberti front sight might get a little tricky. Don't know that any one knows the shank diameter that is behind an Uberti bead.
The usual way of getting a big bead up front is to drift out the old sight and fit and drift in a new one, for maybe $30. A commonly used sight, and one I would recommend from personal use, is the Grabber, available at the Smith Shop
http://www.thesmithshop.com/grabber.html
You will want a .410 height for the normal Uberti sights on a rifle-type 73. The .130 bead is pretty big, and the .175 bead more like a shotgun bead, Be aware that the big bead may make it tough to shoot long range at small targets (like 100 yards). But then, several other things make it hard to shoot our main match lever guns at a hundred yards.
Now, if you have a carbine design 73, with the barrel band at the muzzle, that gets a little more difficult to find.
Good luck, GJ
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There is a lot of painting being done here with a broad brush and that always get's annoying and could turn a prospective BP shooter away
I'm pretty sure that NK (the OP) can sort out what he gets as answers, though.
Good luck, GJ
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An exact count would probably be available if you asked in the Wild Bunch forum, but you can pretty well count on no more than 30 pistol, 10 rifle and 6 shotgun per stage, and 12 stages of regular match and 4 stages of warm-up. I'll let you do the math.
Rifle has a good chance of being less. Shotgun could be just a couple more - worth taking an extra box or two. And don't forget extra for WB side matches, including clay birds. Which we don't have word about yet. Bring a BAMM rifle if you got it, too.
Good luck, see ya there! GJ
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(hard alloy is better because it will among other things:) obdurate into the rifling
A 12 Brinnell bullet needs about 10K PSI pressure to obdurate the base into the rifling of the barrel. Almost never will pards get that kind of pressure in a revolver with BP or with subs.
Good luck, GJ
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I would have thought FFFg would be better for pistol cartridges. So, why 2F instead of 3F?
Softer shooting. 2F will give less pressure and recoil. Nice in pistols especially if filling the case.
good luck, GJ
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SOFT SOFT SOFT. No more than Brinnell 8 for my BP bullets that I cast for revolvers and main match rifle loads. About 5 parts soft lead, 1 part COWW and enough tin to get to 0.5%.
Good luck, GJ
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now where to find the parts in stock. Neither Brownells of Midway have both items. I would have to order 1 from each of them. Who else?THEN Order parts from Ruger (assuming they will let you buy those parts...)
Good luck, GJ
Could be a slight possibility that the frame suffered damage or was weakened by the bone-charcoal case hardening that Longhunter does. They (LH) don't (chemical) color case. They case harden guns. You might not be able to see that until you get the old plate out of the recoil shield.
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even though Dillon said not to load BP. What do you all do to make it safe?I load BP by using a Lyman 55 BP measure and cycle the rotor by hand every case. That removes any steel parts from the powder measure, and I'm pretty confident that it is safe for how I load.
Good luck, GJ
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Ok, your recoil plate has sunk into the recoil shield because the plate's crosspin is probably sheared or missing.
Look at the parts diagram, parts 40 is the plate, and 41 is the shield plate crosspin
https://www.midwayusa.com/general.mvc/index/Schematics~ruger_vaquero
You can order those parts from several suppliers, Midway and Brownells being a couple of the premier vendors.
That cross pin is very tiny. Get a small enough pin punch to drive that out. Make sure you catch the firing pin spring and firing pin and put them back in using the same orientation as what they came out as.
That one(?) high-pressure load may have sheared or dislodged the crosspin. (?) That would be real unusual, as Ruger design is really stout. More likely the crosspin has worked it way loose and fallen out. Inspect closely and you probably can tell before you start disassembly.
Good luck, GJ
Did you have a Shotgun Boogie or some other short stroke work done to this pistol where part of the work is to fiddle with the firing pin? If so, failure may stem from damage done when that work was performed.....
If that is the case, having it fixed by Jared at LongHunters would not be a bad idea at all....
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HR -
Can I suggest you go back to your original post and clean up the sentences. Several of them are not making sense.
A squib load and another load that is hot in the same batch of ammo might suggest your powder drop is not consistent, or other loading practices are not high quality, ending up with little powder in the squib and too much powder in the hot round.
Primers backing out (and staying backed out) in revolvers is usually caused by too light a load. It takes a moderate amount of pressure in the fired round to shove the fired empty case back against the recoil shield on the revolver, thus shoving the primer back into it's pocket. Because there is some play between the cartridge and the recoil shield on all revolvers, it is normal to have the primer momentarily set back against the recoil shield, then be re-seated into the pocket as the case slams against the recoil shield.
A pierced primer cup is not real common. That could have also been an indicator of real high pressures in the hot cartridge that you had. You will have to get that under control.
From your original post wording, I can't tell in which gun you have a problem, whether the high-pressure problem has repeated itself several times, whether the squib has occurred more than once, and exactly what rounds ended up with a pierced primer.
You MUST have it clear in your head, before you can really start to understand and then fix the problem. You MUST have it clear in your head before you can explain it to us. The common factor here - we can't help you much until YOU can understand clearly what the sequence of things happening was/is. Keep good notes when you run into a problem like this, if you can't keep it all in your head.
Good luck, GJ
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Wood is so much cheaper than PVC.
I make stands with a 2x4 base, uprights of furring strips, and target support boards cut from old thin plywood. Last for at least 5 years and very light weight (except for base).
The uprights will take a few hits without being destroyed, too.
Goodluck, GJ
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When I buy a gun, I don't want to be lucky. I want to be sure that it works right for most folks. And that I can get parts. Now, the (single stack) Paras being close clones of most 1911s - parts would not worry me.
Guns that are not close to 100% reliable are even less interesting to me than guns that are not accurate.
Good luck, GJ
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Since Para has been bought up by Remington in 2012, and there were lots of reports of some problems with reliability (feeding especially) with their Para built single-stacks like this WB model, and not knowing exactly what extra nice parts might be on the WB version, I would be reluctant to buy one over about $450 or so. If you want a reliable gun then the Remington's own R11, Springfield Mil Spec or Range Officer, Ruger and government type Colts are twice the gun from what I would expect an older Para would be.
Just my opinion without having hands on experience.
Good luck, GJ
PS - it sounds like Remington is being pretty successful RECENTLY in taking over the Para manufacturing and making it an integral part of their operation, and improving the quality of build, so that new Para-Remington guns would be much more attractive than the ones built 5-8 years ago.
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Revolvers - Rowdy Yates - have the Manhattan Conversion done to virtually eliminate detached cap jams. He will also make it very reliable.
Sure, you could convert rifle to .44-40 easily. Same length as .45 Colt, same rim diameter. Track of the Wolf has some .44-40 rifle barrel liners at reasonable prices. Just have to drill, install liner and recut chamber and recesses.
Are you wanting to shoot Black Powder? If so, .44-40 would be a MUCH better choice than .44 Colt, or .45 Colt for that matter.
Good luck, GJ
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Changing the forum's use of fonts would be a forum setting that a moderator might be willing to look for and adjust. Then again, they might not want to spend the time or take the risk of messing the forums up.
Changing fonts in your own posts is up to you - you surely can do that.
Changing fonts in other pard's posts is not in your powers as a forum user.
Most folks when they have problems with their browser showing text so it is readable, punch up the "magnification" of the browser - that would be control + to bump up one step and control - to drop a step on most browsers.
Some browsers let you set the minimum size of fonts displayed, and even what font is used if the web site does not explicitly ask for a particular font to be used. Exploring the advanced settings available in your browser might yield good results.
Good luck, GJ
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Long reach back to just show that my needs and your needs may be at variance.
When I was in my first 5 years of shooting SASS, I used dry fire a lot to speed up my load and shuck. Now that I have that timing built in, I practice more with transitions and accuracy at speed. Dry fire doesn't show me the accuracy part. So, I now mostly live fire shotgun.
Good luck, GJ
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Personally, I think your goal of getting better with the shotgun can be accomplished with dummy shells. I believe you are wanting to improve loading and shucking. You can get a lot of good practice dry firing.
Yep++
Don't need to fire rounds to get in good SG practice. Lots of pards know how to make up dummy shells for shotgun. If you are using a 97, you probably want light weight dummies (no shot) - this saves the extractors/ejector from the extra work of kicking out heavy rounds. If using SxS, then usually heavy weight dummies are better to practice with.
Good luck, GJ
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AND:
Given the couple of large bays that host 4 stages shooting simultaneously, picking brass would also be impossible due to having to declare a "cold line" periodically to shag the posse's brass - and even more delay if each shooter was to get their own brass back.
Don't worry. More new brass is available now than over the last five years, thanks to Starline expanding production.
Good luck, GJ
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What fancy extra features? I don't even see any checkering on the stock.
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Black Diamond models were a "high end" variation from the factory. But the "valuation add" for that model goes down fast as the gun is used. And your pictures show tons of wear. That is not a collectors gun at this point in its life (unless there is a "story" to the gun that makes it historically interesting), so value it just as a shooter, based upon it's condition and reliability.
Like a well used commemorative or engraved gun, there is no added value for the fancy added features.
Is it a shooter or a wall hanger?Depends upon condition of the gun, especially the internals. And the serial number range. A good gun smith (knowledgeable about 97s) is the only way to really know. Just looking at the lettering on the slide arm, it could even be a 1900 era gun.
Good luck, GJ
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45 degree angle is plenty.
Shotgun loads will leave you with a disappointingly small lead recovery, as a much larger fraction of the lead turns into lead dust. You might even be able to use a water pan, much easier to get the lead out of water than sawdust, but then, the sawdust you can leave in the lead as you melt it and it just helps flux the melt.
Pick your target for setting in front of your recovery plate carefully. If you shoot standard knockdowns with their vertical target, even a small knockdown will intercept 80% of the shotgun pattern at cowboy distances and vaporize that part of the shot string. If you use frangible targets (clay birds) then you have the fragments to sift out or to "live with" the smoke they create and extra dross produced upon smelting the lead down to make ingots.
I've seen lots of clay target ranges recover shot that was fired over their range, most of it not badly deformed. But never heard of anyone intentionally trying to "trap" lead shot at the target. Possibly because of the difficulties mentioned above.
Good luck, GJ
I've had it with Photo Bucket. What else is available
in SASS Wire
Posted
Have had real good luck with free (up to lots of photos) Google Photos.
Good luck, GJ