Oddnews SASS# 24779

I feel like I can handle most gun repairs that don't require lathe work or welding, but I find box-lock double shotguns to be beasts from the assembly/disassembly standpoint and I avoid working on them. I have the same problem you have with compressing the springs to get everything aligned. The flip side of that is YouTube videos can be a lot of help. I detail stripped a Colt Detective Special about two years ago, so I could rust blue it. Thanks to the Kuhnhausen manual and a couple of videos I was able to do the job without too much cussing, and this is on the action some people call the "watchmaker's special."

Nice one. I've always shared your basic outlook, and .44 Special would be my first choice in one of them.

Not bulk-loading for SASS. Maybe with some rifle rounds built for more accuracy for hunting.

Oh, that's one way of looking at it and I don't mean to dismiss you in disagreeing somewhat. I've been told (nearly endlessly) that it makes no difference at all if short-strokes were historically present -- clearly they weren't. Martini actions (Peabody, actually) probably were not common in the American west. At the same time they were common in the rest of the world in the period, and offer no real competitive advantage over any other single shot. The Borchardt actioned Sharps was rare in the Old West because it didn't sell well -- and it's also banned because of it's lack of hammer. The presence or absence of a given arm or feature in the actual old west is obviously not a consideration.

A few people have recommended .44-40 already and they're right. I have a Winchester 32-20 I shoot sometimes, and it's a lot of fun, but brass is hard to find (both to buy and once it's on the ground), and it's a bit finicky to handload -- nothing insurmountable, but you get the occasional crushed neck, etc., and generally it just takes more attention.

If you mean "bifocals" when you say "split lenses" -- my eyes are the opposite of yours. I can read just fine if I can get something close to me, but I need correction for distance. From your description it sounds like your distance vision is okay, but that you have fuzzy view of closer objects. That being the case, if you can focus on your front site without glasses, get bifocals. The top half won't have much prescription and you'll naturally bring it into play when you cheek the rifle, and the bottom half is just for reading. I use the "lineless" bifocals. For me, I found using an aperture sight also helped -- but I liked peep sights before I needed bifocals so you're mileage may vary.

I can't really say why, but I've always wanted a New Frontier in .44 Special. I acknowledge being a fan of Skeeter Skelton's writings and hence a fan of that caliber, but I don't own any other revolvers in .44 special, as I've personally always favored .45 Colt. Somehow the idea of a New Frontier in .44 Special just says, "this fits" to me. I expect I'll have one some day.