Three Foot Johnson
-
Posts
8,481 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
2
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Posts posted by Three Foot Johnson
-
-
I don't care, just give me a bag of them. And a small Diet Coke.
-
It would be May 1955 for me... and my folks were at Fort Ord... Dad got out of the Army and they came home in January 1956, then I came along in February. I've had to live with the shame of being "Made in California" all my life.
-
3
-
-
3 hours ago, H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619 said:
I'm not really interested in the Ruger. Well made guns, but not of personal interest. I assume they offer it in .32-20, but don't know. Can anyone confirm?
Back in 2004, they made a convertible Vaquero in .32 H&R mag/.32-20 in very limited numbers... something like 250 - the auction description says about 230. Other sources vary, but regardless, there weren't many of them.
There's one on Gunbroker right now, and with the scarcity of this model, I'm rather surprised it's been through several re-listings without a single bid. 1101963317
-
It is customary for an officer to initiate a salute to someone who has been awarded the Medal of Honor. I think there are only three currently on active duty, but in their fatigues, dungarees/NWU, or in the case of the Air Force, their plush bathrobe and slippers, how do they tell?
-
I've read the 1897 was originally designed for 2 1/2" shells, and I've read it was originally chambered for 2 5/8" shells. You'll even find some folks who say the chambers were 2 9/16" early on. Other sites, including The Winchester Arms Collectors Association have many references that state the '97 was specifically designed for 2 3/4" smokeless shells from Day One. Others say the 2 3/4" chambers weren't standardized until 1931... or 1937... Others will argue the discrepancy is due to the length of the fired hull with a roll crimp being shorter than a fired hull with a folded star crimp. I really don't get that one - 2 3/4" is 2 3/4", no matter which crimp is used.
... who knows.
-
4 hours ago, Sedalia Dave said:
Funny as I can run my stoked 87 faster than I can run either the 97 or Model 12
@Crusty has a '97 like that...
-
1
-
-
On 4/12/2025 at 4:33 PM, Dacotua said:
People use 97's or 87's because you can start out with the shotgun fully loaded. You're at a disadvantage if you don't use a 97 or 87 in Wild Bunch with 6 rounds loaded.
I ain't much of an '87 shooter, but I used it in a WB match once... half the posse went to lunch while I was shooting a stage.
I'll stick to a Model 12.
-
1
-
-
That screw is easy to remove with a ball end Allen wrench with no other disassembly required.
-
4 hours ago, Dapper Dave said:
Three Foot, that target looks like a few shooters almost poked holes in it at that range! Must be some heavy duty stuff indeed.
I was looking at retiring in Montana at one point, but your winters would cause this old desert rat to freeze solid!
I'm pretty sure what's happened is folks have pulled over on the highway and shot at it with their .30-06's and whatnot, or maybe even a club member who came out to sight something in and didn't realize they weren't supposed to use jacketed bullets.
Several years ago, there were three managers from Sportsman's Warehouse where I worked who asked to come out and use my personal range. I was working the day they came out, but made it very clear my Cowboy Action plates were for low velocity lead bullets only... they couldn't resist, and guess what? A 7mm Remington mag will punch a hole clear through a 1/2" steel plate at thirty yards. Several holes, actually. And blast an impressive crater in 5/8" plates with cracks in the craters you can see daylight through. Now that's bad enough, but these three knotheads also set a bunch of glass beer bottles in the weeds at the edge of my lawn, shot them, and made no attempt to hide what they did or clean up the broken glass.
That was the beginning of the end of my SW job. It's the only job I've ever been fired from.
-
3
-
-
It's not an external mod, so a Model 97 thusly modified is legal in both Cowboy Action and Wild Bunch, while the Model 12 is only legal in Wild Bunch. I think any main match Cowboy Action shotgun is now legal in Wild Bunch, plus the Model 12 and IAC 93/97. Main match .38/.357 rifles are now legal in WB too, but the .25-20, .32-20, .32 H&R mag, .327 Federal mag, and .56-.50 are still Cowboy Action only.
(edit) PWB beat me out by two seconds.
-
1
-
2
-
-
How did they decide who made the sammiches, draw straws or something?
-
4
-
-
Our 500 yard buffalo, with the shooting position marked by the red star. This is shot with Single Shot/Buffalo Single Shot, as outlined in the Shooter's Handbook. I've walked up to it several times scrounging lead, but never measured it. It's probably about half size, depending on what you call half size... if it's half as tall and half as long as a real buffalo, that's actually one quarter size... let's compromise and call it one third size.
Side match "long range" targets are going to be closer and larger than long range targets in a dedicated long range match, like the Quigley shoot here in Montana. The reason being it's the main match at those shoots, and they put a lot more time, effort, money, and dedication into it, while to most of us Cowboy Action shooters it's just, well, a casual side match - we need bigger targets, lol. I see lots of side match shooters who have only the vaguest idea where their bullet is going to impact, and only land two or three on this buffalo target, sometimes not even that.
I think a 2' plate at 250 yards wouldn't be overly large or overly far for lever action rifle cal. But, as you pointed out, distance and target size can vary greatly from club to club. Some clubs, with limited distance for their long range targets, will put up progressively smaller plates all at the same distance. Most folks can put their first three rounds on the big plate, then three rounds at the medium plate weeds a few of them out, then four rounds at the smallest plate. Ties are broken by a sudden death shoot off, time, or longest string of consecutive hits.
One shooter at a time on the line is very time consuming, so it's common to see four to six shooters lined up, maybe more as at the Quigley shoot. Shooter 1 shoots, the spotters call it, Shooter 2 shoots, the spotters call it, and so on. By the time it gets back to Shooter 1, they've had sufficient time to use their blow tube, make a sight setting, whatever, and they're ready to touch off their next shot.
-
5
-
1
-
-
Mine did not group well with 150's, but I had some Hornady 168 grain HPBT's on the shelf, so I tried them over 47.0 grains of IMR-4895/CCI-200 and they performed wonderfully. I think the load data came from a Garand page in a Hornady manual.
-
1
-
-
CMP, service grade Springfield, May 1945, 1+/1+
Cute little things.
-
5
-
-
I did a quick Google search, and it looks like he still lives here in the Helena area.
I was just discussing this with another former manager who worked there at the time and asked if he remembered what the signing bonus was - I just tossed $10,000 out there - he's pretty sure it was $25,000.
-
1
-
-
On 4/11/2025 at 4:02 PM, sassnetguy50 said:
Hello cowboys who are more experienced with the M1 than I. Premise: looking for a historical rifle for an independence day shoot. It must be an original, not a current production M1A. It does not need to be in original condition and there is no budget. There are two rifles at local auction, 1- made August 1941 with P and large wheel stamps in the stock, 2- made January 1942 redone with a weaver k4 scope which would have to be removed. Is one more desirable than the other? I’ve not found a difference in production over that 5 month spread.
There's your answer right there.
-
11 hours ago, Pat Riot said:
One guy in particular stands out. I was in line at a gun store in CA during the California covid silliness and this guy behind told me he was part of the President’s Marine Guard and a Navy SEAL. He was about 5’6” and a buck ten in weight.
I worked at a lead smelter for 23 years, and a small-statured younger man got an office job there toward the end. He put up with a lot of little guy jokes, but took it all good naturedly. After the plant shut down in 2001, someone asked the plant manager whatever happened to Adam. The PM said, "Did you know he was Navy SEAL before he came here? The Navy offered him a
$10,000$25,000 bonus to come back and go to Afghanistan." So, I'm guessing he had a knack for infiltrating and "neutralizing with extreme prejudice" in his prior career.-
3
-
-
I acquired it in December, I think, and this being Montana, it was cold out and snow on the ground, so I have yet to step outside and try it out. This morning, it was about 28 with an inch of fresh snow, but winter's got to be about over with.
-
If you reload, make up some 2 1/2"ers and stuff one or two of those in.
-
3
-
-
I've got a neighbor I grew up with here who went to Vietnam as a 19 year old Navy corpsman in '67. He doesn't mind talking about it, and some of the stories are pretty harrowing.
-
1
-
1
-
-
The things I saw and the stories I heard while behind the gun counter at Sportsman's Warehouse...
One of our regulars open-carried a single shot percussion pistol. He rode an adult tricycle around town with all kinds of goofy hippy crap adorning it.
One customer wanted his rifle bore sighted because, "It shoots pretty good right now, but I think I can get it even better with bore-sighting".
"I want to get my barrel carbon fiber wrapped - do you have a kit for that?"
A customer bought a Walther G22 .22 rimfire semi-auto rifle. The next day, he was back saying it was broke.
"OK, what's the problem?"
"I pull the trigger and it only shoots once"
"Then... jams up, or something?"
"No, I have to keep pulling the trigger"
"OK... I'm still not understanding the problem..."
"When I bought it yesterday, that tall guy told me it was an automatic"
A customer called asking about 7mm ammo one time...
"Ok, what kind of 7mm ammo, sir?"
"Just the regular stuff"
"Sir, we carry probably ten different kinds of 7mm ammo... 7mm Mauser, 7mm Remington mag, 7mm Weatherby, 7mm Winchester Short mag, 7mm-08, and others. What does it say on the barrel?"
"I don't know, it's at my brother's house - don't you just have regular 7mm ammo?"
"Yeah, we've got that, come on in"
I had one guy come in who wanted to buy a certain make of AR-15's to convert to full-auto or select fire M16's, and surprisingly he was actually legitimate. He was from Fort Harrison and purchasing them for the Army. IIRC, he bought ten or twelve total - I had to get some transferred from other stores.
And about every fourth guy who walked up to the counter was a former sniper of some sort - Vietnam, Afghanistan, SWAT, whatever.
-
3
-
5
-
-
There are a lot of long range side matches. For single shot, the 1874 .45-70 Sharps is probably the most popular, but High Walls, Remingtons, and others make a good showing. I use a Pedersoli .45-70 with Lee Shaver sights front & rear, Hadley eye cup, and we shoot out to 500 yards. A couple of the clubs here have a single shot .22 rimfire category - no modern bolt actions allowed. I use either a Chiappa Little Sharps or a Miroku Winchester Low Wall, both with MVA sights - targets are set out to 150 yards or so. Plainsman, maybe...? The one club that shoots it here sets the rifle targets at around 80 yards, so I guess that could qualify as long-range. One club started a Trapdoor category a few years ago - pretty fun to get the old Springfields out and ring the steel at 150-250 yards with the original "minute of Indian" sights. Long range pistol cal lever is normally close enough to just use your main match rifle - no need for fancy sights at only 50 yards or whatever. For long range lever action rifle cal, the Winchester M94 has to be very near the top. The Marlin 336CB is also quite popular. I sold my 336CB because my 1894 Legendary Frontiersman 38-55 was consistently much more accurate. A few years ago, I set up a Marlin 1895CB 45-70 with a Soule rear, Hadley eyecup, and bubble level front globe from MVA. A light load of Unique under a standard 405 grain cast bullet bucks the wind well and dings the targets 'most every time. We used to shoot this out to 400 yards years ago, but 150 - 250 is the norm today.
We shoot pistol cal lever, and Plainsman offhand, but the rest of them can be offhand, sitting on the ground, or off cross sticks either sitting on a stool or the ground - no shooting off a bench.
There are other long range side matches, but you don't see them as often - Tom Horn, Cody Dixon, Quigley bucket, Bolt Action Military... a few others that don't come to mind at the moment.
-
My dad bought one of those back in the late 70's. I inherited it when he passed and it was my first Cowboy Action shotgun. I've also got a 28"er I bought from Deuce Stevens fifteen years ago.
-
Does anyone happen to remember
in SASS Wire Saloon
Posted
In "Gangs of New York", Bill the Butcher's gang was The Federation of American Natives, based on a real political group of the era.