Three Foot Johnson

I still occasionally get emails or pamphlets from alleged brokers/realtors to "call us to get an offer on your property at [address]... I sold that house and acreage in 2001. I wonder if I can sell it again...

At that age, I would have given it to my dad. In my adult life, I've came into the possession of a couple guns with questionable heritage, and lemme tell ya, getting the Sheriff's department to "run the serial number" was a PITA. One was a 5 1/2" bull barrel Ruger Mk I .22 pistol with the finish completely stripped off that was left behind in plain sight on the kitchen table in a rental trailer a buddy of mine owned after he evicted the hop-head tenants. He called me and said, "I'm not touching it, they probably killed somebody with it". I went and got it and had quite a time convincing the Sheriff's department to run it for me. Another one was a Winchester 190 .22 rifle at a moving sale. The guy said they were leaving for Alaska in the morning and he couldn't take it across Canada, so he needed to get rid of it, bury it, or throw it away. It sounded kind of fishy, but I took it, called the Sheriff's office and went through the same rigmarole as before to get the serial number checked out.

I get my meds from the VA pharmacy at Fort Harrison on the west edge of Helena. It's 14.8 straight line miles from the VA hospital to my mailbox - I can actually SEE the VA hospital from my house, yet it can sometimes take more than two weeks for a prescription to arrive. Seven or eight days is about average. All outgoing "out-of-town" Helena mail goes to Great Falls for sorting & distributing, then comes back. Since my address is East Helena, a separate town maybe 3 miles away from Helena, the package goes from the Fort Harrison post office to the Helena post office to the Great Falls post office, back to the Helena post office, then to the East Helena post office, then out to my mailbox. I could drive out there and pick it up in person, but it's more convenient to push a couple buttons on my phone and have it mailed out.

The Pony Express could cover a similar distance in about eleven days.

I won a bullet mold on eBay on August 14th. The item shipped from Marietta, GA on the 16th, estimated to arrive at my house on the 23rd. It arrived in Atlanta on the 19th - a distance of about a dozen miles. It was then listed as "In transit to next facility" for the next seven days... the "next facility" was Palmetto, GA, where it arrived this morning. Palmetto is about twenty miles from Atlanta... so it's traveled a whopping 35 miles in twelve days now. If it keeps up the same pace, my math says it will arrive here in another 583 days.

As illustrated in the PDF above, the definitive answer is, "It depends". Two extreme examples are Pyrodex vs. Swiss. Pyrodex P weighs ~25.1 grains/2.2 cc, while Swiss weighs ~35.2 grains/2.2 cc (I used Swiss 1.5 for this comparison). Alliant BMZ weighs 29.9 grains/2.2 cc. (Discontinued, but I've got a bunch of it). Over ten grains difference in the weight of 2.2 cc Pyrodex P vs. Swiss 1.5. Grains can be measured by volume or weight, just as ounces can be volume or weight, and they are generally not the same. Some people swear up and down black powder is meant to be weighed, and others swear up and down it's meant to be measured by volume. I'll say this, in the days of muzzle loading pistols, rifles, and fowlers, nobody carried a scale in their kit. If you're using the same brand and granulation of black, the ratio of weight to cc will remain consistent, but if you switch to a different brand or sub, the ratio can be WAY off - as above, there's a whopping FORTY PERCENT difference in the weight of Pyrodex and Swiss for the same volume.

I have a Marlin 1894s .44-40 I'm thinking of selling, and the first two numbers of the s/n, 25, put its date of manufacture as 1975. So, without knowing the exact date it was made, just when is it C&R eligible? 12:01 am, January 1st, 2025? The exact date of manufacture in 1975? December 31st, 2025 just to be on the safe side? From the ATF website: 1. Firearms which were manufactured at least 50 years prior to the current date, but not including replicas of such firearms; OK, that seems pretty plain, so without knowing the exact date of manufacture, it would have to be December 31st, 2025 to be on the safe side, right? What about the last part of that sentence, "not including replicas of such firearms"? Uberti, and others, were making replicas of cartridge guns before that time, so a 50 year old Uberti reproduction of a Colt SAA or 1873 rifle can't qualify for C&R status?

You're looking at it upside down - the string of characters starts with 69.

That style can was used from the early 60's to maybe '71 or so. The domed top was made that way. I can't make out the number on that can, perhaps 69GS?? The one in my collection is marked 69JS?C - The 69 could very well mean 1969, with the next four letters being either a date code or lot number.

There's a set on eBay for $50, shipped. https://www.ebay.com/itm/266951195140

Yep, unless you need them immediately, Matts @ $128.25/500, $15.75 shipping, for the 429244 is a much better price point, if you're OK with the 4 week stated lead time. If you thought Montana Bullet Works was outrageous, Rimrock Bullets up in Polson, MT has a similar 265 grain Keith SWC GC for a whopping $68/100 + shipping. They must be casting them with a ladle and a single cavity mold.

My baby Ruana and its original sheath - A few years ago, I had someone here tell me this little 7" beauty wasn't a legal accouterment for Classic Cowboy because it wasn't big enough... I asked how big it needs to be, he said he knew the right size knife for CC when he saw one, "and that ain't it".

$22.31 at Midway + shipping, $26.66 shipped from Amazon, $26.90 shipped from eBay. Call Lee direct, and they might just send you out a set if you have a good story about your pet iguana eating your other ones.

It took me maybe 45 seconds to Google this - there are probably many others who sell it, but there's a big Partridge Family marathon starting in a few minutes, and I don't want to miss it. https://www.montanabulletworks.com/product/44-mag-lyman-k429244eith-gc-255gr-keith-gc-authentic-keith/

I found this one on eBay a few years back - sheath is my own creation with a hardwood welt liner inside along the cutting edge.

I knew there weren't many in the wild, so I checked Google and it says 345, spread out across California, the Baja peninsula, Arizona, and Utah. Less than half are in California, so 150 or so...?

They recommend a space-age "electric bandage"...?

If the press held up to the pressure... maybe, but it would be a bit of a pain in the arse. Here is a loaded .50 BMG sitting on the ram of my Rockchucker with no shell holder - the Ammomaster shell holder isn't compatible with the Rock Chucker. Even with no shell holder, the mouth of the case is well into the press frame at the top. The tip of the loaded bullet is visible sticking out of the hole. If the press held up, and you figured out a way to prime the cases (the Ammomaster priming ram isn't compatible with the Rock Chucker), I suppose the case could be angled up through the hole, the shell holder simultaneously slid onto the rim and into the ram, the bullet placed in the shell from the top, then the die screwed in - after removing the bushing, of course. It might take repeated steps of screwing the die and/or seating stem down to get the shell fully sized or the bullet fully seated, then the process would have to be reversed - unscrew the die, slide the shell holder out of the ram/off the case rim, then remove the finished round from the press. When I bought my AR50 22+ years ago, it came with an RCBS Ammomaster press, dies, trim die, priming arm, shell holder, etc. I also use it to load .45-120.

The Harris/Walz administration will push legislation to chip *everyone - problem solved! *illegals exempted, of course.

Five pounds = 80 ounces. $400 divided 80 times = $5 per ounce. $5 per ounce times 9 ounces equates to $45 per bottle. The five and two pound jugs say 5 pounds and 2 pounds, respectively. The small bottles are marked 9 ounces.

9 oz in the "1 lb cans", which at $400/5 pounds would equate to $45 ea. Considering how much I've seen some of this stuff go for since it was discontinued in 2018, that isn't all that bad of a price.

I really like that 7"er! A few years ago, I had someone here tell me my 7" long Ruana wasn't a legal accouterment for Classic Cowboy because it wasn't big enough... I asked how big it needs to be, he said he knew the right size knife for CC when he saw it, "and that ain't it".

I shoot maybe 15,000 rounds a year for CAS, and that's not all that much to process. About once a month, I tumble the sorted brass in two vibratory and one rotary tumbler, size and bell it, and stack it on shelves in plastic bins - because of the volume, .38's go in a storage tote on the floor. I've heard of a few high-volume shooters or used brass vendors who use mortar mixers or cement mixers to tumble tens of thousands at a time.