H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619

A good quality gun cart is one of the best things you'll ever buy. Some of them can be quite expensive, but they are worth it. You don't wanna be carting around thousands of dollars worth of guns in a cheap cart that will batter them to death. (I exaggerate a little, but not much.) By the same token, a good, if expensive gun cart will last you a lifetime, a cheap but serviceable one will do well for a few years, and then fall apart. Costuming can be very simple. A pair of jeans, and a long sleeve shirt are all you need. The shirt should have at least a vaguely "western" look/feel to it, but that is very open to interpretation. Technically, a hat is not required, outside of specific costume categories that require one. That said, I strongly recommend one to shield you head from fall brass. Reproduction US Cavalry Kepi hats are kinda cool, and are in some ways the old west version of a cowboy hat. You don't have to go with a full uniform. You can always claim to be a veteran who like to wear his old hat. Prices are from dirt cheap to expensively accurate replicas. But, if you go with one of those, I strongly recommend a bandanna tied around your neck to prevent spent brass falling down the back of your shirt! On the other hand, a generic Stetson never hurts, and depending on the one you get, can be surprisingly inexpensive. As far as footwear goes, you don't have to wear traditional "Cowboy Boots" if you don't want to, again excepting a specific category that requires them. Lace up boots are fine, and often more comfortable, for example. You can always add more accessories, more variation, and other shirt, pants, and hats over time if you desire. Holsters... Go to Cabela's. You can get a pair of generic old west holsters that'll carry all of the most popular guns for, well, when I got them they were 10 bucks each. Might be around 25 today. If you ever do decide to get more fancy holsters, gunbelt and such, these can be held as backups or for loaners to a friend you bring along. Technically, you don't need a gunbelt, you can run your regular belt that holds up your pants through the loops on the generic things. Works well. (As long as you can properly tighten your belt!) Interestingly enough, while I do have other holsters, and a couple of nice belts, I still use these generic holsters unless I'm using an unusual gun that does not fit in them. I do always put the holsters on a gun belt. Other gear... Get a nice small pouch to carry your ammo in. Trying to carry ammo in belt loops may look cool, but it's more trouble that it's worth! Other ammo carrying thingees exist, and are not all that expensive. Also, another bucket of something you can keep on your cart for spent brass is a good idea too. Reloading is a must! If you do this more than once a year, having to constantly buy factory ammo is too expensive. Lee dies are usually less expensive than RCBS, and IMO, of superior quality. A simple turret press'll do ya fine for .38/.357. You'll need a tumbler to clean brass, and either a scale or, even better, a powder dispenser that automatically measures out a load of the proper weight every time you empty the pan to dump the powder into the case. One other thing, I recommend you reload shotshells as well. I know a lot of people don't, but I think it just makes sense. A good MEC press will never do you wrong. Been loading AA's for decades with the press I inherited from my Dad that's gotta be at least 70 years old, and so are some of the hulls! Or, if you wanna get fancy, load all brass Magtech hulls, but you'll need a special press for the oversized dies. And go with the much more expensive CH4D ones, not the RCBS ones. You'll be glad you did. A Winchester 73 will never steer you wrong, it's the most popular rifle for a reason. (Although, personally, I prefer the Lightning, but I am weird) Rugers are tanks and many will tell you they will never fail. I can't argue with that; they are exceptionally well made guns. But they don't appeal to me personally. I use real Colts when I can, Colt Clones when I must. To me, it's just more fun. Shotguns are another mixed bag. 97 pump, 87 lever, hammerless or hammered double... Lotsa good choices and prices can range from very affordable to very expensive. Most will tell you short barrels, but there are a small number of pards who like long barrels. I have both short and long myself, but I have come to prefer long ones. The 97 is easy to master, as is the double. The 87 is fun, but has more of a learning curve. What's the best double? Well, people argue about this all the time, and there are a lot of good ones to choose from. But if you can afford it, get yourself a Parker. You'll never regret it, and good shooters CAN still be had for a reasonable cost if you look long enough. (Believe it or not, less than a $1000 is doable. It might be ugly, but it'll still WORK.) With the SxS, I think the long barrel is even more important as the extra weight absorbs more recoil. And that's about all I can recommend

When you go through your paperwork and find things like this, you invariably wish you could find more. Not too long ago, I went through my files and found sales receipts from various gun shops, (some of which are long gone), Massachusetts firearms registration forms, and other miscellaneous "paperwork" for many, but not all of my, my father's, and my late brother's guns. I found myself wishing that we'd been more meticulous about saving such things, but at the time, it just didn't seem important. Anyway, I collected all of that stuff, got factory letters for everything I could, and then created a kind of "record cover sheet" for every gun in the collection, putting all of the collected papers in plastic sleeves in a three ring binder. The collection is now well documented. But it's really cool when I see the original sales receipts or other forms dating back to the 1970's.

Oh. Them. I tend to not do business with them ever since they refused to sell me a rifle on my C&R because I'm from Massachusetts. They even admitted that they knew it was legal, but didn't care.

Just compare the climactic gunfight in True Grit staring John Wayne to the same scene in the remake with, uhm, whoever it was. Not only did he deliver one of the best lines in history of film in the worst way possible, but... He doesn't even have a Winchester.

The following post is for informational/fun purposes only. Recently, I acquired a Uberti replica of the Winchester 76 in .45-60. Unlike the original .45-60 that was slightly bottlenecked, the replica .45-60 is dimensionally identical to the .45-70, just a little shorter. So, I trimmed some .45-70 brass to make some .45-60 brass to use in the gun, no problem. But, as I was loading up the ammo, I discovered that I had somehow trimmed a couple of cases to about the same length as a .45 Colt Cartridge. Just out out curiosity, I checked to see if they would cycle though the 76 without a bullet. They did, one at a time, but if I tried to load two, I'd get a double feed. But, they cycle through my vintage Winchester 1886. The wheels began to churn... I trimmed 5 cases to the exact same length as a .45 Colt case. With the help of some custom made dies from Lee, I seated some 300 grain .45-60/.45-70 bullets in the cases. They cycle just fine in the 86! You gotta be a bit slow, but they work through the action with no problem, and feed into the chamber. They will not work in the 76, getting a double feed, and they function almost flawlessly in my Large Frame Lighting. Anyway, seeing the dummy cartridges work in my 86, I found a new replica 86 with a factory 16" barrel. The cartridges do cycle in the replica 86, but not as well as with the real Winchester. I chalk that up to the fact that the replica's action is not as "smooth" as the real Winchester. If you are not careful, some of the "catches" in the action will cause the cartridge to jump around on the carrier. An action job will soon take place. Anyway, I call this wildcat cartridge that I am developing, the .45-45. (Original, no?) Now, why did I get this 16" barrel 86? (A Chiappa sold by Taylors.) Well, I'm gonna make myself what the Mare's Leg SHOULD have been. As it is, the rifle has the pistol grip stock, and if I cut it just beyond the pistol grip, there is more than enough room to spare to be over the minimum length to not become an SBR. Under normal conditions, I'll run the .45-45 in this gun, but it'll still be capable of running full size .45-70's! Other applications for the cartridge would be for use as a "sub" round in single shot rifles, or in those giant revolvers for .45-70. (If I could find someone who would do it, I'd have a one off custom revolver made for the .45-45, but there are "reasons" why I'll prolly never do it.) Anyway, no, having this new cartridge would not make the 86 (Or I suppose the Large Frame Lightning) suddenly legal for main match use. (I asked.) And of course, the Mare's Leg is not SASS legal, so all of this is purely for fun and personal novelty. Making the cartridge is easy. Getting an (oversized) revolver for it is possible. Getting it work in a rifle is doable. All in all, a lot of fun, and a solution to a problem that does not exist! So, in conclusion, this is an ongoing project. We'll see what happens as it progresses.

Website?

Whoever kills the most turkeys wins?

Well, here's some pics of mine... Hope that helps. Note: Even though this gun will chamber .32 S&W Long, it is designed for .32 S&W. Using the longer round in it is NOT a good idea and can lead to frame stretching over time. One way to confirm this is that with the action open, you will notice that the extractor at its max length is too short to fully eject the Long cartridge. Good luck.

Heh heh... I am from New England. College football, heck, college sports in general, is pretty much a non-factor here. Never has been. There are are two main theories as to why hardly anyone cares about it here. 1. There are so MANY colleges in New England that there is no one school that captivates the minds of the locals. Aside from people who are actually going, and playing, college sports at one of them, there's just very little interest. 2. We have the Red Sox, Bruins, Celtics, and Patriots. We have no need to care about college sports.

People pay attention to College Football?

I do take mine out every so often for fun. My first Schofield is a Uberti replica in .45 Colt that I usually pair with a Colt in the same caliber. I shoot double duelist style, and the grips are the stock wooden ones that came with gun. 7" barrel on this gun, so it get's paired with a 7.5" Colt. That is, until the last time I took it out. I instead paired it with a Uberti replica of the S&W American in .45 Colt. The two guns are very different, but it didn't bother me any. No work has been done to it, and the safety thing has never bothered me. I have more recently obtained a real S&W "Third Model" Schofield in .45 S&W. I have finally gotten all the needed stuff to load the caliber, so at at least one shoot next season, I'll use a pair of Schofields. It'll be interesting to see if the S&W rounds will chamber in the Uberti, I've read that sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't. S&W Top Breaks are fun.

I have had luck finding hard to find ammo and brass on Gunbroker recently. And it was not stupid expensive. Specifically, .32 Long and Short Colt. Not the same as .32 S&W, but that's actually a still made caliber, so you might find some there for a reasonable price.

This surprises me. My first Lightning was an AWA in .45 Colt. This is the rifle that infected me with the Lighting Bug, and I liked it so much, I got one just like it in .44-40. Neither has ever given me any real trouble. The only thing I can compare it to are some original Colts, and they do so favorably. That being said, I have noticed here on the Wire that opinions on the AWA seem to be evenly divided. For every pard that says they are great, there is someone who excoriates them, and vice versa. What caliber(s) are your dozen in, and do you still have them all?

All of these comments about USFA serial numbers makes me wonder what happened to their records.

A recent thread about how Pedersoli is rolling out a new version of their version of the Lightning got me to thinking. Not about the relative quality or lack thereof of the various reproductions and the original by Colt. Which, for the record are as follows... Colt (Includes all three frame sizes.) AWA Taurus Pedersoli *Uberti/Beretta USFA *I have been led to believe these are/were the same gun. I think that covers all of them. I know that some of us (not me) have representatives of every make of the gun, and that quality does vary, but that even the Taurus can be made to work right with a lot of effort. But anyway, I am sure that someone here may be in the know. What was/is the rarest one out there? I believe that the USFA was made in very small numbers, and I have never actually seen one in the wild. But I am not sure how many were made by Uberti either. I've only ever seen one, and that was years ago. The others I do see from time to time. Can anyone elaborate?

Glad to hear that they have not abandoned the gun. By all accounts, their existing ones were pretty good, so maybe these new ones will be great. Don't have a Pedersoli myself, I've got AWA's and Colts and love 'em, but every so often, I contemplate have one from every maker for "collection purposes." I wonder if these means I need to get a "First" and "Second" generation one from Pedersoli

I have acquired a Marlin 92. I plan to try it with .32 Short Colts. I'd feel very strange if it was last... Heck, I find myself wondering if it'll even make power factor. No, I don't intend to use it at a "big" match. In all truth, I'm even reluctant to use it at a local/monthly because the brass is so hard to find/expensive!

I remember seeing this the first time it aired. My father yelled out, "He shot him!" We were all very shocked. As far as the Higgins=Robin Masters thing in the original, it was left ambiguous at the end. There's plenty of data to prove it, and to refute it. My own opinion was that Higgins actually wrote the books, but for some reason, he old and close friend Robin Master's agreed to pretend that he did. As to who owned Robin's Nest, that's a little harder to pin down. Just like above, there is data to say either way.

Blackhorn 209 is sadly not SASS legal for some reason. (Wish that would change.) But, urine? You don't need any urine. You just need to find a deposit of coal, a deposit of sulpher, and a deposit of potassium nitrate. You mix them together, stirring with a stick, and you've got functional black powder! Hey, it worked for Captain Kirk!

If Lassiter said no, then I'd abandon the idea. He can make any Lightning work. But, with .45 ACP, you are talking about more than just making the rifle work. You are talking about making it work with a cartridge much shorter than it was designed for. That just sounds like a major problem. That, and going from rimmed to rimless adds another lever of complexity. I can see right away why he passed on the idea. Even if you went with .45 Cowboy Special to avoid the rim problem, you've still got the it's way to short problem. The Lightning is a great gun that is fun to shoot. I've got 2 AWA's, and two Colts for main match use, as well as an AWA Lighting Bolt Pistol. I've also got a Large and Small frame Colt. Once you learn how to run them, they treat you well. The desire to have them in multiple calibers is understandable, but the caliber you asking about I think is just a bridge to far, so to speak.

Massachusetts New Hampshire Maine Connecticut Rhode Island New Jersey Delaware Pennsylvania New Mexico Michigan Ohio Nevada So... 12

Original or Uberti reproduction? I've got the Uberti 66 .22

I would argue that that the 66, 73, 76, 86, 92, and 94 Winchesters, the Marin 1881 and 1888, and the Colt Lightning are all left handed guns. You hold them in your left hand and stuff rounds in with the right. Then, if you are left handed, you just shoulder and shoot. If you are right handed, you need to shift it. They are clearly therefore designed with southpaws in mind. Just like the side eject Marlins are all messed up. They eject to the right, making them right handed guns, but like Winchesters and other top eject guns, they load with a nod to left handed ones. Marlin shoulda put the gate on the left when they went to side eject. Kinda like how SAA is a mostly left handed gun. Or the 1911, except for the safety...

When I got mine, the options were .44-40, .44 Magnum and .45 Colt. I got the .44 Magnum. This is a 12", the take down feature more or less mandated that. The big loop is aftermarket.

Well, I thank you for that assurance, Colorado. Now, as far as "attempting" to shoulder a Mare's leg type pistol, (And yes, legally, they are pistols) it' fairly impossible since they are so awkward. Personally, I hold the pistol with both hand, at about the distance from my face as it would be if it were a rifle, right in the centerline of my chest. I have found that is the easiest and most accurate way to shoot them. As to the why? Well, the reality that they are about as practical as a, uhm, nothing, when it comes to them being a practical "weapon" they are gosh all fishhooks FUN to shoot. Shooting a clear match with them is oddly satisfying. Sadly, they are NOT SASS legal for some reason. I think they should be, but they are not. Some clubs will allow you to shoot them at a local match, but it is always best to ask in advance so as to not create an awkward problem when you get there. I have no idea how to go about asking those who make the rules if they will consider legalizing them. By the way, a "Terminator 2" style 87, is also against the rules, but all of the above applies to them as well. Okay... Here goes... From Top to Bottom. Uberti 73, 44-40. 16.5" Barrel. Nobody makes a 73 Mare's Leg, so I found a 16" barrel 73, got a spare buttstock and "Mare's Legged" it. Added the Rio Bravo style lever. Overall length is still over 27" so it's not an SBR. Just a "rifle" with a really short LOP. I call it a "Buntline Mare's Leg" Drawing it from a holster is a bizarre thing to do, but worth the smiles. AWA Lightning Bolt. .45 Colt. These are a rare as hen's teeth. Supposedly only 8 were made before AWA fell apart. I was very lucky to get one. Chiappa 87 "Terminator" shotgun. 18/5" 12 Gauge. I did also obtain a regular buttstock for it Chiappa 92, .44 Magnum. 12" Takedown model. Oddly, it comes from the factory with what they call a D Lever. I replaced that with their Rio Bravo one. Interestingly enough, there IS an old west reality to this type of gun... A few years ago, this showed up for Auction. I "found" it after the auction was over. It is an antique, but I have no idea when it was modified or by whom, but it does "prove" that the Mare's Leg concept is an old one. Sadly, I don't have any video of me SHOOTING the dumb things. I'll try to remedy that someday. Oh, and there will soon be another one. Ever wonder if it'd be possible to have a Mare's Leg in .45-70?