H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619

The Rossi 92 does not run .44 Specials well. I have a pre-safety one, and it was my first SASS rifle. Still use it every once in a while. At first, I was running .44 Specials in it, and used to get a lot of stovepipes. Switched to downloaded .44 Magnum, and it has never given me any problems since. Had the same difficulty with some Winchester factory Cowboy Loads. For that matter, I had the exact same problem with a real Winchester 92 that started life as a .38-40 that a previous owner rebarreled to .44 Magnum. I use the same 200 grain, RNFP bullet crimped in the crimp groove in both calibers. Since I also have more than a few pistols in .44 Special, I have no desire to develop a longer or more powerful load for running only in the rifles.

Well, on the one hand, I am not all that fast to begin with. On the other hand, practicing with empty Magtechs did not seem to be any slower. With the Parker, it's open/shuck/load/close. With the Darne, it's open/wiggle if the don't fall off, which they might/load/close. If they do fall off, you don't need to wiggle, which takes just as long as shuck. But even if it is slower, it'll be worth all the "what the heck is that?" I am sure to get.

Yeah, I know. A weird proviso, but it is reality. Still, I think it's worth the effort.

These old S&W's are great pistols. My brother had one very similar to this in .357 Magnum. And while not really the same, I have a few guns in the 1899/M&P/Model 10 family. You can't go wrong with a Smith & Wesson. Especially if you find one in a caliber you really enjoy.

In the past, I had a few out of state CCW permits. I am from Massachusetts, and I maintained for a while the NH and Pennsylvania state permits. Mostly for reciprocity for states that recognized them, but not the Mass ones. I let them all expire well over 10 years ago, and with the recent trend to defacto reciprocity and constitutional carry in many states, I felt the need to maintain them was not all that great. Well, given all that's going on, I have decided to reapply for a few out of state CCW's, and I was surprised by what I fond. Pennsylvania: $20 and can be done online. Arizona $60 and can be done online. New Hampshire, $100, must be mailed in. Arizona does require you to send in a fingerprint card, but the others do not. None of them even asked for a picture. And between the three of them, other than the left coast and certain states here in the Northeast, pretty much the whole country is covered by one of these permits. I looked into Maine, Connecticut and Rhode Island, and while Maine is the least burdensome, you still need to go to all three states to do in state training. But Maine recognizes the permits from all other states and has Constitutional Carry itself, so I don't feel the need. I don't really go to CT or RI in spite of them being right next door, and there is some limited defacto reciprocity in them as well, kinda. New York remains a practical no go. But, my overall point is this, the cost for some out of state permits is actually not all that great or difficult if you already have a permit from your home state. Given various realities, I think it's worth getting them. Which one(s) to get depends on where you go, how much additional reciprocity they give you over your home state's CCW, Take it all with a grain of salt.

What are people's opinions of the 16 Gauge? I know it's bigger than a 20, smaller than a 12, and just fine for SASS. I have over the past year acquired 2 SxS shotguns in this size, an Ithaca Flues and a Darne R11, and I have tooled up to load Magtech brass shells for them. I have found a loading using Green Dot that purports to be low recoil. Having shot both 12 and 20 Gauge shotguns, I find myself thinking that it won't be all that different from them for SASS purposes. For hunting? No idea, and since I would not be using them for that, it does not matter. I suppose they'd be good for Cowboy trap or clays. Barrels too long for skeet. Who knows? Maybe I'll get a 97 someday.

Ah, so it's a custom gun. I like it.

Ooh... That's interesting. A factory small iron. Do they still make it?

No, you don't have to return the advance. I am not sure how it all works out, but I guess they figure that the best sellers outweigh the one that don't sell out the advances.

Assuming a work of fiction, generally speaking, royalties are paid based on "retail price" per book sold. Publishers give oh so many books to your local Barnes and Nobel. If they run out and need more, they order more. If they don't sell within a certain amount of time, they tear off the covers and send them back. That's more or less how the publisher determine how many copies have sold, and how much to pay in royalties. I *believe* they assume they sell for cover price. Of course, you forgot one major factor, the advance. A publisher will pay an author and advance on said book. The advance is basically a pre-payment of future royalties. If the publisher gives you a $10,000 advance, you do not get a single penny in royalties until you have sold over $10,001 worth of books. They try to keep the advance as low as possible, but high enough that they are not immediately having to deal with royalty payments. Best sellers aside, many books never outsell their advance. The only way you will get immediate royalties, but no advance, is to self publish on something like Amazon. You will get a much higher rate, but it is all sales driven, and Amazon does nothing to promote your book, unless you pay them. But with Amazon, it's a royalty based on their costs. If it costs them 15 dollars to print you book and you sell it for 20, you don't get royalties based on the 20 dollar price. You get royalties based on the 5 dollars. To date, I have earned less than $300 in royalties off my books over the last 5 years. Writing is a VERY hard market to break into. At least in the Scifi/Fantasy field, there are only 2 publishers left that will even look at your manuscript if you don't have an agent. All of the rest require one. How do you get an agent? Being referred to one by someone who is already a client is the easiest way. (Think about that for a moment...) The other, more "traditional" way is to sell a few short stories to the magazines to build up a resume you can cite when trying to contact agents who are open to accepting new clients. Of course, there are only 2 or 3 magazines, left, and most agents want the referral, or someone who has already sold their manuscript. It's a real catch 22. You can't get an agent unless you've been published, but you can't get published without an agent. All of this may or may not be similar in other types of fiction. While I may not be exactly the same, there is probably some commonality. And I've only scratched the surface. Some of the details are even more complicated. In all likelyhood, the example you cite in the book you are reading is a made up oversimplification that readers can comprehend. Trying to accurately explain it all in a novel would get really boring/lost in the weeds real quick. There are other factors that play into it, that are darn confusing. All in all, if you get a buck a book, you are getting an exceptionally high royalty.

As I understand it, ordinary people can not even OWN hollow point bullets. If you are from out of state, and are just passing through and have some locked up properly in your car, you go to jail. (In fact, you are only allowed to pass through, stopping only for gas or food. You can not overnight.) I do not know of an exemption for .22s

Oh yeah, a Walther P-38 with stuff clamped on. And, "The Duke can do no wrong," so it must be SASS Legal! Or, well, no, it was his kid that used it, so it doesn't count for legality, but it is a good example of what I was thinking about.

I live in Bedford, Massachusetts. That's a town between Lexington and Concord. Driving over to the Battle Green in Lexington, and then over to the Old North Bridge in Concord, to see where it all began, and then back to the Bedford Public Library to see the actual flag carried into battle by the Bedford Minutemen at said bridge on April 19th, 1775 always makes me feel warm inside.

You know, there are a lot of interesting guns that were made back in the day, or novelty guns made today, that are not a part of our game, but are quite interesting. They are either fun to shoot, curious to look at, nice parts of a collection, or perhaps other things that just make them gosh darn intriguing. Things like revolver carbines, early double action revolvers, Mare's Legs, the Mauser Broomhandle and other very early automatic pistols, some early bolt action rifles, and perhaps even a few guns that could be "SASS Legal" but are so obscure that most people have either never seen one in the wild, or even heard of them. Most of these things have no logical place in our game, but that doesn't change the fact that they are interesting. It's amazing to see what gun makers came up with back in the day that are not really what we think of when we think of the time period, or how we have, in the modern world, modified them into something that did not exist, but could theoretically could have. Any thoughts on the matter?

This may be an odd one, but certain jingles that the companies who created them no longer use, or that are from companies that no longer exist, always make me smile when my memory recalls them. "Tweeter, for times like these!" "At Osco, you can count on people who care." "Today's neighborhood drugstore, C V S." "You deserve a break today, so get up get on your way, to McDonald's. We do it all for you." And a few others. There's just something calming about the music that accompanied these lyrics.

Why would you drive a Corvette? Wouldn't a Prius be just as good?

I used to work in hotel AV, so between that and my current job, I've gotten to meet, speak and hook up microphones for a lot of interesting people. Off the top of my head... Robert Ballard (The guy who found the Titanic. Gene Kranz (The guy in charge of Mission Control for Apollo 13) Hilary Clinton Newt Gingrich Mitt Romney Wayne Lapierre Sam Cathy (The guy who founded Chick-Fil-A) Kelly Ayote Charlie Baker Arnold Schwarzenegger (Well, I was in the same room with him) Tim Wakefield Rico Petrocelli George W Bush. (Well, again, same room, and while I did CONTROL his microphone, I never got close enough to say hello.)

Well, I have found what I think is the perfect "donor gun" for this Small Iron project. I found a Traditions Pietta with a transfer bar; something I'll have no qualms about modifying. It's a .357 Magnum at the moment. I have a set of birds head grips, I'll see if they fit. If they don't, it's no loss. I will have the barrel shortened to 3" and then, I need to decide on what caliber I want it to be. Either way, the barrel will get lined lined and the cylinder sleeved to the new smaller caliber. My choices; .25-20, 32 S&W Long, or .32 Long Colt. The idea of a .25-20 revolver is "cool" but serves no practical purpose. On the other hand, I could actually USE the gun in SASS in either .32 caliber, pairing it with the Big Iron for contrast. I actually have a rifle in .32 Long Colt, and old Marlin. But I also have an 1860 Colt that someone converted to .32 S&W. So, I have decisions to make. Unrelated to this, I have a 3rd Gen SAA in .32-20 that a local gunsmith says he has a couple of cylinder that he THINKS will fit it that he would be able to sleeve if they do. Choices... Choices...

I did look them up, and it looks like a .357 Pietta with the same finish and grips as mine (fake ivory, or PVC) goes for over $800 new. So I got it for better than "half price."

I found an interesting revolver at a local gun store that I picked up, and would like to hear what people think of it. I saw it in the case, and it looked like a Colt, but the trigger was too far forward, sorta, but not exactly, like on a Ruger. Anyway, the box says it's a Pietta 1873 under the Traditions banner, and it's a .357 Magnum with a nickel finish. And, most unusually of all, it has a transfer bar. But other than that oddity, it seemed like a nice pistol, so I bought it. $400. A reasonable price for a used clone in pretty excellent condition. Anyway, other than some cap and ball pistols, and I think they are very well made, this is my first Pietta. Well, first Pietta clone of the SAA. Again, it seems to be well made, and it will become the "donor gun" for a new project I am working on. So to cut to the chase, anyone out there have one of these Piettas with a transfer bar? Do you find them to be good, bad, or indifferent pistols? My initial impression was that it was a nice gun. Although, how much of an impression can you get with no ammo? Thoughts?

Maybe they'll meet the Red Sox in the playoffs.

As the Chief of Police said to my mother, if you must shoot, shoot to kill. That way he can't claim it wasn't self defense and sue you.

I shall contact Yul and discuss what I want with him. .25-20 is legal for rifles, but not pistol. I assume because while .25-20 things like the Winchester 92 were made, Colt, nor anyone else, ever chambered a revolver in the caliber. If they had, I guess they'd probably be legal. Am I asking that .25-20 be made legal in pistols for folks who may have one custom made? No. I don't even have a rifle in the caliber. I am doing this simply because I find it to be interesting.

Now let's be fair. Chicago does have one good thing going for it; the second best ballpark in the world. Everything else...

The protectors make it look taller than it is. But, the post can be lowered, and if need be, the rear can be raised a little. I'll look into getting a .30 carbine bore laser sight and adjust it maybe 100 yards. Or actually, since I see this more as a plinker than anything else, maybe to 25.