Larsen E. Pettifogger, SASS #32933

I am no longer familiar with who does SKB work east of the Mississippi. Go to the FAQs and look at the Cowboy Gunsmiths thread. Solicit some suggestions on who is ACTUALLY doing SKB work and check the list. You should only need to send the barrels and no FFL is needed. It can go USPS, UPS, FedEx as it is just a part and not a gun. As you have found out for a one shot repair the cost of materials is about what a lot of smiths would charge for the repair.

I do not post much any more but want to make sure you do not ruin your gun. Do not use silver solder as the heat required would melt the solder holding the barrels together and probably ruin your barrels. Welding is also not a good repair method. The barrels are soft soldered. For the repair use soft solder or at most use low temp Hi-Force 44 from Brownells. This is a fairly common problem with SKBs and Johnny Meadows, Boomstick or any of several other SASS smiths that work on SKBs should be able to fix it. In all candor Briley might not even do the job once they see SASS hacked barrels and funneled chambers. Plus the cost would be high. Here is the typical set-up. First photo is the separated lug. After the part is cleaned and retinned and the joint fluxed the lug is placed in the barrel. An iron rod is placed on either side of the lug and the barrels wrapped with soft iron wire. These act as heat sinks. Apply heat to the area and the solder will melt and flow. The repair usually does not require reblue as the temps are relatively low.

Was reading this thread and went over to the local Cabellas today. The gun I wanted was sold but they had this little fella. I have some of that modern made Brazilian .41 ammo so I figured what the hell and bought it. When I got home and checked it out more closely it was sort of a good news bad news situation. The barrel address was unusual as it was stamped into the side ribs rather than the top rib like most other Remingtons I have looked at and owned. Upon further inspection it dawned on me that it does not have an extractor on the left side. Turns out it is a very early 1st Model. That may be good news. However this means this one was made in the late 1860s of low quality steel/high quality iron. The Brazilian modern made smokeless ammo has more pressure than the old BP rounds so not safe to shoot in this early model. It is in better shape than the photos tend to show and was a hell of a deal for $190.00 plus tax. Everything works and the top hinge (a weak point in the originals) shows no sigh of cracking.

With a "Kirst Konversion 1851 signature series Colt Navy" the issue is not the forcing cone. 51 Navy bore diameter is .375". .38 Special and modern .38 Long Colt use .357/.358 bullets. You do not want hard .357 bullets rattling down a .375 bore. Most people use soft lead hollow base wadcutters that expand to fill the bore. There are also a few bullet makers that offer other bullet style hollow base .38s. Here are a couple of examples. https://www.precisiondelta.com/products/38-cal-148gr-hbwc-ml/ https://www.bearcreeksupplybullets.com/bulletselection https://www.hornady.com/bullets/handgun/38-cal-358-148-gr-hbwc#!/

Send you a PM. You need to firm up who is going to pick it up and to arrange for payment. Lots of Utah shooters already here.

Davey, I won't be at Fire and Ice. Have to save my energy for EOT. PM me when you can and I will send you my cell phone number. I am sure I will see you out there. I will be manning the Cowboy Trap at the Clay Target Center on Tuesday from noon to three if you are going to be around there.

I have bought a lot of guns over the years with the idea of doing more articles for the Chronicle. I am getting older and grumpier so a lot of these projects have fallen by the wayside. Here are two I will have available at EOT. To avoid hard feelings they go to the first person that posts HERE in the classifieds "I will take it." Cash only and I will not ship. First, this is a current new production Cimarron I bought a few months ago. All that has been done was to run a few dummy rounds through in the gun room to check for function. These later production 87s function very well! $550.00. Second is one of the last IAC 97s. This is one of the "CB" serial number guns and is the best. Again, I cycled a few dummies through it and it was very smooth and ejected fine and is certainly usable for SASS competition right out of the box. I have never shot it. I bought this at least seven or eight years ago. These CB 97s are the best of the Chinese 97s. $750.00 I will PM my phone number to the purchaser and arrange to meet at the range. CASH only. If you look at a gun when we meet and do not like it you do not have to take it. Remember a post that "I am interested in one of your guns" is not "I will take it." A PM asking questions is not "I will take it."

This and removing the burr from around the firing pin hole will probably solve your problem. .44-40 has been produced for over 150 years and the chamber and ammo dimensions have varied widely. If the Magtech ammo does not work try another brand. If you have a bullet puller pull some bullets and drop the empty cases into the chamer. Sometimes even the bullet nose shape can cause problems in some chambers.

Well hell I have been cleaning out some cabinets trying to downsize and get rid of stuff I have not used in years. Look what I found way in the back. (Also found four one pound containers of Red Dot.) The Clays are unopened. The Trail Boss is filled to the brim which means I dumped a partial bottle into this one so it is over the normal 9 ounces.

Any #10 washer will work. You certainly do not need aircraft quality for a shim. The washer ID has to be able to slip over the spring strut. The OD has to be narrower than the width of the gripframe. On old Vaqueros and all Birdshead models the OD has to be 1/2" (.500) or less. On the New Vaquero plow gripframe they are 7/16" wide (.437) or less. I just took the strut to ACE with a caliper and bought a bunch of washers to fit both.

Clays is not made in Australia. Made in Canada.

Trail boss is that a new category? Does that come before or after Cattle Baron?

I bought 100 Large Rifle to prime a few cases I needed for some non-CAS loads. I have a KM hand primer which is all steel and a good quality hand primer. The first two or three were very hard to seat. Then it got stuck like the primer had caught a rough edge on the shell casing or the edge of the primer punch. Had to basically squeeze it in a small vise. The seated primer looked fine. Same for the next several rounds. Two or three hard but seated with hand pressure. Then one was stuck and had to be muscled in and so on. They all fired but are definitely harder to seat than other primers I usually use.