Larsen E. Pettifogger, SASS #32933

With the cylinder out make sure the hammer is fully down and look at the tip of the pawl. If it is retracted below the ratchet pocket it should free spin when the detent is removed from the gun. If the pawl tip is flush or sticking out the cylinder will not free spin.

The free spin feature does not depend on the little spring loaded detent. How well it works depends on how well the tail on the pawl fits into the groove in the gripframe. Some are well fitted from the factory some are not. The detent is actually supposed to keep the cylinder from spinning backwards.

I tried a LARGE punch and a ball peen. Would not budge. That is why I was asking. Bond and others have a screw so you can easily change barrels.

Got it out. Serrated pin pressed into the frame. It is not intended to come out easily.

The Arizona Cowboy Shooter's Association (ACSA) shoots its monthly shoots at the Ben Avery Shooting Facility. Yesterday they had a warm-up match and today and tomorrow is the club's annual pre-EOT match . Ben Avery is a very active range and just to the west of the CAS match a silhouette match was going on and just to the east a benchrest match and a high-power match on the 1,000 yard range. (All of these ranges are used for EOT.) The main tent and vendor tents were also still being worked on so it got to be quite crowded for this weekend's CAS match. Some people were getting a jump on the EOT swap meet with several tables full of goodies. The weather is sunny and 75 and the crowd is having a good time on the stages. Cowtown (located about ten miles west of Ben Avery) is having Fire and Ice this coming weekend and as soon as the shooting is over pretty much everyone heads over to Ben Avery to pick up their shooter packets as EOT registration opens on Sunday, February 25.

Does anyone KNOW how to remove the pin that holds the barrel on the frame on an American Derringer?

Most people going to EOT don't read the wire.

FYI Munk is a longtime Dillon employee has helped man the Dillon booth at Winter Range for years and is the handsome devil in the videos.

Are the rounds reloads?

Like I said Ruger pawls are often not fitted correctly. It only takes a thousand or two to go from working to non-working. Congratulations on solving the problem.

Here is a cost calculator. Based on current real world prices and not memories of what things cost five years ago $7.50 a box is a realistic number for reloads. https://www.losttarget.com/costcal.htm Numbers I used as a guestimator - Shot - 7/8 oz Grains of powder 15 Primers 1000 @ $75.00 Pounds of powder 8 @ $250.00 Number of wads 500 @ $12.00 Shot 25 pounds @ $60.00 Hulls - free

Not all Ruger pawls are fitted correctly. Put the detent back in and see if it works OK. If so leave it alone.

Last week the temps reached the 80s. This past week it was rainy and in the 50s. This morning it was sprinkling but by the time the Cowtown match started at 9:00 it was sunny. I was checking the weather reports all day yesterday to see if it was going to rain during today's match. All day yesterday and late last night the weather reports changed by the HOUR.

A few quotes from an American Rifleman article from 2021 - RCBS: Handloading’s Helping Hand by JOHN HAVILAND posted on October 11, 2021 NEWS, AMMUNITION, RIFLES, EXTRAS According to Will Hemeyer, senior product manager for RCBS, there are about 4 million handloaders. . . . American shooters and hunters represent 95 percent of the handloading market, however, handloading is also somewhat popular in Germany and Australia. “Russia is becoming a fairly big market, too,” Hemeyer said. Shotshell reloading has diminished to the point that RCBS may discontinue its The Grand shotshell press. Bullet casting remains prevalent only among handloaders of those cartridges that lack commonly available projectiles. The difficulty of finding inexpensive lead and lead alloys—and the sun setting on the growth of cowboy action shooting—have also stalled the practice of bullet casting.

From Cast Bullets.Com - I talked with Eric on the phone yesterday (2/5/24). He said he put the "so long, farewell" message on there himself. He told me it all started with Covid. He can't find good machinists, and too many of his parts are made out of country. He's closing "for now". When I spoke with him yesterday, he mentioned he had been doing this for 50 years. The conversation definitely left me with the impression he might be ready retire and not have the stress of running a business.

Lots of good memories in those old Chronicles. I think I started writing for the Chronicle in 2008.

I could never find a source that just listed WR and EOT scores in one place. However, the Chronicle archives start in 2005 and if an issue is reporting on WR or EOT there would be a headline on the front page.

A few extra shots to add to those posted by Sixgun Seamus. Today was the last officially scheduled work party before EOT. Nice bright sunny day with a very mild breeze. The work was broken down into two main groups. One was doing some finish work on the props, building trees, dynamite plunger boxes, etc. The second group was working on the targets to make sure the right shape, height and type of target will go to each bay during set-up. Since I retired from the Board a couple of years ago I am no longer privy to the secret codes used to identy the targets. They told me they could tell me but then they would have to kill me. I will just wait until the match starts to see what the scenarios look like!

Paul in his younger days.

Will look for him there.

I have read it several times. It is very good.

I seldom reply to posts anymore but just finished tuning a pair of Uberti Runnin Iron short strokes for a future Chronicle article and experienced about a one in fifteen shot over rotation. These have the retracting firing pins. Some basic questions: You said you purchased these guns in 2019. That is five years ago. Have they always had this problem or did it just start recently? If the problem just started recently it is an entirely different inquiry. Either something has broken or is worn. Is this gun a short stroke or standard stroke? Is the set screw that holds in the hand spring installed? The Uberti hand spring is extremely short. Some people have recommended leaving the screw out. On my two guns this left virtually no pressure on the hand and it over rotated almost every time it was cocked. The screw needs to be in place unless the spring is replaced with a longer spring. Have you checked the bolt drop timing? On both of mine (which are about 300 numbers apart) the bolt timing was way off. (The bolt to notch fit was also not too good.) Get in some strong light with the gun oriented like in this photo and SLOWLY cock the gun until the bolt drops and look where it dropped. Do this several times to make sure you are getting a good indication of where the bolt is dropping. In this photo the bolt head is at 12 o'clock and the notch and 6 o'clock. The bolt head is actually overhanging the notch. The bolt is dropping LATE. I shot the gun as is and got about a one out fifteen instance of over rotation. I tried it in its stock setting as the short stroke parts are very hard to get and the geometry is quite different from a standard stroke and I did not want to risk ruining the short stroke parts. After a range session I figured the guns were unshootable so I decided to try and adjust the bolt drop. I slowly filed on the bolt with a fine diamond file and tried it in the guns numberous times until the bolt head dropped in the middle of the bolt lead. (I also made a simple jig to be able to see a side view of the hammer cam/bolt leg relationship.) Because of the lighting it looks like the bolt is hanging in the air above the bolt notch. It is actually sitting in the middle of the lead in front of the notch. For these guns this solved the over rotation problem. On a standard stroke gun adjusting the bolt to drop earlier is fairly easy. Basically a tiny amount of material is removed from D. On a short stroke I would take it to someone that KNOWS how to adjust Uberti short strokes.