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Larsen E. Pettifogger, SASS #32933

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Everything posted by Larsen E. Pettifogger, SASS #32933

  1. 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.
  2. 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
  3. Not all Ruger pawls are fitted correctly. Put the detent back in and see if it works OK. If so leave it alone.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. Lots of good memories in those old Chronicles. I think I started writing for the Chronicle in 2008.
  8. 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.
  9. 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!
  10. I have read it several times. It is very good.
  11. 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.
  12. In the mid-1970s Scottsdale, Arizona, had Bricklins. I remember when these were behind you at a stop light all you could see was the gumball machine in your rear view mirror.
  13. Set-up starts the morning of Wednesday February 21, 2024. A goodly number of shooters usually show up to look at the stages, find out they are not set up yet and stay to lend a helping hand. If you are in the area stop by for a little companionship and lunch. The two local clubs both still have space in their EOT warm-up matches. The Arizona Cowboy Shooter's Association will be hosting a match at the Ben Avery Shooting Facility on February 16 - 18. Cowtown Cowboy Shooters will be hosting a match at Cowtown on February 24-25. Cowtown is just a few miles to the west of Ben Avery. Many shooters go directly from Cowtown on Sunday February 25 to Ben Avery to register for EOT. Registration opens at 11:00 am on the 25th.
  14. A slight update on the preparations for EOT 2024. Last week the temps were in the 70s. Yesterday (January 21) it was drizzling and the temps only got into the low 50s. So several groups gathered under any available cover and spent the day gluing carpet to the shooter table tops. Not glamorous and downright nasty but something that could be done even in the rain under cover. At the last work party a front that is going to be used downrange was set up and the targets set to make sure they can be placed as planned. The match director continued to go over the stages to make sure the proper targets go to the proper stages. This is a two-step process as the Wild Bunch stages have to be set up first and then torn down and the CAS targets set up. Since resetting the targets has to be done Tuesday afternoon after WB finishes everything has to be placed and ready to set up for the start of the CAS match on Wednesday morning. Even though it was raining and work limited everyone still needed to be fed.
  15. The illegal "feature". Grooves in the gripframe. Declared an illegal grip enhancement. Ruger removed the grooves shortly after the SASS TG vote many years ago.
  16. They are the same casting. The difference in the finished product being the SBH has serrations (left) and the Montado checkering (right).
  17. About the only gun this works on is the Ruger. If you look at the bottom of the Single Six hammer on the right and compare it to the Vaquero hammer (new or old) on the left they have the same geometry. You can install a Single Six hammer in a Vaquero and with some work it will function. Colt clone hammers used in Uberti's small frames are physically smaller on their bottom ends and won't interchange.
  18. Preparations for EOT 2024 have been going on for months. Work parties are scheduled well in advance so people can mark it on their calendars and at each work party a list of tasks is laid out to make sure all planned work is completed on time. This past Saturday (January 6) the weather was sunny with no wind and a temp of 56 degrees. Under the direct rays of the sun that 56 actually felt a LOT warmer. This week there were two primary tasks. Building carpet covered tops for the loading and unloading tables so the tops can be removed at night to avoid them getting wet in case of any night time rains. Next up was to refurbish the mining tipple. New colors are selected and the parts removed from storage for reconditioning. EOT has six storage containers full of props. Here is what the tipple looked like the last time it was used. Looks like the Rough Riders have everything on schedule for a fantastic EOT 2024.
  19. IAC is out of business. If you click on the "Ad to Cart" button it comes up "THE LISTING IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE FOR SALE."
  20. Your original post was not clear. A photo often helps. So here is a short discussion of APP, some photos and maybe some suggestions or ideas. APP has been through numerous iterations. There was light tan, dark tan, light grey, dark grey and now it is black. APP has a reputation for clumping and this has gotten to be less of a problem with each iteration. FIrst make sure there are no clumps. Shake the can really good and dump some in a bowl and stir it around to see if there are any remaining clumps. I just went out to the loading room to do a little experimenting. Here is a photo of some old dark tan APP I found and some of the new black APP. Next let's make sure we are talking about the same thing. Here is a photo of the Dillon funnel set-up. I have also picked out two .32 expanders that I found in my expander drawer. The short one is for rifle and the long one for pistol. Make sure you have the correct expander. The ID should be .200". The OD is around .306. (.32 is nominally .312 so the expander has to be slightly smaller than that for bullet retention.) For the heck of it I took a scoop and dumped some charges with the tan and black APP. If I dumped slowly the powder seemed to through fairly consistently. If I just dumped the whole scoop it bridged. I could not find my old .32 expander that I had in my .32 H&R set-up as I have sold or given away most of my .32 loading gear. On that one I bored the center hole to around .230. This still leaves about .035" wall thickness at the tip of the expander so it still works OK. Another idea would be to make the die into a drop tube of sorts. Take a piece of plastic pipe and shape it so it raises the funnel. That way the power will free fall and spread out before going into the explander. The red thing is just a mock up to give you and idea of what I am talking about.
  21. APP granules are larger than comparable real BP granules of the same "FF" range. APP FFG is about like cannon powder. The granules are huge. FFFG APP is smaller but can still be a challenge at times in a .32. I shot Single Sixes in .32 Mag in Frontier Cartridge Duelist for a lot of years. (And a lot of .32-20s. Same problem.) What a lot of people do is strap an aquarium air pump motor or a hobby vibrating motor like this one on the measure to vibrate it. https://www.amazon.com/uxcell-Vibration-Vibrating-Electric-Massager/dp/B08265KJLY/ref=sr_1_54?crid=1CK18I0KNOKKD&keywords=small+vibrating+motor&qid=1697427086&sprefix=small+vibrating+motor%2Caps%2C143&sr=8-54 You have to make fabricate some kind of power supply which you can also get off Amazon or a hobby store. Here is a photo of a vibrator on the primer slide of a shotshell loader just as an example. I also put my powder funnel in a lathe and opened the hole just a bit. Even a homemade knocker sort of like some old powder measures had can help. (The little gizmo on the front of the measure.)
  22. That sounds like the retractable firing pin. They have a reputation for the firing pin not locking properly when the trigger is pulled. On a non-short stroke model a typical solution is to replace the hammer and trigger with ones from a standard "four click" model. That won't work with the short stroke as the parts are different and short stroke parts are very hard to find. You best bet may be to find a smith that will pin the firing pin in its forward position permanently and eliminate the retract feature. Since this is a "safety" feature I doubt that Taylor will eliminate it. They will try to fix what is there.
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