Larsen E. Pettifogger, SASS #32933

Thanks Misty.

Next up a word about feeding your double, i.e., shells. The common advice is to only used smooth sided hulls. I have only used ribbed hulls for several years. A word of explanation. Most shells made worldwide are Reifenhousser style hulls. (Often called Euro-trash hulls by high volume reloaders.) Virtually all of these hulls are ribbed. But it is not the ribs that cause shucking problems, it is the cheap construction and materials in these hulls. The plastic is formed into long tubes and then cut into shell length sections. The plastic tubes are in many cases much thinner than a premium American made shell. The tube is inserted into the rim portion of the shell and then a base wad pressed in to lock everything together. The heads, regardless of color, are steel. Steel expands but does not contract as readily as brass. The only shells still made with brass heads are the Remington STS series and the Winchester AA. (Some new "premium" AAs have steel heads but these are plated with nickle so they are easy to recognize.) So what you basically have are cheap Reifenhousser hulls that are made with ribs and premium American brass base shells that are smooth sided. Again, it is more a function of cheap vs. quality than the ribs or smoothness. A lot of guns, including very expensive guns, don't like steel heads. By expensive I am not talking SKB and BSS. I am talking Perazzi and Kreighoff. When people go to Walmart and buy the cheap four packs of Federal Red shells in addition to being cheaply constructed (i.e., Reifenshousser) they are frequently 3 dram, 1 1/8 oz loads. The pressure from these heavy loads expands the steel head and they stick. What I use exclusively for CAS shooting is the Remington Gun Club hull. These are extruded hulls that are basically an STS with a ribbed hull and steel head. Remington Gun Club on the left, Euro hull on the right. They are well made hulls and the plastic is thicker than the typical Euro-trash hull. If you are shooting at any level of competitiveness you have to have a case gauge. I have hit batches of brand new AAs that three or four out of every box would not chamber freely in my doubles. Finding this out in the middle of a stage is not the place to do it. In the photo the shell will go into the gauge with just LIGHT pressure with a finger. But, if a shell requires any force to go fully into the gauge it will take force to get it out of the chamber. Even just a fingernail flip to get a hull out of the chamber on the line is wasted time. On the gauge in the photo if a shell does not drop FREELY all the way to the rim you can stick the crimp into the knurled end of the gauge and give it a twist and it will iron out imperfections in the crimp area. Then retry on the other end and most of the time the shell will now gauge freely. If not toss it into the junk box. The Remington has a solid case head. As opposed to the Reifenhousser a hollow plastic tube is not inserted into the rim portion. Rather the Remington hull is solid on the bottom and the case head is crimped around the hull body. Thus the steel does not expand as much when the shell is fired. To make sure everything is set to spec the Gun Club hulls are all run through a Mec Super Sizer. This squeezes the head back to factory dimensions. Then they are loaded once and tossed. With light CAS loads the steel does not expand. The main area that causes shucking problems is the crimp. The more often a hull is reloaded the weaker the crimp area. (The shell in the sizer is a really crappy one that was grabbed from the junk box. Most look factory new.) I use to carry a rag and wipe each shell with silicon and brush the chambers between each stage. I no longer do either (except for BP) and have not had a failure to shuck in a long time. Just ran out to the garage and cut apart a couple of hulls for an addentum to make sure people understand the difference in hull contruction. The Reifenshousser is just a hollow tube. Left in the photo. The Remington has a solid head. Right in photo. The last photo is a close-up of the Remington head. It even has the rim shape in it. Several years ago all plastic hulls were offered as the metal rim did not increase hull strength. People just could not get use to the all plastic hull so they started putting metal rims back on. (The grooves in the Remington hull are saw marks from cutting off the metal rim.)

Here are a few ideas. Hopefully the text and photos will come out in the correct order. The first thing is to inspect the chamber. If it is shiny and smooth there is little to be done. The primary thing to look for is roughness or ridges in the chamber. Flitz, for example, will make the metal shiny but it will not remove imperfections in the chamber. The best tool for the job is a chamber hone and the special oil that comes with it. Next up just take a rod and cut a slot in it that you can chuck in a drill motor. Wrap the abrasive cloth in the direction the rod will rotate. In the second photo I am pressing down on the rod to keep the cloth from unwrapping. Once in the chamber centrifical force will force it outwards. Apply oil and use fine cloth. Finally you can take a bore map and coat it with fine abrasive or for a final polish with something like Flitz. I screw it into a short section of cleaning rod so I can make sure it is fully into the chamber when it is chucked into a drill motor. With the bore mop keep in mind that if the chamber has imperfections the mop will conform to those imperfections. I will split this into three parts to make sure the photo MB size does not exceed the limit of this site.

In your top photo with the black button and spring clip the aftermarket wheels do not have these. You would have to come up with an alternative way of retaining the wheels. The axle is also around .395" which is not a common U.S. size and is actually 10mm. I would just bite the bullet and get the wheels from Rugged Gear.

Almost looks like the difference in height between a large pistol primer and a large rifle primer. I wonder if the cups got mixed up in manufacture or if they were packaged wrong?

Even though these have brass colored heads I am almost positive they are steel. Stick a magnet on them to make sure.

In all honestly the fact that you talked to someone at Uberti USA does not necessarily mean you got the correct information. The people answering the phones are generally NOT gun people. Most are minimum wage take what we can get in this era of people not wanting to work employees.

Ammo type that you are using. Then I will give you my suggestions.

I hope not. The STI was a great gun. The Gaucho was an interesting entry level gun but no longer made and no parts. Sort of a Brazilian version of the Colt Cowboy.

The Wonderful Country came up on Prime. A Robert Mitchum western that I had never seen or heard of before. About all the discription said was classic western in Technicolor. The Techicolor was kind of washed out and the story and acting were B western, i.e., not all that good. BUT it did have something really interesting. Very high up in the cast in the opening credits it listed Satchel Page. I had seen him in some old newsreels but never knew he made a movie. (This was his one and only one.) He played a Buffalo Soldier sargeant. It was really neat seeing one of if not the greatest baseball player of all time on the big screen.

One of my favorite old movies. The Sons of Liberty.

You did not mention the most important thing. What shells are you using? Make and loading.

Street view is a small building in the woods with nothing around it. Only allows for Zelle payments. 100% fake.

Between Yellowstone and Big Sky I am amazed there are any people are left in Montana. Seems everyone there is a killer.

Don't forget the STI Texican. The finest, tightest, single action ever made! At least that is what their ads said. High priced, low production and now out-of-production. If you want the very best look for a Taurus Gaucho.

FYI real .45-60 rims are thinner than .45-70. On my original 76 in .45-60 it would not close on cut down .45-70 brass or was hard to close. If your 76 is loose or you have minimum spec .45-70 it may be OK.

I would not buy a Standard if for no other reason than the name. For $1,900.00 I want at least a Deluxe or some name that does not sound so cheap. Heck my toilet says Standard on it.

The Silver Senior Action Shooters?

Hell's bell's the Gremlin was a hot car for a while. I remember an easy mod was to take out the 304 two barrel V8 and drop in a high performance 401. Kinda fun. Had a 401 in my Jeep CJ-5 too.

The De Soto with old Hernando himself on the hood. Of course he has been cancelled for being a politically incorrect in the 21st Century so it is just as well his car is gone.

There are threads I know I have read and know the topics. Regardless of the search term or terms the search function will not find it. After I scroll through pages of old threads and find it I look and every search term I tried that did not work and all of those terms were in the thread. I cannot understand why it functions so poorly.

I have been thinking along the lines of Cheyenne Ranger. I have not found a suitable press yet but did find an ancient SCHIESSEL 12 gauge shell holder on EBay. Sooner or later it will all come together.

Switching out the die on my Sizemaster is no problem but I did a couple of minor mods to make life easier. First on the pre-crimp I turned the lower lock nut all the way down the shaft and tightened it. Then used washers from the kit to set the pre-crimp and put a wing nut on top. The shaft spins so the lower locknut gives you something to hold if the shaft starts turning. Next I pressed a plastic wing nut on the die bolt and ground the tips off to clear the weld on the press. I also put an o-ring on the bolt shaft to keep things from vibrating loose. This will hold me until I figure out a permanent mount for the die.

Washington, D.C.

The SSASwire search function sucks.