Cypress Sam, SASS #10915

Thats a good Idea.. I may try that just a tad. wouldn't need much, nor would I want much of a counter sink, but in this case, just a little bit would help I'm sure. I'm also hoping that this was a little bit of a "break in", and the next time shouldn't happen so quickly, and not to such a high degree. You don’t need to do more than break the sharp edge and remove the raised ridge.

You can bevel the edges of the firing pin hole by placing a drill bit (Wrapped with masking tape to prevent damaging the rifling) down the bbl. Then hand turn the bit to “countersink” into the frame a little. This will prolong the life of the FP hole before you have to do it again. Don’t use a powered drill for this not even a hand powered one. Turn the bit with your fingers and keep it straight with the barrel.

I’m very sorry to learn of Bill’s passing. I lost contact with him over the last few years, but he was one of my mentors when I started SASS a quarter century ago. Not only was he a good shooter, he was a fine gunsmith and master machinist. As far as I’ve been able to determine, Bill was the first one to short stroke a 73. He machined a set of links out of aluminum with the slot angled 11 degrees as a trial for the functioning of the gun. He made the next ones from tool steel for actual shooting. I don’t know how they came to be manufactured, but that’s how hey started. Bill was a great guy and I will miss seeing him.

The Dillon dies have a spring loaded decaping pin that positively ejects the spent primers (at least mine do, not sure about all). That is a plus because sometimes a primer sticks to the decaping pin and is then reseated. The decaping stroke punches out the dent from firing, so now you have a squib or failure to fire. I have a hunch that many “bad primers” were actually reseated spent primers.

I ordered some imitation ivory made from canvas micarta polymer from macecraftsupply.com. A piece 8”x10”x1/2” was enough for 4 sets of one piece grips. They are closed until May 24 because of the COVID19 according to the website. The material cost about $60. This is raw material, not semi-finished grips. Here is a picture of them on a pair of 125th anniversary Colt Commoratives.

I read an article about annealing in G&A several years ago that gave an el cheapo method. Fill a baking tray or other flat pan with enough water to completely cover the base of the cartridge, leaving the rest sticking up. Heat the mouth red hot and tip each case over with the end of the torch to quench. I’ve never tried this but it sounded reasonable to me.

What Jabez said.

Great job Dom! Finally I know someone famous. Andrews does great work on his SASS rigs. Dom is quite an asset for them.

Depends on whether you have large or small hands. The 1860 grip frame is larger while the ‘51 and ‘61 frames are the same size as the 1873 Colt grip frame. I have all three models and prefer my 1861 Navies with Richard Mason conversions to .38 spl. The ‘60 Armies’ grip frame is uncomfortable for my hands.

I’ve had really good service from Dillon as well over the years. Last week I broke my 44-40 shell plate for my 550 trying to pull out a stuck case. After a long wait I talks with Tim who told me to trash the old shell plate and sent me a new one. Great service, great people, great company, great products.

If you didn’t like Georgia, you’d HATE Central Florida!

Or you could use more powder and/or a heavier bullet to increase chamber pressure enough that the case expands to prevent blow-by. Then you won’t have to clean it so often.

It’s the ammo that is the problem, not the gun. If the ammo is sealed well, like military ammo, it will fire even after months or even years of submersion. Commercial ammo should survive short or moderate periods of submersion as well. Handloads, it depends on how well sealed they are. My Colt Commander was submerged one time for about 30 hours or so (another story for another time), and 5 of the 8 handloaded rounds fired. If you are actually firing the gun under water, don’t forget that the water in the barrel has weight and that is added to the bullet weight as far as the gun is concerned. The result is an increase in pressure. Lead is about 8 times as dense as water so in a pistol with a 4” barrel, it would be the equivalent of having a load with two bullets. Probably not a good idea to shoot a submerged pistol with full loads. It will fire though.

What Abilene said for the cartridge loops. For refitting the holsters, after wetting them (I use rubbing alcohol instead of water because it dries faster), wrap the gun in a plastic baggie and mold the leather to the gun by rubbing it with something like the rounded end of a toothbrush handle. You can also flare out the entry to make reholstering easier. After it dries make sure that the fit is what you want or rewet and fix whatever problem you had. At this point the leather will be stiff from having dried out. When you are happy with the fit, to keep the rigid shape, put the gun back in a baggie and liberally apply some Minwax Wood Hardner (available at Home Depot). This will make the leather rock-hard. You can then polish it with wax for looks if you want.

Looks like a coal mine with hair in it!