Cypress Sam, SASS #10915

Great CC! I think you’ve got it now. Seriously though, I know that the notch in question is called half cock, but it functions as a safety notch. (Of sorts since it isn’t very safe,). That was to distinguish it’s purpose from that of a half cock on a muzzle loading rifle or the half cock for loading a Colt SAA. The saying “Going off half cocked” didn’t come about by accident - or maybe it did!

With the gun empty, if you cock the hammer and pull the trigger, the gun shouldn’t open until you push forward on the slide and hear a little click. That should unlock the action. When you load and fire a live round, the inertia of the recoil pushes forward on the slide and unlocks the gun. Depressing button on the right side should mechanically depress the same bar to unlock the action as the slide does when firing. With the gun empty, you should be able to depress the button and work the action without it locking up. If the hammer is on half cock, the button won’t unlock the action until the hammer is moved to full cock or all the way down. If you load a live round and can’t open the action without firing the gun by pushing the button with the hammer not on half cock, leaving the only way to get the action open is to fire the gun, then something is wrong with either the gun or the way you are operating it. This is one of those things that would take about thirty seconds to show you or about an hour to write out.

As has been said already, your finger is probably hitting the trigger too soon in the cycle. Since 66’s are no longer made with lever safety’s, the hammer will drop at any time in the cycle that the trigger is pulled. The hammer then follows the bolt forward without enough force to ignite the primer. (That leaves a small dent in the primer causing many to think it was a “bad primer” or too light a mainspring. Correcting the problem is a matter of working on your timing: lever - pull, lever - pull; not lever lever - pull pull. Don’t grind off the safety notch on the hammer though. It won’t help the problem and might contribute to an out of battery discharge.

If you’re asking the Wire, historical accuracy probably isn’t the important thing for you; so, Rugers, tough, reliable and easily modified with available parts. (I like Colts myownself though.) For a rifle, just know that all new ones will need varying amounts of work to run well (read feed reliably.) The Uberti ‘73 all tricked out is the rifle of choice for SASS. But that will cost you $1200 to $1800 or so by the time you’re finished. SO, my recommendation for a rifle is to go cheap and get a Rossi Model 92 (I like the rifle with 20” bbl better than the carbine or longer bbl rifle). I would then get the video from Steve’s Guns, his spring kit and replacement for the safety and “slick up” the rifle myself. www.stevesgunz.com After you’ve shot a while and decide to stay in the sport, you’ll be able to sell the Rossi without losing any, or very little money if you want to get a different rifle. Or keep the Rossi which is a fine gun in its own right.

Ruger didn’t do that with mine. I took out the short stroke parts, but modified springs and other parts were returned as I sent them. Mine still have the transfer bars though. They may re-install safety devices.

I screwed up the star ratchet on one of my New Vaqueros trying to improve the timing (while a friend was holding my beer). I sent it back to Ruger after calling them and telling them that I had screwed it up and it was several years out of warranty anyway. I’m not sure if they replaced the cylinder or just press-fit a new ratchet, but it came back about two weeks later like new. They did not change any other parts and also did not charge me anything, even the returnpostage. If function is affected, I’d suggest calling Ruger and taking their advice.

The Marlin Model 92 is chambered to interchangeably shoot 32 rimfire or 32 Colt, both heel-based bullets. The 32 S&W Long bullet has lubrication grooves and is seated inside the case, making the case diameter larger than the 32 Colt. The Marlin 92 can be converted to fire 32 S&W Long just by rechambering and opening up the loading slot to accommodate the larger round.

The theory in a cut and weld SS is to lengthen the part of the lever that goes from the pivot screw to the links. This is done by sawing a cut in that part of the lever and bending it back so that the measurement between the two holes is increased by about .100”. Then weld up the gap and bend the “finger-hole” part of the lever back to the proper position (the cut and weld will change the position of the finger lever so that it won’t be in the right position for proper operation. You may also have to mill the slot in the links a little longer since the geometry has now changed. Some add an early generation short stroke kit as well to get the stroke very close to SASS minimums.

Damn, if I bought a gun a month, I’d have 984 guns by now!

I guess that’s winter in Montana, even if it’s still Fall. Temperatures here in Central Florida have plunged too. 64 degrees right now (6 am) with an expected high of only 85. If this keeps up I may have to roll down my sleeves.

I never tried to build one. That looks like a lot of good work went into getting so far along. Must have hurt to sell it.

Nice pictures. I always wanted to fly a biplane but never got the chance. I flew a lot of tail draggers though: PA-12 Supercub, PA-11 Family Cruiser, PA16 Clipper, Chipmunk, Stinson, and I owned a PT-26 at one time. I stopped flying about 35 years ago though. It got too expensive!

Maybe because by thumbing with the off hand you can actually hit something. Fanning, not so much.

I would go so far as to say that no one can outrun a 92. I’ve never gotten a response as to exactly what is defined as “outrunning a 92”. If you look at the way a 92 functions, exactly what function is being outrun. I have seen a lot of people drop the hammer when the action was not yet closed and jack out a round. This happens because the 92 has an internal mechanical safety mechanism that prevents the firing pin from striking the primer unless the lever is fully closed. My opinion is that this is what is being called “outrunning the gun” when it is, in fact, operator error.

I shot a 92 for several years when I first started back in ‘95. They are great guns. If you can master the 92, you won’t have any trouble mastering a 73. The lever stroke on a 92 is longer than that of a “short-stroked” 73. In the hands of a really good shooter on a speed run it might make a difference of one or two seconds for 10 shots. The 92 was an improvement over the 73 because it is a much stronger, more compact action, handling more powerful cartridges. When CAS started and for the first 20 years or so (until the advent of short stroke kits for 73’s, the 92 Winchester/clones and the Marlin 94 were the go-to guns. Back then the extra long stroke and clunky action made the 73 less desirable. I think that a new shooter is much better served by starting with a (much) cheaper 92 and learning the game than spending (for me anyway) mega-bucks on “‘73 race gun“. There is always a market for nice 92’s, so you’re not going to loose money in the unlikely event you later want to sell. I realize that many, if not most, will disagree with me, but even though I now shoot 73’s, the 92 is my favorite lever gun.