McCandless

My '66 ran fine with .45 S&W Schofields with a 200gr Bullet. Shorter OAL wouldn't work. The last .45 rifle I have left is a JM Marlin, runs Schofields with a 200gr perfectly. I still use than one for WB. No problems.

Lohman Gunsmithing ParkWest Arms Will Brothers Restoration Run-N-Iron Canoe Creek Casehardening

Following the excellent instructions that Widder posted on Marauder's site, https://marauder.homestead.com/files/Widdermatic_Marlin.htm I was able to rescue a Marlin 1894 carbine that had been "rode hard and put up wet" from a gun store and make it into a nice Widdermatic. (The 20" barreled rifle that your wife shot at Cross Creek, was short-stroked).

Just a note: All my .38/357 Marlins run best with Truncated Cone Flat point bullets. 1.48" overall length works perfectly for me. Except for the short-stroked one that requires 1.40" I did have a carbine that would only take full-length .357s, but when I replaced the carrier, it would only feed .38 sp. It's now been made into a Widdermatic.

Yes, high primers in a rifle (or carbine) magazine tube is a catastrophic detonation waiting to happen. I was timing a gentleman who had a chain detonation inside the magazine. The forearm splintered and disappeared. That magazine launched. The gentleman had excellent safety glasses but the ER had to pick metal fragments out of his face. He was left with a barreled receiver, and one of our members picked remnants of cartridges out of the receiver. You will need to use Large Pistol Primers that fit into the Large Pistol Cartridge Case. It's fine to leave the factory mainspring to help light off the Bosnian primers. The Uberti rifles are used throughout Europe, Australia, and New Zealand where primer sources are not the same as here.

Now we need to know if the NMVs had standard or lightened hammer springs, and if lightened, what are they rated?

I'm only relating my experiences with "Rifle Last" stages. Make of it what you will. I shoot at a club that sometimes has rifle last stages. These were all open, with no facades, no windows, no doors, nothing. As a T.O. I was able to pick up all shots, and reliably pick up the last shot. Calibers used by the shooters ranged from .32 to .45. No problem. However, I did have the opportunity to time a buckaroo at a recent State Match. No matter how I tried, I could not pick up the shots fired with his .22 rifle. Across 10 stages I tried angling the timer, getting it out as far as I could without impeding the shooter. There were no enclosed stages. These were "rifle not last" stages. I could pick up the pistols and shotgun without problem, so all was good. I'm considering now, what I would have had to do, if these had been "rifle last" stages...

I shoot my Nagants now and then. Just for something different. I make a semblence of the ammo using 32-20 brass. It doesn't give you the gas seal as real Nagant ammo, but it gets the job done. They'll slow you down a good deal, but for once in a while it's something different. Confounds the Loading Table officer, if your club used one.

The MagTech is looking like the old Winchester rounds from the 1990's - early 2000s. They had that deep cannelure. I always wondered if brass (if used multiple times), would break off there.

If you'd prefer, the ETS Mag Speed-Loader is sold on Amazon. I found out that these multi-round speed loaders require significant force.

Cowboy Mounted Shooting at Winter Range 1996. CMSA founders. L to R: Bronc aka John Peel, William Bruce aka Jim Rodgers and Rawhide Rawlins aka Phil Spangenberger.

I followed Widder's exact instructions, measurements, and tweaks that he posted on Marauder's Old Irons site and made my Marlin into a Widdermatic. That little rifle is slick now. The timing was off before I started as I did have an instance of the "Marlin Jam". If you do want someone else to work on it, since Widder retired, he taught Slater at Slater's In House Guns, in Louisville, TN, how to sweeten up sour Marlins. In your neck o' the woods, Cowboy Carty, Carty Allaman, Western Gun Works, Monmouth, IL (309) 536-0163 is a wizard with Marlins.

Thunderbolt Taylor, 1993 EoT

Kid Clayton, Doc Holliday, Bootlegger, Ringo, and the Hangman, 1998 Western Action Shooting Society, (New Zealand) - End of Trail

Los Pistoleros de Santa Margarita - the Santa Margarita Gun Club at Camp Pendleton monthly match. The matches at Pendleton were unique among other cowboy matches, in that the Marine Corps rifle range offered the opportunity for some very challenging stages. The rifle targets for most stages were set out at 75-100 yds, with at least one stage with rifle targets at 200 yds. There was always a team event at the end of the match. Because of the stages' tough, challenging, and slower nature, there was only time for 4 or 5 stages per match. Most stages were shot with only one or two guns.