Trailrider #896

Got a call the other day from some guy wanting to inspect our roof for damage from a tornado back in July. Told him our roof had already been inspected by our insurance company and was okay. (Had six trees uprooted and a fence blown down, which was paid for less a deductible.) The caller said he'd come over and inspect our roof anyway. I told him if he came anywhere near our property, I'd call the police, then I hung up. Never saw hide nor hair of him! If the cops couldn't get here in time, the character would have been looking down a round tubular piece of machinery!

I have used .44 Magnum cartridges in my OM Ruger Vaqueros, as well as in a Rossi M65 (M1892). As my Vaqueros have been set up for .44-40 cylinders, as well, I simply grab my Rossi chambered for .44-40, depending on what ammo I have the most of at the time. I developed loads in both .44-40 and .44 Magnum that match ballistically at around 950 ft/sec, using 213.5gr bullets in both, with Hodgdon's Universal. Due to the thicker walls on the magnum brass, the charge weight in the magnum is reduced by 7% from the .44-40 brass. With .44 Magnum brass there are no feeding problems in the M1892 actions. I will grant the point that the New Model Vaquero cannot handle the magnum cartridge.

Fascinating! Unless the aircraft in question was being flown into a hover at altitude, for training purposes, I can't imagine the auto-eject feature coming into play. I wonder if there are harness roll-up devices that would pull the pilot into a "safe" posture, such as there were years ago in the F-104 for the feet (pilot wore spurs on his boots connected to the ballistic reels, with guillotine cutters on the cables after the ejection. There were some other weird things, such as cables and reels & cutters on the systems I worked on, but that was years ago, so I don't remember which aircraft used them, if any.

The problems were with certain ballistic cartridges that might preclude a successful ejection. I seriously doubt that an "auto-ejection situation is possible. The pilot was reported to be okay, and that would require he/she being in the proper position to eject without injury or death! As far as what made the pilot eject in the first place, the flight control systems are so complicated that a total failure might have made it totally impossible to make any inputs that had an effect on the attitude of the aircraft. I am speculating, but I'd bet that after following all the checklist procedures to regain control, the pilot had no other choice but to eject. If the aircraft was in straight and level flight or thereabouts, it would have just continued until it ran out of fuel before crashing miles away from the pilot ejecting.

Thanks! It was an honor to be part of the Air Force, if only for a short time.

"Intergalactic"? And what be your ship, matey? The Millenium Falcon?

From some of the reports, you might need SCUBA gear, possibly with saturation breathing gases, and a boat with side-scan sonar.

About 99.95% of the Wells Fargo marked shotguns are fakes. The "correct" marking and trademark for the company was/is "W.F&Co's Express". However, there are occasional "W.F.Exp. Co." marks, including a M1849 Colt's Pocket Pistol shown on their company brochure in the early 1970's that reads this last. In 1971, I found a barrelled action for a M1886 rifle at a gun show in California. The octagon barrel was 16-3/8" long, correct for a short-barrel. On one of the flats was the marking, "W.F. EXP Co 1XXX" (quotation marks mine). The marks were very fine, not like the usual die stampings on sees, and in about the same condition as the rest of the barrel, which was rusty brown. The receiver was dull as well. The lower tang was missing, along with most of the mechanism, so no serial number was available. The barrel was marked as being chambered for .40-65 WCF. Beyond the dovetail for the forestock cap (also missing) there was no provision for the magazine tube. Sucker that I was/am, I couldn't resist, and paid the exhorbiatant price of IIRC $50.00. I probably spent four or five times that getting parts and wood. Just another fake? Possibly. I contacted the Wells Fargo Museum, and they opined that the gun was a local purchase item bought by a field office. With no other means of attaching the magazine tube, I restore it as a "button end", held in place by the magazine/forestock cap. The magazine will hold four rounds of .40-65-210 cartridges. What would be the usage of such a critter? IMHO, it would be great for use in a railroad express car. Easier to swing in tight quarters, with longer range in case of a holdup. Now, if that rifle could only talk...

NASA has just released the results of their study of UAP's, in which they can find no evidence of extraterrestrial origins for the UFO's. OTOH, they don't know what they are. The James Webb Space Telescope has found a planet that might have microbial life. Personally, I have serious doubts of there being much intelligent life on the planet Sol-3 (aka Earth)!

If someone wants to feed a buffalo without getting hurt, there is a bison ranch on the border of Colorado and Wyoming, off I-25, where you can ride a special train, which stops and the semi-tame buffs will come up to the sides of the open cars, and you can feed them bits. They've got other critters you can see from the train, as well.

And the kids used a thorium reactor instead of uranium.

???? The only emoji I posted were two National Colors (American flag).

Grim! I have never been in combat, and reading about it doesn't give me the same impression that these films do. God Bless them all! And those who have come since!

Tomatoe, tomeyeto, either eyether! Let's call the whole thing off!

Amen!