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Dusty Devil Dale

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Everything posted by Dusty Devil Dale

  1. NOAA NWS is over-forecasting almost every day here in central California. Practically every week, in this season, they predict heavy rain that seldom turns out to be very consequential. They predict "Atmospheric rivers" that end up delivering < 1/4" of rain over 48 hours. But they do succeed in discouraging attendance at our monthly matches, even though little rain actually falls. Then in the Summer they forecast 110 deg days frequently, constituting "new heat records", but our actual temperatures seldom reach that 110 deg F mark. They are succeeding in creating a media and public mindset that extremes are happening everywhere, but their predictions, like those from their models for Climate Change, haven't really been very reliable. I wish they could separate weather forecasting and climate predictions from political agendas, but that appears to be impossible for them.
  2. Regarding Camping: Dry camping for our events is always free at our range. If you are travelling and will need a place to lay over for a day or two, or longer, before or after the Fort Miller event, that is no problem. Just let us know in advance. Also, there are two Derrels Mini-Storage facilities within a few miles of our range (right along the way) who offer free RV Dump Stations. .
  3. Dillon's new 650 Ring Indexers are, sadly, not what the old ones were. They appear to be made by 3D printing, and the material is very brittle. My older ones were a fibrous plastic, like the one in your image. The new ones break much more easily, even with a roller bearing cam, so I've been buying them 4 at a time. The warranty won't cover more than one at a time. There is no need to ship the press to Dillon. They come with full installation instructions and they have a video online. Easy peasy! I found a couple after-market aluminum indexers online, but one was a company in Slovania that I don't trust to give credit card info to. The other was a CNC machined one made in Washington State. I ordered one, but I do have some reservations that Dillon may intend the indexer to be a sacrificial easily replaceable (weak link) part to prevent other major damage. I think there will be risks using the aluminum one, so I'm still thinking on that before I install it. The first rounds will be VERY light- handed. My particular problem is that my wife shoots .32 H&R Mag in her revolvers, so it occasionally happens that with my ageing eyesight, a .32 case hides inside one of my .38s and when I deprime, the force bends the deprime pin and snaps the indexer.
  4. Truthfully, I was in high school before I realized it was "indivisible" and not "in the window sill". I found out when an attractive young girl standing beside me broke out laughing in the middle of the Pledge. (True story)
  5. I use the pins with a few drops of Dawn and a pinch of Lemi-shine or with a squirt of Armoral Wash and Wax. Brass always comes clean, but after several cleanings, the pins will put micro-scratches on the brass surface, making them appear paler. After the tumbling cycle, I dump the contents into a round gold panner's 1/4" classifier sceen that is sized to fit inside the top of a 5 gal plastic bucket. My bucket has several 1" holes bored in the sides about 8" from the bottom. I run the hose, with considerable volume, over the brass in the screen-bucket, for several minutes. That washes out 90% of the pins and all of the chemicals. Then the batch goes in the media separator, submerged in a storage tub with a hose overflowing it for a second clean rinse. From there brass goes to a sun (summer) or oven (winter) drying tray. The gold classifier screen makes initial rinsing easy and the bucket catches the washed out pins. It works for me. The gold classifier screens are available for about $10-$15 from various vendors online.
  6. This is good advice. The smallest bit of soap residue will discolor the brass after it is dried. Don't ask me why.
  7. If you can make it to the Central Ca area on April 18th - 20th, the Fort Miller Shootout is a fun 3-day annual event that you will want to get signed up for. Fort Miller is a true classical Cowboy Action Shooting match with historically themed stages that will take you back 150 years into the old west; shooting it out with outlaw gangs, escaped prisoners, and claim jumpers -- all in a western town setting. One stage will have you shooting at claim jumpers out of a fast moving ore cart on a 100-ft track into an open-pit mine. As Roger described, the three days will be full of activities and action: 5 side-matches, two warm-up matches, the 2-day, 11-stage Main Match, some great eating, raffles with some very nice (think 1873) prizes, and free onsite dry camping. This year, the event is limited to the first 100 shooters, so get signed up soon if you want to be there. It is always a fun time with lots of fun shooting and cowboy freindship!
  8. Just FYI, Fitting of a Vaquero pawl (or "hand") needs to be a slow, careful process. It probably should not be tried by an inexperienced kitchen table gunsmith unless you have a spare, stand-by, working part and someone knowledgable to call for help. Fitting the length and both tip angles of the second, lower pawl spur is a critical fitting job. If the length is a thousandth or two too long or short, the gun's timing will be affected. If the TWO release angles are incorrect, with respect to the cylinder ratchet angles, over time and use, the hardened hand will improperly wear the softer cylinder ratchet ledges, eventually putting the cylinder rotation out of time (always at the worst possible moment of an important match). Like all gunsmithing, make sure you understand how it all works before you start modifying parts.
  9. Definite advantage if your shiny bald head blinds the spotters.
  10. From your description, it sounds like the hammer plunger and spring are either missing or not operating properly. When the hammer is drawn back, the spring loaded plunger presses the rear tang of the cylinder latch, releasing the cylinder to spin. The plunger needs to be cleaned and lubricated from time to time, and it can fall out easily on disassembly if it's little locking pin is loose.
  11. It's a Ford. That means everything is linked through the computer and expensive fuses. And to find things in their manual, you look up the verb. Instead of looking up "tire" or "wheel" for a tire change, you look under 'c' for "change a tire".
  12. When the only work they ever have done was at the gym, their hands have never been dirty, their fingernails are perfect, they have never had job, a boss or a supervisor, and they think there are eight genders, you have a Gavin Newsom -- Just the way everybody wants their son to turn out.
  13. High winds are pretty amazing! Yesterday I drove through Cramer's Junction on Hwys 58 and 395 in the California Mojave Desert. I stopped at the Chevron station to fuel my pickup. While I was fueling, I heard a loud series of bangs above the shrieking wind. About 20' of the raised seam steel roof above me peeled back, broke loose and slammed into the side of the adjacent convenience store. I don't know the official wind speed, but it rocked my F250 truck side to side 8 or so inches. After returning to Hwy 58 and proceeding west, I saw two small travel trailers on their side on the shoulder.
  14. I'm sure the lovely gold inlay adds a lot to that value at auction.
  15. Re: lost phones: I solved my frequently misplaced phone problems with blue tooth "TILES", purchased at WallMart. They're small plastic tabs, each with a locator chip. With one attached to my car keys and programmed into the phone app, I can either locate the keys from the phone or find the phone from the keys with the press of a button. They work great, but you do have to check batteries from time to time. I have them on all sets of vehicle keys, heavy equipment keys, and my travel trailer keys. Each set is uniquely programmed and separately searchable. I buy them on sale; 4 TILES/ package for about $35. They've saved me some frustrated hours searching. They have about a 100-foot effective blue tooth search range.
  16. Actually, there is an age at which cows do drink milk. That is why their mothers produce it. Just sayin.
  17. I was relieved to see that the new law won't restrict larger chainsaws, portable sawmills, or most ag equipment. But it will restrict leaf blowers, pressure washers, lawn mowers, etc. Vendors can sell existing inventory, and many sellers filled back rooms and warehouses, so all of it is likely to be available for a while. And at this point, nobody checks at the border inspection stations. The law is another liberal farce.
  18. Amazing detective work. Much appreciated.
  19. Idiots are not the only ones who get injured. Safety seems so obvious, but it is not always so. Things can seem perfectly safe, but have hidden hazards that nobody would anticipate -- many times even experienced people get nasty surprises from things they've done routinely. A habit I've acquired is to go onto the Internet and search/read about accidents that have occurred with tools and equipment that I use. The OSHA sites pop up with some surprising, but awful accidents that I'm glad to be made aware of. For example the 60 cycle per second semi-pulsation of an older single-tube fluorescent light strobed a 60 RPM 18" swing vertical lathe flat still. The operator stuck his hand into the giant chuck - lost his lower arm. Or a worker was finish-polishing a cylindrical wooden spindle on a lathe in a furniture factory, using high speed and too long of a sanding strip. It wrapped his hand, twisting it off. Or the diesel engine of a front-entry skid-steer died from hot intake gasses while pushing logs up onto a burn pile, with no fast way out for the operator. The operator perished. (Reading that, I removed the rear windows from my front entry equipment that I use for managing burn piles. ) Pretty much every tool or equipment type has its own list of fatal or disabling accidents. It isn't pleasant reading, but there's a lot of value in being aware.
  20. Wow! That's a bit chilling to read, given today's current events! Too many of the above concerns are facing us right now. You have to wonder-- and fear -- where all of this could end up. "Ends Justify Means" seems to have overpowered the written words of the law.
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