El CupAJoe

I was with a pilot friend about to take a ride and we decided to taxi back to the hanger because the engine didn't seem to be making power... found a squirrel's nest in the air intake... spent the rest of the next few days walking around the hanger with a .22...

And 100% not available locally... I never buy enough to justify shipping. I've been looking out for some app for a couple years now. I'll buy a pound or two if I can find it.

in my rossi at the last match, I attempted to get my powder coated bullets lubed with 50/50 beeswax venison tallow. it was pretty much unsuccessful and the lube fell off the bullets and I ended up loading a bunch of them with no lube, just powder coat. the ones that were lubed were not lubed very well. I got through 5 stages with only one user induced malfunction. I didn't notice any issues with fouling to speak of. I'm not sure if a longer match would have caused issues for me. I was using Pyrodex P in 38 special cases, Lee 358-125-rf bullet.

Fancy Sea Chicken

OG fidget spinner

Best thing I ever added to pork was an overly ripe mango.

Here's another story from right after I was married, My high-school aged sister in law was having a bon-fire with friends at my In-law's place about a mile from where we lived. my mother in law calls me up to let me know I should come scare them so I grab my ghillie suit I used for paintball and my wife and I parked around the house where they couldn't see us. my mother in law let us in the side gate and I slowly crept through the shadows until I was about 12 feet from where they were sitting then I just waited. They had just got done talking about how someone had escaped from the local mental hospital/prison facility when one of them asked "what's that" pointing in my direction. I waited until they were all looking at me, then raised my arms and danced like an ape and sent them all screaming into the night...

my wife nannied some kids when we were first married, one day i went with them to the zoo. I stayed back as they approached the penguin exhibit pretending to be there by myself. I waited until another group was approaching then walked up to the kids she was watching and quietly asked how they liked the sea chickens. The kids thought this was hilarious and started yelling out "sea Chickens! Sea Chickens!" I walked away calmly and left my wife to get the sideways glances from the new group that just arrived.

Notes from battle for Baldknobber's ridge. had my wood screws back out after the second stage. will need some more work on the adapter plate attachment. I was able to borrow a shotgun for stage 3 and get it back together by stage 4 and was able to finish the match but it was a little loose again by the end of the last stage.

I can de-cock my coach gun by depressing the breakopen lever stop with a car key, when the lever is in the closed position, but gun open, I can deactivate the safety and pull both triggers to release the sears on the strikers. closing action then allows the strikers to move forward against the cocking lever in the opposite direction as cocking. If I don't re-engage the opening lever, I can insert shells (I prefer #3 20 gauge buck) and leave the action partially at rest with the barrels partially closed and rounds in the chamber. To get into action, I have to fully open the gun to re-engage the strikers, push the opening lever over to allow it to close then close and if applicable disengage the safety. I don't usually leave the gun staged like this however as it is rather a complicated readying action. Typically if it's my ready for action gun, I leave it cocked, open and rounds in the chamber, much simpler to just close, disengage safety and fire. I do however de-cock the strikers if I am disassembling for storage or transport. Hammered shotguns have the advantage of being loaded and can be placed at half cock with the action closed, just cock and fire.

I've not been running very long. usual issues with brass frames in colts, are that the rear gets peened as there is a relatively small recoil surface, or the arbor threads get pulled forward resulting in the so called "frame stretch". on the Remington family guns, there are very large flat areas that mean the force/in^2 is lower than the colts resulting in a greater resistance to peening. secondly, the forward pull of the barrel is not contained in a single set of brass threads but rather the whole of the top and bottom strap of the frame, so on the whole, I am very comfortable with the judgement that a Remy or S&B in brass should last significantly longer than a brass colt in the same usage scenario. I'll add to that, the S&B has less chamber capacity than a '51, so it's less likely to have been shot with too much powder if you pick one up second hand. I'm maxed out for chamber capacity with a 17 grain charge and a 130 grain lee conical. (modification to the gun or bullet is required if you intend to use the lee 36 cal conical with the S&B. I swage the base of the bullet so it will sit down into the chamber to rotate under the rammer, but most people modify the frame and rammer to get the conical underneath the rammer.

Amazing what you can do with a hacksaw.

first stop if considering pistol grip only (PGO) shotguns should be the demonstrated concepts youtube page. he shows how and why to apply a PGO shotgun and what accessories make them very useful, (light, dot and recoil strap) he also does training in Colorado if you can afford to go check it out, but his videos are pretty straight forward on his technique. Forgotten weapons just did a vid backtracking some of the smack talk they gave the shockwave when it came out after reviewing the demonstrated concepts application and technique.

Spiller and burr is something to consider. It's 36 cal and may or may not be actually smaller than a 51, but it feels very small compared to my 58 and 60's. here's a pic next to my 58. it's also a 6 shot. my model was worked on by @Larsen E. Pettifogger, SASS #32933 and has a pretty light hammer, I may actually need to get a heavier one if I can't find caps that fit my cones better as I was getting light strikes last match, I suspect cap fit was to blame, but a stronger hammer probably wouldn't hurt. I don't know if they are all light out of the box or if mine is because it was worked on. cap nipple combo was Slix and CCI11's and Win 11 mags.

@Artemus Von Schutze @Sarsaparilla and the the Bear Creek Volunteers put on a great Match! Special thanks to Dainty Daisey for the fine straw hat she sold me and Wrangler Z, Artemus and the others who gave me tips and helped me out with the Train wreck that is my cap guns. Congrats to the fine cowboys and cowgirls who had some amazing runs, overcame obstacles and made the whole experience a great time!

Bummer, hope you had a good time in Branson!

Hey @PaleWolf Brunelle, #2495L, does conforming to the hat requirement when doing a look alike mean that there must be a hat, or that the hat must also be felt, because I'd kinda like to know if this outfit would be B-western approved, or just something I'd have to keep in a non-costume category. I wasn't sure if this phrasing was intended to allow Indian head dresses and the like as long as it was from a movie depiction etc...

looking forward to this, anyone else going? @DeaconKC?

Forgot to add a picture of it assembled last night. I've removed the flashlight since this pic was taken, I feel like black powder smoke and flashlights don't work well together

It works! Also my homemade black powder shot shells pattern nicely!

This is a follow on to the topic above, feel free to read through that first. Over lunch today, I finished making my shotgun stock convertible so it can go back and forth from being my truck gun to my match gun. All in all this was pretty straight forward, but I got pretty lucky in that my cut line hit right where I needed it to which was rather hard to confirm before doing the cut. drilling into 90+ year old wood was a little scary, but I took it slow, chucked it up in a drill press, sharpened the bits and ran the drill, turning the chuck by hand instead of powered. Test firing and pictures to follow tonight. Just in time for the Battle for Baldknobber Ridge this weekend! Things still on my checklist, finish loading my BP shotshells and Rifle shells. If I have time, make up some more paper cartridges for my Remmy. Dust off the cowboy outfit and strap on my spurs, Branson here I come!

I'm hoping to cast some brass knife handles soon so I've been watching probably a bunch of the same videos. Good luck and let us know how they turn out!