J-BAR #18287

Actually the rule is, “Leave a gate like you found it. Open if it was open, closed if you found it closed.” ...if it’s not your gate.

I love shooting old shotguns so if this one trips your switch buy it. But you are never going to learn to shoot fast on slow guns. You learn to shoot fast by putting in a lot of practice time on the range with fast guns. You will see a lot more SKBs, BSSs, and tuned Baikals and Stoegers in the champions’s carts than Stevens 235s. It is a question of goals, and only you can answer it.

But it’s so “tactical”.

There is a spot on your x-ray...

I expect others have had the same problem, and Dillon is aware of it. Give them a chance. You haven’t lost anything if they can’t help.

Gotta love baseball! My 45 year old son made one of the teams in an adult wood bat league. My 5 year old grandson threw out the first pitch at his uncle’s game last Sunday. Keeping it in the family!!

Once again, I stress that black powder and BP substitutes permit a wonderful flexibility for experimentation. Large BP charges can be great fun to shoot, but are not necessary for getting the knockdowns to go down. My standard load is: Hull: Remington STS or Gun Club 12 gauge, or Estate low base hulls. Use only 8 point crimp hulls. 6 point crimp hulls have not been kind to me. Primer: Winchester 209, because they were what the local gun store had. Use whatever. Powder: 2F whatever. I routinely use Pyrodex, Schuetzen, Goex, KIK, Graf's, whatever I can buy cheaply in bulk. 2.5 CC Lee Dipper of powder, which should be about 38 grains of powder. You can get by with less, but this gives me a good crimp with one ounce of shot. Wad: Claybuster 1118-12, white wad for one ounce of shot. Shot: 7 1/2, or 8; 1 ounce is enough for any knockdown I have ever encountered. One Frontiersman national champion I know will not load less than 1 1/4 ounce of shot rather than risk having to hit a knockdown twice. You pays your money and you takes your chance. Most important: getting a good tight crimp. I load on a MEC 600 Jr. If there is a gap between the crimped points after the final crimp, crank the pre-crimp station down a skosh and make another test shell. You absolutely do not want shot pellets to leak out of the shell. Trust me on this. If you cannot find a way to close the crimp petal gap, close it with Elmer's Glue. The targets will not complain. So load the big volumes if you want and enjoy the smoke and boom. But you should know that you can be competitive and lay those targets down with smaller powder charges. Finally, shoot your new creations at paper and find out where the pellets are hitting. DO NOT ASSUME that the point of impact is where you think it will be. Determine where the shot charge actually hits, or you may be surprised/disappointed at a big match. Particularly for you folks who do not put your cheeks down on the buttstock!

50 rounds per day in practice, 5 days a week, 3 weeks per month, 9 months per year for 3 years = 20,250 rounds of.22 LR through my Remington 513T while on my high school’s ROTC rifle team. Plus a bunch more in individual 4-position competition during my first 2 years in college. My cowboy action rifles probably are close to that number, but I cannot say they exceed it. Dang, I wish I still had that old Remington, even though I could now replace it with a Winchester 52D. (That’s what the rich kids shot in the ‘60s!)

I read Birdgun Quail's original post soon after it came online, and I have found it to be thought provoking and difficult to answer. That's why I am showing up on the page 2!! I realized that the gun I enjoy shooting the most is one I have not shot in a long time. The winner -- my grandfather's Winchester Model 42 , .410 pump shotgun, manufactured in 1938. I borrowed it from Papa many times when I was in high school and college, and it accounted for a lot of rabbits, quail, doves, and several pheasants, as well as a few cases of clay birds at the skeet range. I came to me a few years ago after my uncle passed away, so it will get some exercise this fall.

Contact some of the experienced BP shooters at your range and ask for help. It’s no trouble to clean the guns at the range immediately after the shoot. Let the soot lords know the situation and they can bring what they need to send her home with clean firearms.

Difficulty on opening the lever might be caused by the rim of the cartridge protruding from the magazine getting hung up on the carrier as the carrier rises. The rim of the cartridge in the magazine should slide down the angled front surface of the carrier, which pushes the cartridge back into the magazine tube. To check: load only one cartridge in the magazine and cycle the lever. If the lever always opens easily with just one cartridge in there (no cartridge in the magazine) look for a burr on the front of the carrier that might catch a rim. If the gun is difficult to open with just one cartridge on the carrier, then the rim may be catching behind the carrier.

Col. John Stapp survived 570 mph and 46 Gs of deceleration. But I suspect it was not fun. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stapp Another volunteer endured 83Gs deceleration, which is not wind pressure, but dang!

I’m gonna try this. Dang. The calorie count on my recumbent bike didn’t change unless I moved the pedals. Foiled again.

No doubt! I can say the same for my K-Frame .22s, .38s, and .357s! An older S&W is a work of art.

Flood the exposed parts of the arbor and wedge opening with a good penetrating oil and let it soak for a few hours. Then gently warm the metal with a hair dryer (not a flame or heat gun), then chill the metal with ice water. Dry and repeat: oil soak, warm, then chill. You are trying to pump the oil down between the parts by capillary action, gently expanding and contracting the joint with temperatures. Continue until you can wiggle it apart with your hands or give up in frustration. Trying to get a replacement from Dixie, if they will take this one back, is probably your best option, but if you are stuck with this one try the “hot/cold “ treatment. I have freed up some badly frozen joints this way. Patience...it may take several days.