Doble Troble

Well guys, I finally had a chance to get some range time this afternoon - it seems like its been a month since I discharged a firearm which is just plain no good.

I shot my 35-55 and Colt 45. It was a cast bullet only session. That 38-55 is so consistent that I don't need to bore you with details. I'm glad its a shooter, but its cruel that somehow that translates into having to shoot it less.

The Colt 45 - Ruger Blackhawk referenced above is a different story. I've been trying to work-up an accurate load. The first few shots that I took with it standing with a two-hand hold were 10 rounds into 4" inches - many of them touching to create a big ragged hole. These loads were 8 gr of Unique with 250 gr store-bought RNFP bullets with bright red crayola lube. I haven't bettered this accuracy yet.

I loaded up a bunch of these 200 gr SWC from a Lee mold because I like the convenience of the tumble lube system, and wanted a plinking bullet. They shot sideways in probably a four foot diameter at 25 yds with loads of Unique from 8.0 - 10.0 in 0.5 gr increments. Because of this I ordered this mold which is close to the design of the store bought bullet that shoots well. See how casting your own saves you money? Anyway, the mold hasn't gotten here yet and so you can brace yourself for another report later.

What I did today was shoot a bunch of these 300 gr gas checked bullets with loads of H110 from 20.0 - 22.0 gr in 0.5 gr increments. I bought this mold a long time ago for my Marlin 1894 rifle and they shoot very accurately to 100 yds but not to 200 yds - don't know why.

I shot 5 round of each off the bench at 25 yds. These are some fire-breathing loads. I've tried, but this bullet doesn't shoot well with Unique up to 10 gr and so I've decided that this ain't going to be a plinker (even with light charges of Unique, this bullet gets your attention). So shooting off the bench at 25 yds the 20.0 gr loads and the 21.5 gr loads both shot into about 3". I'll load up a couple (not too many) more to send over the chrono later. I suspect that the 20.0 gr load will do whatever I want it to (kill large mammals within 50 yds). The strange thing about this shooting session is that I loaded-up 20 rounds of the 20.0 gr charge so that I'd have plenty to zero the sights. The sights didn't need adjustment and so I had plenty of extras after the charge experiment. I shot these standing with a two-hand hold (which is much funner, but still fire-breathingly dramatic) and my groups were better. The total spread was still about 3" but there were many more touching. Shooting this beast freehand is more accurate than from a rest (a 4x4 wrapped in carpet). My conclusion is that I get a better hold freehand - sometimes off the rest the beast will almost come out of my hands. These big bore handguns require a firm grip which is compromised by shooting off a rest.

Very fun. Once the Tylenol kicks in the palm swelling should recede.

Hopefully Isreal will live up to their reputation and kick terrorist ass. Hopefully we'll watch and learn. Hizbulla won't disappear, there's nothing else for fanatical young men of questionable intellegence to do in that region. The void will be filled and the process repeated again and again until islamo-fanaticism becomes as unpopular as it should be.

The war on terror is going to take a long time. I'm glad to have Isreal actively participating and I hope that we will cooperate with them to our mutual benefit.

A lot of ragheads are going to have to be killed. I hope we all will have the stomach to see this through, it won't be easy, and we're going to lose a lot more good, brave and honorable anti-terrorists before its over.

Very interesting, Gothmog. Thanks.

Last week the motor to our AC fan blew - took-out one of those old screw-in type breakers and a streach of wiring. I got into a car accident (with an angry and untruthful Muslim who made a left into my path) on the way to Home Depot for parts. $1500 damage to my Contour and had to swap a flat with the spare (in sweltering heat). Fortuneately it was abundantly obvious who was at fault, but unfortunately it turns-out that he has Allstate insurance who are the most awful people to deal with... Limped the Contour back home and got the old truck to Home Depot just before it closed. I had a spare motor on hand and got it hooked up and it ran beautifully...in the wrong direction. Rewired it so it turned the right direction and blew the starter coil, and finally figured-out that my band saw motor would work perfectly. About 3 am the house started cooling down. My wife is an Oregonian and doesn't deal with the heat and humidity well. Success was a marital imperative. Earlier this week the breaker fuse serving the AC compressor decided to quit working - this one I couldn't diagnose or treat myself and so we baked until the next day until the professionals arrived. Fortuneatly we have competent professionals. I suspect that with counseling that my marriage will be out of the woods by Fall - assuming we don't have any more AC problems.

Sometimes I really wonder how the South was populated before AC was discovered.

Nice blue on that action. How did you do it?

Is that a Turk band on the front - or maybe from a 24/47 or K98? It looks better than the original. How is it secured? I tried a Turk band on my Win 94 with a bigger bbl and a forend that I made from a Turk stock. I forged it around the bbl and it looked OK but definitely Bubba. You must have taken your time with the wood to get such a nice fit. Any pointers?

Very nice work, riceone. It looks better than the original. I bet its very light and handy, and that 6.5 mm is a very useful cartridge.

You've made yourselve a handy and accurate hunting rifle - Very cool. With the loads you've worked-up you can efficiently kill anything in the lower 48. The good thing about that is that you still have Alaska left and MUST build another rifle. I like the stock work too.

Now I know what these guys mean about having to clean beverage off their monitor.

This is great psychological and social analysis. I've always wondered about what PETA, etc were thinking in-terms of assigning human values to animals. I'd never considered that they were attempting to reduce the value of humans to those of animals.

I think Ted is right. All of this Liberalism is about de-emphasizing the status, importance and (most importantly) the responsibility of humans to be responsible for their own behavior. We're all just animals, and we're all kinda French.

you learn to love it as-is

Absolute pure wisdom!

Jason,

I didn't get the email!

Hopefully you can just forward it. I'll PM my email address (hopefully I didn't screw it up in my profile).

I got a 200 gr mold. This one from Midway. Thinking that I could save some lead by casting some light bullets. The blackhawk doesn't like them AT ALL. They were hitting all over the place. I carefully loaded-up five rounds each with Unique from 8.0 - 10.5 gr in 0.5 gr increments. I didn't get past 9.0 gr. I guess I'll pull the rest. The 300 gr gas checked ones I cast are more accurate, but are definitely on the wild side. These like H110 and lots of it. I can keep them on a 4" paper plate with Unique, and those loads aren't so wild, but I'm hoping to find something that will do ragged holes without needed a two-hand hold to keep that long barrel away from my forehead.

I guess I'll Ebay the 200 gr mold, I suspect the bullet was designed for the 1911 and not for the Colt 45. I had some 250 gr bullets from a batch that I bought a long time ago that are traditional Colt 45 design and they shoot very well with 8 gr of Unique. Unfortuneately I only have a few of them left. I guess I need to start looking for that type of mold. I like the cheap Lee 6 bangers - you can cast a pile of bullets in no time. This one is very close and I think I'm going to order it.

Drudge says that Gingrich says that WWIII has begun.

Here's the link from the Seattle Times.

I Googled this.

I applaud supporting applying technology to decreasing our dependence on fossil fuel. This won't come without cost. Will a hybrid cost less to run? Maybe not. But you will have the value of trying to do the right thing.

It's hard to say. A job well done is certainly worth $130. I don't have as much experience as a lot of these guys, but I've never seen a Mauser where I noticed and egregious problem with the action being out of square. With that said, I face the receiver and lap the lugs of all the rifles I build. Because I think its fun, and because it won't bug me that I didn't do it later.

I vote for the 6.5 x 57. It's true that they won't be able to buy ammo - they'll have to make it themselves which just adds to the fun and coolness.

Thomas Sowell is a true American patriot. He is honest, intellegent and genuinely cares about truth and justice. I wish that more of his fellow Americans would listen to him, and think about the points that he makes. We would all be better off.

That would be Troble^2. But I bet that would be more appropriate! I seem to have a chain reaction on my hands.

Sorry, fritz, no tengo un carbino. But I bet I could make one!

I'll trade you two long Turks for one of your Mexicans, sporterized or not.

...I can just about justify buying two

or 4, or 8, or 16, or 32, or 64, or 128 or 256...

Let me know if you need a Turk. I think I have 64.

Anyone ever consider this?

Shudder.

That's a nice haul of nice Mausers. If that's a GI stock on the bottom, its the nicest one I've every seen.

I keep thinking that I should order one of the Greek Rack grades for "redoing" purposes before they run out of them.

I realize that the M48 is about a quarter inch shorter overall

This is the only difference I worry about.

Good luck with your project!

NYC needs better handsaw control.

Guns don't kill people, handsaws do.

Handsaw control is cutting the board right where you want.

Sweet! Literally. How are you going to cook 'em?

That would be a real gut-buster if the consequences were easier to take.

Time to load-up some blanks in the black powder pistolas!

I think I need to make a black powder cannon specifically for the 4 th of July. I wonder if its possible to shoot fireworks out of this type of cannon (of course it is)! I need to look into how to make fireworks too.

Hopefully I'll be better prepared next year.

You guys have fun without unintentionally blowing something up.