Recent content by dfariswheel

ABSOLUTELY. That's a steal.

I've heard of one case of a person killed by a rock salt round after humid air compacted the salt into one lump that was fatal. In any case these days it makes no difference if you fire a load of rock salt, goose feathers, or 00 buckshot, the law counts that as firing a lethal weapon.

For rifles that have to be cleaned from the muzzle, I use a Dewey one piece stainless steel rod and a brass cone shaped muzzle guide. I do all the cleaning by putting rod down the bore and attach the patch or brush on the rod and pull it out the muzzle. The brass protector prevents any contact...

The only Mark III hammers I saw broken were dropped and the spur broke off. A nephew by marriage was a cop for a couple of years and dropped his issued Mark III Trooper getting out of the car and broke the spur. He continued carrying it for the remaining years he was on the force. The triggers...

The counter sunk cylinder was only used on the very early Mark III revolvers. They quickly changed to a "fenced" cylinder with a ring around the outer rim to serve the same purpose...... One of the greatest revolvers to learn double action shooting with is the Colt Trooper Mark III in .22LR...

Before bonding, roughen the inside of the barrel and outside of the liner to give the bonder a "tooth" to bond to. Loctite seems to work easier since it won't start to set up quite as fast as an epoxy, and it's thinner so easier to get it together. Clean up of the excess it also easier. For the...

Note that these were chambered for the black powder .38 Long Colt. It in good mechanical condition they can be fired with LIGHT loads in .38 Special brass. Be very careful with it, these have complex, rather fragile actions and if they go out of order or break there's only a couple of gunsmiths...

The pressed in firing pins in all brand revolvers "can" break, and almost all newer designs use pressed in firing pins. Colt no longer offers any service for any of the older models, but Frank Glenn and Heffron Precision both can service the older Colt's including firing pin work. Today on the...

If you're right handed, you can carry it on the outside of the right leg, or inside the left leg, your choice. Outside the right leg means you may be banging the gun on a door frame as you walk through, and inside the left leg means you'll find yourself kicking the gun with your right leg as...

Pretty much anything made by FN between the wars is good. FN produced almost all of the South American Mauser rifles and quality was uniformly good. Prime rifle actions are the DWM Argentine 1909 and DWM Brazilian 1908. The Argentine 1909 is the only military Mauser that had commercial features...

The finish is not a Colt factory finish. Best guess is that it's hard chrome, which while not original, is about the best gun finish there is, it's a true lifetime finish. Any type of nickel that looks like that is probably an electroless nickel. If so it will likely have a slight amber tint...

Here's an old model makers trick to preserve contents of a can or bottle..... Light a butane lighter and blow the flame out. Hold the lighter over the bottle or can opening and allow the heavier then air butane to flow into the container. The lighter air will be forced up and out. Carefully cap...

It's Colt's prototype for the worlds first successful double action, swing out cylinder revolver, made around 1884. The design was never produced as other then a prototype, an improved version was marketed to the military and commercial market in 1889 as the Colt New Army & Navy models.

When it comes to higher skilled technical work like gunsmithing, watchmaking, etc, you cannot learn it through an online or correspondence course. Put it this way, if you were an aircraft owner, who'd you want working on your engine or air frame.... a guy who took an online course, or the man...

Shooting the lead out" is one good way to get a bulged or ringed bore. If there's just a little too much leading the pressures can soar and it will blow a bulge in the barrel. A jacketed bullet passing down the bore has to try to push much of the leading out in front of it, like a boat pushes a...