Recent content by SWC Bonfire

I initially started out with 18 grains of FFFg 777, but I bumped it up to 20 gr with no ill effects. The biggest jump in repeatability was when I started adding 10 gr of cream of wheat to get a consistent ball placement and fill the cylinders. That is the combo I tried with zigzag papers to...

You may have to have some provision to align the new cylinder before the action is closed to prevent wear to the hand spring and the bolt/cylinder groove areas. Interesting idea. Especially if it were modified like the gentlemen in the UK modified their SAA's- lining the cylinder with barrel...

It's my understanding that the .429 bullet came about when S&W developed the .44 Russian because the Russians didn't like the heeled bullet design, and that would have predated 1873 & the Schofield/.45 Colt.

Just to add to what was said here, Crockett most likely left a "fancy" percussion rifle behind because there were no sources of percussion caps in Texas at the time. To give you an idea of the timeframe, Colt patented his revolver before the Alamo fell. Took years to get to Texas in the form...

I have the 16" round barrel carbine if that is what you're referring to as the "youth model" and it fits me fine to shoot (I'm 6'-6" and have very long arms). The sights aren't the best in the world, otherwise it's been a great gun and like the previous posts is fun as all get out and shoots...

Old Fluff, thanks for the report. I'm sure it is more accurate than an account included in TR Fehrenbach's Lone Star, which is what I was referring to, which specifically mentioned 500 revolvers issued by Rip Ford at Vera Cruz. The lower number is probably much more accurate, because there...

To add to JT's post, when the US mounted rifles and the ranger units were commissioned into Army service, they asked to be issued "Colt's revolvers". There were none as far as the army was concerned, as Colt was out of business and relatively unknown outside of Texas. Colt responded with a...

Corn meal or cream of wheat would help isolate the powder, but it wouldn't do anything to keep the bullet from rolling out the cylinder. Another thing that I have noticed when using cream of wheat in paper cartridges is that you don't pour powder perfectly flat, it usually is higher on one...

The problem with patching undersized balls in a revolver is that the blast from a fired round gets deflected toward the other cylinders from the frame/forcing cone. The reason oversize bullets are used is so that they shave a ring of lead off when seated and seal off the powder from sparks...

Patersons were used well against the Comanches by Capt. Jack C. Hays and his Ranger companies. They were also used against the Mexican Army on a couple of occasions, the most substantial being the battle of Salado Creek. The Rangers fighting with Taylor in northern Mexico during the...

I have the RIA tactical, it handles very well, shoots great and has good sights/trigger pull. It is probably worth it over the base model. I bought it used, but even the new prices were much cheaper than a taurus when I checked. If you are looking for something to hotrod later, you might...

In a nutshell, the melting temperature of brass is quite a bit lower than steel. At the temperature output of a small torch, you are going to get anything that is brass closer to its melting point than you would anything made of steel. At elevated temperatures (but still low relative to the...

kanook, that was the first thing I thought when I saw some vent flanges in home depot the other day... how do they compare cost-wise to buying the cast ingots from like Midway or other bullet casting vendors?

This was posted a while back: http://www.theopenrange.net/articles/Tuning_the_Pietta_Part_One.pdf http://www.theopenrange.net/articles/Tuning_the_Pietta_Part_Two.pdf I know the round bbl 44 navy at Cabelas is a pietta, I assume yours is as well. It goes over fitting the bolt as well...

As an update, I just bought as many kinds of ammo as I could find. Upon closer inspection, one type of failure was the ammo was feeding out of the magazine, but not sliding up into the chamber. Use of 36 grain federals usually solved this problem (a more "pointed" bullet shape). It would not...