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I "oopsed" when flaring the case mouths of my .45-70 brass when I was learning the cast bullet loading technique. I've since learned from my mistake, with fewer problems. As a result, I've got a dozen or so pieces of .45-70 with very small splits in the case mouth, all less than 1/4". If...

My father just inherited a vintage Marlin Model 336 in .30-30, and he wanted me to help him remove the sight that the previous owner had installed. When I arrived, I was startled to see an ancient Weaver Qwik-Point red dot sight sitting atop the Marlin. It had been many years since I had...

As I scrounge for more wheelweights to fill my bullet molds, I remember that I have a few spare dead car and UPS batteries in the corner of my garage. Obviously, I'd need to neutralize the acid with baking soda to a safe pH before separating the lead plates inside, but what alloy are battery...

I've been using lard and beeswax as my BPCR bullet lube of choice for the last year or so. To get it working well in my Lyman lubrisizer, I've had to go heavy on the lard and not so heavy on the beeswax ratio, otherwise I'd have to get a heater for the device. They say idle hands are the...

DuraCoat finish, as offered by a local gunshop. I'm thinking I should get one for my wife... :D It would go great with a Kalashnikitty T-Shirt!

I've had the June 6th, 1896 edition of Harper's Round Table in my hot little hands for some time. Watching people here discuss what the proper source of wood is for BP charcoal, and what steps are needed to make the stuff at home, I simply could not sit still knowing what folks used to fill my...

Many of the roads and bridges around me are flooded out, and it's pouring in biblical proportions outside, so it's time to get some other projects out of the way. Today, it was 500gr BP .45-70, 20 soldiers at a time. :D The dining-room table setup, with Huntington Compac hand press...

A while back, I visited a friend who had a commercial reloading business. He had several neat devices that ran a given size of fired brass upright between rollers and a steel plate, getting rid of any oversized dimensions in the bottom end of the brass before resizing and reloading. I...

I picked up an older no-dash 696 a couple years ago for $200, thinking if I didn't like it, I would use it to buy something I did like. Stainz, did you see this? :what: http://www.gunsamerica.com/guns/976814750.htm Similar gun, cheaper but not by much, and it's sold...

I've heard rumors that there are no more spare 4" barrels for the S&W Model 19. That's too bad, because I have a 2" Model 19 that I really want to rebarrel to 4". Looking around, my available options include the Model 10 Heavy Barrel in 4 1/8", as well as the stainless Model 66 barrel in 4"...

I've noticed a disturbing trend after I visited Cabela's in Richfield last weekend. Fewer and fewer stores are stocking genuine black powder, stocking Pyrodex and other substitutes instead. Obviously, insurance and fire department/zoning laws are putting a crimp on that. However, every now...

Maybe I've just never payed attention, but today when I was sighting in my 1874 Sharps Business Rifle for deer season, I couldn't help but notice that each of my 45-70 rounds was making a gorgeous and perfect smoke ring that increased in diameter as it went downrange before dissipating entirely...

I'm getting ready for deer season. I just had this set professionally cleaned and restored, and I'm tickled pink - they're pretty clear and crisp, with a nice field of view. They're 6x30, and were made by Westinghouse in 1943. My problem is I cannot figure out how to read the darned...

Because I'm flipping through my 2006 Blackpowder Annual, and staring at me is a gorgeous Italian reproduction of the 1855 Colt Root revolving percussion rifle in .44. Berdan's Sharpshooters and some elements of the Wisconsin regiments carried them in the war of Southern Treason/Northern...

It appears that one of my personal icons, G. David Tubb, wound up with a staph infection in one of his knees recently. An email from him on August 7th to a member of another competition site I visit reveals this: Hope he came through ok and will recover quickly, so he can continue...

I've been working a lot with 500-550gr Creedmoor type handloads for my 32" Sharps Model 1874, stuffing a lot of Goex Cartridge in the vintage Rem-UMC balloon-head cases. How much is "a lot"? A full 70gr, drop-tubed and compressed a good 0.20" to 0.30" with a powder compression die before the...

The episode where they investigate the potential for a vertically-fired bullet to cause injury or death, and they set up Jamie's trusty M1 Garand to fire vertically from a string attached to the trigger, while the Mythbusters team is sheltered with angled (bulletproof?) plexiglass. Sure enough...

Looking through my June 2006 edition of American Rifleman, when what should appear on Page 3 but a full-sized advertisement for Ruger's M77 Mark II Stainless Frontier Rifle. Hizzoner Jeff Cooper would be proud, if one cannot swing the cash for the Steyr Scout, or wants an alternative to the...

Over on the S&W Forum, a Hamilton Bowen rebuild has been completed and sent back to it's owner. It started life as a .38-44 HD N-Frame, and is now a .45 Long Colt snubby. While I think that I'd leave a fairly scarce .38-44 HD alone, and pick something considerably less collectible for the...

Took a buddy shooting with me yesterday, along with my Model 1874 Sharps Business Rifle. As he's plinking away with his Colt Sporter, zinging little 60gr pills into his 100 yard target, I'm lighting off my 500gr swaged spitzers, with 70gr black powder loads. The storm front moved in fairly...