Ugly Sauce
Member
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2020
- Messages
- 6,279
Some kind of know the saga of my "Little Brat". Out of the box, she over rotated. Then would not fire a cap, too much clearance between cone and hammer. The small size did not feel good in my hand. Buyer's remorse!
I got her to function and fire, and slowly got used to the feel of the pistol. But man, what a blow-backing, cap jamming brat it was. But she had one good quality, which was super good accuracy. But for something I wanted to carry in the back country as a light weight general purpose side arm, and especially to take small game in an emergency, unreliability just does not qualify. If I wanted a single shot, I would have got a single shot. I was wishing I had got a single shot, but good, small caliber ones are a bit pricey.
Tried to trade it for a Plains Pistol. No takers. Dang. With the time, purchase price and money for a holster, I did not want to sell it outright and take the loss. Nor put big bucks into it for a total competition ready overhaul. But then...Mr. Jack Rabbit gave me a really good price for an action shield and cap-rake job. A little hesitant to spend any money on it, it was that or throw it in the lake, so I took the plunge. (the "plunge"! Get it?)
Okay. Here to tell you the work was top-notch, and it's a whole different pistol. 15 rounds through the pistol and not a hint, not a whisper, not a rumor of a cap jam. She just keeps on ticking. Last time I shot it, it was a jam almost every shot. For reasons I've not figured out yet, the cap rake does more than just...rake the cap, or keep it from blowing back. It somehow changes the dynamics of the back pressure or back-blast out the cone. I suspect the cut in the hammer, to clear the rake, maybe bleeds that pressure off. ?
The action shield is a really nice plus. I used to be a bit dubious about them, but now I'm seeing the value of no cap fragment getting into the action, and putting the gun out of action when I'm lost in the mountains with a broken leg, and a bear has chewed my other leg off. Keeping the guts of the gun cleaner can't hurt much either.
Now that group on the plate is not great, but the pistol is more accurate than that...that was my skill level today. I did have her sighted in for a bullet, hence the reason she's a bit low. But that's good, I've decided to go back to the ball in this gun. The tiny size of the pistol, and tiny loading port/cut out makes seating a bullet straight a little tedious. Balls are fast and easy. Also, 15 grains of powder seated the bullet just right, but leaves the ball seated very deep. So I'm going with 20 grains under a ball for this pistol's load. Just a little off the front sight and she'll be right on at grouse and rabbit range.
Anyhow, excellent job JackRabbit, the Little Brat will not be thrown in the lake, or melted down to make tommy-hawk heads, traded for some magic beans, given away to someone I don't like, or some other sad fate. Thank you.
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