Good morning. Your post today about SPAM in your comments section made me think you (and your readers) might be interested in what I can only assume is a scam that is all over the internet. In a time when various gunpowders are unobtanium, there are a number of websites out there who seem to have whatever you need in stock and at reasonable prices. However, if you go to order it you find out that they have a ~$250 minimum order size and they only accept forms of payment with little or no recourse when the powder you order doesn’t show up. I’m assuming it’s a scam, and not some miracle…but honestly almost fell for it. A few examples below, but there are many more.
I haven't been to these web sites, but Steve's suggestion to be very wary of payment where you could be stuck holding the bad is excellent advice. One of the biggest advantages of regular credit card transactions is that you can dispute the purchase if you get shipped something else (or nothing at all).
This is Canada's (and pretty much the British Commonwealth) response to America's Springfield Trapdoor rifle. Unlike the Springfield's 45-7 cartridge, the Martini Henry is chambered in the long obsolete 577/450.
There has been a resurgence of long dead American blackpowder guns and even I have a much loved Remington rolling block single shot. My arch enemies at the rod and gun club all have Sharps and Springfields and we have a ball with them. The old British guns? They are still deader n' a dodo.
[The definition of impractical is] an 1883 Martini-Henry Mark III, seen today at the Gun Show. It was "only" $500, and ammo for it is insanely expensive at $139/20 rounds (!!!). It is centerfire so you can reload - and would want to at that price. Boy, howdy.
Reading Glen's post reminded me of Kim du Toit's Gratuitous Gun Pictures, which captured my love affair with old rifles. The history is the attraction, not the practicality, and Kim's writing brought that out superbly. You want practical, get you an evil black rifle chambered for the poodle shooter. Me, I keep coming back to the Old School ones that billow clouds of history with each trigger squeeze.
The battle of Roarke's Drift ended in a blaze of Martini-Henry smoke as 156 desperate British soldiers showed what fortified positions and brass cartridges could accomplish against thousands of attackers armed with spear and shield.
Valor was present in overwhelming numbers on both sides that day. Eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded for deeds performed that day. In that day the VC was not awarded posthumously, and so the count would have been higher had the battle occurred after the reign of the Widow of Windsor. This was the highest number of those awards - purchased with blood, really - by a single Regiment in a single action in the history of the British Army. The final assault was immortalized in the 1964 film Zulu.
To me, there's no black plastic that remotely offers that whiff of history. Sure, they're entirely practical, and I'd want one in a SHTF situation. But I'd love a Martini in the gun safe. No AR pattern rifle ever inspired this:
Glen writes in his post about how the cartridge is obsolete and so you'd not only want to reload, but to cast your own bullets. Fortunately, co-blogger ASM826 has some pretty serious skills in that respect. "Practical" is for ARs; those of us enamored of the older fare must needs adjust. Practical isn't the point, remember.
But the history, ah the history. Kim is back blogging, and I'd love to see him resurrect his Gun Pic List. After all, he became famous as "the worst blogger on the Internet" (as defined by moonbats) for this (among other Double Plus Ungood writings). It would certainly épater lesbourgeois once again. Not that he'd ever want to do that. And maybe he'd write about old school beauties like this again. Want.
ASM826 is my brutha from another mutha that I met through blogging. I'm a bit behind on reporting on reloading, but he's running a great series on what we did and what we learned. That last link was sort of about separation anxiety, as you can see in this picture:
No, that's not the One Ring to rule them all ...
As I said I'll post my impressions (and more pix) as soon as I get my head above water. In the meantime, ASM826 is doing a great job covering for my slacking. Thank, bro!
This song is topical once again, here on Planet Borepatch. Not only did I post a review of Emily Miller's Emily Gets Her Gun, I'm reloading at a secret off-site secure location. Gunpowder and Lead are required for both of these. 'Nuff said.
Gunpowder And Lead (Songwriters: Miranda Lambert, Heather Little)
County Road 233 under my feet Nothin' on this white rock but little ol' me I got two miles til' he makes bail And if i'm right we're heading straight for hell
I'm going home, gonna load my shotgun Wait by the door and light a cigarette He wants a fight well now he's got one And he ain't seen me crazy yet
Slapped my face and he shook me like a ragdoll Doesn't that sound like a real man I'm gonna show him what a little girl's made of Gunpowder and Lead
Well it's half past ten another six pack in I can feel he rumble like a cold black wind He pulls in the drive gravel flies But he doesn't know what's waitin' here this time
Hey! I'm going home gonna load my shotgun Wait by the door and light a cigarette He wants a fight well now he's got one And he ain't seen me crazy yet
Slapped my face and he shook me like a ragdoll Doesn't that sound like a real man I'm gonna show him what a little girls made of Gunpowder and lead
His fist is big but m guns bigger He'll find out when i pull the trigger
I'm going home gonna load my shotgun Wait by the door and light a cigarette He want a fight well now he's got one
Slapped my face and he shook me like a ragdoll Doesn't that sound like a real man I'm gonna show him what a little girls made of Gunpowder and gunpowder and lead
Doing an inspection on the brass prior to reloading, it became clear that not all brass is created equal.
Not a very good picture, but you can see that the bottom cartridge (Remington) is shiny brass from stem to stern. The Privi cartridge at the top is brassy up to around the neck, and is then some sort of dullish silvery metal.
Question for you reloaders out there: should I use the Privi? It shot great new out of the box, but this looks somewhat odd to me.
That sounds dirty, but isn't - at least, if you're talking reloading. I haven't invested in a tumbler to polish the spent brass, and so I did it by hand while watching the Boob Tube.
I'm told that dirty brass shoots the same as clean brass, but thought I'd give it a try. It wasn't too bad, and while I'm not sure how much cleaner the brass is, although the cloth and my fingers got kind of discolored, so it must have done something.
I picked up a powder scale at the gun show and some .303 bullets, and so hopefully I'll get some loaded cartridges done tomorrow. Hey, recycling is fun! Save the Earth, and all that. I can't wait to share my Green experience with my Prius driving friends!
A question for you reloaders: what powder scale do you like? The local store was out, and looking online there seems to be a wide variety of styles, technologies, and prices. And comments on what works well for you would be very much appreciated.
Same ask about calipers. And case trimmer.
Man, it's not looking like I'm saving any money reloading ...
I got not one, but two reloading manuals (Lyman and Lee, thanks for asking). Attentive readers will recall me complaining that neither discussed .303 Brit.
Well, of course they both did - attentiveness is its own reward - plus there was one that came in the box of .303 dies. So I'm set for recipes. Now I just need to pick one and do some actual reloading.
Tired, so details later, but we had a blast at the Blogmeet. It was a good turnout, and I have shooty venues lined up in the next little while. The take away is that we need to do this regularly.
Also, I now have .303 Brit dies on order. Have to get bullets, primer and propellent now.
I spent most of yesterday excavating the basement storage bunker here at Camp Borepatch. I actually cleared out so much junk that there was room to set up my new (to me) Lyman reloading press. Thanks, Carteach0!
Click to enbiggify
A lot of what used to live there is now baking up in the attic (only the stuff that isn't hurt by the heat, of course). And there's still some more stuff I can get rid of. de-clutter FTW! But now there's room for ammo, range bag, and that sort of stuff. I'll put up some peg board against the wall and hang my tools there. Not sure how I've gone this long here without having a proper workbench (oh yeah, I was in Austin most of the time) ...
OK, so I need to tidy up the workbench ...
Now if I had some .303 dies, I'd actually start, you know, reloading. But I'm quite pleased about the place. It's not as manly as ASM826's Man Cave, but hey - not many are. This should do nicely for now.
