Step I to fixing endshake: making bushings.

So, still a lot of steps to go, but just made 20 of the bushings that are needed to fix endshake (unless you stretch the collar). Spent about 12 hours at the shop doing a bunch of projects, which would likely have taken a normal person about 30 min. But what can you do.

Most of the time I spent on the DRO hardinge that has a powerfeed. It'll be hard to get used to something w/ less luxury!

Unfortunately I used cold rolled steel instead of something harder, so they will likely wear too fast. I'm redoing them with "A2" tool steel, which is soft enough that cutting isn't a chore (which it would be if I used drill stock) but you can then harden it using a torch and a blower ("A" in "A2" is for air hardening).

First attempt at making a barrel fixture

Spent a bunch of hours tonight slowly figuring out how to make the fixture used to hold the barrel in the vise while unscrewing the frame from it. I'm not sure what took so long other than I didn't realize very quickly that you could just take a big ass milling tool bit and bore out the central hole rather than first piloting it, drilling it, then finally milling it out. By the end I was able to work out a system and the last one took 10 or 15 minutes (including squaring up the pieces since I made them from scratch). Not having to change the bridgeport tool multiple times was a nice thing.

Here's the current version. I still need to put in some some press pins in and then mill out the main hole more to ensure it doesn't touch the barrel much (I thought the main round part of the barrel was supposed to be in contact with the fixture, but only just now realized that would be A Dumb Idea):



In the future it's probably better to not make the cuts below the barrel and above the rib so far away. Live an learn. Hopefully.


The amputated barrel was a rusted one I got from Poppert for $33: it's turning out to be a great investment. I may be able to make the threaded piece into a short barrel, getting practice with crowning and cutting the shoulder back. The one with the sight I'm going to make into a tool so that you can quickly narrow a front sight on a mill. And the middle piece I can bring into the shop w/o much comment, which is a happy thing.

A fool and his money: buying a 41 magnum python

For those that don't know, dfariswheel has an excellent post on (paraphrasing) why a colt python in 41 magnum is stupid:
http://forums.1911forum.com/showpost.php?p=1975569&postcount=2

But, I just couldn't help myself and bought one anyway and currently it's at my FFL. However, there are extenuating circumstances!

It's a conversion done by Jack Hungtington:
http://www.jrhgunmaker.com/
He does a lot of work on freedom arms and according to the people I've talked to is very highly regarded. I called him on the phone about this and his view is that 1,000 fps 41 mag loads will be fine in it. He stated he worked at colt for a few years before starting his own shop and that he's worked on around 2,000 pythons. I am taking him at his word. He runs his own shop with 5 guys, so sounds like he is relatively respectable.

So, excuse #1: He lives close enough to me so that if the gun breaks I can drive over and throw it at his shop.

Excuse #2: he did action work on it, and I'd like to take it apart and see what he did. He's supposedly very good, though Grant C does not know who he is, which is a bit worrying.

We shall see how things go. I'm not very proud of being so frivolous with money, but it will be an interesting gun and hopefully educational. I also have an extra NOS barrel and cylinder so in theory I can just convert it back to .357 as a "rescue" operation if need be. (Assuming shooting doesn't quickly damage the frame or kill the shooter, of course)

In any case I'll be: (1) running light loads, (2) measuring measure the barrel / cylinder gap every trip, (3) keeping an eye out for peening, forcing cone issues , or cracks in the frame.

I don't even push my 357 pythons. They don't make frames no more and that steel seems pretty soft. It's always midrange loads and I've switched to lead bullets to be easier on the barrel.

Funny enough on the day I paid for it, Grant Cunningham was talking about the 41 special in his blog:
http://www.grantcunningham.com/blog_files/f57f295a776fd50568d342158a004b7d-530.html

He references this article, which looks like it may come in handy:
http://www.reloadingroom.com/index_files/41%20Special.htm

Must be fate!

So it's about $160 for a dillon 650 caliber conversion + dies, about $70 for 500 starline cases, around $117 for 1000 lasercast 215gr bullets. Adds up pretty quick! Now I remember why I was reluctant to have too many calibers in the past...

Part III: shooting the 2.5" smoothed out python

I finally got to shoot the 2.5" snubby that I spent much of memorial day
weekend working on:

http://coltpython.blogspot.com/2009/05/part-i-fixing-most-loose-25-python-ever.html
http://coltpython.blogspot.com/2009/05/part-ii-tuning-now-very-tight-25-python.html

It's currently at 5.5lbs DA (measured w/ cylinder open) and has been really worked over for smoothness. It also had a couple undocumented tricks that were suggested to me by colt smiths.

The damn gun works fantastically: despite the light spring I didn't get a single misfire in 300+ rounds using a hodge podge collection of reloads that I'd made over the past two years. (CCI and winchester primers, no federal.)

The smoothing seems to work really well too. In DA my gf was able to make just two holes for all six bullets: it was only 7 yards, but it's a snubby and she hardly ever shoots DA. (Probably twice before?)

I had two of the most jaded range guys try it and as soon as they pulled the trigger both started laughing. :43: They then showed it to all their pals. They all had trouble believing it could ignite anything at all. It's really cool to go from something that was pretty much the worst python I'd ever handled to one that is of the best (of course my opinion here is a bit suspect).

On the other hand, when I went to wash up, one of the range guys told my gf I must not have other things to do if I spend this much time fussing around with revolvers...

I have to say, the colt pach's worked really well for recoil. They are big enough that even pretty hot loads were controllable, which I didn't expect for a snubby.

Definitely going to be shooting this a lot. One changed I'd like to make is milling the front sight a bit narrower. Or putting a fiberoptic in.

Powder valley shipped 18K primers today

Order placed on March 25th. Prices were $112 for CCI SP primers, $120 for CCI LPM, $127 for federal SP, and I don't recall for LR and SRM.

They currently have AA #5 and AA #7 in stock: 8lb jugs for $112.

Perhaps the shortage is working its way to a close?

Interesting conversions: .357 to 44spl

Clements Customs has a bunch of interesting guns, including this king cobra 44spl conversion.

http://www.clementscustomguns.com/gunpictures.html

Excellent article on health care costs

8 pages, in the new yorker (but actually reasonably objective), by a surgeon :

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/06/01/090601fa_fact_gawande

Best news in a long time: Reeves Jungkind is taking work.

$250 + shipping for action jobs on pythons. He said 2 month turnaround.

He is widely referenced as one of the very best colt action smiths ever, but articles from 15+ years ago claim he retired.

Very good news.

Wow. This is wildcatting.

Necking 357 sig down to .17 : designed dies from scratch along with everything else. Very cool set of articles:

http://www.realguns.com/archives/094.htm

Tax breakdown.

Given the fiscal derangement of the administration it's good to keep in mind the current tax structure:
http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.html

A random quote:

The top-earning 25 percent of taxpayers (AGI over $64,702) earned 68.2 percent of the nation's income, but they paid more than four out of every five dollars collected by the federal income tax (86.3 percent). The top 1 percent of taxpayers (AGI over $388,806) earned approximately 22.1 percent of the nation's income (as defined by AGI), yet paid 39.9 percent of all federal income taxes. That means the top 1 percent of tax returns paid about the same amount of federal individual income taxes as the bottom 95 percent of tax returns.

BTW, it's a rerun, but the clarity of this graphic on deficits is well worth it:

Stopping power

Many many many many interesting photos with large tiff files you can download for prints. A bit clunky to navigate, but still.

A fortunate, surprising verdict.

If you wander outside your premises and shoot someone, you want to have Teresa Caffese as your lawyer.