My new 45-70

Well, within the last few months I picked up a new gun.

A Marlin 1895 Guide gun in 45-70 Beautiful little levergun and only cost me about $400 out the door.

I did the transaction with Bud's Gun shop and a hardware store in San Antonio Texas called John's hardware.

Lemme say now that I highly recommend doing business at John's Hardware. Good people and great prices. http://johnsgunshardware.com/

So anyway, I picked this gun up at John's and immediately went home to fondle it.

I was giddy. I have been wanting a levergun since I was 8 years old, and I finally had it.

I started by cleaning it once I got home. Noticed the stock was just a wee bit wobbly, so I tightened the tang screw, not a minute later I spilled oil on the stock, and not wanting it to swell I took the stock off.

Imagine my surprise when I found that my pretty new stock had a crack in it. I was not happy.

Bud's gun shop told me that since I took delivery, it was none of their business anymore. Marlin told me they would ship me a new stock.

So I had Marlin ship me a stock, and I finally got it. After 3 months of waiting.

In the mean time, I had shot the gun numerous times, loads from mild to wild. And the stock has not shown one indication it wants to crack more.

The rifle has proven to be very accurate with my 350 gr Ranch Dog cast bullets.

Here are some pics.





The group above was shot at 100 yards. Excuse the tape, I only had two targets and had to make em last.

Success!

After my first time out testing my cast boolits, I was able to load up some more test rounds.

I had some marginal success with 3.7 - 4 gr Unique, but it seemed that I was getting leading caused by insufficient lubrication. So I decided I would add a coat of lube to my boolits and load from 3.7 - 4.3 gr Unique and see how they would do. I did not expect this single step to make such a drastic difference!

The gun I'm shooting is the XD9 Tactical pictured below.



This gun has always been able to shoot about 2 - 3" groups with commercial jacketed rounds. So that is what I was expecting to be the best I could get with my cast rounds. I was wrong.

All groups shot from a rest at 7 yards.

3.9 gr Unique.


4 gr Unique.


And 4.2 gr Unique.


The 4 gr load is a 1" group! And the 3.9 gr group is just a bit above 1" That same load with 1 coat of lube produced a 3" group. Oh the difference a little lube will make!

And leading? I'm sure you remember this picture from the last set of test loads.


Well, here is the bore after the new test loads.


Yes! As you can see, no leading!

I am thoroughly enjoying this hobby. Nothing is more satisfying to me than to make my pistol shoot better with my homemade rounds than with commercial stuff!

Testing My Cast Boolits

So, I finally had occasion to go out and test some of the boolits I had casted. The results were not discouraging.

Disclaimer: Always used PUBLISHED load data. My loads didn't kill me or my gun, but who knows how yours will fair.

So, I loaded up some 9mm with some of my 125 gr. Round nose boolits over 3.4-4 gr Unique going up in .1 gr increments. Seated the boolits to 1.1" OAL in Mil Brass.

Boolits were lubed with the LLA/JPW/Mineral spirits lube that I have reviewed in an ealier post. All brass was primed with Federal SPM primers.

I would post pictures of each target, but unfortunately the person shooting in the booth next to mine, well, couldn't exactly hit the broad side of a barn. So a few of my targets were blasted into obscurity. Matter of fact, I only managed to save three.

All groups were shot off hand at 7 yards.

This is 3.5 gr Unique, from which I got several stove pipes.



Perfect function was found at 3.6 gr, of course that target was lost.

This is 3.8 gr Unique. Group measures 3"



And here is 3.9 gr Unique. Group measures 3.5" Unfortunately, I cannot say with authority that it is the load that caused this group to open up, as I believe I messed this one up with a trigger jerk or two.



It seems that 3.7-3.8 gr is the ticket with this boolit and gun combo. I will be loading up some hotter loads to test soon. Gun is a Springfield Armory XD9 Tactical.

And this is what the bore looked like after all the test rounds were fired and a plastic brush was passed through the bore.



Yes, I know the date stamp says that picture was taken 7 days later. It was. Normally I clean my guns the day I go shooting, but with two daughters under 2 years old, sometimes I can't do as I normally would.

But what they cause in distraction, they make up for in cuteness.

By the People, For the People?

I'm sure we are all aware of the health care bill that passed the house recently.

It is interesting to me, that this legislation would pass. Especially given the deafening public outcry against the bill.

I wonder if the 220 representatives that voted for this bill even paid attention to the protests. Did they even care?

What if they aren't listening? What if they don't care anymore? This would not bode well for this country.

Amid a massive economic crisis, the current government continuously passes legislation which allows for the runaway spending currently going on at the government level.

Despite the outcry against this irresponsible spending, they continue.

What does this mean for our country? Nothing good, I can tell you that.

Perfect Boolits! The Joy of getting it Right!

After speaking with a few members of Cast Boolits, I got a few ideas on how to fix the voids I was getting in my boolits from my new to me SWC mold.



The first idea was to pour with my spout in contact with the sprue plate. I tried this and the voids were still there.

The next thing I tried was to use a larger puddle on my sprue plate. Somewhat better, but still no cigar.

At this point I was a little perplexed, so I tried both of those at the same time. The problem was I couldn't get a large puddle with the spout in contact.

So, I started thinking about it, and remembered that someone had mentioned the possibility that the sprue could be cooling before the boolit, and so I stopped cooling the sprue plate on the wet towel as I do with my 2 cavity mold.

Viola! Perfect boolits afterward. I found that the mold likes to run hot, and cast slow.



Very pleased with the outcome.

New to me Mold, More learning experiences.

I bought a new to me mold from a member of Cast Boolits who goes by the handle of dk17hmr.

The mold is a Lee 140 gr .358" SWC single cavity.



When I received it, rather quickly I might add, I noted that the sprue plate was excessively tight. I immediately loosened the sprue plate just enough that it would open and close under it's own weight and a little motion.

Other than that, the mold is in perfect shape. By the looks of the box this mold is more than a few years old, and I noted that the vent lines on this mold were much deeper than the ones originally on my newer Lees.

So, I cleaned it up, and decided I would cast myself some boolits and see how this thing fared.

After getting it heated up, it started casting some decent boolits, though I noted it requires quite a bit of heat to keep this thing happy. Understandable, as the mold blocks are smaller, it loses heat at a more rapid rate than it's larger 2 cavity cousin.



I also caught myself cutting the sprue entirely too quickly, which caused me to tear the sprue.

Later on, I started getting voids in my boolits which were visible to the naked eye.



I got 90 acceptable boolits from my hour of casting. The average diameter of my finished boolits is .3595"

Overall, a good mold, for a good price. Now I just need to work out what it likes.

Of Wal-Mart and Open Carry.

I have been posting on Opencarry.org for quite a while now, and have noticed a distressing recurrence.

It seems that every other day, somebody posts the opinion of some Wal-mart manager, either supporting or not supporting open carry and gun rights.

Why is this such a distressing occurrence? I will tell you why. This occurrence is so distressing, because all of these people are wasting their time with this Wal-mart bull shnit!

What conceivable gain could we as gun owners possibly receive if Wal-mart was pro gun? What I ask you will be the benefit to the state of gun rights in this country?

Sure, maybe we could open carry with impunity in Wal-mart and reach a large cross section of the country with our message.

But Wait! We already do that! Holy hallelujah praise the lord! We can Open carry in Wal-mart!

Pat yourself on the back, and pay attention to things that really matter already!

Help elect pro gun officials. Keep in contact with your congressman and legislator, let them know where you stand on gun rights, and demand that they as servants of the people vote the people's will!

If as much time and effort was put into these activities, instead of fruitlessly chasing the Wal-mart fairy, I could only imagine how much better off we would be.

Stand up and be heard! And if you believe Wal-mart doesn't support your gun rights, don't shop there.

Simple, Easy, Done.