Veteran's Day-with a twist

Aw shucks :oops: :oops:

Don't worry.

Actually i should have been more clear.Smoking as in 'Ssssssmmmmmmmmoookinnnnnnn'

This is the Mask.Remember ? :wink:

Thanks for the invitation, Rahul! Doubt I'll make it, but you never know. I'm sure it'll be a blast! One of my brothers in law left for India today, to work with an Indian missionary friend in a hilly area in southwestern India.

I finally got my birthday present today:

Look out John Lithgow! :shock: :lol:

A nice day, a big smile, a Karabiner.......hmmmmmm...........only thing missin' is your Johnson slung over your shoulder. :lol:

Maybe use the bolt as a slide! :idea:

Nice rifle Ricochet! 8) Do you go deer hunting or anything, or are you a target shooter? Either way, have fun & be safe! :wink: 8) :D

Dan

I haven't been deer hunting since about 1994. Not opposed to it, I just got to where I didn't want to shoot anything. I LOVE to get out in the woods, though, and my best times out have always been while hunting. I did once find myself staring at a doe (legal game at the time) who stared anxiously back at me till I said: "G'won, deer! Get out of here!" She wasn't really in much danger, though, as the flintlock I was carrying gave a "flash in the pan" four times before properly discharging when I got back to my truck! :lol:

I just got back from walking around my neighborhood. Saw four does. They got a bit nervous about me walking by them and left, but they weren't too spooked.

I do love to shoot, but I haven't gotten obsessive about target shooting. I could never be a benchrest competitor. Those guys are hard core obsessive!

I'm really getting interested in casting my own bullets and making them shoot well. That's something with lots of variables and requires a lot of thinking and planning, careful analysis of why things result as they do, and readjusting. It's especially satisfying to shoot a decent group with bullets you cast yourself out of old car wheelweights, lead sewer pipe joints and tin refrigeration tubing! That's the kind of recycling I like best. And being rather uninterested in sticking with the tried and true, I'm working with things like a propellant pulled from surplus cartridges made for the old .50 caliber target spotting rifle mounted on top of the 106mm recoilless rifles that used to be commonly seen on the backs of Jeeps (they'd fire the rifle with a bullet that had a tracer element and gave a flash on puff of smoke on impact, then when it hit where they wanted it to, fire the big recoilless cannon), heat treated lead alloy bullets of a shape that's supposed to not work, a lubricant sold for bicycle chains as a bullet lube, crimping, loading the bullets in a big old .300 Weatherby Magnum case and shooting them in a rifle with a long "freebore" before they enter the rifling, all of which is unorthodox. But you know, those things are starting to shoot pretty well. :lol:

Now I've got a new cartridge and rifle to experiment with. Accuracy was (and is) very important to the Swiss, so I expect this one will be rewarding to work with. It was made in 1940 and went through most of the WWII period when the Swiss were nearly fully mobilized all the way through, ready for the anticipated German invasion. That was planned on several occasions, but the Germans always knew it'd cost heavily because the Swiss were excellent shots and determined not to surrender, every male being well trained and armed. So they stayed occupied on other fronts and for the most part let the Swiss alone till it was over. Other countries not so well prepared fared worse. Anyway, this one shows signs of being well used in the field, but never abused, and has obviously been very well cared for. The action and bore look like new, and should shoot that way. 8)

Jeeeesh, don't let the smile fool you, huh?

That smile is worth 24 Carat gold.Didn't u get any 'toothpaste + rifle' ads offers, Ric ? (you know, even the deadly plaque is scared of long rifles )

N'while being 51, I think its a perfect occasion to treat yourself a Squier' 51 too...:wink:

I've heard lots of good things about Squier 51s.

Here are my first handloads for the Swiss carbine. They're using bullets I cast from old scrap wheelweights, dropped from the mould into water and aged to harden them (comes out similar to linotype metal in hardness) and dipped in molten Johnson's Paste Wax for lubrication. Prior to the waxing, they were bright silver. Slippery little boogers to pull out of the box by the bullets to stand up for the photo!

Time to go shoot 'em now, so I can load 'em up again! :D

Shoot em now...

Who is your pray, Mr.Pirate ?