Some people just don't THINK!

[oldred]

A guy came by my place a few days ago with a brass framed Cap&Ball 44 revolver and a 44 cartridge cylinder he had been attempting to fit to this thing. He almost had it but needed some minor machine work and that's why he brought it to me but I explained I would not touch it for two reasons, one I am not a licensed gunsmith and two even if I was I still would not do such a thing! Well I got the usual "no one will ever know who did this because I will not tell them" (yeah RIGHT!) and "it will be ok because all I will ever shoot is black powder loads" (yeah right again!). When I then told him he could not guarantee someone else might not load smokeless rounds in the gun he replied "I am going to keep it and never sell it" (SURE you are!). I again tried to explain that gun likely would be around after he and I are gone and it's almost a certainty that it would only be a matter of time before somewhere sometime someone would load the wrong cartridge in it and blow off their hand or worse! None of this even took into account the possible bore differences but there simply was no convincing this idiot and he left in a huff telling me that he would just find someone else to modify that cylinder, he probably will too since it was a very minor milling job that would have been easy to do since he had already done most of the modification. I guess this guy is another candidate for the Darwin award. :roll:

I am not sure what this cylinder was for but it was not one of the drop-in cylinders sold for some steel frame C&B revolvers.

[Hamish]

Should'a slapped him and taken it away from him,,,,,,but, since you can't do that, you did the next best thing.

[gray wolf]

I agree, when a ballistic solution is overkill--A good old Bitchh slap sometimes works.

[PS Paul]

Meh. He'll take care of destroying the cylinder after a single shooting session once it's been modified!! ha ha.

As they say in the ol' Bugs Bunny cartoons: "Eh. What a maroon".

[Ed Barrett]

There are some people who don't think. and some who work at not thinking.

[Trey45]

A fool and his fingers are soon parted.

[bob208]

I don't think the real agents would work that hard. but some one they have headed for the gray bar hotel would. I had one of them type dog me for along time trying to set me up.

[oldred]

I sort of know this guy, not what you would call a close acquaintance, but I know him well enough to know he is not under-cover law. That wouldn't bother me much anyway since I won't even take a chance on a "grey area" where the feds are concerned. I actually did have an encounter with the law once, I even mentioned it here on the forum a couple of years ago, some "well meaning" neighbors (and my closest neighbors at about a mile away but still not far enough!) got wind of the fact I was in the act of committing the heinous crime of building my own rifle! Like the diligent neighborhood watchers they are they called the law on me, evidently they called the sheriff's office because a deputy came out to see what the fuss was all about. He was more interested in turkey hunting than the single shot (and perfectly legal) High Wall rifle I was building so after quickly determining I was not an evil felon we spent a while discussing turkeys, deer, guns and hunting in general, I invited him over to turkey hunt but he never came back. So yep it pays to watch out for the law because you just never know!

[unclogum bill]

Few years back I was called to a Clogged sewer and the woman of the house let me in and said "the fool is in the basement" . Concrete block constructed walls in the crapper is probably what saved him. In an attempt to get even with the roots growing in his pipe he had dumped gasoline in the toilet , flushed it and tossed a match. Lucky he didn't kill himself and take down the house. Any how when paying me he said this "it would have worked if I timed it better". Lesson here, can't fix stupid.

[oldred]

Few years back I was called to a Clogged sewer and the woman of the house let me in and said "the fool is in the basement" . Concrete block constructed walls in the crapper is probably what saved him. In an attempt to get even with the roots growing in his pipe he had dumped gasoline in the toilet , flushed it and tossed a match. Lucky he didn't kill himself and take down the house. Any how when paying me he said this "it would have worked if I timed it better". Lesson here, can't fix stupid.


All I can think of is WOW! :shock:

I guess the guy I mentioned with the revolver has no chance of beating that fellow for the Darwin award!

[abqcaster]

A fool and his fingers are soon parted.
:D We kicked that saying around A LOT in my Explosives Surety class, when I was in grad school. :D

[Artful]

Few years back I was called to a Clogged sewer and the woman of the house let me in and said "the fool is in the basement" . Concrete block constructed walls in the crapper is probably what saved him. In an attempt to get even with the roots growing in his pipe he had dumped gasoline in the toilet , flushed it and tossed a match. Lucky he didn't kill himself and take down the house. Any how when paying me he said this "it would have worked if I timed it better". Lesson here, can't fix stupid.

for gophers out in the field we used to pump gas then light it up - On time I got the timing off - instead of whoosh I got boom and the vapor exploded and ripped up a long run of the lawn - oops - Sorry Ma - but it did get rid of the gopher

[waksupi]

I've seen quite a few conversions over the years. Never one on a brass frame, though.

http://www.emf-company.com/store/pc/Conversion-Cylinders-c250.htm

http://www.buffaloarms.com/r_and_d_conversion_cylinders_pr-3787.aspx

The BAC page specifically states not for brass frames.

[john hayslip]

A 44 is undersized anyway. The correct conversion would be a 45 cylinder. I agree wholeheartedly not to do the job.

[Hardcast416taylor]

Few years back I was called to a Clogged sewer and the woman of the house let me in and said "the fool is in the basement" . Concrete block constructed walls in the crapper is probably what saved him. In an attempt to get even with the roots growing in his pipe he had dumped gasoline in the toilet , flushed it and tossed a match. Lucky he didn't kill himself and take down the house. Any how when paying me he said this "it would have worked if I timed it better". Lesson here, can't fix stupid. There was this "smart fella" that was the superintendent of a GM foundry that did dumb tricks like this. He did the gas trick and flushed the toilet as he lit a wood match and dropped it in the toilet. The explosion not only shattered the toilet it made his septic tank lid raise up and raise the ground over it about 4-5" for a perfect square outline! Also raised were the tile leading ito the septic tank and the exit tile from the tank for about 20` towards his septic field! The tank was cracked so badly it had to be replaced as did the tile to and from the tank. Luckily he only got some cuts and charring to his body. Another "dumb stunt" he did was cutting some "roots" in the hole where he was putting a new mail box at. Unfortunately the "tree roots" turned out to be phone cables, this was back in the late `60`s. Caused an area blackout of phones by his chopping the "root" with a long handled ice spud.Robert

[starmac]

If you haven't seen this septic tank/fool story, it is a must, must see.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzabmVIU6EQ

[crawfobj]

My LGS owner brought out a revolver that he said I just had to see. A Darwin Award candidate had brought him a Taurus judge that had a problem with brass sticking in the cylinder. Said it had already been off to Taurus once and asked my LGS to check it out and send it off if he couldn't fix it.

Turns out the genius had been shooting it with factory .454 CASULL ammo. The alloy frame was showing signs of cracking, but the cylinder was somehow still intact.

It got shipped to Taurus as it was- complete with the spent cases in it.

You really can't help some of these people.

[unclogum bill]

If you haven't seen this septic tank/fool story, it is a must, must see.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzabmVIU6EQ
The guy telling the story really does know his (stuff), Some of the old cesspools would get clogged with grease and other nasty stuff. A poor mans farmer fix was dynamite. It was 1/3 stick and the lid was left off. What you covered it with was five or six ,ten foot evergreens laid on top. Kept the ( @#$) from flying. Those were the good old days, sometime I should tell you how we caught wild (free rangeing ) piglets off the mountain to Neuter (cut) the males.

[snuffy]

If you haven't seen this septic tank/fool story, it is a must, must see.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzabmVIU6EQ

That was hilarious! That old guy can sure spin a tale. (Damn it, I'm just as old as him, gotta change who I call old anymore.)

Having had all too many episodes of messing with our malfunctioning old septic system on the old farm , I know just what it smells like. There's just no other odor like. The entire tank was under 3' of dirt, had to be dug up to pump it!

That conversion would be a real bad idea. Even with normal black powder loads, they're know to stretch so bad to be unusable.

[leeggen]

While working in FL. as electrician we had a call to eix a guys well pump. Got out there and found the 2" well pipe was split about 6 ft down so pump was drawing air. Anyway as we were talking the guy say's reconn we should can the driller out instead of replacing the pipe, my question was why we can replace the 1st joint of pipe. Well he says the screen is plugged so might just have it all fixed. We tried to clear the screen an guess the 30-06 must of damaged the pipe when we shot down the pipe.
I called the boss and we left the job! Nope you can't just fix stupid.
CD

[starmac]

My cousin tells a story of installing a woodstove pipe. He had cut the whole in the ceiling and was on the roof measuring where to cut. The owner shot a hole in the roof with a 22, and yelled for him to cut the hole right there. lol

[Mk42gunner]

My cousin tells a story of installing a woodstove pipe. He had cut the whole in the ceiling and was on the roof measuring where to cut. The owner shot a hole in the roof with a 22, and yelled for him to cut the hole right there. lol

If I have ever heard of a case of justifiable butt kicking, this is it. I do believe I would have bailed off that roof hammer in hand back in my construction/ plumbing days.

Robert

[375RUGER]

Few years back I was called to a Clogged sewer and the woman of the house let me in and said "the fool is in the basement" . Concrete block constructed walls in the crapper is probably what saved him. In an attempt to get even with the roots growing in his pipe he had dumped gasoline in the toilet , flushed it and tossed a match. Lucky he didn't kill himself and take down the house. Any how when paying me he said this "it would have worked if I timed it better". Lesson here, can't fix stupid.

Bill,
You need to see this.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?160450-Jimmy-Ferris-Dynamite-Story

[Blacksmith]

Conversion Cylinders work fine if you follow the manufacturers instructions.
http://www.kirstkonverter.com/

http://www.howelloldwestconversions.com/shop/products.cfm?catid=261

http://www.taylorsfirearms.com/cartridge-conversions.html


Base Pins for the conversion.
http://www.beltmountain.com/index.htm

[oldred]

Conversion Cylinders work fine if you follow the manufacturers instructions.
http://www.kirstkonverter.com/

http://www.howelloldwestconversions.com/shop/products.cfm?catid=261



http://www.taylorsfirearms.com/cartridge-conversions.html


Pins for Base the conversion.
http://www.beltmountain.com/index.htm


As I already pointed out in the original post this was NOT a purpose built conversion cylinder, besides even those are not for use in a brass frame revolver (which I also pointed out that this was) and are very dangerous in them. I am quite aware of the conversion cylinders and also the fact that lots of original C&B revolvers were converted "back in the day" when cartridge rounds first became available. It was not my intention to infer that all conversions were dangerous just that this situation and what was being proposed was not only dangerous but very likely to end in disaster sooner or later, this was not a "conversion" but rather a ticking bomb!

[smokeywolf]

About 17 years ago a friend of mine (class "A" machinist) had a guy come to him and ask him to do a selector switch job on his AR. Friend laughs and tells him, Ah, no! I don't think so. Sends the guy on his way. About 3 months later, a knock on friend's door, 2 rather serious looking gents in suits introduce themselves as ATF and proceed to ask about an individual who may have come to him looking for some gunsmithing work on an AR. Friend tells them, Yep, didn't get his name, don't know how he heard of me, told him to please don't bring me any more of your business, sent him packing.

Moral of the story, keep it on the up & up, protect yourself from idiots, their idiot ideas and the lawsuits that they will certainly bring against you later, after they blow themselves up.

smokeywolf

[Blacksmith]

I wasn't suggesting you were against conversion cylinders. Just thought someone might be interested in reading more about them and had the links bookmarked. Save someone some Google time.