Your favorite, ah, well hillbilly gunsmithing/casting story?

[jonk]

So what have you done that just screamed, "hick?" rather than do it the right way?

I have a few entries.

1. French MAS 49/56- slam fire issue. Fairly common. Did I do the PROPER thing and get the lighter firing pin? Oh no. Firing pin protrusion was about right, and I had no pierced primers, but what do I do? Take the firing pin to the grinding wheel. Guess what? Worked a charm.

2. Carcano 38- somehow, sometime, the right rear receiver wall got bent out so bad that the bolt wouldn't go down the raceway. This is not a load bearing part in the design so what do I do? Stick a mandrel down the receiver and whale on the receiver wall with a 20 lb. sledge hammer. I cold pounded that sob back far enough that it could indeed be used; I ran a few overloads through it from a tire/string set up, no issue; now I just use it for a plinker. Of course the prudent thing would have been to pitch the gun but I got it as a 2 fer- 1 6.5, one 7.35, for $120 total.

3. Casting (or reloading depending on your view)- nothing really hideous but something to share nonetheless. I had cast some .430 diameter bullets to run out of a pistol and lo and behold I got my hands on a Swiss Vetterli... but had no dies. Well the cases were easy enough; I just trimmed some 348 winchester to length, and fireformed. But.....no dies. So what did I do? Well the 430 bullets wouldn't really seat, even a little, even in the fireformed cases. So out comes the pocketknife. I hacked away at the bases and essentialy bevel based the bullets one at a time, and very irregularly. I then thumb seated them in the case over 6 gr of Red Dot, and chambered them with the gun pointed skyward, one at a time, so the bullet wouldn't fall out, jamming them into the rifling. You know, those darned things actually shot very well.

Just because it is rube goldberg doesn't mean it doesn't work. :-D

[hoosierlogger]

When I was in High School and didnt have much money, but loved to coon hunt. I couldnt afford a coon light, so I duct taped a 5 cell mag light to the forearm of my marlin model 60. Used it for two or three years like that and it worked pretty good. Although all of the money we spent on batteries I probably could have bought a decent used 6 volt nite light. But I never had that much at one time.

[Rusty W]

I was told this story by my step father yesterday. When he was a teenager he and his brother used a 12ga and a 20ga shotgun to put meat on the table. They needed slugs so they emptied the shot from the paper hulls and melted them down. They bored a hole in a piece of wood and poured their own slugs, had to use a pocket knife to trim it up so it would fit back in the paper shot hull. He said they also used to heat and pour some type of hard grease around the shot to hold it together. Said it worked pretty good to 35 yards or so.

[twotrees]

With old paper hulls, take the crimp open, pour the shot colum full of parafin, an let harden. Worked some what like a Glasser safety slug. Was Deer Medicine, way back in the hills.

Got a Stevens Favorite for trade for an old bike I had. Problem was It didn't have a whole firing pin ( tip was broken, and no extractor. Took the old one out and using it as a pattern filed one out of a nail, 10 pennie I think. The extractor was solved like any other Rednecked boy, extract fired case with a pocket knife. ( Age 13-14 , IIRC).

Don't ask me, Just read any of Pat McMannus's books, thats me in them, I think.

[oldhickory]

Once I used a filed down finishing nail to replace a broken carrier pin on a Winchester 1892 rifle...That still works.

Some kind of heavy foil to tighten the firing pin bushing in a third generation Colt SAA.

Finally, (I think) I once used a plastic zip tie for a front sight, just wrapped it around the barrel with the tail up in the center of the barrel and cut to length...Oh yeah, and I even sprayed it black to match the barrel.

[JSnover]

Found two rimfire scopes at the dump when I was around 12. Swapped enough parts to make one "good" scope and duct-taped it to a pellet rifle. Windage was so far off I had to rotate the scope 90 degrees and use the 'sideways elevation control' to get the pellets on target at 20 yards. Made an eye cup out of black rubber tubing and electrical tape. Spent that summer aggravating racoons on the front porch with that godawful ugly rig :)

[BD]

Long ago as a young man I lived in an abandoned log cabin above "Decision" rapids in the Cheat River canyon. After evicting the snakes when I first moved in, the cabin developed a little flying squirrel problem. They would rip the crap out of my groceries all the time. I dealt with this by taping a flashlight under the barrel of a .22 rifle which I kept in the bed with me at night. I had a tin plate baited with peanut butter balanced on a beer can on a chair out in the main room where I could see it from my bed. The flying squirrels would swoop down out of the loft at night, I'd hear the plate fall and sit up in bed and shoot the squirrel. Some nights I shot two or three.

I worked guiding raft trips on the river. There was a campground at the edge of town on the way to my cabin where many of the cutomers stayed after the trip. We, (the guides) could often be found there at night drinking beer and telling tall tales around the campfire, and trying for a tryst with any available young ladies. One night I got lucky. Then stupid. In the middle of the night I heard the plate fall off the beer can so, without thinking, I sat up in bed and shot the flying squirrel. Next thing I saw was the blurr of the young lady hot footing it out of there. She didn't go far as she was buck naked and didn't really know where she was. Took me an hour to convince her it was safe to come back and get dressed so I could drive her back down to the campground.

In her mind I had verified all of the stories she'd ever heard about nut cases living in the hills of West Virginia.

BD

[BD]

A good friend of mine, who was doing pretty well for himself, came up to Maine to do a little bird hunting. He had stopped in at LL Bean on the way up and bought himself a new Benelli Over & Under for a little over $1,000. Turned out he wasn't hitting too well with it as the LOP was an inch too long for him. We took it into the barn and I pulled off the but pad, leveled it on a couple of shingles and wacked it off on the radial arm saw. Took about two minutes. We put the butt pad back on and I think he's still shooting it just like that.

I have a friend up in Maine who hunts everything with a Merkel 6.5x55 over 20 guage. He broke the stock as a youngster, and "fixed" it with green electrical tape. 30 years later he's still hunting with it, and it's still wearing green electrical tape.

My '93 Chevy plow truck has one rear brake adjusting connector custom made from a swedish mauser cleaning rod. Been in there for 10 years at least.

You don't even want to start me into the "whatever's at hand" auto repair stories.

BD

[archmaker]

BD you are killing me! The story about the flying squirrels, had ROFLMAO!

[twotrees]

Grew up in the same neck of the woods. I was born in Uniontown Pa and spent all my time in the Mt's around Marston Mills and the Summit Mountain. I have kin all over them hills.

The kids in high school couldn't figure out why I was never at any functions or around town, when school was out. I was in the hills. The Yough was our white water river, and watching the tourists pay big bucks to wear life jackets and helmets to make the same trip we were making, in truck inner tubes. 2 tied together, one for us to ride in. One with onion sacks tied inside it, to keep the beer cold.

[NVcurmudgeon]

About 15 years ago I had a S&W Model 27 with excessive cylinder end shake. As far as I knew the only way to fix it was with a special tool that stretched the yoke. I unknowingly invented the end shake washer by lapping a 3/8" flat washer to the proper thickness on a whetstone. Guess it took about four hours. It wasn't until I proudly showed my restored Model 27 to some of the more knowledgeable guys at the range that I learned that S&W had beaten me to the punch by about a century.

[troy_mclure]

when i was a kid i found a sears/marlin .22mag in the trash. the stock had broken off about 4" behind the trigger.

some carving on am old couch leg, and 6 dry wall screws worked for about 12yrs/ countless squirrels.

[Shiloh]

Used a shim made from a Pepsi can to fix the carrier on a Marlin 39 Lever Action. Worked long enough until the new part came in from Marlin.

Shiloh

[missionary5155]

Good morning
Why waste the time to open a shotshel to pour hot wax into the shot for a slug... Just scar around the outside of the hull ( plastic or paper) about wad base level and the hole front half of the shotgun shell wil tear apart and go down the barrel. I would NOT do this with a full choke or your full choke may become a improved cylinder real fast...
Mike in Peru

[BD]

Twotrees,

I guided the lower Yough for Mountain Streams and Trails in the late 70's weekends and summers while I was in college. For fun we'd kayak Ohiopyle falls and then high tail it downstream to escape the park police.

We also spent a lot of time on the Upper Yough from Sang Run to Friendsville, playing hide and seek with the locals to get on the river. I got caught one day and spent a long afternoon at the wrong end of a rifle barrel discussing the Scenic Rivers Act with an old curmudgeon named Sam Thomas. I had a lot of fun in those days, and generated plenty of good stories.

We'd go food shopping once a week at a place in the hills between Ohiopyle and "Oniontown" where they wholesaled everything out of the back of trucks. Thinking back on it that stuff was probably all hijacked goods. I still keep in touch somewhat with a few folks in the Ohiopyle area.
Mostly more respectable these days.

BD

[dromia]

I have a Greener Martini action Police gun, its in 14 guage used to use brass shells.

14 guage cartridges are like hens teeth to get but 16 guage are plentiful, just stick a single wrap of 80 gm copier paper round the 16 guage case and it chambers and shoot champion.:-D

[fishhawk]

well a broken main spring in a winchester mod 95 can be fixed with a spring from a muskrat trap! guy ever finds out he's got a mainspring from a Herters leg hold trap in his winchester he might be a bit "cranky" ! steve k

[oldhickory]

I had a Winchester M70 Featherweight that I wanted to make shoot a little better than it did. I tried several things before deciding on creating a pressure point about an inch or so from the end of the forearm. I created the pressure point by cutting up a business card into 1/2" squares and using them for shims. When I had acheived the desired pressure, I soaked them in Kroil and left them in there. It's been shooting fine ever since.

[MT Gianni]

I have used nails as pins and filed wedges to fit but never realized it was redneck behavior. Dad traded for a ss 12 gauge that had a visible bend in the bbl and regulated it to his aim by putting it in a wheel rim and bending it "straight". I probably come by it honest. I do have a scar/bump on my palm from unloading my Benjamin air gun at age 11 by turning it down so the bb would roll out and catching it. I knew my other hand was clear till the trigger went off.

[waksupi]

I've made a lot of springs over the years, from whatever I had laying around. More flys for locks than I care to remember, from nails. I've filed out quite a few sights, forged trigger guards, made ramrod thimbles, buttplates, and triggers.
One friend had short started a ball and fired the rifle. Made an obvious bulge in the barrel. He took it to the anvil, and went after it with a blacksmith hammer. Pounded it back down to where it looked right, and he is still shooting it, with good accuracy.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

When I was a boy I wanted to shoot a Colt .45 revolver I had and like most kids of that time I had no money for ammo. My older brother had a Mossberg .410 shotgun and ammo for same. I tried a round and it fit except it was too long. Of course being a boy and a gun there has got to be a way. I trimmed some length off the .410 shell and reinstalled the cardboard wad , rolled the crimp back as best I could.What do you know it fit with room to spare. I was in the basement of a storage shed at the time and I didn't think anyone would hear me so I cocked and let fly. The pellets hit the cement wall and came straight back to my legs. I was wearing long pants so it didn't hurt much , at least not enough to match the thrill of my discovery. I next went looking for a worthy target. It just so happened my Mom had been nurturing a gourd on a clothesline post for several months. How could a boy resist. I shot the gourd without conscious. Later that evening my Mother came in the house after watering her gourd and said, Nippy some bugs have bored little holes in my gourd. As long as she lived I never admitted my guilt. There is another story involving that pistol but I will save it for later.I wuld like to comment about boys and guns. If my experience as a child is any measure, I am supprised that any of us make it to manhood.

[Charlie Sometimes]

Long ago as a young man I lived in an abandoned log cabin above "Decision" rapids in the Cheat River canyon. After evicting the snakes when I first moved in, the cabin developed a little flying squirrel problem. They would rip the crap out of my groceries all the time. I dealt with this by taping a flashlight under the barrel of a .22 rifle which I kept in the bed with me at night. I had a tin plate baited with peanut butter balanced on a beer can on a chair out in the main room where I could see it from my bed. The flying squirrels would swoop down out of the loft at night, I'd hear the plate fall and sit up in bed and shoot the squirrel. Some nights I shot two or three.

I worked guiding raft trips on the river. There was a campground at the edge of town on the way to my cabin where many of the cutomers stayed after the trip. We, (the guides) could often be found there at night drinking beer and telling tall tales around the campfire, and trying for a tryst with any available young ladies. One night I got lucky. Then stupid. In the middle of the night I heard the plate fall off the beer can so, without thinking, I sat up in bed and shot the flying squirrel. Next thing I saw was the blurr of the young lady hot footing it out of there. She didn't go far as she was buck naked and didn't really know where she was. Took me an hour to convince her it was safe to come back and get dressed so I could drive her back down to the campground.

In her mind I had verified all of the stories she'd ever heard about nut cases living in the hills of West Virginia.

BD

My buddy is a WV DNR Conservation Officer- and he just read your post. Says he can swear out a warrant for your arrest, as killing flying squirrels is against the law here (protected species), and he has an official statement of guilt via this post (no statute of limitations), and the NY Game and Fish (or whatever) will cooperate to extradite you. Are you willing to come in on your own recognizance?











APRIL FOOL! :bigsmyl2::kidding:

(Seriously, they are though. You should be more careful what you post, too. You can wind up in a lot of who-ha.)

[Old Ironsights]

...(Seriously, they are though. You should be more careful what you post, too. You can wind up in a lot of who-ha.)
It's really phenominal how many poachers & rack-addicts get caught after posting somthing stupid/incriminating to a forum...

[waksupi]

No corpus delecti!

[texas tenring]

Bought a Turk mauser Auction arms, shot it and could'nt push the front sight far enough to hit the bull. Barrel was bent, me and a buddy put it in a vise took both of us to bend if far enough and then back the other way to get it to look right. I shot that rifle in a couple of milsurp rifle matches and won the last one. It took almost a year for the stock to adjust to the new shape of the barrel. The rifle finally is a great shooter sub 2" groups at 100 yds. from the bench as issued sights and all. Eighty dollar boat anchor turned into a good rifle, HA, HA, I love it!

[runfiverun]

is that like, if the boolits don't fit they gotta aquit?

[AZ-Stew]

Back in the early 70s I bought a brass-frame 1858 Remington Army kit from Dixie Gun Works. I expected it to be just amatter of assembling parts, but none of the steel parts were blued and the brass frame was about the roughest casting I've ever seen. All parts were in the rough. I had no power tools at the time, and few hand tools, but I managed to get it together and shoot it. I still have it, but the original spring for trigger return and cylinder stop was a constant source of irritation for a couple of years. I understand this is normal for the design. The spring has a habit of splitting down the middle between the two leaves, or one of the leaves breaks off. I make replacements from hacksaw blades. The first few I made were worse than the original, but I finally learned how to temper springs and the one in the revolver now has been there for 30 years or so. I keep expecting it to break, but it chugs on.

Regards,

Stew

[azrednek]

This story is not humorous, occurred about 1965 or 66. A teenage girlfriend's brothers were injured seriously. Last I heard both were legally blind and wore Coke bottle glasses. They never did return to school untill after I graduated 2 years later.

The boys playing with dad's reloading stuff, discovered that if they filled a case with gun powder, stuffed the case's neck with toilet paper and lit it with a match. The case would fly like a rocket. The boys thought they could apply the same idea to their bicycle's handle bars and ride it real fast.

[missionary5155]

Good morning
I have a Colt Police ***. 38 Special here that now has an adjustable front sight for elevation. Mr. Roper in his book " Handgun Accuracy" suggested cutting the front sight with a saw (I used a swiss jewlers saw) horizontally from th back to the front about 3/4 of the way. Then if you need to have a lower point of aim just place the point on a thin screwdriver into the slot and "PRY" the upper cut part of the front sight up. It works.
My 44-40 SRC Winny 27xxx would not shot a boolit straight beyond 25 feet. Over the years agressive unprotected cleaning rod habits had wallowed the muzzle out to about .50 caliber. So with trusty hack saw in hand I cut off 1" and it etill was not enough. So off with another inch and the 18" is a great shooter. Made a new front sight out of a chunk of steel and soldered it on.
Old .22 rifle lost the front sight so I drilled a hole in the barrel, screwd in a wood screw and filed off the head to the needed height.
Years ago my Inland Carbine was starting to get real sluggish ejecting rounds. Well I thought the recoil spring is to firm. So I started wacking away at coils and sure enough it worked OK for awhile but then started getting sluggish again ejecting.... By the time I realised the gas port was clogging up I had about 1/3 wacked off. The short spring worked good for REDUCED loads.
Mike in Peru

[Cap'n Morgan]

...By the time I realised the gas port was clogging up I had about 1/3 wacked off. The short spring worked good for REDUCED loads.

Reminds me of a similar stunt I once pulled.

The slide on my CZ 75 wouldn't stay open after the last round had been fired. I figured the mainspring was too strong, keeping the slide from moving fully to the back, so I chopped off a few coils... it didn't work. I chopped off a few more - it still didn't help. Only then did I realize that my right thump was resting on the slide release when shooting, preventing it from engaging..:oops:

[BD]

I'm not too worried about the WV DNR as the staute of limitations on game violations is relatively short, and I've been well behaved for the past 30 years or so.

Also, I've never heard of a game prosecution resulting from killing a wild animal during a home invasion. I think that once they enter my domicile uninvited they're taking thier lives in their little paws, same as any other unwelcome visitor.

BD

[dukenukum]

I used to make gun sleeves from the legs of worn out jeans didn't have money for " proper cases " .

[Charlie Sometimes]

Okay, I'll tell one. It goes along with the old adage- One boy's a boy, two boys is half a boy, and three boys ain't no boy at all.

My cousing got a Kentucky flintlock kit for Christmas, way back when muzzleloading seasons were new, and the only thing allowed was flintlock.

Anyway, I helped him put it together day after Christmas in ONE day- no blue, as-cast brass because he wanted to shoot it, etc. Well, the next day, when it came time to test/shoot, all he had was 3F powder and no balls (RB's). So we cut the end off of some 12 ga. for shot to load. Powder, notebook paper wad, shot, more notebook paper.

Once we got the flint to strike and ignite the 3F in the pan, we proceded to fire off several rounds, taking turns. About halfway through a box of 12 ga., it started raining, so we backed up inside the door of his neighbors trailer where we were shooting. The neighbor took his 12 ga. pokestock, and began firing the wads from the rounds (from which we had removed the shot) out the back door. Did I mention that we had been using the empty wad space as our powder measure?

Without realizing it, we began using a full 12 ga shell full of 3F powder in that 45 caliber Kentucky! It was kicking like a mule and pounding us bad, and we could not figure out why all of a sudden. I just happened to look down into the empties sitting on the table next to the door, and realized what had/was happening. Just about the time my cousin was ready to touch the last one off, I mentioned the facts, he then got SCARED (why now?) and wouldn't shoot the last one. He made the neighbor do it!

I too have made firing pins from finish nails for pokestock shotguns from time to time. When I was in the USMC, it amazed some of those guys that you could do that and it would function perfectly. Busted many a clay on the base trap range with an old pokestock that I had worked on the firing pin- beating the Model 12 guys, etc. using hunting loads! Just tore 'em up that they had such good equipment and I could do that with "junk"!

[leadman]

I bought a Universal M-1 carbine with a red-dot on it at a gun show that had a crack in the stock by the reciever. When I took it to the range the red dot quit, so I removed it and installed the rear sight. My fairly good groups suddenly would not hit the 4'x4' target a 25 yards no matter what I did with the sights. Then it dawned on me why the stock was cracked. I took the stock off and eyeballed the barrel, it had a slight curve in it so keeping the muzzle pointed downrange I straightened the barrel by putting the reciever on a block and stepping on the barrel. Took a couple of tries to get it shooting good.

[Mk42gunner]

I bought an old Stevens miserable loader at an auction. When I shot it the first time its point of impact was three inches to the right... at 10 feet. Several whacks of the barrel on a handy block of pine later it was point of aim point of impact.


Robert

[Freightman]

Good morning
Why waste the time to open a shotshel to pour hot wax into the shot for a slug... Just scar around the outside of the hull ( plastic or paper) about wad base level and the hole front half of the shotgun shell wil tear apart and go down the barrel. I would NOT do this with a full choke or your full choke may become a improved cylinder real fast...
Mike in Peru
That will put a hog down where he stands.

[Big Boomer]

Several years back when I had first discovered the .45 Colt, I purchased a used Ruger Blackhawk in great condition. What I was hearing and reading was that the Bisley gripframe excelled when it came to handling recoil. BTW, that information is correct ... the Bisley grip frame does handle recoil much better than the Blackhawk grip frame. Shooting that Blackhawk and a friend's .454 convinced me that what I was reading and hearing had to be true. I was considering purchasing the Casull from my old friend. He suggested that we go out and give that Casull a try, that way I'd know whether I would like it. I have a scar on my hand between the base of my thumb and index finger where that Casull buried it's hammer. It was every bit as bad as the Blackhawk. I decided against purchasing the Casull. While at the gunshop where I purchased the Blackhawk one day, I saw a Bisley in .44 Mag. I asked the owner if he had many inquiries on the .44 Bisley. He said nobody wanted "that ugly thing." Pursuing the matter, he said he would be willing to swap the Bisley grip frame for the Blackhawk grip frame I had on my .45. I told him I would swap him even up if he would let me do the exchange on his counter. We agreed and I brought my revolver in and executed the swap just as agreed upon. The Blackhawk was a perfect fit on the .44, but not so hot (but workable) on my .45. I worked on it for some time to get a good fit, filing and stoning, and had to do some cold blueing to get a finish on the grip frame where I had to do some fitting where the cylinder frame and grip frame meet but it works well now. Subsequently had to replace the cylinder (cracks under the bolt cuts) and barrel (cracked) due to firing hard bullets and hot loads. Live and learn. 'Tuck

[Mtman314]

When I got my first flintlock 45 cal cva, my son was playing around it and lost the rear sight out of it for about 6 months. I took out the rear screw in the tang that goes through the trigger and ran a long screw through it with a nut on it, using the nut to tighten all in place. I used the slot in the head for the rear sight. It worked until we moved and while packing I found the rear sight which I marked with a punch and reinserted it. No problems ever since, though I still have the screws and nuts.

[Frank46]

1891 argentine mauser. My first real hi power rifle. Gunshop sold surplus argentine ammo at 10 cents a round. Reached into the bin, grabbed a handful and counted them out. Buddy had some remington 32-20 bullets. Basically the same diameter. Pulled some of the FMJ's from the surplus stuff. And with no change in the origional powder charge loaded about 5 rounds with the 32-20 bullets. First shot at the target
hit the ground about 75 yards out (100yd targets). second shot hit the berm 3 targets over. 3rd shot actually hit the paper target we were aiming at. 4th shot just went poof at about 50 yds and shot 5 never found out where it went. Figured with the full charge muzzle velocity was easily over 3000 fps. With the two bullets going poof was kinda saying that the bullets construction was way to light for the powder charge we were using. And some of the bullets were actually blowing up in mid air.
This was at the old Brookhaven range out on long island. They only had two range officers at a time when folks were shooting. And back in 67-68 there were still not many folks shooting on the weekends. Norma ammo like it was loaded back then had a quoted muzzle velocity of close to 2950 fps with a 150 grain bullet. So those poor little 32-20 bullets were quietly sitting there never figureing that they were gonna get the ride of their little short lives. They closed down that range years ago cause folks were moving into the area and started complaining about the noise.Still it was fun while it lasted, made some good friends (some of whom worked with my father on the long island railroad) They eventually opened another range that used to be gov't property. Would find helmets, mess gear and stuff buried in the sand.Frank

[Molly]

This looks like a continuation of my "Anyone out there dumber than me?" thread a few pages back, but I'll contribute a real scary story that actually happened to me when I was a young kid just out of the air force. I'd had great luck casting for .38 Spl and .357, except that I kept running out of slugs, even when I used a 4-cav mold. Just about that time, I moved to Atlanta Ga for a couple of years, and really didn't appreciate the heat that it can develop in the summertime. I'd run out again, and was in the process of casting up some more slugs. I worked the lead level down in the pot to about 3/4 full, and between the pot and the summer heat, I was dripping wet with sweat when I reached down, picked up another ingot and dropped it in the pot.

The resulting explosion literally sounded like a cherry bomb. It totally emptied the pot of molten lead, which it sprayed all over two rooms, and all over me. Including my face and open eyeballs. All I could see was a pinhole of light that enabled me to drive to a local hospital. The doctor peeled a sheet of lead off of my face and eyes like it was aluminum foil. He said the only thing that saved my face and eyes was that the explosion was so violent that when the lead hit, it splattered into a such a thin sheet that it didn't have enough heat to do any serious damage. But take my word for it, having sheet lead peeled off your eyeballs is more entertainment that the average person will appreciate.

From then on, I handled ingots with a pair of channel locks, and made darn sure every one was hot before I put it in the melt. What had happened was that a big drip of sweat had fallen on the ingot and was carried down into the melt. The melt instantly formed a hard shell around the ingot (and sweat) and a rather impressive stream boiler explosion resulted shortly thereafter. Except for the area behind where I was standing, the room looked like it had been papered with aluminum foil, as did an adjacent room accessed through an open doorway.

As I've noted elsewhere, the only real reason I can get good results with cast bullets now is that I've already done all the wrong things, and the only things left are what work.

Molly

[Nora]

Years ago a good friend of mine had a rifle with out a front sight. He took a short dry wall screw to the grinder to get it to fit into the front dove tale. It looked odd but seemed to work well for him. I couldn't get a descent sight picture with it, but he somehow could. I'm not sure if it was the farmer or the redneck in him that helped him pull it off. Perhaps it was both.

Nora

[Cherokee Mike]

I know a gunsmith in Oklahoma who told me years ago his favorite trick was to have someone bring in a nice, high-dollar firearm for repair. When he took the gun in his back room he would throw a wrench on the floor and then yell, "I'm sorry. I accidentally dropped your gun, but I can fix it as good as new." Then he would come out and look at the shocked expression on the customer's face.

For reasons of self preservation and continued health, I don't recommend anyone trying this. The customer may not react in a jovial and understanding manner. I know I wouldn't!

[stubshaft]

With old paper hulls, take the crimp open, pour the shot colum full of parafin, an let harden. Worked some what like a Glasser safety slug. Was Deer Medicine, way back in the hills.

Got a Stevens Favorite for trade for an old bike I had. Problem was It didn't have a whole firing pin ( tip was broken, and no extractor. Took the old one out and using it as a pattern filed one out of a nail, 10 pennie I think. The extractor was solved like any other Rednecked boy, extract fired case with a pocket knife. ( Age 13-14 , IIRC).

Don't ask me, Just read any of Pat McMannus's books, thats me in them, I think.

I had/have an old mdl37 in 12 ga. I used to take a regular shotshell #4 or #6, cut through most of the shell near the base of the wad column and shoot the top half of the shell out of the barrel. It worked like a slug until it hit the target. then BLAM!

[Beaverhunter2]

Good morning
Why waste the time to open a shotshel to pour hot wax into the shot for a slug... Just scar around the outside of the hull ( plastic or paper) about wad base level and the hole front half of the shotgun shell wil tear apart and go down the barrel. I would NOT do this with a full choke or your full choke may become a improved cylinder real fast...
Mike in Peru


In Michigan, that's called a "Cut Shell". It's specifically banned in the hunting regs- unless the firearm deer season is open! Pretty short range fodder but I sure wouldn't want to get hit by one! They take a lot of bark of a tree. Don't ask how I know.

In all seriousness, it's trick that's nice to know. You never know when you might need it. I wouldn't do it on a regular basis. I think pressures must be pretty high.

John

[blackthorn]

Once upon a time a guy gave me a single shot 12 gauge with a busted stock and a barrel with a curve like a bannana. I plugged the brech end and filled the barrel with fine sand, plugged the muzzle, laid the barrle on a nylon block, bend of the curve up and whaled the snot out of it with the biggest rubber hammer I could find. Kept turning the barrel and pounding away till it looked straight. Fixed the stock and it shoots fine. Doesnt even have any hammer marks.