j23
09-25-2009, 09:16 PM
[smilie=w:
So today around two, my good friend Bill (who happens to be my FFL dealer) calls me to let me know that his Chestnut tree is dropping Chestnuts like it was raining, and if I wanted to get any, I had better get up there before the local squirrel and deer poplulation carrys the rest of them off.... oh and by the way, you have a package here. :mrgreen:
So my initial impressions, as I had promised in a prior post...
The gun has a nice, case colored finish on the receiver, hammer, cresent butt plate, and lever, and a smooth, highly polished blued, octagon barrel, 26" long. The wood appears to be a hand rubbed finish; in the later serial number range, they did away with the fancy, high gloss finish, which suits me just fine.
The front sight, I was happy with, a bright brass 'half penny' style front sight, dovetailed into the barrel. The rear sight, which I had planned on doing away with anyhow, was a reproduction of the winchester flip up long range sight... the sight had TONS of lateral play in it, and didnt quite lay against the barrel flat as it does on my 1892 (original.) The outside finish and fit is very good. I have no loaded rounds for it [yet,] so I cannot comment on the accuracy or reliability yet.
The trigger is easily the heaviest trigger pull I have ever experienced, probably in the area of eight to ten pounds. Strangely enough however, it has little creep or over travel. It breaks very cleanly, just needlessly heavy. Bill [also a custom gun builder] advised me to 'wear it in' a little and he would see what he could do with it. He said it's probably nothing a little stoning and polishing wouldnt cure.
The gun, empty anyhow, cycles smoothly; she is as slick as a whistle. Although heavy (pushing 10 pounds,) she comes to my shoulder like I am pointing my finger, which is good, though the rear sight is virtually worthless.
Since Chapparral was kind enough to drill and tap the upper tang for a tang sight, I am definatly putting one on. In fact, I called Buffalo Arms today, [nice rep, and very knowledgeable by the way...] and he said that though the spacing will work for both the Lyman and Marbles 1876 tang sight designed for the orgininal, there was some discrepency in the thread pitch on the screw holes; i.e. some of them are the correct 10-36 pitch (which is correct) and some of them are metric, which means bill will be making me some screws, which will take time. I will be checking theyre size and pitch tomorrow.
I picked up dies and ordered a mold the other day :castmine: the 515139 Lyman 330 grain FP. I will be slugging the bore tomorrow to see if I will need to size them bullets or not. They are supposed to drop from the mold at .515"... however I will be using straight wheelweights so we will see.
Ill attach some photos tomorrow for anyone who is interested.
So today around two, my good friend Bill (who happens to be my FFL dealer) calls me to let me know that his Chestnut tree is dropping Chestnuts like it was raining, and if I wanted to get any, I had better get up there before the local squirrel and deer poplulation carrys the rest of them off.... oh and by the way, you have a package here. :mrgreen:
So my initial impressions, as I had promised in a prior post...
The gun has a nice, case colored finish on the receiver, hammer, cresent butt plate, and lever, and a smooth, highly polished blued, octagon barrel, 26" long. The wood appears to be a hand rubbed finish; in the later serial number range, they did away with the fancy, high gloss finish, which suits me just fine.
The front sight, I was happy with, a bright brass 'half penny' style front sight, dovetailed into the barrel. The rear sight, which I had planned on doing away with anyhow, was a reproduction of the winchester flip up long range sight... the sight had TONS of lateral play in it, and didnt quite lay against the barrel flat as it does on my 1892 (original.) The outside finish and fit is very good. I have no loaded rounds for it [yet,] so I cannot comment on the accuracy or reliability yet.
The trigger is easily the heaviest trigger pull I have ever experienced, probably in the area of eight to ten pounds. Strangely enough however, it has little creep or over travel. It breaks very cleanly, just needlessly heavy. Bill [also a custom gun builder] advised me to 'wear it in' a little and he would see what he could do with it. He said it's probably nothing a little stoning and polishing wouldnt cure.
The gun, empty anyhow, cycles smoothly; she is as slick as a whistle. Although heavy (pushing 10 pounds,) she comes to my shoulder like I am pointing my finger, which is good, though the rear sight is virtually worthless.
Since Chapparral was kind enough to drill and tap the upper tang for a tang sight, I am definatly putting one on. In fact, I called Buffalo Arms today, [nice rep, and very knowledgeable by the way...] and he said that though the spacing will work for both the Lyman and Marbles 1876 tang sight designed for the orgininal, there was some discrepency in the thread pitch on the screw holes; i.e. some of them are the correct 10-36 pitch (which is correct) and some of them are metric, which means bill will be making me some screws, which will take time. I will be checking theyre size and pitch tomorrow.
I picked up dies and ordered a mold the other day :castmine: the 515139 Lyman 330 grain FP. I will be slugging the bore tomorrow to see if I will need to size them bullets or not. They are supposed to drop from the mold at .515"... however I will be using straight wheelweights so we will see.
Ill attach some photos tomorrow for anyone who is interested.