bigted
08-18-2018, 07:17 PM
Went n did it. Had a moment of weakness rite as an opportunity presented itself in the form of a dandy 73 shooter chambered in 38 WCF.
Began life in 1884 as a custom 28 inch barreled octagonal barrel but someplace along the way it lost some 3 inches of its original barrel length. Bore is surprisingly good being shine with plenty rifling left.
Before shooting her i took the poor ol girl to parade rest. Coaxing 100+ years of grit outta the screw slots with a plastic dental pick and fitting each screw with the correct driver i smoozed out some of the more stuborn screws so as to inspect the entire rifle.
Cleaned outside metal rather briskly by someone before me so the collector value is pretty much gone with this vigorous cleaning as well as the shortened barrel, so my cleaning the insides just made sense.
I found years and years of oily greasy gunk in the trigger area as well as the bolt insides. No rust to be found and all parts pristine.
Loaded up 35 grains Ol E under a Lee 175 grain flat nose boolit lit with federal large pistol primer. This shot very well with much glee on this ol mans face. Such a hoot.
More to follow along with pictures.
Began life in 1884 as a custom 28 inch barreled octagonal barrel but someplace along the way it lost some 3 inches of its original barrel length. Bore is surprisingly good being shine with plenty rifling left.
Before shooting her i took the poor ol girl to parade rest. Coaxing 100+ years of grit outta the screw slots with a plastic dental pick and fitting each screw with the correct driver i smoozed out some of the more stuborn screws so as to inspect the entire rifle.
Cleaned outside metal rather briskly by someone before me so the collector value is pretty much gone with this vigorous cleaning as well as the shortened barrel, so my cleaning the insides just made sense.
I found years and years of oily greasy gunk in the trigger area as well as the bolt insides. No rust to be found and all parts pristine.
Loaded up 35 grains Ol E under a Lee 175 grain flat nose boolit lit with federal large pistol primer. This shot very well with much glee on this ol mans face. Such a hoot.
More to follow along with pictures.