Paco Kelly's Leverguns.com

Mike Armstrong

Sixgun, you got some beauties! The Shooting Master is the best of the best, especially a .44 combo. SOME parts from a Python actually fit in a New Service, as long as it has the 1905-and-later lockwork. When I was rebuilding beat up .455s for shooters in the 1970-80s. i used Python mainsprings in se...

Mike Armstrong

Indeed a great pair! I always wondered why the US Army didn't just buy Colt New Service .45s instead of the 1902. They were available and the British Empire had bought several thousand earlier to arm troops for the Boer War; Canadians, Brits, and Aussies. The USA waited until the "Improved Mode...

Mike Armstrong

I carry a plain-edged 3" blade with dark green scales, made in Japan and with the blade marked "V8-10." Not sure which model it is; ("Delica" maybe???) bought it about 15 years ago to give to my son when he joined the Marines. Then he gave it back to me five years later, and...

Mike Armstrong

It's interesting to me that when archeologists are looking at REALLY old sites, they first look for edged tools (or the work chips that put the edge on them) to determine if the site was lived in by humans. I've been carrying a knife for 72 years, since I was 6, and WE'VE been carrying 'em for many ...

Mike Armstrong

I'm a Colt "New Service" nut and think they (including the '17) are about the top of revolver development, especially those with the "post-1905" improvements. They just don't break. I've handled hundreds and owned about 30 over the years since 1954, examples manufactured from 189...

Mike Armstrong

The cheapest way to get a Blackhawk in .32-20 is to buy a New Model Blackhawk in .30 Carbine and shoot .32-20s in it (IF you can find one). The Old Models can also shoot .32-20 but will have to have a rim recess cut in the chambers, pricey unless you have access to a finish chamber reamer. Sometimes...

Mike Armstrong

I just remembered that arsenic was one of the early chemicals used to make a copper alloy: arsenobronze. How this was done, I have no idea, but it didn't catch on. Perhaps they kept losing smiths? There is also an alloy called "phosphorbronze," but I'm not sure if that's modern or antique....

Mike Armstrong

In upstate NYS and southern VT where I lived for many years, one great place for a metal detector was under "boundary trees" in the woods. These were trees that had marked the corners or edges of fields back when the land was under cultivation or pasture and the forest had been cleared. Wh...

Mike Armstrong

Copper+tin=bronze. Tin was the reason "civilized" folks from the Mediterranean started coming to the British Isles. They had plenty of copper but tin was mostly found in a few places farther north, like Cornwall. Early in the Bronze Age other metallic elements were also tried as alloys wit...

Mike Armstrong

I use a metal detector only when I've found a site that looks promising. So I don't spend a lot of time walking up and down the beach hoping for a diamond ring! What I do is hike up into the side canyons in areas of the national forest or BLM land that are accessible by old roads (not necessarily by...

Mike Armstrong

Good PR professionals are REALLY valuable folks, for both employees and employers! Glad to see someone who really wants to make the "people part" of work WORK! It's one of those professions that really serves.

Mike Armstrong

The only buck I've killed in the last 15 years with a .38-40 was a forked horn whitetail "meat buck" shot with a Win 1885 Lo-Wall single shot at about 45 yards with a Black Hills factory "Cowboy Load"! I was bird hunting in upstate NYS and saw tracks and rubs at the beginning of ...

Mike Armstrong

earlmck, I envy you that 14 1/2, and wish I hadn't sold my 14 1/2R (carbine version w/half magazine). But a house payment had to be made. I also damaged my hearing shooting handguns in the 1950s and '60s. Who knew about hearing protection? We just figured that guns would hurt at BOTH ends. The first...

Mike Armstrong

Sixgun, that low wall is droolworthy! Obviously a special order item. 1885s have been my favorite rifle since I read a book called "Single Shot Rifles" in the Santa Rosa public library when I was seven or so. Had to sneak upstairs and hide in the adult stacks to read it and "American ...

Mike Armstrong

My 1885s are both original. One's a low wall I bought some years ago when on vacation in Maine. It had done apple orchard guard duty for a farmer and his son for many years. Bore looked like a sewer pipe, the rest was smooth brown patina with all markings sharp and clean. 28" #1 weight barrel. ...

Mike Armstrong

Anybody else a fan of the .38 WCF? I have two Win 1885s, a Colt 1910 Bisley, and a 1923 Colt New Service, and enjoy shooting them all. Even killed a couple of bucks with the single shots! (I've also had a couple of '92s and a Remington 14 1/2R but let them go to somebody who wanted them more than i ...

Mike Armstrong

I'm with sixgun on the Ruger train! Never had a bad one and I've had plenty: bolt action and single shot CF rifles, SxS and O/U shotguns, .22 autos, DA and SA RF and CF revolvers. Still have an Old Model Bearcat, a New Model Bisley Blackhawk .357 w/original 7 1/2"barrel, a 2 3/4" Police Se...

Mike Armstrong

I either carry my 20" barreled .410 T-C G2 Contender Carbine (barrel by MGM of Utah), or a 1955 Ruger Standard Model .22 auto, or both. I mainly worry about vandals and snakes. However, I've never really had any reason to shoot either gun in many years of wood cutting. The wackos leave an armed...

Mike Armstrong

Another place there's a lot of 425 expertise is the Savage Collectors Forum on www.24hourcampfire.com/forums. I think there's a sticky at the front of the forum with 425 info. They AREN'T common, that's for sure. The .25 Remington "rimless .25-35" seems to be the rarest. Not sure why Savag...

Mike Armstrong

I'm used to using ammonium nitrate for blowing stumps, cracking rock faces, and moving boulders. It is a high explosive when mixed with a high-energy source like the kerosene mentioned. We used diesel oil and got forces equivalent to an equal amount of dynamite. That mix is very stable and requires ...

Mike Armstrong

The one on the right is very likely a Stevens, but it looks like it has been re-barrelled with a shotgun barrel, possibly even a barrel from one of the original Stevens tip-up shotguns. Check the BATFE list of C&R and exempted Class 3 guns to see if that "Handy Gun" is exempt. The othe...

Mike Armstrong

When I was a freshman in college I landed my "dream" weekend job, helping run the Sheriff's Dept. reloading operation at the range. Lots of grunt work at first, like reconditioning .38 Spl. cases and sorting them to cull out any that showed weak spots or cracks or oversized primer pockets,...

Mike Armstrong

I waved a Henry .410 lever gun around a couple of weeks ago, and was impressed only by its ergonomics (reminds me of a post hole digger). I suspect that as a house gun for "things that go bump in the night," stuffed with Win 3" .410 000 buckshot, it would be Ok. But as something to lu...

Mike Armstrong

I'm also with the kid! Something went out of my interest in planes when I say my first jet (in 1949?), probably a P-80 Shooting Star from Hamilton Air Force Base about 20 miles south of our ranch. Every few years the Navy and Marines would hold a war game off the Northern California coast sending st...

Mike Armstrong

Now I realize that ground squirrels (no matter what you call 'em) are tough little critters....but isn't that kinda overkill? (Not that I care; the only good ground squirrel is a dead one. Here in the SOUTHwest, their fleas can/do carry bubonic plague, among other bacterial treats!). That old Burges...

Mike Armstrong

But it's perfect for shooting unarmed civilians and POWs.

Mike Armstrong

It's confusing because there is also a ".44 XL" which is a .44 WCF with an elongated neck area that was originally loaded with birdshot and is thought by some to be the ancestor of the .410 shotshell. I've seen them in break action Stevens and H&R single shot shotguns, but the most int...

Mike Armstrong

Your Cooey looks REMARKABLY like a clone of a Stevens Model 94, a common single made for many years in the US by Savage. I believe that Savage had (and may still have) a subsidiary in Canada that made .22s and shotguns, some of which were marketed under the Savage name in the US, and some in Canada ...

Mike Armstrong

Don't get me started on the reasons to prefer a Win 1885 over a Sharps. Just accept that John Browning was a genius who improved the work of an older genius and leave it lay at that. And the .30-40 is the American .303. Why "buy foreign"? (Unless you are a former or present subject of Her ...

Mike Armstrong

Strip it down completely and work the metal over with bronze wool or REALLY fine steel wool and Kroil or some other penetrating oil. On this one I suspect you can use a fair amount of elbow grease and not do any serious damage (usually I advise bronze and a gentle touch to avoid removing bluing. NOT...

Mike Armstrong

One of my grandfathers fought as an infantry officer with the 89th Infantry. He was gassed but returned to duty, then hit by a machine gun bullet in the Meuse-Argonne campaign and sent to hospital. He recovered in time to serve in France after the Armistice in the Army of Occupation and brought back...

Mike Armstrong

The Webley "RIC" and "Army" SOLID FRAME revolvers were made in many calibers, and exported all over the world, plus copies of them. As noted, Custer is said to have died with two of them in .442 Webley. I have never seen a .44-40 or other big "American caliber" top-brea...

Mike Armstrong

I like AJM429's "gift". "Sixes" are my favorite handgun and they are very hard to find in CA (partly due to our stupid handgun "laws" and partly because most people who find one NEVER sell it). I like my plain blue 2 3/4" .357 "Service Six" the best, but ...

Mike Armstrong

I'm with you on the new "wonder cartridges" that come along so often....the game doesn't change, the land changes very little, the human body doesn't change much. So why would the basic weapons that are associated with these things change much? My son got a commendation for killing a snipe...

Mike Armstrong

Anybody ever notice that a 40mm Bofors autocannon round looks just like a huge .22 Hornet? I wonder how that happened.

Mike Armstrong

A sad loss. I have two .30-40 barrels from them, one on a Ruger No. 1 and one on a Win 1885 Hi-wall action that was originally a .30-40 but was converted (???) to .30-06 with a WWII 03A3 barrel by some amateur. It never ejected .30-06 ctgs. reliably so I had Pac-Nor replace the barrel with a 26"...

Mike Armstrong

The Watco "Red Mahogany" duplicates the reddish tone of many pre-64 Winchesters very well. I have never used it on a collector-grade gun, but have refinished quite a number of hunting guns with it--like Win 37s, 24s, 67s, 69s, and a 43 .22 Hornet with worn off stock finish. They look very ...

Mike Armstrong

I've never heard anything about Winchester even considering chambering a 94 or anything else in .35-30 (as the wildcat came to be called). If they did, they certainly didn't let the press or customers in on the decision. The main reason that wildcat exists is that it is a perfect rebore for a worn o...

Mike Armstrong

Neat! I've seen similar formations in the desert in Eastern CA (US), and in the Vizcaino Desert in Baja del Sur (MX). Always magnets for desert animals--and people. One reason I carry water purification pills in my survival kit.

Mike Armstrong

Depends on what you mean by "needs". After the recession of the early '80s wiped us out as far as "toys" were concerned, I made do with my grandfather's 1913 Colt DA .44-40, a Ruger Standard .22 auto, and a Winchester single shot .410 for two years and all the hunting seasons in ...

Mike Armstrong

What are the holes in the caprock in the picture with the red truck? Natural features or man-made? At first I thought they were bomb or shell holes (not impossible in Mozambique, I think) but in the enlargement they don't look like that. Thanks for posting--nice to see that the entire planet isn't a...

Mike Armstrong

I've seen a few Savage 99 SRCs in Mexico, all .30-30s. The only .300 rifle (not sure which Savage 1899 model, but had a 26" barrel it looked like to me) was in a picture of a young caballero fighting on th side of the Cristeros in Jalisco in the early 1920s anti-clerical conflict . He looked li...

Mike Armstrong

I look forward to the book, especially any pix or text on military use of the '95. Found an interesting picture of a Mexican rebel firing a '95 Musket at Mexican Federal troops in Mexicali during the Magonista Rebellion in 1911 ("won the battle, lost the war"). Probably a .30-40 but who kn...

Mike Armstrong

I never could get with the "commemorative" deal. I like Colts that "commemorate" a long USEFUL life, often by having blue wear, a few nicks and dings, and signs of firing in the chamber throats. My favorites are Bisleys, SAAs, and especially New Services, but I like the ".35...

Mike Armstrong

Nothin' like bringing an old vet back to service! Keep up the good work!

And Happy Fathers' Day to all you Levergunners!

Mike Armstrong

Mike Armstrong

Some interesting firearms history there--THANKS for posting!

Mike Armstrong

Gunny, I would expect the 94 and 336-based .410 levers to be lighter and better balanced, as you found. given the price, weight, and balance of that model of Henry .410 I handled, I wouldn't expect much in the way of sales. Weight in a .45-70 CAN be an asset, if you want to spend some relatively com...

Mike Armstrong

I recently handled a lever action .410 made by Henry Arms and was surprised by its balance (like a steel fence post driver) and weight (same). This was the 20" barreled model with rifle sights. What was that thing designed for? I swang it around for a while and it just didn't feel like a shotgu...

Mike Armstrong

PS: betcha that little .410 bolt single shot of Nath's is a "Beeza"! They made nice bikes, too.

Mike Armstrong

I killed my first blacktail buck with a .410 slug in 1951 using a Winchester Model 37 single shot I still have and occasionally use. Three years later I discovered that .410 slugs were illgal for deer in CA at that time (and so was the .25-20 Marlin I'd used for the next two bucks....). Sometimes ig...

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