Warranty questions answered that one! If they do it, it's warranteed for a year... parts and labor, if I do it... it's warranteed until it breaks again! Besides the stomach was growling by this time!
And there was a Cowboy Action match in Groesback, TX on Sunday. I got home in time to ensure I had enough ammo already loaded and all my gear was in order.
Luckily, the club got started a tad late, as I was certainly late. Safety meeting was over, and everyone was getting their stuff prepared to shoot the 1st stage. Match Director told me... you've shot enough of these to give yourself the safety speech... and reminded me of their range specific rule about "muzzles above the berm". One competitor needed more than a reminder, as he let a shotgun round go that ended up going over the berm, and earned a match DQ. Apparently the neighbor's cows are more valuable than all our p/u's combined!
I again shot in the "Frontiersman" category, and... WON! Ok, I was the only Frontiersman... so you could easily say I lost! But, as the other sayin' goes, "...if you aren't missing, you're going too slow!" I musta been shooting too slow, as I shot the match clean. No misses. I shot my 1851s Navies, (NOT converted to cartridge like so many other lazy good-fer-nuttin's)...
my 1873 rifle in 45Colt loaded with 30 grains of Goex "Cartridge", a 200 gr. RN and my Cimarron 1878 Colt clone side by side... loaded with whatever a load of Goex "Cartridge" fits in a MEC #43 bushing and 1 oz of shot!I shot the match "double-duelist" style, in that the right hand gun is shot with the right hand and the left-hand gun is fired with the left... and find that I need some more practice with shooting left handed, and I really slowed down on the left... Even tho' I found that at times, I had to consciously release the trigger as the hammer wouldn't stay cocked! Apparently the left hand's fine motor control skills need some work!
Unlike many C&Br's, I load (charge) all six chambers and just cap 5 when I get to the loading table. That way, if I have a miss-fire or a dud, I can simply cap the 6th chamber and possibly salvage a clean run. However, as I started charging chambers for that first stage, I found that I put this pair of 1851s away with one chamber still charged! Since I don't mark chambers or note such, I knew that on that 1st stage I might have a misfire or two! I really don't recall the last time I had these guns out and shooting! They appear cleaned... so apparently I cleaned 'em around those 2 chambers! I musta done a good job, as I fired all 6 stages (60 rounds total), without having to take the guns apart, relube or otherwise fiddle with the guns.
The 1873 shot all match long, with nary a problem, tho' in its case, as I knew it would. I once proved to myself that it would shoot over 10 stages, over a 2 day period without any necessary maintenance. Just wish I could get my 1860 Henry to such a state... after just 10 shots it's gummed up something fierce! I don't know if its chamber is just a tad larger, or if there isn't as much clearance on the lifter.
There isn't much you can say against the Cimarron clone of the 1878 Colt scattergun... except it's a "tank". Which, in the case of BP shooter, is a GOOD THING! One of the other shooters asked me about my charge in the shotgun... as to him, they seemed quite heavy. To me, they don't seem much different than factory Winchester AA "Low Noise-Low Recoil" ammo. Maybe I'll have to measure that load from the #43 bushing... but it makes for such a nice loaded round!!! the crimp stays in place, and is perfectly formed out of the "once-fired" AA hulls I use! Maybe I'll see how good some lighter loads appear... as I've bushings from #36-41 also! I've also got #45 & 46. But those 2 won't crimp as nice with 1 oz. of shot.
Ok, so in the final analysis, I might have been in last place of the shooters that finished the whole match... but I was certainly 1st in the amount of smoke and smiles I got from the day's outing!
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