Ok, maybe now I'm finished - CPR '94

[Camel73]

Pics soon.

I had an inkling this wasn't over yet.

Do you ever read about your family history?
Not long after the new year, with my small light on and a drink and snack at my reading chair, I took myself back a couple hundred years... just hanging out with the long gone fam. It's weird to think that not all that many generations ago things were so much different.
History has always been a favorite of mine but I get busy enough to forget things. ...just enough for it to be just as exciting, the next time round.

Hmm, how did the blood that runs through my veins bring me to where (and partially who) I am today? In looking back, I find a connection that brings harmony.

The next day I got up early, went to have a breakfast special and a couple cups of black coffee - then arrived to saunter around the ol' used rack. I admired the assortment of black powder rifles. Wow. Pretty crazy.
I looked at all of them, checked out their curious means of operation, felt how heavy they were, and imagined how it would be.........

Well, ok, so maybe I wanted one.
Black powder? I don't know man.....
Is that something I want to get into?
My conclusion was - Dude, its black powder, not black magic. If they can do it, you can do it! To my surprise, a few were very reasonably priced, so I started getting seriously minded. If I'm doing this.... -------Am I really doing this?! Oh man.

So now I've got a 5 foot long .62 cal smoothbore with a rock stuck to the side of it.
Haha

1690's - 1730's 62 cal. Fusil de Chasse. Early french, indian trade flintlock muzzleloader. I think a few of these might have been floating around back then - in what is now Canada. Just not this very one. It's a reproduction made a world away in Rajasthan, India.
I'm just happy to have it --and, I like it. It's really got it's own vibe goin on.
It ain't gonna win no beauty pageants but it was a good deal and I was told I could shoot it.
Winning!
If it breaks I'll make my own parts.
The owner of the place said it came through a Lewis and Clark production that never got finished. Neat.

My first outing I went through half a pound of 2F! Uh-oh......... I might like this... ...too much.
Though I brought along different size patching for the .591" balls of the softest stick on ww's I had, none of them fit. Which surprised me because I thought I had that part figured out. (!)
I also broke the rod within 15 minutes..... after staring at it for a second I thought, --and now that's out of the way ----
Thankfully I was prepared enough to have brought along a brass rod tapped for fittings I had made at home.

With 80gr of 2F and a ball sandwiched between a couple fat wads of grass, I was getting hand sized groups at 40 yards. Not too shabby!
Ok, must try 80 yards, just for fits and giggles. The first two landed within about 6" of one another - a touch low and right of center. The 3rd, was in line with the other two, about a foot higher.
Wow! I'm actually hittin stuff!! With enough practice and a respectable distance, I could really whack something with this!!

My brother set out a water filled 4 liter milk jug at about 30 yards.
Deeaad meat.
I'm hoping maybe one day for real with this "Gun of the Hunt".

One thing I hadn't read about was how neat's-foot oil stunk so bad when you burnt it! Lol Yuk!! Never again. Good thing I didn't mix up any batches of lube before I shot it. I'll probably try olive oil in place of that next, to mix with some beef tallow.

Cleaning is mandatory.
The fly in the ointment might be this for some people, but I find it to be the same pace as the loading and shooting really. Once you get your head around it all.






Spring time.
Birds tweetin, geese flyin, and sun shinin over the melting snowy hills. The white is blinding - but with a grin of expectancy (and squinty eyes), I have a look around the yard. The light breeze is refreshing.
It's a nice feeling.

Game on! Critters!!

I know you'll be climbing out of your little caves any week now. What a beautiful day to get behind a scope.
It got me to thinking about a 17hmr savage bolt gun from years ago. A sweet, but slippery little sow that got away from me.

This corner of the room (where I've found much joy) has become my friendly nemesis. A less modern, eclectic assortment of things that begs the attention of curious minds.
The stock is what grabbed my attention right away. Nicely grained with a bit of checkering you don't see every day. White-lined spacers have never really done it for me but they looked ok on this one, and seemed to add to the classic nature of it overall.
Waaaaiiiit a minute! The trigger guard looked familiar.. as did the long reciever and bolt handle. Really?!? Another older mossberg. Doh!!

My eyes lit up after I squinted to scan the longer 24" ac kro-gruv barrel. ......22 magnum. Up to this point I hadn't seen too many 22 mags that I liked this much. Or felt a need to own for that matter.
Yes Ray, one more 22 lol.
I've always wanted a 22 mag since I was a kid, but it was one of the ones that I exercised my will of steel and better judgment on. Insert eye roll here.
I wasn't looking for any 22 magnums.
I had seen them and passed them by, for the most part, uninterested.

For being around 50 years old, I thought it was in really good shape. I hadn't seen too many of these things floating around.
Hey! The receiver is tapped for scope mounts!?! No way!! That just makes for a guiltless scope mounting. As some of you may know, these receivers aren't the most scope-friendly things.
I could make this work............

The stamping was light enough for me to have to geezer toss it around in front of me to make anything out.
I had vaguely heard of the "Chuckster" before......
Hmm, 640 KC.

Reading up on it that night, I made a reminder so I would be first at the door the next morning.

68-71ish Mossberg 640KC Chuckster 22 magnum.

Affter fitting a rail, I plunked my 3-9x40 Burris C4 on it. Because - "He's got, hiii-iiiigh hopes!", haha - you know the song.
Pinging all the corners clean off my hanging plates at 100 yards, I fiddled with the 5 shot mag for a bit to help with cycling its favorites. So far, any 30gr tipped or the 40gr cci gamepoints.
Sweet. Works for me. Time to get permissions again for a gopher town and a coyote or 2.






Smackers!! I really gotta stay away from that place.... I just went in for some .22 ammo!
The day I went in, as I was checking out the eaten-up selection behind the counter, my eyes kept wandering to the handful of older levers, just above.

Hey, 3/4 mag! In rifle configuration too.... ...cool. Wow, looks like crazy spanky new. Nice crescent butplate.....
After getting to handle it, I realized it was a commemorative. I felt my back pocket get a little heavier.... ....and my mood - lighter.
32 Winchester Special.
Hey! Wasn't that some kind of cousin to the 30-30? I threw it up to my shoulder, and took a bead through the buckhorn rear sight at the deer head slightly above us.
It balanced nicely. Different than my 20" carbine.
"24 inch barrel?" I guessed aloud.
A nod of agreeance came my way, "I believe it is." he said.
It also carried a saddle ring, to which my mind recalled finally finding the one that was put in a "safe place" for close to a decade for my "94.
I've since returned it to its rightful place.

I handed it back, commenting on the configuration to which he gave a look of similar excitement.
-------Days later he also directed me to an appropriate box of gas checks.... = golden nuggets. I kind of forget now, but in parting, upon congratulations, he said something about two types of people, "...the quick and the disappointed.------

That was one of the longer weekends I've had to endure lol.
If you've heard the saying, "The more you know, the more you know you don't know", you might appreciate how I felt in learning about the 32 Winchester Special.
I was really excited. To think --- this blend of awesomeness was attainable!
Macaroni for a month, here I come!

I arrived to collect the new member of the family from a different set of staff.
In looking for a potentially suitable case just before I left, one of them threw up an arm and waived me back. " I'm pretty sure I saw the box..." he repeatedly encouraged, as he hurried to the back room. He eventually returned and handed it to me. The somewhat tattered sleeve and western themed artwork brought back vivid memories of recieving my first rifle. A 1776-1976 USA Bicentennial - some 20 years earlier.
My mind again recalled good memories with my familiar 30-30...
Unfortunately, it's box I never could find again.

It wasn't until after I got home that I realized it didn't actually say commemorative on the barrel, only "Canadian Pacific".
What the world! lol Did they forget it?! Hmm, kinda like the dies that were labelled .243 Remington I brought home one evening. (On purpose, for my 100 ATR... ...you don't see that everyday.)

I don't really get too hung up on this kind of stuff but it's interesting nonetheless:
It turns out there were 3 CPR commemoratives offered in 1981 (alongside US Border Patrol and John Wayne commemoratives).
Stantard = 2700,
Employee -or retired = 2000 (stamped only "Canadian Pacific")
and Presentation grade = 300.
And just so the little guy doesn't feel left out: 19,999 were made of the US Bicentennial in '76, which shared its year with the Little Bighorn and Sioux models.

I actually enjoy my models' constant reminder of history.

I'm a person who enjoys silence (and music), and for the most part my own company will suffice. So, I've come to like the train on it.
Its quiet.

Quiet and yet still speaks volumes of a turbulent trek.

The style and chambering were intriguing and classic - but more than that, it fell in line with all the reasons I've come to cherish my first levergun... and then some!
Just like my very first possession - a grand ol' cartridge, the 30-30 - the 32ws shares innovations of minds that followed a line of forward thinking.
I always had a thing for the older partial magazine rifle style lever guns. I think I'm going to put a tang sight on it. Which one, I'm not sure yet.


At one point, in sharing with ol' grandpooba the detailed virtues of my peculiar rifle, he looked at me and said "Henway?"
I shot back --"Henway?? What's a henway?" He tried to hide his grin as he stated proudly, "Oh.. 3 or 4 pounds..."
We had a good laugh, and I got that feeling of confirmation, that this Winchester "Special" 32 wasn't for everyone lol.

As I look to what has almost become some kind of half-forgotten lore, I think of the history of our why, looking back to remember empathetically, the plight of humanity altogether.

Fortunately, for us all, it's more than railroads and rifles.

Thank you Jesus, for that.

[Bronco]

Enjoyed this read !
Torn about not having a LGS like that nears me. Wished I had one near me but there isn't, glad because my pocket would be a lot lighter ! I am already on hot dogs and beans for the rest of the year .

[AJMD429]

....

Man, you da VICTIM...!

But then again, we da ENABELERS.. .!!!

[M. M. Wright]

About that tang sight; Marbles. Unless you enjoy shimming the base of a Lyman.

[Camel73]

Enjoyed this read !
Torn about not having a LGS like that nears me. Wished I had one near me but there isn't, glad because my pocket would be a lot lighter ! I am already on hot dogs and beans for the rest of the year .

Lol, Scary convenient!
Just enough though for me to find what I like, and the timing has been right.
I just paid off my truck last year so I'm at least able to have ketchup with my KD

....

Man, you da VICTIM...!

But then again, we da ENABELERS.. .!!!

Lol, victim of love!
I don't have any I'd want to get rid of though.
It's nice having a good stable to choose from.

About that tang sight; Marbles. Unless you enjoy shimming the base of a Lyman.

I'm still on the fence about this.
In my mind, it's begging for one. And, I've always wanted to mess around with one....... I'm just not sure that I would like it. I'm long necked, like a camel.
The tang isn't drilled for it either.
I been trying to suss it out.

[Bill in Oregon]

Great post! Congrats on the .32 Special.
As to the fusil de chasse,
"Now search for tow, and some old saddle pierce.
No wadding lies so close and drives so fierce."

http://home.insightbb.com/~bspen/ptery.html

[Camel73]

Great post! Congrats on the .32 Special.
As to the fusil de chasse,
"Now search for tow, and some old saddle pierce.
No wadding lies so close and drives so fierce."

http://home.insightbb.com/~bspen/ptery.html

Thank you very much for that link Bill! That was great!
I really enjoyed that.
That one needs to go up in the ballistics den.

As for the 32ws, ya!... I'm excited to own one like this.

[Camel73]

Haha, I just hit the notebook button.
Sweet!!!!
Thanks Bill

[Bill in Oregon]

Camel, Bob Spencer's notebook is loaded with good stuff. He is getting elderly, bless his heart.