There's been a long dry spell when I didn't really compete except in the ocassional monthly match. Well, this past Sat & Sun our club held our 17th annual match. Seems I was the only brave soul to hazard the pitfalls of the "Frontiersman" category which requires two C&B revolvers. I had several very poor stages, and they knocked my overall standing down dramatically, but... I perserved thru each and every stage, taking my lumps as both lube-fouled powder and bad caps slowed me down, and on a couple of ocassions during the heat of the day on Sat, stopped me cold. Once leaving 3 shots unfired (my fault, I thought shot #2 was a squib), and the very next stage shot #1 was a squib. Eliminating the lube on Sunday was much better, got thru all four stages without a serious problem. But, maybe I need new nipples, a couple on each of my 3 1851 Navies appears a little shorter than the others, a few minutes with a dial caliper will tell the "tale of the tape".
But, unlike other reports, my Uberti 1873 Winchester clone in .45 Colt ran for all ten stages without a cleaning, and although fouled, and toward the end of the second day, the lifter was getting a little sticky, I only had two misses, both the result of overswinging on a target. My bullet of choice for the past 20 years has been cast of WW in an RCBS mold # .45-225-CAV. Shown here "as cast" and as hit with my 2-½ lb. rounding hammer to see how it holds together on impact:
and here, on the right, as loaded:
This is a truncated cone, with a wide fairly deep lube groove. For my BP loads, I lube it with SPG and size to .452. I only use about 28grs of Goex Cartridge topped with a card punched from a waxed paper milk carton. Fired with a WLR Winchester primer, I've never had a problem, even with ammo stored for several years. The bullet has a good, healthy crimp groove, and with a tight case provides a good seal from the elements.
While I was the only C&B shooter, I wasn't without a cheering section. Seems everyone enjoyed a good run when I got one. On several occasions it seemed I had a bad cap, and after running around the cylinder for another strike or two, I finally gave up, popped off the offending cap and fired again. Never failed to fire after getting a fresh cap.
So, after a 14 year absence, I added the 2008 "Frontiersman" win to wins in '90, '91 & '93 @ Raton with the Old West Shootists Assoc, a couple of 5th places & one 3rd place BP finishes @ EOT in '87, '88 & '91, and two 2nd place finishes @ Roundup in '92 & '94.
Charcoal, sulphur and smoke... HE'S BACK!!!
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!Congrats on the match!
