- Reload .32ACP. Or .25. That would probably have a building-ships-in-a-bottle feel.
- Have one of those little Z-scale choo-choo trains in a briefcase. I'm not sure why.
- Shoot a matchlock.
- Climb a mountain. Not a particularly big or difficult one, mind you. I'm not crazy.
- Ride in a motorcycle sidecar.
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Strange things I want to do...
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I've often dreamt about reloading for the wife's 1903...
Imagine hand-tailoring loads to, um, reduce recoil or, um, maximize the effectiveness...
At that point I wake up thinking, "Why bother?"
I was thinking about tailoring them to be affordable and available. ;)
I've done .32acp, and shot a home made matchlock. The .32 was fiddly to drop powder in, but otherwise easy and cheap.
I've never done the sidecar thing, but I've driven a go-cart at 70 while four inches off the ground. That was pretty cool. Till it caught fire.
What??? Making explosives with a KitchenAid isn't on your list?
I keep hoping you and your roomie will come out for some Boomershoot training.
:-)
I'd hope to be able to help you out on that last one someday. I'm lusting after a Ural motorcycle hard, wishing my bank account was healthier. Oh well, better start buying the occasional lotto ticket.
There are a dozen easy-to-climb 14ers in Colorado. Mt. Elbert is the highest in the Rockies, and it's not much more than a walk uphill. But the view... wow. Made even better by hypoxia delirium.
Trust me, put "Colorado 14er" on your to-do list, then move it to your done-did list.
NO! You do NOT want to go near a Z-scale train set! If you think gunning is an addictive, expensive hobby ... what ever you do do NOT go to this site: http://www.marklin.com/
.32 isn't hard, except for handling the bullets (like handling .223 bullets, except shorter).
Unless, of course, they are inside your 9mm cases when you try to reload them. Then they are a real bitch.
As per sidecars, the older ones (BMW R50 clones like the Ural and Chinese copies por example) provide suspension for the side car by mounting it on a pair of freeswinging arms.
The idea being that if the car is "floating" somewhere above bottom dead center in the swingarm arcs, the bumps go away. It usually works pretty well, in a canoe on the ocean sort of way.
Until you hit a sharp up when the swingarms are dead center completely down. Right up the spine. Yeah.
Also, the motorcycle is a gyroscopically stabilized, single track banking vehicle. Except when it isn't, meaning in a right turn with a sidecar.
The load goes onto the front wheel and the sidecar wheel, and the ass end slides out unless the driver is VERY careful making all his rights.
Ask me how I know this.
I agree that the first two may be a little bit strange, but the others are quite normal.
Damn-- I've only done one on your list. I've climbed several mountains, on foot, on snowshoes, and if it counts as "climbing", on a snow machine in Alaska. Saw "heat waves" coming off the snow at dusk due to rapid temperature drop on the latter trip. Been above the tree line on foot in at least three states, but when you live in NE Washington/N Idaho that's hardly unusual.
We have an O-scale layout but that hardly counts. The smallest cart I've reloaded is .30-30, unless you count the chambers in an 1858 Remington NMA. -- Lyle
True, Ed, but Tam and I could go halves on a nice Ural with a sidecar. Or even (Tam would find it less than optimal) add one to my Bajaj scooter! Given my track record, Tam might not care to have me at the controls.
Mountain-climbing... I'm thinkin' Cube Point in the Grand Tetons as a good start, a nice technical climb. It's been (mumble) years since my gee-whiz three-day course but I'd love to do some climbing.
Joe, what, a pop bottle, a cloth and [flammable liquid] isn't good enough any more? Oh, this modern age! ;)
Sidecars are awesome. I know they suck for handling, but they're just so neat!
The scary thing about Z gauge, is despite being tiny, it's not the smallest model railroad scale out there these days.
That title goes to T Scale(1:450), which is half as small as Z(1:220).
I've reloaded .32 ACP, but it was with my own cast bullets...even better.
Never done the sidecar bit, but I used to race go-karts and micro-midgets. Does that count?
As for the minature choo-choo trains, I've got a basement full of disassembled 0-27 Lionel stuff, does that count as well.
As for the matchlock, I'll pass.
Now then as for the mountains, I lived in Colorado for four years and better yet hunted both Middle Park and North Park, but it was near Gunnison on Sawtooth mountain that I killed my first elk and it was at 13,000 ft. elevation to boot. That definitely has to count for something because it was still steep whether you went UP or DOWN.
Oh yeah, thanks for the bump this morning. Glad you liked my perspective on the morning light.
All The Best,
Frank W. James
Sidecar? "Taaaaaaaake ooooonnnnnn meeeeeeee....take on me" ....now where did I put that pipe wrench? ;-)
A matchlock would be kind of cool. Last year I had occasion to go to the Cleveland Museum of Art for a special exhibition of arms and armor of the Austrian Empire. Among the many excellent items were some really fantastic-looking wheel-locks.
Put a rather large flint on the sidecar wheel, sparking to a four-bore frontstuffer mounted twixt the bike and hack.
Ought to be good for about a fifty yard zero, and wicked good on pokies in the fast lane.
Bonus, you get to disappear in your own smokescreen, coming to sudden, recoil-induced halt in the process.
You'll need a leather helmet and split-lens goggles to complete the effect though.
Happy Hacking!
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
I've reloaded 17-223, which is like trying to sift flour into a hummingbird. And then asking it to eat a pencil lead.
Ex's father had a Sako forester with a shilen barrel wildcatted to that round, and we used to hotrod the handloads to just over mach 4.
Did quite a number on prairie dogs. Handloads were the only way to shoot it.
Got the z-gauge in a briefcase. Complete with an elevated track through a small mountain that holds the power pack. Hardest part was getting the correct arc in the track to fit inside the case.
emdfl
My dad (JPG? You listening) not only has the gear to reload .25 acp and .32 acp, but he's got the stinkin' conversion kits to reload them on his Dillon 550 progressive reloader.
Want weirder? He originally got the dies for the .25 back when he was shooting monthly indoor matches with an old Bauer at a local invitation-only mousegun match.
have a z scale train set. it's great fun that's really portable but hard to run when my cats get involved!
I've heard that reloading small calibers is a 'train'wreck of mountainous proportions.
I once loaded a small amount of .25 ACPs using a sizing die faked out of a pipe fitting. Evidently it didn't impress me. Sort of a sub-Lee Loader. I'm sure it would be more fun with a real die set. And tweezers.I'm pretty sure you'll have to make your own loading block but that's just part of the fun.
I agree with Stretch.
Also avoid http://www.ztrains.com/ and the Yahoo internet chat group.
There are some mountains in the Appalachians you can drive halfway up and take a nice trail to the top, if I recall correctly - especially near the AT.
Heck, we have one up here in town called Flattop mountain (two guesses as to how it got that name), which I use to gauge my physical therapy progress. I haven't gotten back to the top yet, just to the saddle, but when I looked at my favorite paid torturer and said "Well, if you drive halfway up, it's not really a mountain, so it doesn't count on the No Mountain Climbing restriction, right?"...
She was not pleased. Neither was my knee, but, ah, heck, I'll get there. Want to bag an easy mountain - the kind you can drive to ice cream afterward - together next summer, when I'm down in the 48? Promise I'll move so fast I'll make you and all the local turtles look good!
- I wish I'd finally start reloading my regular rifle calibers but the storage room is a) small and b) already stuffed anyway.
- It was September 1991, during a math-refreshing-course before I started my studies, when I met a guy with a name similar to my own. He was showing around pictures of a plastic model he'd done. I was an A-6 intruder and I think it had hydraulic lines in the landing gear bays. 'I didn't know they made a 1:144 model of the A-6!' another student commented. 'That isn't 1:144, it's 1:350.' was T's answer, rather nonchalantly.
- They shoot model cannons in our club, anything between .50 and 50mm. But matchlocks? That's exotic indeed!
- Highest mountain I climbed was Teide on Tenerife (but only to the upper station of the cable car), 3555m/11663ft, not really difficult, only exhausting. Next time I come over we could go on a hike, whaddaya think?
- A few weeks ago I say a Goldwing with a sidecar AND a trailer!
I tried a 20-bore matchlock musket at an event some years ago. It was more reliable (in the dry) that the flintlock I have now and about as accurate.
I have loaded 32acp fiddley in the extreme,you dont want to fire a matchlock if like me you are lefthanded mind you making your own slowmatch can be fun,only been in a sidecar once did not enjoy mind you all the years i spent riding motor bikes i did not like carrying passengers.
this kind of posting flushes the dudes out of the wood work
Have one of those little Z-scale choo-choo trains in a briefcase. I'm not sure why
So you can have a place for the locker people to live.
I've got a matchlock if you're ever in Virginia.
" A few weeks ago I say a Goldwing with a sidecar AND a trailer!"
Ok, At that point buy a small call already.
Cheaper, more comfortable, more cargo space and far safer. You like the wind in your hair? Roll down the window.
Once belonged to a really cool indoor gun club. It was one of those 24 hour, you are your own range officer ones. If you had flexible work hours, it was great.
Decided to go in one morning at about 2:30am. Found our resident matchlock types preparing for the Worlds that were going to be held in South Africa.
Forget my own shooting ... it was like watching a small scale ballet. Fascinating!
Joe, what, a pop bottle, a cloth and [flammable liquid] isn't good enough any more? Oh, this modern age! ;)
Uhhh... we put four gallons of gasoline on top of four pounds of HE at 25 yards (at 18 yards flaming debris was falling on the crowd).
It's a little different experience (daughter Kim was at about 100 feet in this early test) than serving a cocktail invented for Mr. Molotov by the Finns to his visitors.
Climbed up a bunch of mountains.
It's cold, boring and there are no bears up there either.
Shootin' Buddy
Oh, and I carried a couple of fat Scoutmasters down mountains before. I hate mountains. I'd hate bears too, but that's like hating unicorns.
Shootin' Buddy
Heck, if we can talk him into it, there is a fella here in Ketchikan with one of the oldest provenenced guns in the world, a 1531 Japanese matchlock. Maybe we can take it out for a shot. Or maybe some of the Bavarian wheellocks, or the 45-70 Gatling gun, or...or...
It's a great collection.
Hunter
Well, I don't reload .32ACP nor .25 however I do reload .32 H&R Magnum. I have a few guns that shoot it and it costs more than .44 magnum when you can find any.
I've climbed a mountain and owned a motorcycle with a sidecar. The mountain was fun. The sidecar, not so much.
Roberta, I believe the standard nowadays is to put a tube or two of model airplane glue in the bottom with a handful or two of pea gravel, then wait for it to set up. Much better butt-first loft to the projo.
Then double boiler down some battery acid until it just starts to smoke, let it cool, and put several tablespoons in the bottle along with the gasoline.
Tape some chunks of calcium carbide to the outside (fuel for miner's headlamp, any good sporting store), and you're done.
When the bottle breaks, the sulfuric acid and calcium carbide go hypergolic, giving a combination blast and burn, and it's totally safe until the carbide is attached.
Just the latest from the sandbox from a buddy recently home. Flaming rags are so Spanish Civil War. Also very "Shoot Me".
As for the sidecar, it really kicks, just take your rights SLOWLY, or we'll all lost two of our best bloggers.
Actually, two negative things can happen if you don't. The famous rear wheel slip if traction is dodgy, of the "sidecar comes up and driver goes down and under the machine" scenario if things are dry. I've tried number one, and avoided number two. So far.
Still do 'N' Scale railroading here at Casa de' G-98. 'Z' Scale is a tad more spendy.
No matchlocks yet, but I'm getting ready to convert a bunch of weeping willow branches into homemade black powder soon.
I have reloaded the .32 ACP. I used cast RN bullets a smidgen (or so) of Unique or Bullseye (can't remember) and a Lee Turret press.
Handling the bullets wasn't too bad but I needed to lighten up on working the press arm or I bent cases.
Shot the reloads in a Savage pocket pistol. Accuracy wasn't bad at short distances.
I still have a few of those original reloads left so haven't made any more. Still have cases and bullets so I could resume production.
A friend reloads the .25ACP and bought 1,000 once fired cases for it out of a Shotgun News ad many years ago.
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