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- Life's Great Mysteries: #452.
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Statistically speaking, you're probably using Firefox on a Wintel machine over a cable modem.
And that's the way it was in 2009...
Number 4 is cool, not only for the style points, but the ever so clickety-clack, five things moving at the same time Model 95 action. A truely cool rifle. Very Texas Rangers.
ReplyDeleteBut nobody ever talks about it's kid brother, the .401 Winchester. With modern powder, 1,960 fps with a 240 grain bullet is nothing to sneer at, and I'm betting somebody could put it in a modified M-1 carbine action, with an extra pound or so of metal in the barrel to keep it controllable.
It's smaller sibling, the .351 Winchester, was a popular conversion for carbines in the '50's and '60's.
Sadly, I'm so far behind the curve at work, I wouldn't be able to even think about playing with something like that for a year or more.
But it's a short, rimless cartridge that fills a glaring gap between the .44 mag and the .444Marlin/45-70 class thumpers, with most of the benefits of the latter combined with a cartridge begging for a short, handy, gas operated weapon.
If anybody's interested, I'll throw you my layout and general sketches in exchange for some input during the process and a couple of the finished toys. I also have some suggestions on metallurgy that might speed the process.
Any small, hungry shop owners out there with surplus CNC time and some bills to pay?
I read your blog often when in Iraq. Does that show up as a .gov or .mil look?
ReplyDeleteDang, I remember when visiting on firefox via cable made me unique. Now I'm just statistically so darn normal.
ReplyDeleteTake a good hard look at 4 outta 5 of those search terms.
ReplyDeletepeople aren't looking for things, they're looking for you.
You haz a brand name that people look for. That's the awesome right there.
My search terms are like "zumbo timeline" or "amazing slide lighter"
Eh, I'll give the hipsters and the TR fanatics credit for the .405 being a cool round, but . . . .
ReplyDeleteBut the .45-70 is the bomb-diggity shiznit. The .45-70 was adopted (I think) in 1873, which was a very, very fine year for American cartridges. Howzabout the .44 WCF and the .45 Colt popping up in the same year---that's a darn fine graduating class.
The .45-70 has been chambered in a host of truly cool firearms, too. There's the flop-top, which just doesn't get much love. Ack, they scream, it's a weak action! (I sniff at that, like I sniff at the same weak action line when hurled against the Swedish Mausers.) If the flop-top doesn't trip your trigger, you can consider the 1881 Marlin--the first lever action to chamber the big G round. Then I think JMB (pbuh) had a lever action design he came up with (which spawned the 1892 in a "travel size" iteration). The Gatling gun, anyone?
The .45-70, stuffed with black powder beneath a 300 or 500 grain case bullet, will knock deer absolutely silly, and I've got friends who have taken buffalo (well, bison, if'n you want to get all technical) with the 500 grain and black powder combo. OK, OK, it was a 540 grain, paper patched bullet, but still.
Yes, yes, of course, if you use a modern action (Marlin 1895, Winchester '86, Ruger No. 1, etc.) you can hot up the .45-70s ballistics. This is fun, if only to cause British double rifle cartridge fanatics to start twitching, thrashing and foaming at the mouth.
In it's "dainty" and "weak" and "attenuated" modern production version, the .45-70 will still crush deer.
Sure, it's got kind of a Pop Warner football trajectory, but that's part of the fun!
I like the .405 just fine, and I admire the 95 action for it's ingenuity. My preference for the .45-70 isn't a matter of the .405 being bad---the .405 is a darn good cartridge, it's just that in my opinion, the .45-70 is a better one.