Interesting revolver find...

Every once in a while one hears of a hunter finding a rifle or shotgun leaning up against a tree.  Presumably, a hunter got his game, got excited and walked off without the gun and couldn't find it once he/she came to their senses.  Sometimes, people find a gun in the trash or in a ditch or down a storm sewer that has been tossed to get rid of evidence.  And every once in a while a person will actually recover a firearm lost overboard in some boating mishap.

This week a fellow brought in a Ruger Single-Six .32 H&R that he found buried in his front lawn...  It "came" with Pachmayr grips and the bluing is in fair condition, no pitting but with wear.  However, this new model gun won't always cock when the cylinder is in place and that's why he brought it in.

Family fun...

Your family had a bbq somewhere this weekend so we couldn't include you but we had a good time. I worked yesterday and we got a lot of stuff moved so that the cabinets for the 116th Infantry Regiment Museum can be moved into 566 Lee Highway in Verona. Helped Grant B_______ and his boys unload the old cabinets and glass they moved from the Staunton armory.

Today, we got up and had bow-ties (big fluffy donuts) for breakfast and took your Aunt Deanna to the Stonewall Rifle and Pistol club range for some pistol shooting.  The photo is the collage of photos she took of the pistols (S&W 422, TACSOL conversion on Combat Commander and Bulgarian Pistolet Makarov) we shot.  Your auntie managed to keep all her rounds on the zombie's head and never hit the hostage.  Further, she put most of the rounds through the sinus and ocular orbits.  I think she might like the .22LR metallic silhouette shooting and we'll have to get her out there to try it sometime. Nana bought the zombie targets out at the NRA Annual Meeting in April and has been waiting on Deanna to come home and enjoy them for some time. 

Then we went to Kline's for burgers or barbeque and ice cream  and then it was home.  Deanna had to go home early today to get ready for the next week.  Nana took a nap and I recorded all this for you.  I hope you had a good weekend.  Schools almost out and you'll soon be spending your days lazing about in Oma's pool.  It is hot enough to climb in there today with temps here above 90°.

The real Memorial Day and Barney Alonzo Parslow

If you were looking for a Memorial Day post today you're out of luck.  I will write something on the REAL Memorial Day, the 31st, and not on some weekend selected to make it easier on employers and to give people 3 consecutive days off.  It is MEMORIAL day...

134th monument, Gettysburg

One of the people we are supposed to be memorializing on the holiday is my 2xGreat-Grandfather Barney Alonzo Parslow (1841-1920) .  One of our many, many grandfathers who has served, Alonzo (as he was known to most) enlisted on 21 July 1862 to fight the slavers and served in the 134th New York Volunteer Infantry.  He started as a private but quickly rose to First Sergeant and then was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in D Company.  It was as a 2LT at Gettysburg that he was wounded on 1 July (the day before his birthday).  A musket ball/bullet struck him 2" above the right nipple and exited just below the right shoulder blade.  When the Confederates (North Carolina 21st Regiment was directly in front of the 134th) pushed his unit back, he was moved across Steven's Run and lay there, untreated, until 5 July.  After being evacuated, treated and briefly assigned to the Invalid Corps in Washington, D.C., Alonzo returned to his unit, now in the western theater.  Again with D Company and as 1st Lieutenant, Alonzo participated in the Chattanooga campaign.  However, active duty was apparently too much for him and he was discharged for disability on 30 September 1864.  A year later he married and lived out his life in Blenheim, Schoharie County, New York raising 9 children. 

In 1913 Alonzo traveled back to Gettysburg for the 50th Anniversary of the battle where he pointed out where various members of the unit had been wounded, killed or gone missing.  He was 73 and had 7 more years to live.  While he didn't die during the war, he lived with the effects of his wound all the rest of his life.

The Winchester Model 1876 "Centennial" Rifle by Herbert G. Houze

Model 1876 "Centennial" Rifle by Herbert G. Houze is a new-to-me book I just got in from Amazon.com. Billed as, "The first authoritative study of the Winchester Model 1876 written using the company's own records. The specifics of the model - such as the numbers made in its standard calibers, barrel lengths, finishes and special order features - are fully listed here for the first time," the book lives up to that and more. Great illustrations. Clarifications of the actual time line of rifle developments. Just a great book. Could it have been bigger? Maybe, but I don't know enough to say so.

Interestingly included as part of the development of the 1876 rifle (as part of the product improvement of the Henry rifle) is a long description of the Swiss rifle trials and the cartridges produced for those trials. Indeed, since the Swiss wanted more than the .44-40 (.44 WCF) which was a 200 gr. bullet over 40 gr. of powder, a cartridge was produced which utilized a 350-372 gr. bullet over 60 gr. of powder. Also noted is O. F. Winchester's letter criticizing the .450 Martini-Henry cartridge adopted by the British as overly powerful for infantry use. Neat stuff!

Fraud...

Well kids, I'm sitting here waiting on Nana to go buy some flowers to plant next to the rebuilt back porch and thinking about things going on and things to do and so forth. It just struck me that you might be like this woman who's running for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts. It seems that what she has done is to claim that she's 1/32nd Cherokee in order to get some benefits that accrue to the minorities in this country. But she isn't. In fact the grandfather whose wife (her grandmother who is supposed to be Cherokee but isn't) actually helped round up the Cherokee for forced deportation to the Indian territory on the infamous Trail of Tears. She still hasn't accepted that she's wrong and keeps making excuses for her story (what we southerners call a lie). Then the university at which she taught called her the first woman of color to be a professor there, this after they know the truth. All a fraud, a lie, told to reap the benefits her political associates had set aside for minorities. People are jailed for the simpler, lower level versions of this same crime. I doubt she will be. But this doesn't make what she's done less of a wrong.

As you know, there are 10 commandments we are to follow. "You shall not steal," seems most applicable here. The thing is that whether you just take something that isn't yours or lie to convince somebody to give you something that isn't yours you are doing the same thing, you are stealing. Stealing is a sin. It is wrong.

Wilson 7.62x40mm vs the Blackout...

This is a question I've had to field several times. I wasn't quite sure how to answer so I looked it up. Here's a pretty good one-stop explanation.

So, what's my take? If you are not a gamer and you want to follow the K.I.S.S. principle AND use a .30 in your AR the Blackout/Whisper is the way to go. Minimal modifications, minimal problem getting ammo, minimal problems making brass (if you have to in the future) all speak in favor of the Blackout/Whisper round. No, it doesn't generate the horsepower of the Wilson round but for what MOST of us do, that isn't necessary.

Notes from the gun shop...

Once again, not much to report. We had lots of rain and a slow day in the shop. I sold one gun right when I walked in and it was down hill from there on.

Did get to see the Henry .30-30 rifle. I like it better than the Rossi Rio Grande in every aspect. But I have shot neither. I still prefer my pre-1982 Marlins and pre-64 Winchesters over these guns.

Notes from the gun shop...

Wow. Did 11 transfers in 1 hour. Mostly it was a slow day other than that.

Notes from the gun shop...

Monday was a full day and then I worked today, another full day in the other shop, so now I get to note what happened. 

We only had 3 transfers.  Pretty slow in that regard but business moved right along.  There was a lot of after action reporting on the Friends of NRA dinner that was on Saturday.  More guns were purchased.  One interesting gun was shipped.

Fellow brought in a gun he'd been given to hold for a friend 40 years ago.  A Springfield "trapdoor" rifle, it had been shortened, the muzzle given an 11° crown, re-blued, and given a "scout" scope before Cooper published his comments on such.  Oh, yes, it looks like somebody done messed up a perfectly good rifle.  The cartouche was still present and the remaining wood looked very good indeed but as for the other work...  Although well done it seems wrong.  At the time though, these guns were cheap, unwanted and so this was done to make a silk purse from a sow's ear.  Interesting at least.  The gentleman was finally returning it to his friend who was going to give it to a grandson.  Good story!

That was pretty much the highlights of the day.