Keep on tickin'

[Abilene]

My 1st gen 7 1/2" .45 is a parts gun.  It left the factory in 1901 as a 4 3/4" 38-40.  So I'm not really hurting the value by shooting it, and I've put about 2800 rounds through it since I got it from Bob Taylor at Traditional Effects in '99.  About 33% smokeless, the rest BP.  In the first few weeks, the front sight fell off, ejector housing mounting stud broke off, and hand spring broke. Bob fixed these, and the gun was good for about a half dozen years until the ejector housing stud broke off again.  Hogleg Smith was a 'smith at Mule Camp and he soldered it back on (for free), then it was good for another dozen years until it came off again (fortunately I never lost any parts when it happened).  The time I gave it to Bob James at Winter Range and he said the reason it was failing was because it was being silver soldered in and it was supposed to be a press fit and then peened in, or something like that.  Anyways, it has held up since he repaired it (again, free).  Back around '01 John Taffin was at a CAS match at Tin Star Ranch and saw the gun and took a picture of it, though I don't know if he ever used it.  These days the .45 gets shot once or twice a year with an antique-finish Cimarron that looks just like it, plus at least once a year with the 32-20 to follow:

This 4 3/4" 32-20 belongs to my brother Brian, who lives with me.  A good friend and mentor of his named Chuck was dying of cancer years ago, and Brian asked him if he could have something of his to remember him by.  Anything at all.  Chuck says wait here and came back with this Colt and handed it to him.  As an aside, there was a very expensive painting on the wall of Chuck's office that had a hole in it from Chuck playing with an "unloaded" gun.  Anyways, nice gift.  Now, my brother is not a gun guy.  He owns a nice Python and a S&W Centennial snubby that he bought new years ago but never shoots.  And he has never shot this Colt, but he lets me and I've put close to 1000 rounds through it.  The matching numbers gun was made in 1915 and has a long-flute cylinder.  This makes the gun somewhat rare, but somewhere along the line someone decided to blue the whole gun, or maybe it's parkerized?  The finish is fairly flat and especially with the gutta percha grips looks a lot like a Rodeo, but slightly blue.  The bore is pretty rough but it does not lead with BP and shoots pretty well.  

So last Saturday I brought the old Colts along with my charcoal blue Cimarron .44wcf carbine and antiqued TTN 12ga out to the Darby Rough Regulators match at Bunk Stagner's ranch.  And for the 4th time the pair shot a clean match!  The loads were 1cc of FFFg Goex and 115gr bullet for the .32, and both the 45 Colt pistol and 44-40 rifle were 25gr of FFg Olde Eynsford with grits filler and 200gr bullets.  After the match I loaded 3 in the carbine and shot them offhand at a Cody-Dixon target (80 yds ?) and hit near center all three.  It was hot as hades but a good time.

No way to know the earlier history of these old Colts and how much they took a lickin', but they do keep on tickin'.

[Coffinmaker]

Oh   So   NICE!!  It's grand when one has nice toys to take out and play with 

Coffinmaker

[Pitchy]

Great pics and guns Abilene. 

[Blackpowder Burn]

Those are the good times.  I love to take out the originals.  For some reason they just seem to "feel" better than new copies.