SPEN-ZAAAAAAH!!

[W.T.]

Alrighty, so last Fall, before I retired for the second time, I got on the horn to the Marshal and bought me a Taylor's 56-50 Spencer while he still had a couple.  Took two months for 100 cartridges to get built & shipped to me, and then what with one thing & another, didn't get around to actually shooting it until today.  Local ice-ball & rain kept the crowds down at the only indoor range locally that allows BP. 

Well, I read here-and-there about feeding problems & whatnot, so I figured I'd start slow and loaded four rounds.  Put a target dot on a big piece of paper and ran it out to the max 25-yard distance.

What a joyous thunder that thing made!  What sparks & flame!  What a lane-clearing, cease-firing, what-the-frack-was-that, ka-Booooom and giant roiling thunderheads of smoke issued from the booth! 

I can't see 25 yards; I can't see 25 feet; I sure can't make out that odd dimpled dipsy-doodle of a rear sight, & I had no idea where those four rounds went, so I hauled in the target:




Now I'm antsy for some decent weather so's I can get out to the real range & see what happens at real distances.

Fellas, I got to ask about that trigger,  I once had a beater '56 Chevrolet Bel Air with rusted-on lug nuts and only a pot-metal, shallow-angle, offset lug wrench to work at 'em with, and I swear that the pull on those nuts hadda be three pounds lighter than the trigger pull on my Spencer.  Didn't want those things going off by accident, did they?  No danger of that happening.  Who's lightened up their pull and how?

Doggone, these things are fun!

cheers,
WT
 
PS - No feeding problems whatsoever, too...

[Two Flints]

Hello W.T.,

For starters, type in the search window above - Spencer Trigger Pull and click on the search button and you should get a bunch of posts on that very subject.  You can click on each one that appears and see what has been written before about adjusting the trigger to a lighter pull.

Two Flints

[W.T.]

Thanks - Buncha stuff out there!

[Caleb Hobbs]

Just an observation, W.T., but you seem kind of excited. Or am I wrong? (Keep on having fun; I love the Spencers.)

Caleb Hobbs

[Black River Smith]

50 Yards is about the same result.  Just aim slightly lower on the target than what you did at 25 yards.  I think I still have my targets for my first outing.

[W.T.]

Just an observation, W.T., but you seem kind of excited. Or am I wrong? (Keep on having fun; I love the Spencers.)

Caleb Hobbs

Excited??!  Moi?  Wife told me to shut up, already, and stop waving that piece of paper with the holes in it around - I was shooting a Walker loaded with 60 gr of fffg AND a Spencer today; still coughing up BP fouling and my clothes smell like a bad catalytic converter.  That's excitement, ok!

[Grizzle Bear]

A Spencer and a Walker?  Now there's a pair to draw to!

I usually shoot an 1860 conversion or a Starr percussion with my Spencer, but I might have to try the Walker next time out.



Grizzle Bear

[W.T.]

Griz, you know I lucked into a 45lc conversion cylinder for the Walker (& I'm nuts for OTs and Colts conversions) and I never pulled it out of the bag cause that doggone Walker ran so fine with C&B.  .457 balls hit right to POA at the 10 meter 'combat' line - that was two-handed - nobody could believe the accuracy you can get out of those things.  I gotta try some BP 45lc loads.

Now a pair of Walkers butt-forward in giant leather shoulder rigs, a Spencer, and crossed bandoliers might very well give you curvature of the spine, but add a ratty straw sombrero bout the size of a NASCAR tire, and a dirty shirt & you oughta get more style ponts than Sergio Leone.

[Major 2]

"curvature of the spine, but add a ratty straw sombrero bout the size of a NASCAR tire, and a dirty shirt"

sounds just like Willy in Barbarossa

[W.T.]

'Zactly the look I'm thinking of.  Only dirtier.  And with fewer teeth.