YOWZAH!!!!! I love this little rifle!

[Tuolumne Lawman]

If you remember, last month I had trouble hitting anything with the new Cimarron/Uberti 1866 carbine because the front sight was loose (threads stripped on band) and it was too tall.  Cimarron replaced the front sight ASAP, and I trimmed it and dialed it in.

Today was the first match I used it since the fix.  Because of the "Friends of the Chipmunks and Bunny Butt Lickers" there is an injunction against our club forcing us to stop shooting steel targets.  We adapted, and our 25 yard rifle targets are the 6" round poly hanging targets, full pop cans, and clay pigeons, all on the 25 yard berm.

Today, the rifle part of the stages was the same.  You had ten shots to do one shot each on the five 6 inch poly targets, then a pop can (they blow up nice when sitting in the sun). If you have extra shots left, then a clay pigeon for a -5  seconds bonus on your score. 

Every stage, I shot the same: with the 1866 I hit the 5 polys at 25 yards with the first five shots, Then with the 6th shot, I blew up a pop can on the 25 yard berm, and with the 7th I shattered a clay pigeon on the same berm.  Had to dump the last three shots into the berm. 

The shooting is done standing, offhand.  It was like I could not miss with the carbine.  The load was a .44-40 case with a 200 grain Bear Creek Moly coated bullet over 7.0 grains of Trail Boss.  It was so much easier to hold it steady than the 9.5 pounds Henry I have been shooting. 

My pistols are a Pietta 1858 converted to .45 with Kirst Konverter and ejector rod, and the other is a Pietta 1860 converted to .45 with a Kirst "Saber River" engraved Konverter and ejector.  Both I milled the loading channel in.  The load is a 200 grain bullet over 5.5 grains of Trail Boss.  Duplicates the .46 Rimfire the original 1858 NMA were converted to in 1869.  I shot clean with them also, and even got some bonus points hitting a 1 quart pop bottle on the 25 yards berm with the Remmy.

[Coffinmaker]

  YESSSSSSSSSS !!  Grand FUN indeed   

[Dave T]

Lawman,

I have to ask: what on earth do they object to about steel targets? Is the sound of ringing steel too traumatic for the little critters? Does the bullet splatter migrate under the berm and set up as poison in the woods or fields behind?

It has to be something "serious" to be a court injunction, doesn't it? Oh, wait a second. You're in California aren't you. Guess you should disregard the whole first paragraph. Sorry about that.

Seriously, what is their claimed injury to justify an injunction?

Dave

[Tuolumne Lawman]

Even though we do lead mining of the facility every year, they insist that shooting steel cause lead dust which is not picked up when lead mining.  That in turn poisons bunny rabbits, and finally endangered Condor....Seriously

[Abilene]

T.L. a thought on targets crossed my mind.  You know those foam-type targets that you can throw on the ground and shoot multiple times?  If you could hang some of those from a horizontal support, you might have a target array that you didn't have to reset.

[Dave T]

Even though we do lead mining of the facility every year, they insist that shooting steel cause lead dust which is not picked up when lead mining.  That in turn poisons bunny rabbits, and finally endangered Condor....Seriously

You and your club have my sympathy. As silly as that injunction sounds to thinking, rational people it is a harsh reality to you. My best to you in fighting it.

Dave

[Major 2]

I solved the lead trap issue on my home range....   with the two orange bullet traps

[Tuolumne Lawman]

Once again at the CAS match today, my intrepid little 66 carbine cleaned the targets once again, including pop cans and clay pigeons on the 25 yard berm.  I shot clean until disaster struck!  

I was chambering a live .44-40 round (with a split case mouth), and it locked up tight!  Apparently the bullet had been pushed back into the case in the magazine, and would not feed into the chamber, because the case mouth deformed.  Because I could not chamber it, the follower was stuck in the up position with the jammed round.  Match over.  Even emptying the mag tube would not allow the follower to clear.

I took it home and had to completely disassemble it to let the follower fall out.  All in all, it only took about 10 minutes start to finish.  If I had not left my CAS gun tool kit at home, instead of the gun cart where it belonged, I could have done it at the match!

EDIT:  Didn't someone post something about shortening the springs on Uberti Carbines?  Even the first round takes some effort.  I did notice the spoon has a deeper dish than they used to have.  The rim of the first cartridge up rests on the edge of the spoon instead of just on the bent metal tab.

[Buffalo Creek Law Dog]

Lawman,

I have to ask: what on earth do they object to about steel targets? Is the sound of ringing steel too traumatic for the little critters? Does the bullet splatter migrate under the berm and set up as poison in the woods or fields behind?

It has to be something "serious" to be a court injunction, doesn't it? Oh, wait a second. You're in California aren't you. Guess you should disregard the whole first paragraph. Sorry about that.

Seriously, what is their claimed injury to justify an injunction?

Dave

I suspect that since it's in Califoria, it probably causes cancer.