Edition 2016-3 Published by C. Sharps Arms Co., Inc.

Dan Simon Skip

Long Range Match, page 3

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THE AMERICAN SHARPS SHOOTERS

Publisher: C. Sharps Arms Co. Inc., John R. Schoffstall – President

Mike Nesbitt - - - Editor (miken54@centurylink.net)

Allen Cunniff --- Field Contributor (tpigskin@comcast.net)

Dangerous Don McDowell - - Field Contributor (ranch13@hotmail.com)

Table of contents: Page

WASHINGTON’S 1ST BPTR LONG RANGE CHAMPIONSHIPS by Mike Nesbitt …..….. 3

OLD WEST CENTERFIRES by Bob Gietz ........................................ ..…………9

Outstanding Products ……………………………………………..………..;;…..15

A CASE FOR THE .40/50 BOTTLENECK by Dean Becker.. .......... ,,.…….…. 22

“Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason,”—Mark Twain

The Adventures of

The Long Ranger

WASHINGTON STATE’S FIRST BPTR

LONG RANGE CHAMPIONSHIPS

By Mike Nesbitt

Welcome to a story under a brand new heading which is devoted to long range black powder shooting.

For this first appearance of these adventures, I’ll give you a rather appropriate story about Washington’s very

first Long Range Championships. We’ll try to cover the doin’s at this recent match in detail. And, in at least

one way, I’ve got a good background to write this story about Washington’s first long range match, because that

was also my first long range match. Believe me, I learned a lot and it was certainly an adventure.

This match was conducted by Ash Garman, a noted long range shooter who favors paper patched bullets

in his C. Sharps Arms .45/110, representing the Washington State Rifle & Pistol Association. Ash contacted

me well over a month in advance, saying he was managing this match and he expected me to be there. In

addition, he expected a fair number of other shooters to be there too but it really didn’t turn out that way. All

we can say now is that those who didn’t attend and shoot in

this match will never completely know what they have missed.

As it was, on the morning of registrations only six riflemen

signed up. Well, there’s really nothing wrong with that and it

does make it easier for me to tell you more in detail about the

shooting and the event. One detail will get mentioned over

and over and that is the wind. This match was held at the

Rattlesnake Mountain Shooting Facility near Benton City,

Washington, and that range is well known for its very windy

conditions. Ash even commented that there are a number of

known long range shooters who might not want to stake their

reputations against that wind. That is possible but if those

more experienced shooters had shown up the winds wouldn’t

have bothered them anymore than it bothered those of us who

were there.

And four of our shooters in this match were quite well

experienced. They’ll be mentioned when their times come.

Right now I want to introduce just one of the other shooters. His name is Gordon Gerken and this was his very

first BPTR match too. Gordon, some might say, was the complete opposite from me. He was an experience

high power long range shooter who had never tried black powder. I, on the other hand, had experience with

black powder but had never shot long range. We both

learned a lot, enough that we’re not so inexperienced

now, but we know we’ve got a lot more left to learn.

Gordon was rather well equipped too, he was

shooting a C. Sharps Arms Highwall in .45/90. The

loads he was using, and all of the others too, will be

shown in an equipment list before this story gets wrapped

up. The shooters’ scores for each individual target will

also be shown along with the total aggregate scores.

I’m going to talk about the shooting in this long

range match just like I’m talking to someone who has

never seen one of these matches. For some of you that

will seem redundant but if you have never seen a BPTR

long range match, then you might not be as lost as I was

when this one got started. And, just in case you are as

lost as I was, you’ll get a lot of help because no shoots

are as friendly as the black powder cartridge matches. Mike Nesbitt and Gordon Gerken, first time long rangers

The course of fire for one of these matches includes fifty shots fired for score plus an unlimited amount

of sighter shots. To be fairly well prepared for that, I took 120 rounds for my .44/90. That was enough ammo,

and I did use 82 rounds.

Ash and I got to the range fairly early on the day before the match was to actually start and we found

three other shooters waiting at the gate to get in. That day was spent doing some shooting at the targets from

each of the three distances; 800, 900, and 1000 yards. This was good doin’s and it gave me the chance to make

some notes on elevation settings for the rear sight.

During that sight-in period, I never did hit the 1000 yard target but that still gave me the chance to get a

good place to start from when the match was actually shot, the next day. Yes, I could have used more ammo

and eventually hit the 1000 yard target but that would not have served me any more purpose than what was

already done. For what needed doing, those close misses were just fine.

Things got more serious the next day. I was assigned to relay #1 at 800 yards. Notes were referred to in

order to set my rear sight, a couple of sighter shots were fired to make sure of things, and then I declared my

shooting would be for score. All went rather well, in my opinion. Not all of my shots hit the target but I did

finish my 800 yard shooting with a score of 56. That’s not enough to win but the boys did know I was trying.

Some observations; all of the shooters

at this match used the prone position with

cross-sticks except me. I prefer to use the

sitting position, with cross-sticks. For me the

sitting position is simply easier, much more

comfortable. It is the shooter’s option to use

“the next harder position.”

Also, NRA rules do not allow the use

of stools or chairs while shooting from the

sitting position. We do sometimes see

Match winner, Dan Steinmetz fires his .45/90 custom rolling block those “sitting stools” at other shoots.

When the relay begins, the range master calls out, “Ready on the right, ready on the left. Ready on the

firing line. When your target comes up, you have 30 minutes to fire unlimited sighter shots and 10 shots for

score.” Then, after just a couple of seconds pause, he calls for “Targets Up!” and the shooting begins.

Thirty minutes later a cease-fire was called. All of us got our shots off with no problems. In fact, we

actually finished early. That’s when score cards were reviewed and signed, becoming our official match

documents. With the firing line safe, all rifles were removed from the line as shooters in relay 2 began their

preparations.

There was also a rotation where shooters who had just completed the first relay went to the pits to pull

targets for the next relay of shooters. Duty in the pits is something I hadn’t done for about 50 years and some

changes were quickly noticed. Years

ago we used a paddle to “flag” the

score of the shot back to the shooters.

Now a black or white marker is used,

depending on whether the bullet went

through the black or the white on the

target. That indicates the location of

the hit. Also, an orange marker (or

two) is used to indicate the score of the

hit by the location where the marker is

placed. After the marker and the score

indicator are positioned, the target is

raised so the spotter on the firing line

and look through the scope and pass

the info on to the shooter. Those

markers remain on the target while the

next shot is fired.

That target, by the way, is 6’

square with a 44” diameter bullseye. The white marker shows the hit a 10 o’clock, the orange marker shows it’s a 9

Orange markers tell the score , at 3 o’clock is a 6, at 9 o’clock is a 7, lower left corner is an 8, bottom middle (as

shown) is a 9, and lower right corner is a 10. In the very same spot as a 6 (middle, right side) is where an X is

shown along with the marker in the center. After the next shot, these markers will be moved. Only one shot is

shown at a time.

And that 44” bullseye gets even smaller when the shooting line is taken back to 900 yards, as I found out

two relays later. A couple of sighting shots were fired to confirm the elevation setting and then I was shooting

for score. My number if misses increased but I also got an X! Now, getting that X was a treat but I really don’t

know how it happened. After all, if I knew how it happened I would have done it again… As it turned out, my

score at 900 yards was 35-1X and I claim that with no shame at all.

Right after that, we fell back to the 1000 yard line, to the same line from where I had not hit the target

during our sighting-in the day before. Better luck was with me this time, and I was trying a little harder,

because out of my 10 shots for score, the target was hit three times. That gave me a score of 20.

While I did wish my score was better, Ash Garman complimented me by relating how on his first 1000

yard target in a match he turned in a score of 7. If you’ve never done it before, shooting a new course of fire is

really a new ball game. Anyway, I was pleased to do as well as I did and my scores certainly leave room for

improvement while encouraging me to try again at the same time.

After the final relay

that Saturday, we

adjourned to a bar-be-

que at the club house put

on by the shooting club.

That was some doin’s

for sure. In addition to

the bar-be-que, a local

Sharps collector brought

several samples from his

collection and displayed

them in the club house

along with giving a

rather brief but complete

run-down on the history

of the Sharps Creedmoor

Just part of the group who dines at the Saturday afternoon bar-be-que models in addition to other

sporting and target rifles. That bar-be-que dinner and the look at the original Sharps rifles were well worth the

trip by themselves.

Scores were added up for

Saturday and Simon Smith, from

Portland, Oregon, was in the lead

by just one point and one X. But

Sunday proved to be another day.

We had a very stiff

tailwind that next morning, strong

enough to take the hat off of your

head. But it was coming from

straight behind us so our windage

adjustments could be set to zero or

close to it. Elevation settings

dropped a bit. And scores from all

of us were rather high as shown in

the listing at the end of this tale.

In my ammo were some Simon Smith aims on the 1000 yard line, I snapped this picture while spotting for him

.44/90s loaded with 520 grain bullets cast from a Paul Jones mold. I had only 16 of those loads and decided to

try them on our first 1000 yard target for the day. Four of them were used as sighter shots and then the next ten

rounds were fired for score. Those did very well and my score on that target was a delightful 51 out of the 100

points possible. That score put me in 3rd place for that target. Maybe I should use that bullet more often.

But before the next target could be fired at

the wind had changed again. It became what

Ash Garman calls a fishtailing-tailwind, one

that whips one way and then the other with no

particular rhythm, rhyme, or reason. Wind

flags are no help in a breeze like that and, of

course, we didn’t have wind flags behind us.

You’d fire and miss. Then the spotter would

say your shot went to the right, as an example.

So, you’d dial in some leftward windage before

shooting again but that shot would go even

farther to the right.

After getting tired of wasting sighter shots, I

told my spotter Mike Rector that I was going to

shoot for score. That didn’t help, my shots

were still missing the target. Finally on shot #7 Mike Rector watches while I send another one down range I got lucky and scored a 6. Shot #8 was luckier, giving me a

7. I really thought I’d score on shot #9 but was three feet to

the right. More left windage was added for shot #10 but that

still went three feet to the right. Just two hits for 16 points.

Dan Steinmetz was more patient than I. He fired

several sighter shots trying to figure the wind out. Finally he

had to shoot for score because he was running out of time.

And he did get some scoring hits, just enough that he scored

24 on this target. His father Skip did the best on this last

target, he fishtailed his shots onto the paper well enough to

score a 41. Everyone’s score on that target was lower than

the previous target.

Gordon Gerken, Mike Rector, Dan Steinmetz, Ash Garman, Skip Steinmetz, Mike Nesbitt, Simon Smith & Mark Blondin

Target scores from the two 1000’ers were quickly added to the scores from the day before and Dan

Steinmetz had become the first Washington State BPTR Long Range Champion by crawling ahead of Simon

Smith by 8 points. Dan’s name goes on the winner’s plaque, seen on the previous page. Another 8 points

behind Simon was Skip Steinmetz which shows how close this match was. Mark Blondin placed 4th, followed

by me and then Gordon. Plaques were awarded to the winners of each target plus the top three in the aggregate.

That’s how my first long range match went and it was certainly an adventure. This is a match I will

attend again and the next Washington State BPTR Long Range Championships are already on the calendar. In

2017 the long range match will be held over May 5-7 and that’s the weekend before Mother’s Day. It will be

just like this year’s with 800, 900, and 1000 yard targets on Saturday followed by two more 1000 yard targets to

be fired on Sunday. They’re also going to add a mid-range match (300 and 600 yards, not part of the long range

match) on Friday morning before the long range practice begins. For information please contact Ash Garman,

Match Director, at garman.oman@gmail.com. MATCH RESULTS

NAME 800 900 1000 1000 1000 TOTAL

1. Don Steinmetz 71 65 45 69 24 274

2. Simon Smith 79 53-1X 50 62 22 266-1X

3. Skip Steinmetz 78 58 31 50-1X 41 258-1X

4. Mark Blondin 70-2X 36 20 42 24 192-2X

5. Mike Nesbitt 56 35-1X 20 51 13 175-1X

6. Gordon Gerken 32 21 27 42 24 146

Competitors’ Equipment:

Dan Steinmetz: Remington Rolling Block, .45-90, 82gr Swiss 1½F, 540gr Money bullet

Simon Smith: Pedersoli Rolling Block, .45-70, Win LRM primer, 68gr OE 2F, .060 fiber wad, 500gr Gov’t bullet

Skip Steinmetz: Winchester Hghwall, .45-90, Fed 150 LP primer, 80gr Swiss 2F, 550gr Money bullet

Mark Blondin: C. Sharps Model 74, .45-70, LP primer, 57gr 3F Swiss, plastic wad, 540gr Money bullet

Mike Nesbitt: C. Sharps Model 74, .44-90, CCI LR primer, 90gr OE 1½F, card wad, 470gr Lyman #446187 bullet

Gorden Gerken: C. Sharps High Wall, .45-90, Fed 215 LRM primer, 80gr Swiss 3F, 535gr bullet

Old West

Centerfires By Bob Gietz

The gorgeous weather might have contributed to the very good turnout we

had for this match, ten Sharps shooters came to test their skills. Like before,

we’ll try to say a little about each one of them but in general the scores were a bit

lower than what some of these shooters expected. And among those ten shooters

were three new ones, their first time to compete in our short range matches.

While some of the shooters were disappointed with their scores, Allen Cunniff really can’t say that. He

was shooting another new rifle, a Pedersoli this time, and with that apparently very well trained rifle he landed

1st place with a 2 point margin. There was nothing disappointing about that.

And in second place

was one of our new

shooters, Skip Steinmetz

from Yakima. Skip is not

new to shooting by any

means, as you can tell from

the lead story in this

edition of The American

Sharps Shooter where he

took 3rd place in the

Washington State Black

Powder Long Range

Championships but this

was his first time to face

the difficulties of shooting

at our 50 and 100 yard

matches. Skip did very

well and we can’t say that

he was spooked or

intimidated at all by these

short ranges.

Skip’s wife, Chris,

Skip Steinmetz and his wife Chris shot with us for their first time joined us as well and it was

quite nice having a lady on the firing line again. Skip and Chris shared a rifle, Skip’s big Model 1874 in .45/70.

Sharing a rifle is easy to do and that doesn’t interfere with anything because we had relay changes after every

target. And that rifle is something to see, it’s a special order gun from C. Sharps Arms with a heavy #2 barrel

that goes from octagon to round just before the end of the forearm. It must weigh over 14 pounds which is

alright because we have no offhand shooting in these matches.

Taking 3rd place was Bob DeLisle using his .45/70 and he did very well, out shooting all of those other

shooters who followed him on both targets. Maybe we should hope that Bob will wear that rifle out pretty soon

which might give some of the others better chances.

And only three points behind Bob came Jim Dickerman, shooting with his .45/70 Shiloh well enough to

capture 4th place. Jim usually scores very well in our Old West Centerfires matches and my saying that is not

meant to imply that he didn’t do well this time. He did shoot very well and let me invite you to look at the

scores in the listing where you will note that the point spread for the top four shooters was only six points.

Then came Don Kerr. Don needs some excellent recognition because in our most recent matches he has

not scored as well. We can guess that it took a little practice to bring those scores up. Good going, Don!

Trailing Don by just one point was Loco Jeff Ritter, with his Shiloh Sharps in .45/70. Loco Jeff is one

of our more regular shooters who never seems to miss a match. Jeff and Jim Dickerman are the only two

shooters who have accumulated over 700 points toward the season aggregate so far. We still have two matches

to go in this season and our last match will be held in September. That gives some of the shooters a slight

chance to catch up but you can bet that Jeff will be sitting pretty comfortable in the season aggregate.

In seventh place we find Will Ulry and this was Will’s first time to shoot in this season of matches. It

was good to see Will back on the firing line

again and we can easily expect him to shoot

some higher scores after he gets his good

shooting habits refreshed just a little bit.

Down in eighth place was Mike

Nesbitt and he had an interesting excuse.

He used his heavy .44/90 again but he only

had to fire a shot or two before realizing that

he still had severe windage dialed into his

long range sight, left that way from the

match at Rattlesnake. That cost him a shot

on the 50 yard target and then he also had

trouble remembering to shoot while wearing

shooting glasses! (Sight adjustments must

be made with reading glasses and then he

forgets to change back to his shooters.)

And playing a new game for the first

time was Jerry Mayo shooting a borrowed

C. Sharps Arms rifle in .50/70 caliber. Jerry

Jerry Mayo in his modified sitting position had practiced with this rifle rather well but

never from the sitting position. Some work needs to be done there but soon enough we’ll see Jerry bringing his

scores up. We can guess that he’s hooked, so a new Sharps should be on his list of things to get.

While we’ve just given you the rundown of shooters as per their scores, let me say that the feelings on

the firing line are much more aimed at having fun rather than strict or straight competition. Having a good time

is the most important thing and with the small items for awards donated by both the Capitol City Rifle and

Pistol Club plus the goods provided by C. Sharps Arms Company, every shooter received a prize.

Scores for this Match

Name Rifle/Cartridge 50 yd. 100 yd. Total Accum. Allen Cunniff 1874 Pedersoli .45/70 96-6X 90-2X 186-8X 560-16X

Skip Steinmetz 1874 C. Sharps Arms .45/70 97-5X 87-X 184-6X 184-6X

Bob DeLisle 1874 Pedersoli Sharps, .45/70 96-2X 87-2X 183-4X 533-8X

Jim Dickerman 1874 Shiloh Sharps .45/70 94-3X 86-2X 180-5X 730-14X

Don Kerr 1874 C Sharps Arms .45/90 95 79 174 648-4X

Jeff Ritter 1874 Shiloh Sharps .45/70 90-X 83-X 173-2X 707-5X

Will Ulry 1874 Shiloh Sharps .45/70 93-2X 78 171-2X 171-2X

Mike Nesbitt 1874 C Sharps Arms .44/90 82-2X 76 158-2X 680-8X

Chris Steinmetz 1874 C. Sharps Arms .45/70 80 63 143 143

Jerry Mayo 1874 C. Sharps Arms .50/70 39 61 101 101

Not shooting in this match Mike Moran 167-2X

Lew Gaiser 156

Sam Snelson 357-4X

The accumulative scores are shown in the last column. We have two matches to go for this season.

OUTSTANDING PRODUCTS: by Mike Nesbitt

WAD PUNCHES FROM BUFFALO ARMS

Back in the 2014-2 edition of The American Sharps Shooters I put a short note in this column about a

wad punch from Buffalo Arms and I realize that not nearly enough was said about it. Let me correct such an

error now and to help me have more to say, I followed up and ordered more punches for other calibers. Yes, in

my earlier remarks it was mentioned how I planned on getting more of the punches from BACO and I’m rather

surprised to realize that I waited two years to get more!

The punches I recently got were for .44 and .50 calibers. While using the punch for some .44 card wads

I think I stumbled on to why these punches are so good. First of all, they are very sharp. But equally important

as that is the fact that these punches are designed to punch out wads. That must sound rather elementary but let

me explain. If we get a typical punch from the hardware store, such as a gasket punch, that type of punch is

designed to punch a hole. The hole in the material is what they’re going for, not the wad punch out of the hole.

With those punches, the wad is simply waste in their standard use. But with the BACO punches, the wads are

the primary product, so the insides of the punch, or the channel above the cutting edge, is more carefully cut.

This means the wads are freer, with no binding, so they have much nicer edges with no curve or bending.

My terms are probably not

correct but I think you can

understand what I mean.

Using the punch for some .44

caliber rifle wads, which are listed

at .450” diameter, with a hammer

and a good piece of firewood as a

working surface, a nice supply of

wads was punched out in a rather

short amount of time. And now,

just as this is being written, I gave

the .50 caliber wad punch a good

try which netted me a nice stack to

cardboard wads and I’m ready to

say everything all over again.

It is simply a pleasure to use

a punch that allows the very clean

cut wads to fall out of the punch

instead of needing to force the

wads out. Two years ago when the

.40 caliber wad punch was talked about in this column, it was given what amounts to less than a quarter of the

page. This time we’ll correct that, these wad punches are more than good enough to deserve a full page of

attention.

If a wad punch or a series of wad punches is on your list of things to get, by all means check out the

punches from Buffalo Arms. Yes, I’m only talking about the hammer-struck punches and they also offer

punches you use in a reloading press as well as others that are used in a drill press. I’m not into big production

so the hammer-struck punches do me very well.

Buffalo Arms makes their hammer-struck wad punches in eleven different sizes, from .32 caliber up to

.50 for rifles and they also make .38, .38/40, .44/40 and .45 Colt for revolvers. These wad punches are priced

at $18.00 each and they should give a full lifetime of good wads. To place an order, or to find out more about

the other styles of wad punches, take a look on the Buffalo Arms web site at www.buffaloarms.com. Or you

can contact them at Buffalo Arms Company, 600 Vermeer Court, Ponderay, Idaho 83852, phone 208-263-6953.

CIMARRON’S .44 COLT CONVERSIONS

Cimarron Firearms Company is easily recognized as a leader in quality and authenticity for replica

firearms. Since 1984 they have worked hard to bring replicas into this country that represent the best in

authentic detail, fit, and finish in addition to the function and performance of the frontier-style firearms. We

found those qualifications to be quite impressive in regard to the guns being featured here plus others. That is

why we are devoting three pages to the description and field review of these two .44 Colt caliber revolvers.

Studying the evolution or “stepping stones” in the transition from percussion revolvers to cartridge firing

six-guns has always interested me. I’m

mainly thinking of the Colt revolvers as I

say this. It is also rather interesting to

notice and observe the changes or

evolution in my own attitudes or ways of

thinking about these revolvers. For

example, when I got interested in these six-

guns from Cimarron, at first it was because

they could fire the .44 Russian cartridge.

They will do that and very nicely too. But

now that I’ve gotten some experience with

the guns my personal favorite loads have

evolved to the .44 Colt cartridges.

One reason for this is certainly

historically based because the old .44 Colt

was what several of the original conversion Cimarron’s 8” barreled Richards-Mason and 5.5” Type II

revolvers were chambered for. Another popular cartridge for the Colt conversions was the .44 henry rimfire.

Those two cartridges were actually rather similar with the exception of ignition. The .44 Colt was a centerfire

cartridge that used a heeled bullet of 210-225 grains over up to 21-28 grains of black powder which was

introduced in 1871. That’s a very hasty description of this old cartridge and it was used by the US Army for a

couple of years, prior to the adoption of the .45 Colt in 1873.

The .44 Colt was also used by civilians such as the buffalo

hunters who were involved in the Battle of Adobe Walls in

1874. That’s what really triggered my interests and the .44

Colt is an authentic revolver that hunters might have used to

protect their camps prior to the availability of later styled

handguns. The conversion revolvers make perfect team-

mates to go with the early styles of the Model 1874

(Hartford) Sharps rifles.

My partner in getting a couple of the Cimarron conversions

was Lynn Willecke and he decided on a Richards Type II

conversion with a 5 ½” barrel while I wanted the Richards-

Mason conversion with an 8” barrel, both guns in .44 Colt

caliber. The new guns in .44 Colt will also chamber and

.44 Colt and .44 Russian side by side shoot the .44 Russian cartridge and that’s what we started

shooting at first. (In fact, we originally intended to use these revolvers with .44 Russian ammo because we

were already set up with cartridges and loading gear.)

Prior to shooting our new guns, we both looked them over very well. These revolvers from Cimarron

deserve a good looking at too, they’re built better than I expected. One tiny feature that delighted me was the

very light and nice trigger pull on the 8” barreled gun. Previous experience with imported replicas had made

me expect stiffer springs and a much harder trigger pull. Not so with this one, and the 5 ½” barreled gun also

had a welcome trigger pull. That’s a very positive thing.

Both of our guns have the rear sighting notch cut into the top of the hammer, which can’t be seen unless

the hammer is in the cocked position. I had to wonder if my old eyes could see that and some preparations were

made to use a V or a knife file to enlarge that notch. (The Model 1872 Open Top revolver has the rear sight on

top of the barrel just forward of the cylinder.) Once outside in good lighting, even before the first shots were

fired, it was nice to see that the rear sighting notch was just fine as is. No sighting changes were needed.

Before getting to the shooting, some comments about

ammunition should be made. There is a common question

about whether these revolvers, which copy the early black

powder six-guns, should be fired with only black powder

loads. To answer that I will refer to the Instruction Manual

that comes with the new guns and this manual is printed by

Uberti so it isn’t specifically from Cimarron Fire Arms. In that

manual it says, in bold print, “Make certain you are using

only new commercially loaded ammunition of the correct

caliber. (Warning: DO NOT use ammunition marked

“High Speed” or “High Velocity” and NEVER use

reloaded ammunition.)” Later in the same manual comments

are made to use new ammunition manufactured to industry

specifications. With these statements we can be rather sure

that smokeless powder loads are certainly acceptable.

That all sounds very well and good, except for the part

about never using reloaded ammunition. Let me guess, that

statement is included by Uberti for warranty reasons. I will

also guess any use of handloads can void any warranty for the

gun. Not that it will, but that it can. While we must see the

manufacturer’s point of view on this subject, I don’t know of

Lynn Willecke with his Type II conversion any shooters, cowboy action or otherwise, who would get one

of these or similar revolvers and would not intend to shoot it with handloaded ammo. Speaking just for myself,

I broke that rule from the manual with the very first shot. (But that was quite a shot!)

A standard pistol target was posted at just 12 yards and

my very first five shots were taken while firing the gun one-

handed. Those five rounds, handloads of course, in .44

Russian cases used the 250 grain round nose bullets but they

were a mixture, three of the rounds were smokeless loads and

two of them were black powder loads. The difference between

those loadings was easily noticed in the smoke, flame, and the

gun’s recoil but they all hit very nicely. My target would have

scored 49-X but I was much more impressed with the group

size and the fact that this revolver was hitting right about at the

point of aim.

Then Lynn fired his .44 at a similar target. When the

smoke cleared from his five shots, he turned to me with a grin

and said, “These things are right on, right out of the box!”

After that we quit shooting paper and turned our

attention to metal knock-down targets. That was simply a lot

of fun. Lynn and I were taking turns and just keeping mental This target holds Mike’s first 5 shots

note of who missed first. Let me say, with just a little bragging involved, I won. In fact, at that short shooting

session I never missed.

That isn’t meant as a put-down about Lynn’s shooting at all. I just happened to be one hit ahead of him

and that was for a rather short time. Of course, this was only on our first day of shooting these new revolvers.

More shooting at more targets might have changed which one of us remained with the most hits, that has been

forgotten. What we aren’t forgetting is how well we both were shooting as well as how much fun it was.

Now, for shooting with the .44 Colt

cartridges, more details must be given. We

loaded some of the Star Line .44 Colt cases

with 25 grains of Olde Eynsford 2F under

Lyman’s .44/40 bullet, #427098. That was a

good stout load which must come fairly

close to the original .44 Colt loads.

However, we were using bullets with their

grease grooves inside the cartridge cases and

the old original .44 Colts had outside

lubricated bullets.

With smoke from a 25 grains of OE 2F load The load we tried, using 25 grains of

powder beneath the 210 grain cast bullet, is certainly within the ball park. In addition to having a good bellow

to it, those black powder .44 Colt loads hit very well.

Jaminson Brass & Ammunition loads .44 Colts (using Star

Line cases) with a 200 grain round nose flat point lead bullet

which is also very accurate. As part of Jamison’s “Legacy

Grade Ammunition” the .44 Colts join other rifle and revolver

cartridges such as the .44/40 and a fairly long list of others. I

must admit that I enjoyed shooting the 8” barreled gun so

much with the Jamison ammo that I didn’t have any loaded

rounds left when I wanted to take a picture. While the picture

does show empty cases, it also shows a good group with a 10-

shot score of 98 or 99. Good ammo, for sure.

And I prepared a few rounds with a charge of 5.5 grains of

Unique under the .44/40 cast bullets. Those proved to be very

light in recoil and very pleasing to shoot. It’s a good bet that a

load similar to that will become my “standard” loading for the

8” barreled Richards-Mason conversion by Cimarron Arms

A 10-shot group fired with Jamison ammo One tiny feature that both Lynn and I appreciate about

these revolvers is that they are marked “Cal. .44 Colt” on the underside of the barrels. We were told by

Cimarron that newer guns might not carry that mark because they are considering making all of their .44

revolvers chambered for the .44 Special cartridge. The .44 Special is just about .05” longer than the .44 Colt

and we can understand the practicality of Cimarron’s idea. At the same time, we’re just old fashioned enough

to hope they do keep the .44 Colt designation. And, just because we did try them, .44 Special cartridges drop

into the chambers on these two six-guns quite easily.

Cimarron’s renditions of the old Colt conversion revolvers are available in several configurations. They

can be had with Army grips, Navy grips, with 4 ¾, 5 ½, 7 ½, or 8-inch long barrels and in calibers such as .38

Special, the .44s like we selected, and either .45 Schofield or .45 Colt. In our narrow (and perhaps narrow-

minded) review we have commented only on the .44 Colt version which was our choice and most certainly the

most authentic. Not all versions are available in all of those calibers or barrel lengths so if you have an interest

for more information by all means go to the Cimarron web site at www.cimarron-firearms.com.

Getting back to these two guns, our shooting with the .44 Colts is most enjoyable. We originally got

these revolvers with the intention of shooting .44 Russian ammo but now that has changed almost completely. I

say ‘almost completely’ because we’re still pleased that we can shoot the .44 Russian cartridges in these fine

six-guns but their standard feedings will be with the .44 Colts using either black powder or smokeless powder

loads that have already been described. We’ll be shooting these revolvers for a good long time.

Cimarron has many models to choose from, most certainly. We selected these two for ourselves because

they simply fit our ‘wants’ the best. And they fill those ‘wants’ very well. Cimarron’s price for the Richards-

Mason conversion revolvers is $583.70 and for the Type II conversions the price is $616.20. We’ll tell you,

these two are a lot of gun for the money.

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These new shirts do make a “timely”

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declaring our loyalty and faith.

A Case for the .40/50 Bottleneck By Dean Becker

Let me preface this short article

by saying that I only shoot patched

bullets and my .40/50 BN rifle, a

Shiloh Roughrider with a 26” heavy

half-round barrel, has a rather tight

chamber. That needs to be said just

because some of the things I do and

the tools I use might not work as

well for other shooters. Now that

my ‘openers’ are out of the way,

let’s get on with the case forming

process.

Dean touches one off in the Nevada sun Forming the cases can be a

lengthy task and I believe I have streamlined the job with a couple of homemade tools. This special

streamlining takes the process down to about five or six steps. First, of course, is to full length size the cases.

By that I mean taking new .45/70 cases and full length sizing them with a .40/50 Sharps BN sizing die. Yes,

that can be considered a big step but I find it easy enough to do without the intermediate forming dies.

Redding dies seem to do the best job for me

but that’s about all I mean to say about the dies. For

brass; I’ve used Remington, Star Line, Hornady, and

Winchester. The headstamp I’ve settled on is the

Winchester because that’s what comes out the best for

my rifle’s chamber. Remington is just a little thicker

which makes it too thick in the neck for my bullets.

The same goes for Star Line although that could be

cured by inside neck reaming.

The sized and formed cases are then in need of

being shortened and that is best done after sizing the

brass. Cases at this time do not need to be annealed.

In fact, I find that the first three steps really work

better without annealing the brass and it makes the

whole job easier. (You can see a dented case on the Three good sized cases and one I couldn’t save.

right in the photo, actually it was creased. I tried to save

it but it was too bad to resurrect.) The .40 caliber necks

are a lot easier to cut straight than the .45s which is why I

sized the cases down to .40/50 first.

So, after sizing the cases they are taken to a lathe,

as seen at the right, for shortening. This job is made easy

by using a Lee Precision trim die with a shortened cutter

assembly originally made for a .45/70. I turned the cutter

down to .40 caliber neck size and reset the stop gauge for

the rough length of the .40/50 BN case. This operation

takes about 30 seconds per case and, again, this is best

done with the harder brass. If the cases were annealed,

the cutter tends to grab at the case neck and that causes wrinkles and rougher edges.

After their trip through the lathe, the cases

are taken back to the bench and run through my

Wilson case trimmer for their final trim. This cuts

them to the proper and finished length. The holder

for this was custom-made and if you get one be sure

you get it for the proper size of case neck. To get it

right, you should send a couple of fired cases to

Wilson so they can match the case holder to the

cases from your rifle’s chamber. If, on the other

hand, your cases are too loose in the case holder, just

wrap a patch around the case before inserting it in

the holder as shown in the picture.

With the cases all trimmed to length, it is

now time to anneal the brass. I find it is best to

anneal them back to the shoulder. Following that,

it’s back through the sizing die for one more sizing,

just to be sure of things, and then a quick chamfer at

the case mouth, inside and out, before it is time to

It’s hard to see but there is a patch around the case in the holder load the newly formed brass.

For my first loadings in newly form cases, I feel the load should be made up with one of the faster

burning granulations of powder along with heavy bullets to get the cases blown out, completely filling the

rifle’s chamber dimensions. In my experience, the shortened .45/70 cases turn into very heavy duty brass for

the .40/50 BN. They work well with the loads generally used in the little black powder bottlenecked cartridge

and they are certainly worth the effort taken to make them.

This shows “the whole shenanigan” from .45/70 case to the loaded .40/50 BN round.

“If you want a real friend that you can trust in Washington, get a dog.” - Harry Truman –