CFDA Brass

The Cowboy Fast Draw is fun, but like most hobbies, it cuts in to the disposable income.  While I appreciate the fun, and the camaraderie, a dollar I spend on fast draw is a dollar I can't spend somewhere else.  Like all shooting sports, the ammo needs brass, and the CFDA wants 80 cents apiece for their special brass that takes 209 shotgun primers.  That's fine, but casting about for other sources seems to be coming up blank.  There are a few other vendors, but they want something north of 60 cents apiece for brass.

Being a frugal sort of guy I closely examined a piece of CFDA brass.  It's marked CFDA, with a printed star of top of the headstamp.  I suspect that the brass is made for CFDA by Starline, and a call to them should yield some information.  But, I've got lots of brass in my reloading stocks.  I don't have any .45 Long Colt, but I've got lots of .4 Remington Magnum, and wouldn't it be cool to shoot wax bullets with 209 primers in the big .44?

So, I got out some .44 brass and took some measurements, and came up with a plan.  I used a common 1/4 inch drill bit and drilled out the primer pocket.  That shotgun primer slipped in easily, but stood proud of the case head, so I took at 3/8 drill and made a recess so that the shotgun primer would sit flush.

So, I loaded two with wax bullets, dropped primers in the pocket and wandered out into the front yard.  I shot two into a convenient hedge (the neighbors think I'm crazy) and proved the concept.  It works like a champ, easy-peasy.  The pockets would be a lot more uniform if I had a drill press, but it works.  Works fine, thank you.

Now, I have ten (10) cases that I can shoot through the.44 magnum, and I've proved the concept, so I'm not dependent on the CFDA for brass.  I can make it in my shop, for a whole lot less than 80 cents per piece.  I like those boys, but 90 cents per piece is a bit stiff.  I can buy .45 Colt brass for about .25 cents apiece.

How Far Do They Fly?

Sunday afternoon we were shooting CDFA wax bullets in the back yard, and I determined to estimate a maximum range for that load.  It shoots a little 17 grain, .45 caliber wax bullet, propelled by a #209 shotgun primer.  It's fairly low powered as handgun ammo goes, but we wonder about such things, especially if we're shooting in a suburban neighborhood.  The neighbor downrange is easily 200 yards away.

So, the boys and I walked out to the pond to shoot across the glassy surface of the water, to see if we could identify a splash, and try to estimate the maximum range, in case a bullet gets past my backstop.

I don't have chronograph data, but the CFDA estimates that a common 209 load will travel about 650 fps.  When we got ready to take the shot, I was standing about five (5) feet above the water, holding the revolver five (5) feet above ground level, and holding it more or less level.  I had three good pair of eyes watching for the bullet splash and was aiming at a small island about 100 yards from my shooting position.

At the shot, we strained our eyes, looking for the splash, and my son said "Hell, Dad, there it is right there."

I was peering across the water.  "Where?"

"About 40 yards."  He pointed less than halfway to the island. "You can see the wax bullet floating in the water."

I looked down, and sure enough, that little orange bullet was floating less than 40 yards away.

So now we know.  The standard CFDA #209 load will travel about 40 yards more or less.  Certainly further study is in order, but I don't have to worry about neighbors finding wax bullets in their yard and wondering what the hell I'm doing.

Update** Finished

That grip project went smoothly, and a whole lot faster than I anticipated.  We sanded them down, Milady approved, and painted them with a turquoise fingernail polish.  Two coats, then a top coat of clear, and Milady has grips that contrast nicely with her firearm, fit her had, and make it personally hers.

It's not a traditional grip color, but it's certainly distinctive.  Personalizing a firearm is a time-honored tradition among many of the shooting disciplines.  Milady likes them, and that's her gun.

If you're at the Texas State Championships next month and you see a pretty gal sporting turquoise grips, come over and say Hello.

Sunday Morning Dawg

It's been a beautiful weekend, with lots of movement, and the dog has been outside a lot.

Here, he waits for me by the carport door.  Evidently he thinks it's time to go inside and check on Milady.  He hasn't been underfoot for ten or fifteen minutes now.

Grips

The choice of grips on a handgun is a very personal choice, and the manufacturers, both of the handguns and the aftermarket vendors, keep us ably supplied with grips.  I would no more try to tell someone which grip to use than I would try to tell them which underwear to wear.  It's that personal.

Milady has small hands, and she's been looking for grips that give her the best advantage with ther Vaquero, in the CFDA game.  Severeal weeks ago, she tried a pair of grips that someone had, and loved them.  They looked like custom grips, but the guy told me that they were simple, Ruger gunfighter grips.  The rubber, checkered grips.  All he did to them was sand off the checkering then paint them the color that he liked, which was high-gloss black.

Milady's revolver came with Ruger rosewood grips, but those were just a bit big for her hand.  She wanted slimmer grips and she like the sanded gunfighter grips.  So, we arranged for a swap from a club member who had admired the rosewood and had an extra pair of gunfighters laying around.

That's her pistol, on top with the gunfighter grips, and mine on bottom with the rosewoods.  This week we'll see about getting the checkering sanded off those grips and let her pick a nice color that will complement her stainless pistol.

Roxbury Shooting

It seems that yesterday while I was working, a good cop in Boston was injured in a shooting.  This police officer, John Moynihan was honored in 2013 at the White House.  He received the Top Cop award for his role in Boston Marathon manhunt.  Evidently, he was on a traffic stop yesterday that went bad.

The situation began when officers with the city’s Youth Violence Task Force pulled over a vehicle near the intersection of Humboldt Avenue and Ruthven Street, Evans said. As officers exited their car, a man in the pulled-over vehicle got out and opened fire.

Officer Moynihan took a bullet to the face, and he's in critical condition at the hospital.

Evans said in a news conference at the hospital Friday evening that Moynihan was responsive when he first arrived. The shooting occurred around 6:40 p.m. 

 “But he’s in... basically an induced coma at this time and they’re examining the extent of his injuries,” Evans said.

The guy that opened fire was killed at the scene.

So, let's review.  The cop makes a traffic stop, the guy gets out of the car and starts shooting.  One cop critically injured, the shooter dead at the scene.  Of course, the shooter happens to be a black guy, so the Twitter-verse explodes.

 I'm sure that the police were moving slowly, getting it right, collecting evidence, documenting the scene.  As the scene unfolds for us, and we learn more about the shooter, I'm sure that we'll learn who he was and more about his history.  I'm sure that he'll be portrayed as a choirboy with a shining future who was brutally murdered in the streets by the racist Boston Police Department.  All information that doesn't trumpet this line will be suppressed and will trickle out slowly.

I'll be praying for Officer Moynihan, along with the others on my prayer list.  While I'm at it, I'll also pray for the leftist Twitter users who are first to portray the police as murderous racists.  Those people make me sick.

Friday Afternoon

It's time for a palate cleanser, so we'll watch some great American past-times, all rolled together in one YouTube video.

Mike Rowe (who is an accomplished opera singer), singing the National Anthem, at a baseball park.



This is great stuff.  Mike Rowe, a great American, singing US Grant's favorite song, at a game invented by Abner Doubleday.

This is why we win.  USA! USA! USA!

Y'all have a great weekend.

Finally Friday

It's finally Friday, and I realize I didn't post at all yesterday.  Still, the news this morning is interesting.

Harry Reid is calling it quits.  Not immediately, of course, but this is good news for us, and good news for Nevada.

Some fool launched a machete attack in New Orleans.He's dead now, of course, being shot to death by a responding sheriff's deputy.  Hooray for the good guys.

Milady has instructed me that I'll make myself presentable for supper with friends this evening, and I'm okay with that.  I'll put on a clean shirt and leather shoes so as not to embarrass her.  Tomorrow, it's Cowboy Fast Draw for an organziation meeting at the club.  We're trying to get affiliated with the national organization, and it looks like we're ready to make application.

Y'all have a great weekend.

Benevolent Sexism

Benevolent Sexism, whatever in the hell that is.  It must be a slow news cycle, because this is the second such study I've seen in as many days.

I’m talking about the recent “study” conducted at Northeastern University by Judith Hall and Jin Goh, which claims to prove that men who exhibit chivalrous behavior are probably “benevolent sexists.” “Benevolent sexism is like a wolf in sheep’s clothing that perpetuates support for gender inequality among women,” explains Hall. In other words, if a man holds the door for you or picks up the tab on your first date, watch out!! You can be certain he’s secretly plotting all the while to perpetuate the patriarchy and enslave you in domestic bliss. He might even tell you he thinks you look nice in that dress! The nerve!

I assume that the two students got class credit of some sort for this study, or it might have been a published study by faculty, I"m not sure.  Either way, it was a waste of money.

Just My Style

Courtesy of my old friend Old NFO, we learn that Glock has introduced it's much bally-hooed single stack 9mm, and they're calling it the Glock 43.  Great news, now that I've purchased two Cowboy revolvers.  I was just thinking this morning over my pre-dawn coffee that I had probably purchased all t he handguns that I was going to purchase this year.

That's a screen capture from the Glock website, and you can click over to see the specs.

I'm certainly not in the market right now, but I bet that I'll be coon-fingering one before too many months are over.  I wonder if it will fit in a blue-jean pocket?

Chivalry Isn't Dead

Chivalry isn't dead, but it has taken a pretty severe beating, especially in liberal enclaves.  One writer at PJ Media decries the men in her social group.

We live in a society where lots of men do not pay. Not only do they fail to pay for the women with whom they go on a date, they increasingly do not even pay for themselves.

The men afflicted with this syndrome tend to be young, and are usually under the age of forty. Those who suffer most severely tend to be products of the nation’s top universities or respectable urban workplaces—where political correctness and leftwing ideology regularly trample over concepts such as chivalry and honor. At these institutions, the worst thing that could happen is to be perceived as racist, sexist or homophobic. Being a weasel that does not pay is not considered a source of embarrassment.

She brings up chivalry and honor, so let me ask a simple question; If the men in your life have neither chivalry nor honor, why do you associate with those men? Why are they in your life?

And, one observation:  Chivalry is a code which demands standards of conduct from both men and women.  If women have jumped the traces, why should men remain in harness?  The social contract is both voluntary and enforceable.  We are known by the company we keep, and if your associates do not reflect your values, then feel free to change your associations.  It's really that simple.

The writer does admit that there are men who still maintain the code.

Thankfully, plenty of men in the modern era still pay. They range from older gentlemen who hail from an era that emphasized values, to younger ones who were raised by families that continue to uphold norms long abandoned by the university or the modern workplace. They also range from those who engage in professions that are intrinsically tied to honor—such as the military and law enforcement—to those who live in parts of the country that still believe in an etiquette code.

I would suggest that she limit her associations to men who act in the manner in which she'd like to be treated, but I caution her that such men also expect certain standards from the ladies that they escort.

What Time Is It?

I see that some states are considering dropping Daylight Savings Time, or more accurately, picking a time and opting out of the twice yearly clock change. From Hot Air:

Elected officials in 10 states have proposed legislation that would opt their states out of daylight saving time including Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Washington.

Frankly, we've been changing the clocks for the better part of my lifetime, and for the entire lifetimes of my children.   I've heard the arguments for and against, and I have to admit that the arguments on both sides are generally over-blown.  The real argument is that changing is simply a pain in the butt, but it is one that we've grown accustomed to.  It's also a practice that generally pisses people off twice a year, for a day or so, then we adjust and move along.

The argument of a "standard time for states is also overblown.  Several states have parts of their acreage in two time zones.

And the fact that we have multiple time zones in the country already provides for more than enough confusion. Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Kentucky, and Tennessee are all broken up into sections which are in the eastern and central time zones. You can literally travel from one place to another without crossing a state line and have the clock change on you. But, again, we somehow manage to get business done without the world ending. People on the east coast know they have to wait a few hours in the morning before they can call a business in California and find anyone in the office. It’s a big country and we adjust to things like this.

Indeed, I used to live in Kentucky, which is in both the eastern and central time zones.  It was a simple mental shift when you crossed that time zone line, not a huge problem, just something to be aware of.

I'm all for picking a time and sticking with it, summer or winter, rain or shine.  We're a nation of time zones, and if I don't have to change my clock twice a year, that's a good thing.  Let the states decide.

Questions, Questions

Regular readers know that I've been handloading rifle and pistol ammo for several decades.  With cast bullets, fit is king.  A bullet that is properly fitted to the bore is more likely to shoot accurately.  T his is not news and is well documented.

Recently, Milady and I started fast-draw shooting with the good guys down at the Lucky 4B Ranch.  This is also not news to regular readers, but the old handloader in me started pondering the things that handloaders ponder, and I started thinking about wax bullets.  When we started shooting, I bought a bunch of the E-Z loader wax bullets, so that's what I have to work with, and they load easy in the casings and they seem to shoot just fine.

Folks have asked me, "Don't you get wax in your barrel?", and I guess I do, but cast bullet shooters have been coating bullets with wax or grease for hundreds of years.  They call it lube, and you're crazy to shoot an un-lubed bullet down your barrel.  In this case, the whole bullet is lube, and I haven't noticed any real fouling to speak of.

But I was concerned about the bullet catching the rifling, and because the bullets normally shatter when they hit the steel target, so I didn't find any bullets that I could examine.  On Sunday, though, I was letting the family shoot and one of the grandkids shot and missed, and I saw the bullet rebound off the 4X4 fence post nearby.  At the first opportunity, I found it in the grass and looked at it.

Those bullets mic' about 0.447 and we all know that the bore of a .45 Long Colt calls for a 0.452 bullet, so I was concerned about the bullet catching the rifling.  I knew that the shotgun primer that propelled the wax bullet was fairly low pressure, as pistol ammo goes, but I didn't know if that primer had enough energy to obdurate the bullet in the bore, provide a good seal, and give the bullet stability.

That bullet I found laying in the grass tells the tale.  Plainly, there are rifling marks on the bullet. The bullet is clearly engaging the bore.  That bevel on the base of the bullet is the base of the bullet and the destroyed portion is the nose of the bullet.  I see fouling on the grooves, so I'm not sure if the bullet is fully filling the bore, but the first of my questions is answered.  Yes, wax bullets engage the rifling of the bore.

Clearly, more study is in order, but I'm sure I'll have time to study those questions.

Sunday Morning Dawg

Busy day yesterday.  Milady and I got up dawnish, to rain and dreariness.  She helped me on the bench, clipping the springs in the Vaqueros to make them easier to cock.  A few coils off the mainspring and the first revolver went back together easy-peasy.  Started on the second one and ran into trouble.  I took that gun down half a dozen times, and each time we'd get the pistol back together, it would be locked up.  Tear down, check alignment, reassemble.

We had an appointment at 11:30 to meet for lunch with my mother, aunt, and cousins, so as I ran up on the deadline, we packed everything away then I jumped into the shower.  We got to the restaurant in the nick of time, enjoyed a thoroughly wonderful meal with kinfolks, then Milady and I headed to the Lucky 4B Ranch in Melder for the club shoot.

Wen we got to the ranch, the shoot was already in progress, so we got in line and started visiting with the club members.  I mentioned that I had successfully lightened the spring on one revolver, but the other one had locked-up, and the president, Big Mark, looked at it.  While I was on the line, he fixed it and it's running smooth as silk now.  Thanks, Mark.

After the shoot, we headed to Milady's brother's house for drinks and a meal.  Visited with some friends and got home about 9:00 last night.  I didn't turn the computer on all day long.  We awoke to another day of dreariness, misting rain and cloudy skies.  The dog, of course, prefers to stay at Milady's feet while she drinks her coffee.

He and the gray cat are always vying for Milady's attention, so they're always underfoot.  Milady and I will get ready for church soon, and prep for grandkids to descend on us after church.  Today, we're cooking tacos.  It should be quite the meal.

Too Much Weirdness

There's too much weirdness in the news these days.

Someone has launched a Draft Biden website.

Glynn Beck says he's leaving the Republican Party, and most of his reasoning makes sense.  Why be the opposition, if you're not going to actually oppose anything?

Hillary thinks we need camps for adults, and I'm still trying to figure that one out.  Re-education camps?  What the hell is she talking about?

I'm worn out with political news, none of it makes much sense.  I'm thinking about changing the whole tone of this blog, away from politics.  It's getting too weird, it doesn't make any sense, and the idea that I might actually cause any of our political leaders to actually stand up for the Constitution is too farfetched for a rational person to contemplate.

It's Friday, and I'm going to go someplace quiet and have a beer.  Y'all be good and try to enjoy what's left of Friday afternoon.

New Boots

I've been buying boots for a long time.  I get a new pair of uniform boots every year, and I know what they cost, but I haven't bought casual boots in almost fifteen years.  I had several pair of old casual boots in the closet, so I tried them on last night, and they didn't fit.  I've worn a size 10D since the Army, and I didn't think my feet were getting any bigger, but there's no accounting for the fact that I couldn't get my feet in the boots.

So, today after work I went to Economy Boots, a shop I've dealt with for years.  A salesman named T-Bone helped me size some boots, and it appears that nowadays I need a 10.5EE.  At my advanced age, I figured my feet would have stopped growing, but evidently they're spreading out.  We finally found a pair of boots that I could get my feet in, and when he showed me the price tag, I just about fell over.  But, they're comfortable, I'm going to need boots for Fort Worth next month.

So, anyway, I walked into Economy Boots and told the salesman I needed some boots.  We started to fit me, and wound up with a pair of Justin Bent Rail square toe boots.  I almost fell over when he told me $179.00, but they fit, were comfortable and even if the uppers are a little gaudy, I normally wear my pants over the uppers.

I beat the Amazon price and I got to try them on, so I'll call that a win.  Hopefully, these will last several years. Evidently, western boots cost more than they did twenty years ago.  What happened to $40.00 ropers?

Getting Ready

Our progress on the wax-bullet shooting continues to move apace, and Milady and I are really enjoying this game.  We plan to attend the Texas State Championship shoot on April 10-12th, not because either of us are championship shooters, but because it sounds like fun, my cousin's club is hosting it, and it's a good excuse for a weekend out of town with my sweetie.  I told my cousin that we'd be happy to help and I bet that he's going to put us to work at one task or another.

My son took this picture Sunday last, and I think it's awesome.  Milady is properly heeled, with a smile on her face and her hand on her gun.

Now, she's looking for wardrobe.  A lady can't show up at a state championship shoot in just any old rags.  The revolver, of course, is a Ruger Vaquero and the leather is a custom rig by Crease N' Corral.

Proper Target

The CFDA requires that their targets be mild steel, 24" in diameter, the center 50" from the ground.  Milady and I needed a practice target so that we could get our act together between practice matches. After doing some shooting this weekend with family, we determined to install a proper practice target.  A family member said he could probably help us with that.

I found it in my rocking chair when I came home this afternoon, so Milady and I installed it on the board fence in the corner of the yard.

Thanks, Matt.

Sunday Afternoon

Finally, a day with sunshine and moderate temperatures.  I fired up the grill after church and fixed hand-flung hamburgers.  The old-fashioned kind that are patted out by hand, from good ground beef, lovingly seasoned and fashioned.

We brought out Milady's new pistol and let the assembled run some wax bullets through it.  It runs on shotgun primers alone, so there's a little pop and the wax bullet hits the target.  Pretty cool, and the little ones can participate.  Better yet, we can fire it in the backyard.

Here's the littlest one, Lucas, running grandma's Vaquero with wax bullet ammunition.

Sunday Morning Dawg

The dog looks about the way I feel this morning.  Busy Saturday and not much rest. The weather has been lousy all week, and we haven't gotten to be outside much at all.

Hopefully the weather will cooperate this week, and we can get outside more.  Lots to do out there, and it's hard to do when it's raining.