Head Tomcat
New member
My Thoughts
Dark...a good question and it is not a criticism at all!
I really am enjoying getting more into black powder as the fun for me is the "technical" end of it. Understanding how all the components go together, determining the correct arbor length, learning cylinder/bolt timing, etc. have been a good and fun experience. Also, I have reloaded many different calibers/types of smokeless cartridges for over 36 years now and getting into black powder loading is a totally new area for me.
Cast bullets, "best" lube to use, sizing, etc. are all part of this education and a lot of fun as I get more into black powder. I guess you could say what I enjoy is the "tinkering" part of this sport.
So, in this case, learning about cartridge conversion pistols is a natural lead-in to reloading black powder cartridges...and at my local range there are very, very few people who are into black powder. Yes, I could clearly achieve a lot of this (and cheaper, too) by just buying an 1851 Navy which comes from the factory already converted...but that takes all the fun out of it for me.
Over the years this tinkering has allowed me to learn parkerizing, powder painting, rust bluing, motorcycle restoration, woodwork, etc.
Finally, I guess this all started because of Jimmy Carter! I soldiered in the Army for 30 years and my first unit was in Germany with the 3rd Infantry Division. Back in the early 1980's our units did not have sufficient funding to obtain maintenance parts but Army regs said our self-propelled M109 howitzers and M113 APC's were required to have their monthly, quarterly and annual services. Well, what to do when the regs demand services be conducted but no funds are available to actually buy the parts through the maintenance system? You pass the hat among the junior officers and go out onto the local economy with a lot of Deutschmarks to buy oil, filters, gaskets, and a lot of other items. I found a Mannesmann tractor air filter could easily be modified to fit a M113....diesel engine oil goes into a M109 howitzer, metric gasket material could be cut to replicate Army gaskets, etc.
Likewise, each year all the Commanders at Bn, Bde and Div had their annual "Commander's Trophy" shooting competition with 1911 pistols. These pistols were totally worn out and rattled like rocks in a tin can if you shook them. My Bn Cdr was determined to win in the summer of 1980 and noticed that I was pretty good at tinkering. He told me to build him a winning pistol or else!
I had the armorers from all five batteries bring me every 1911 in the Bn and for a very long weekend sat with them all in pieces and hand fitted every possible combination of parts. By late Sunday evening I had one pistol cobbled together which was really tight. A slight peening of the frame/slide channel and then moderate hand fitting with Clover fine grinding paste got it done.
The Bn Cdr won the Trophy that summer and also in the summer of 1981, too. The new Bn Cdr then won in the summer of 1982...and I had fitted the pistols for all three years.
So....long answer to a very good/short question!
Head Tomcat
PS: Also, I have fired darn near everything in our military inventory...from 8" and 155mm howitzers...to 152mm main guns on the old M60A2 tank...TOW missiles, 4.2"/81mm mortars, every smallarm from M2 .50cal down to 9mm and .45ACP M3 greasegun...and even called in an AC130 airstrike south of Baghdad in March 2003. Of all these, learning black powder has brought back my smile again..ha ha ha!
Dark...a good question and it is not a criticism at all!
I really am enjoying getting more into black powder as the fun for me is the "technical" end of it. Understanding how all the components go together, determining the correct arbor length, learning cylinder/bolt timing, etc. have been a good and fun experience. Also, I have reloaded many different calibers/types of smokeless cartridges for over 36 years now and getting into black powder loading is a totally new area for me.
Cast bullets, "best" lube to use, sizing, etc. are all part of this education and a lot of fun as I get more into black powder. I guess you could say what I enjoy is the "tinkering" part of this sport.
So, in this case, learning about cartridge conversion pistols is a natural lead-in to reloading black powder cartridges...and at my local range there are very, very few people who are into black powder. Yes, I could clearly achieve a lot of this (and cheaper, too) by just buying an 1851 Navy which comes from the factory already converted...but that takes all the fun out of it for me.
Over the years this tinkering has allowed me to learn parkerizing, powder painting, rust bluing, motorcycle restoration, woodwork, etc.
Finally, I guess this all started because of Jimmy Carter! I soldiered in the Army for 30 years and my first unit was in Germany with the 3rd Infantry Division. Back in the early 1980's our units did not have sufficient funding to obtain maintenance parts but Army regs said our self-propelled M109 howitzers and M113 APC's were required to have their monthly, quarterly and annual services. Well, what to do when the regs demand services be conducted but no funds are available to actually buy the parts through the maintenance system? You pass the hat among the junior officers and go out onto the local economy with a lot of Deutschmarks to buy oil, filters, gaskets, and a lot of other items. I found a Mannesmann tractor air filter could easily be modified to fit a M113....diesel engine oil goes into a M109 howitzer, metric gasket material could be cut to replicate Army gaskets, etc.
Likewise, each year all the Commanders at Bn, Bde and Div had their annual "Commander's Trophy" shooting competition with 1911 pistols. These pistols were totally worn out and rattled like rocks in a tin can if you shook them. My Bn Cdr was determined to win in the summer of 1980 and noticed that I was pretty good at tinkering. He told me to build him a winning pistol or else!
I had the armorers from all five batteries bring me every 1911 in the Bn and for a very long weekend sat with them all in pieces and hand fitted every possible combination of parts. By late Sunday evening I had one pistol cobbled together which was really tight. A slight peening of the frame/slide channel and then moderate hand fitting with Clover fine grinding paste got it done.
The Bn Cdr won the Trophy that summer and also in the summer of 1981, too. The new Bn Cdr then won in the summer of 1982...and I had fitted the pistols for all three years.
So....long answer to a very good/short question!
Head Tomcat
PS: Also, I have fired darn near everything in our military inventory...from 8" and 155mm howitzers...to 152mm main guns on the old M60A2 tank...TOW missiles, 4.2"/81mm mortars, every smallarm from M2 .50cal down to 9mm and .45ACP M3 greasegun...and even called in an AC130 airstrike south of Baghdad in March 2003. Of all these, learning black powder has brought back my smile again..ha ha ha!