My 1951 JC Higgins .270 (actually an FN postwar Mauser 98 action with a chrome lined barrel) tack driver and my early 60s Marlin 336 .30-30 brush gun are all sighted in and ready, so it's back to playing with my two .50 cal Hawkens, my .45 Kentucky flint, and my Remington .44 1861 New Model Army, among my other toys. I just might take one of my Hawkens hunting this year and leave my smokeless burners at home. You don't get many long range shots around here.
XP-39 II - The Groundhog Day Thread (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter Shortround6
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Hello XBe02Drvr,
I suppose just about any old military bolt action might work as a hunting rifle. If that is the case, then I have a bunch.
The two actual "Hunting Rifles" I was thinking of are a first year production Remington 700 in 7 mm Magnum and a Ruger Number 1 in .25-06.
I have never gotten any great accuracy out of that Ruger, but that 7 mm does quite well out to 200 meters which is as far as I have shot it. Obviously I didn't buy it new because the gun is older than I am. The gun has a bunch of scratches and a replacement synthetic stock but I was still surprised at how little money the previous owner wanted for it.
What kind of bullets do you use for the .44 Remington revolver?
I have a couple Ruger Old Army revolvers that are probably the same caliber.
What I found is that it isn't worth bothering to stock up on lead balls for the .44 revolvers because cast bullets for a .45 ACP work just fine and are much easier to come by. I usually use 200 grain SWC that I cast out of wheel weights. Commercial castings work fine as well.
BTW, One of the things I believe I have figured out from running so much ammunition through the Sharps guns is that Black Powder is erosive.
I believe it has to do with the amount and type of solid residue from combustion. I believe Pyrodex is much less erosive if there is an antique you wish to preserve.
Don't you find it odd that a modern Knight Disc rifle qualifies for Black Powder Season but a period Sharps 1858 rifle does not?
- Ivan.
GrauGeist
Generalfeldmarschall zur Luftschiff Abteilung
When black powder is burnt, it leaves behind a layer of soot that contains potassium and sodium oxides. The moisture in the air turns that mixture into a hydroxide and will quickly attack iron/steel.
Hello GrauGeist,
The residues are actually not oxides but chlorides: Salts.
It is the same thing with Pyrodex and with corrosive primers in old military ammunition.
That is NOT what I am describing here.
Have you ever looked at the forcing cone and the top strap of a Magnum revolver that has been shot a lot with full power loads?
The metal has been burned away. The effect is much worse with Chrome Moly guns than with Stainless guns. I have a revolver that I believe I have put almost 9,000 full power rounds through. The effect is very distinct. No corrosive primers were ever used in that gun.
The breech seal on a BP Sharps on the originals is a chrome plated flat plate that uses some of the force of the powder that gets into the recess behind the plate to force it into a tight seal against the rear of the chamber. On the reproduction guns, this plate is typically made of Stainless Steel.
The seal is generally not bad but not completely gas-tight either. What was happening was that the Stainless plate was getting a ring etched into it just inside where it sealed against the chamber.
You also have to remember that the BP Sharps isn't like a typical BP Muzzleloader. You can fire a lot of shots pretty quickly.
I was using a test tube rack and measuring my charges about 20-30 at a time between relays.
With a pile of bullets at hand, it is pretty easy to keep up a firing rate fast enough that the gun gets pretty hot.
i was going through so much powder in those days that I was buying it in 5 pound bags and refilling the same 1 pound cans over and over again.
- Ivan.
Hello P-39 Expert
As vikingBerserker wrote in his message #671 "The North Fleet Air Arm removed the wing guns along with some armor from their Mk 1s" The test plane was Airacobra Mk I BX382 and exact quote for the armour is "part of the armour plating" so no exact info on what pieces of armour were removed.
XP-39 II
Just to summarize what the researhcer writes in his article: in Romania June 1-22 5 VA claim 240 (+4 ground) Axis aircraft destroyed, of which 122 were Me 109's and 17 VA another 11 (+9 ground) incl. 6 Me 109's (+ 3 ground). P-39's of 5 VA accounted for 61 Me 109's (by my count).
The opponents were Jg 52 whose losses were 6 Me109s lost and 8 damaged; 1 lost to AA, 2 lost + 2 damaged in combat with fighters. One pilot killed and 2 wounded.
If this case is anything to go by, then maybe the most spectacular achievement by P-39's in Soviet service may well be the overclaiming by the pilots that flew the plane.
Just to summarize what the researhcer writes in his article: in Romania June 1-22 5 VA claim 240 (+4 ground) Axis aircraft destroyed, of which 122 were Me 109's and 17 VA another 11 (+9 ground) incl. 6 Me 109's (+ 3 ground). P-39's of 5 VA accounted for 61 Me 109's (by my count).
The opponents were Jg 52 whose losses were 6 Me109s lost and 8 damaged; 1 lost to AA, 2 lost + 2 damaged in combat with fighters. One pilot killed and 2 wounded.
If this case is anything to go by, then maybe the most spectacular achievement by P-39's in Soviet service may well be the overclaiming by the pilots that flew the plane.
I have a Model 95 Mauser 7x57 made for Chile in 1898 that I bought in 1966 for $19, still in the factory cosmolene and brown paper, which I've hunted with. Century Arms in St Albans bought and imported an entire warehouse full of them, as well as Model 98s ($34.99) and FN 7x57 assault rifles ($54.99), all in mint condition. As a college student working a summer job for $66 every two weeks, I couldn't afford the "high priced spread".
My JC Higgins .270 isn't an "old military bolt action rifle". It's a new manufacture Fabrique Nationale sporting rifle with chrome lined barrel and a classy checkered and engraved stock. The Germans put FN to work during the war building 98s, which towards the end were getting rather sloppy with slave labor and poorer quality steel. Once they were liberated, the FN people were kind of embarrassed to be associated with their wartime products, so set out to "make a better mousetrap". They had the patterns and tooling for the 98, and once again had access to high strength ordnance steel, so they started cranking out high class sporting rifles. Trouble was, in the war-torn global economy, nobody had the affluence to buy these jewels except the US, and we were kind of partial to Winchester and Remington, and Savage and Stevens, etc. Enter Sears Roebuck, who gave FN entry to the US market under an American brand name, alongside some serious junk that also carried the JC Higgins name. I bought mine in a local sporting goods store with a Leupold scope on it for $325. It was tagged $350, but the owner wanted to move "that Sears junk" along so he offered it for $25 off with his condolences. He hadn't done his homework. I had.
I have a .445 round ball mold and a .445 "slug" mold that casts a dead ringer for an ACP bullet. About 230 grains, I think. I don't shoot the slugs much because they restrict the powder volume in the chambers. I haven't cast any slugs in ten years, and still have almost a hundred on hand.
In Vermont, we call it muzzle loader season and they have to be muzzle loaders. There's a bunch of us (nowhere near a majority) who think all "modern style" muzzle loaders should be banned and traditionals only allowed. If you want to get seriously laughed at, just show up at a primitive biathlon with a modern "muzzle loader", a pocket full of speed loads, wearing camo gear, and running on Sherpas.
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It is not so simple, the LW also had recon 109s and also Rumanians had 109s. Hungarian 109s probably were not participating this campaign. But it is true that Soviets overclaimed badly on the southern part of the Eastern Front in 1944. JG 52 lost 15 109s to enemy actions in June 1944 and 10 to other causes. But what made the situation more complicated was that the USAAF conducted active bombing campaign against Rumania and Hungary in June 1944 so many of LW Rumanian and Hungarian losses were by the USAAF.
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Yeah, and Luftwaffe reporting was so reliable - NOT! If you went by Luftwaffe loss reports alone they won the Battle of Britain, Siege of Malta and every Russian campaign. The Germans were far more interested in reporting their successes (many over-claimed and some downright imaginary) than they were admitting their failures, and that was in all theatres.
Hello XBe02Drvr,
The FN "Assault Rifle" sounds like the FN-49. In 7x57. it was probably a Venezuelan contract gun. Excellent guns but with the annoying habit of breaking firing pins. I have had a couple in different calibers.
Regarding the FN commercial Model 98: I said what I meant to say but the timing was all wrong. I didn't mean to imply a lack of quality in the FN Model 98s. Even their military guns were excellent quality though the finish may not have been as nice. I have one of those.
I am actually pretty familiar with the commercial model 98 Mausers made by various manufacturers. They don't turn up as often today as they did perhaps 30 years ago, but I never could find anything lacking in them for fit and finish
My comment about military bolt actions was just the realization that just about any military bolt gun would make a pretty fair hunting rifle except perhaps for a lack of optics. The weight and caliber would not be unreasonable though it might be a bit harsh to carry a really nice Springfield rifle into the field. I am not a fan of "Sporterized" Rifles and have never bought one.
For a few years, my weekly range sessions was during the weekly gathering for the local Muzzle Loaders group. These gentlemen were pretty tolerant of other firearms present during their meetings. Most of the time, I was probably shooting a scoped M14 type in those days which is only a few generations out of date. There were a lot of very odd things that showed up. One was a match lock that was probably closer to a cannon than a musket.
- Ivan.
P-39 Expert
Non-Expert
Thanks.
A high school classmate of mine whom I hadn't seen since graduation showed up at this year's Smugglers Notch Primitive Biathlon toting a Spanish pattern matchlock conquistador gun with which he shot a better score than I did with my .45 Kentucky. At least his ignition was reliable. Misfire = missed shot.
GrauGeist
Generalfeldmarschall zur Luftschiff Abteilung
Thought I'd toss this out there in case anyone is interested.
The forum's own "gun thread":
The Guns We Own
The forum's own "gun thread":
The Guns We Own
I only summarized the numbers from the article, which is itself much more detailed and takes into account the points you mention.
Kaminsky also mentions loss disputes that inevitably will occur; however, as he points out, only one Jg52 pilot is reported killed. Tbo, I myself thought that he surely must have missed some German/ Axis losses , and maybe he has, but on the whole his research seems pretty solid
So have we turned a sows ear into a silk purse after 37 pages or are you all getting bored repeating the same argument over and over and would rather talk about rifles?. I shot shot my 1908 Swedish Mauser today at 100m with cast bullets over 16grns of 2400 and put 5 of them into a genuine 1'' group sitting post.
P-39 Expert
Non-Expert
Let's have more of the same old argument and move the guns to it's own thread.
I agree with P39 Expert (surprise!), and apologize for my hijacker tendencies. Mods, can you shift the gun chatter over to the appropriate thread, so this dead horse can absorb a few more kicks undistracted?
SaparotRob
Unter Gemeine Geschwader Murmeltier XIII
Then we can fix the Buffalo.
I think people are tired of repeating the same things over and over to no avail.
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