Who says “stock” can’t be stunning? This is a vintage Korth showcased
by a rayskin portfolio. Let your expectations grow beyond the safe full of
high-cap auto pistols you might have now.
Roy’s wife, Suzi, owns this stunner of a Model 65. She shoots it
and simply enjoys it each and every time she does.
When I learned to SCUBA dive in the middle ’80s, my first “real” dive was in a training pool. Before we went in, the instructor said, “Okay, so once you get over the fact you’re actually breathing underwater, start to think about what’s happening, what you’re doing, how to handle emergencies and actually look around you and appreciate what you see.”
Sure enough, the first five minutes, all I could think about was, “Holy cow, I’m breathing underwater! Hey, look at me, I’m breathing underwater! Look at all those bubbles! Gosh!”
But as time passed, the novelty wore off, and I began to really learn about being a diver. The skills I learned paid off to help me get a slot in our agency’s Harbor Unit, where I became one of our department divers. But the ability to get past that initial astonishment was important.
So why does this matter to us? A shooter’s life journey usually goes along similarly. They shoot a gun for the first time, or buy a first gun, shoot it, then can’t help thinking, “Heck, this is great! What fun! I can’t believe I’m shooting a real gun! This is more fun than I thought. I want to shoot it a whole lot more too!” Remember?
Now comes the important part of the process though. Many people stop there. They have one gun, they shoot it, they repeat, “Gosh, I’m shooting a gun!” but don’t really ever get past that. It’s the same experience simply repeated over and over again. The key is to look down the road and figure out where it might lead. Learn to get better, to reload, learn history, to question ideas and simply to be interested beyond making empty brass.
Get past the polymer and go for it, like this engraved 1911. Even a modest — but still personal gun — helps you to push the envelope on your taste, skills and the sheer fun of shooting.
This is the first Damascus slide 1911 ever built, created by Tussey Custom for
Roy in 1998. It was the March cover gun that year for GUNS Magazine. Keep pushing
yourself to grow, learn and participate in outside-of-the-box thinking. It’s often surprisingly
affordable and always satisfying.
Messing With Boats
The term comes from The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. They’re a great line of books for adults, sneakily masquerading as children’s books. If you keep your mind open, there are life lessons galore. If you don’t know the books, they are about small animals in the woods, but these animals talk and are as sophisticated as anyone you’ll ever meet. Maybe more.
In one part, Mole and Rat are rowing up a river in Rat’s boat. They are chatting about things in general and nautical things in particular, prompting Rat to say:
“Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing — absolutely nothing — half so much worth doing as simply messing around in boats. Simply messing … about in boats — or with boats. In or out of ’em, it doesn’t matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that’s the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don’t; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you’re always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and when you’ve done it there’s always something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you’d much better not.”
To me, Mr. Rat is talking about shooting too. Once you get your feet real and truly wet shooting and decide it’s going to be part of your life, you’ll soon find “messing about” with shooting to be satisfying, enjoyable, sociable and rewarding. The freedom to putter, guess, explore, find limits, discover no limits and learn to hone your tastes can be some of the most gratifying experiences you might have.
The key here, at least to me, is once you’re past the “I’m breathing underwater” stage, is to grow, learn and discover the hidden secrets behind the guns and gear we all love. When you find yourself wishing beyond that first polymer pistol, you’ll know the real journey is beginning. As your tastes broaden, become more sophisticated, and your yearning for knowledge grows, the bars for your expectations will rise accordingly. If you’re always on your tip-toes reaching for the next bar, you’ll find your enthusiasm for all things guns to continue to remain fresh, undeniable and fulfilling.
Just don’t stop at that first single-shot .22 — or plastic pistol. Enjoy them, yes, learn from them, indeed, but never think it stops there — because it doesn’t. When you find yourself eyeing the Bowen Classic Arms website, passing a surprising amount of time clicking on gun photos on the Turnbull Restorations site, or when you find yourself far down the rabbit hole of looking at “Just one more picture of engraved guns” — you’ll know you’re headed in the right direction.
“Working” guns are one thing, but the sublime satisfaction of owning something
like this single action from Bowen Classic Arms ramps the game up!
There comes a time for an all-out swing for the fence project and this
Ted Yost boxed set of gun and tools epitomizes it. Don’t lower your
expectations — strive toward them.
What Is Too Much?
I haven’t found it quite yet. It seems with every custom gun project (“No, really, this is the last one, I promise …”) I find new doors opening, new ideas flooding my dreams. When a satisfying group appears as if by magic on my target, it makes me wonder the how’s and why’s behind it — and if it can be better. That leads me to further exploration with reloading ideas, calls to fellows who know more than I do, talks with barrel makers, wondering why one rifle stock shoots better than another.
The key here is to “keep messing about with boats.” And always — always — continue to aim high with your dreams. Never accept adequate as the final word. And by all means, enjoy!
Categories
A Rifle Story: US Model 1917
This Colt Lightning .50-95 wears British proof marks. Collectors today call
it a “cat gun,” because it was likely intended for lion or tiger hunting.
From the advent of metallic cartridge ammunition unto this day, .50 caliber rifles have won the hearts and minds of American riflemen. A remarkable variety of rifles chambering the huge .50 BMG are floating about nowadays. Likewise, there was no shortage of .50 caliber rifles in the Old West.
Builders
They were built by all the premier rifle manufacturers of the time. For example, the famous Sharps “buffalo rifles” of the 1870s were made for three lengths of .50 caliber cartridges.
Remington only chambered for one .50. However, their factory turned out 900,000 military and sporting No.1 (rolling blocks) by 1877. A significant portion of them were .50-70s so they were likely only second to the U.S. Government in making .50 caliber rifles. Three different .50 cartridges bore the Winchester name between 1878 and the early 1900s, none of which set great sales records.
The U.S. Government got the .50 caliber ball rolling in 1866 with a conversion of leftover Civil War .58 caliber rifle-muskets to shoot a .50 cartridge of 1¾” case length. Military spec loads for the .50 Gov’t were 450-grain bullets over 70 grains black powder — hence the nickname .50-70. The first .50 Gov’t was the Model 1866. It was followed later by Models 1868 and 1870. They were used all over the west.
Sharps Rifle Company grabbed the government’s idea and literally stretched it. Their rifles also chambered the .50-70 but they also developed a .50 with a 2″ case. It went nowhere and is virtually unknown.
The third was a .50 with 2½” case famous today as .50-90 Sharps, although the Sharps factory always loaded it with 100 grains of black powder. Remington had to stick with the .50-1¾” case because the long hammer spurs of their No.1s wouldn’t allow passage of longer cases. Their factory loads came with 400- and 450-grain bullets, both over 70-grain powder charges.
The Murderer’s Row of Old West .50 caliber cartridges. From left:.50
Gov’t (.50-70), Winchester .50-95, Sharps .50-90 (aka .50-100)
and Winchester .50 Express (aka .50-110).
Winchester
Winchester cornered the repeating rifle market early on but had difficulty in coming up with a .50 caliber repeater. In 1878 they gave it a try with their Model 1876. Case length had to be reduced to 1.94″ and bullet weight was only 312 grains. However, the 95-grain powder charge did give it some oomph. In 1887 Winchester gave .50s another try in their strong Model 1886.
Using a 2.40″ case, they were able to fit 110 grains of black powder under 300-grain bullets. The round was called logically .50-110 but it seems rifles for it were caliber stamped .50 Ex (Express). Winchester’s .50 Express made it into the smokeless powder era and wasn’t dropped from Winchester’s catalogs until 1919.
There is no lack of bogus information about Old West fifties. For instance, despite original factory records proving no Sharps rifles were ever chambered for a .50 cartridge with 3¼” case, misinformation about such existing still abounds. Actually Winchester did chamber their single shot (aka “Model 1885 High Wall”) for a .50 with 3¼” case for a short while.
Duke shooting a Uberti/Cimarron Model 1876 .50-95 with black powder handloads.
Short Is Better
There is also the fallacy .50s were long-range cartridges. They weren’t; their bullets were short and wide. Long range bullets were longer and of lesser caliber. Fifty caliber rifles were meant to smack large animals hard! Out west there were bison, elk, grizzly and moose, and there were horse-mounted native warriors of all sorts roaming the west. A .50 caliber hit on a warrior’s horse effectively put him out of the fight.
Interestingly, some Winchester Model 1876 .50-95, Model 1886 .50-110 and even Colt Lightning pump action .50-95’s carry British proof stamps. They were imported to Africa and India for hunting lions and tigers. Collectors today call them “cat guns” and they bring premium prices. The .50 caliber oomph factor in a repeating rifle was important to big cat hunters.
No Speed Demon!
Velocities given by Old West .50 calibers are not impressive compared to the .50 BMG at 2,700 fps. The .50 Gov’t gave about 1,250 fps and Winchester’s .50 Express could break 1,500 fps.
Starting in 1981 I became a Big Fifty shooter and handloader with a modern Shiloh Sharps Model 1874 .50-90. Since then, I’ve gained experience with a few dozen Old West .50s and I’ve shot whitetail deer, mule deer, elk and bison with them. We who appreciate those Old West big bore rifles should give thanks to manufacturers like Shiloh and C. Sharps, and importers such as Cimarron Arms, for making available modern replica Big Fifties!
