Back in the day I had really good eyes. Now they are corrected for distance to drive and the last time I went to the eye doctor he wanted to prescribe bi-focal lenses. Sigh. I refused them and got the glasses for legally operating a motor vehicle only.
As that was some years ago, I now find myself when doing "stuff" needing some magnification and all the light I can gather in the universe!
The bench is easy.
Big goosenecked magnifier and attached two tube fluorescent fixture. If I need more I have a three way lamp to the right of this.
On the reloading press I recently installed some clever LED lighting.
This LED kit on the Hornady press (I know, I know, I HAD to be different, right) is the only light in the room with no flash for the picture. It made a huge difference!
Next up for you? A review of the DeSantis Superfly holster for a S&W Bodyguard with a 5.11 concealment shirt.
On Sunday this little Blog turned 3. To those I have met IRL, talked to on the phone, and emailed back and forth because of this media, thanks for stopping by.
There are so many that I cannot name them all. I am humbled that you stop by. Jennifer calls it the electronic tribe. I agree with that!
Thanks. I feel like a middle schooler trying to hang out with the cool kids! Your friendship means much and I still intend to meet in person if possible people that come by here.
Oh, if anyone has any clue as to what the little handgun in the middle is, I'll take that as a bonus!
So after lamenting the state of affairs on something as trivial as concurs correct wiper arms yesterday I take a road trip north. To the only place on the planet allowed to have pictures of me looking like this hanging around.
There was a method in my madness. I seemed to remember oh, 25+ years ago buying more than the required two blades to restore the 1966 Mustang. Lucky for me they have not been moved in the basement and I went right to them.
Ding, ding, ding! I could probably ebay these puppies (4) for a handsome price for the trailer queen show car people. I will not. Oh, I had a wonderful supper too to boot!
In my last post I asked about the function of a mystery tool. A first time commenter John got it right. The reason I whipped it out was because the wiper arms on the 1966 Mustang were less than presentable.
No matter what I did, I could not remove the rust. So after removal I awaited the replacements. Then sadness. Here is the sticker for the arm.
Um. yeah "more correct". Sorta like "somewhat pregnant". Best I could get without spending a boat load of money on NOS stuff.
I'm sorry. This is correct.
This is not.
So, I will put the new arm and wiper assemblies on the '66. I always watched the people at car shows pushing the cars out of trailers and they were perfect. Too perfect. Bless them, but I always enjoyed scraping the bugs off the windshield after driving 100 miles or so to get to the show.
I have become more interested in function rather than "correct" or "pretty" in many areas of my life but it is hard to accept less than perfect in these matters just because it had to be so oh, way back when.
For years I have run a Kitchen Aid Coffee maker. My old one throws out an error code and dies last year after many years of service. After a bit of time with the replacement I have come to some conclusions. I must have gotten the box that did not have the sticker on it that said "Be the life of the party, unit equipped with dribble carafe".
I don't know how many paper towels I used to clean up after this hot mess of a coffee maker. Getting the "CLEAN" indicator off of the screen was just as problematic. I had well enough and searched for a replacement. I came up with this.
It is sitting next to a old burr Kitchen Aid grinder. The grinder is awesome. How sad that Kitchen Aid is crap now.
What were the selling points for the new coffee maker? A momentary toggle and rotary switches for all of the important stuff. A LCD clock that did not light up and overwhelm. How many clocks do you need in the kitchen anyway? The range, microwave, and alarm keypad all have them.
Now back to some other tasks. Can anyone guess what this tool does?
Give ya a hint. It will be used to put something in this pile of stuff on a 1966 Mustang.
To make it more difficult the pile of stuff contains parts for a '66, 71, '94, and 2013 Mustang.
Sorry for the delay I had to make a quick trip after classes this weekend.
No not really. My company celebrated 25 years of partnership with our Japanese parent company today. So today I had a Yukata for wear. Great food and some amazing activities. Congrats to my new shooters and CCH graduates this weekend!
Is it February already? Time again for new shooter and concealed carry classes this weekend. So it looks like this so far.
Little things matter to people that are new to the community. Perceptions are reality to some. Presenting a professional appearance counts. If you come off as some yahoo in appearance or demeanor you are doing a disservice to the legal gun owning community.
Next? The good, the bad, and the ugly.
A chance to show students that although the handguns look about the same and shoot the same caliber rounds, they are totally different in the way they operate and shoot.
So tomorrow I wander off to teach new shooters. I am honored and humbled to do so. Being an Ambassador and instructor carries profound responsibilities in my opinion. I only have one chance to get this right. I am not as vocal in this space as many are on rights and such (in fact here I fear I would be preaching to the church). I like to think I am just as effective in my efforts however.
So breakfast looks like this.
Classes are beyond capacity for tomorrow and so we opened up the second classroom and a principal of the range will pick up the overflow.
Wish us luck tomorrow. Sunday promises to be interesting. I have a full CCH class. We also have a fundraiser going on. We are as Jennifer points out some awesome people.
I know at the end of this I will probably fall back to this on Monday.
My friend and shooting buddy Old NFO scored an M1 Carbine sometime ago. I owe him some ammo as I shot some of his toys last time I was up in Banjo Country.
The White Truck of happiness brought this to my other friend Mr. Curmudgeon last week.
From the CMP. Lake City stuff for the Carbine. I'll bring you 150 rounds, but you have to let me shoot it! I just might bring mine as well for a reunion!
I think that Murphy's Law and Old NFO got me started in the right direction on this revolver. Whoops! I forgot Tam. Sorry about that!
After a night of soaking in it I was not pleased. So a quote came into my head. Isaid I would not disassemble it. Then today this: "Psychotic... but absolutely right. We gotta take these bastards. Now we
could do it with conventional weapons, but that could take years and
cost millions of lives. No, I think we have to go all out. I think that
this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be
done on somebody's part!" NSFW youtube:
That would be me of course! So we get to it.
For the first time ever this book actually has some useful info:
It says that the barrel and cylinder can be removed by using finger pressure to remove the wedge from right to left. That worked and I was rewarded with this.
Barrel is 6" in length. It is a five shot. Breech end measures out at 0.374" and the muzzle at 0.376". Top of the barrel is engraved with "Address Col. Sa*** (unreadable) COLT NEW-YORK US AMERICA".
Serial # on butt plate of 4320.
Serial # the same on the front of the trigger guard and the frame:
Then it gets interesting. The serial number of the base pin (Arbor) does not match.
Here is the right side showing the loading gate.
Left side of triggerguard:
Barrel looks pretty good:
A bad shot of the cylinder.
It shows a stagecoach robbery and the defender of it on the right hand side of this picture. You can see the wheels of the coach and sadly very little else. In fact if I was not steered to the Colt 1862 Police I would not have figured that out.
The Standard Catalog of Firearms states that the Model 1862 Police and Navy Conversions were mostly found with the stagecoach holdup scene. I still don't know what it is but I don't think it is a reproduction. Anybody got any ideas from here?
At the end of the day I must say this. Whatever this revolver is, what its provenance may be it pales in comparison to what it really is. To a dear friend this cold metal and wood is a connection to her Father. Monetarily it may be worth nothing. To her however it connects generations and a tangible reminder to her of her Father. I have spent most of the weekend on it. I will never get rich attending to such things. It is a labor of love. I enjoyed doing it. For now it will sit in the safe until I can deliver it to her. For now though I have this photo.
On behalf of my friend as much as I, thanks for all of the help on this Revolver friends! It means much to me.
Tonight I visit some dear friends that have just downsized the house and the wife just came back yesterday attending to the passing of her Father.
So I wandered about the network wiring, the TV setup, and all of that. I have to go back to complete those tasks. I was presented with this:
It was her Fathers. Its a Colt Single Action and locks up tight and a trigger that breaks like glass. Some light surface rust but oh, what a beautiful revolver!
So it has on the Cylinder "Colt patent #320". Very little else visible without a disassemble.
I have no idea where to go from here except determining the caliber and a more detailed examination. I will get it here for a light run through with Break Free and present back to them and more detailed pics.
So tonight I ask my friends, what is it? What do Ineed to do to at least get enough info for the Colt Historian letter?
