My Gibbs 45/70 came in today. I've got Bullets cast, Brass, and all sorts of load data. I can't get into the range because of the snow. I'm all set to get it set up for a feral hog hunt, and I can't do anything. I've cast enough bullets that I'm out of everything but stright lead. I guess I'll go look at catalogs.

Ed Barrett

Ed you might get the throat dimensions-- or extent of which if it has one. Then make some dummy cartridges for OAL's. Process the brass necks up to take bullets...work the primer flash holes...winter is getting otta hand here too.

Is that Gibbs one of the SMLE conversions?

Yes it's a number 4 Mk I from the marking in the side. Fit and finish look very good, not German weatherby grade but very good. The barrel is marked Navy Arms. Can't wait to get to the range with it. I have some 350 and 405 grain bullets all loaded up and set to fly.

Ed,
If you've got any sugar, you can make some lemonade with them lemons. On the other hand, if you've got any tequilla..............

Poncho

Don't worry I've got plenty of salt and triplesec. The scurvy thing is just an excuse. It reminds me of my mis-spent youth in Pakistan, which was part of old British India. The "old India hand" Brits told the story about young men going out to India from England and always buying a case of Quinine water (Tonic water) and when it was time to return to England after 20 years still having a bottle or two left. They would drink "coolers" in the afternoon, these consisted of a tall glass of warm gin with a drop or two of quinine water to keep the malaria off. That warm gin is an acquired taste that I could never acquire. But I have to admit none of those old bastards died of malaria. I think their blood alcohol content was high enough to keep from freezing at -20 degrees.

Ed (waiting for the thaw) Barrett

Ed - in the line of acquired tastes and quinine - my Dad picked up malaria as a teenager. Quinine is both the preventive and the cure. Partly as a result of the medicine he picked up a taste for Moxie. (SOME of you older folks will remember it - it was the FIRST carbonated beverage and contained amoung other things a bit of quinine!) Of course as a kid, I had to do what Dad did and acquired a taste for it too. Warm gin ? Why not?

How does anybody aquire a taste for pine needles?? Good Kentucky bourbon and beer, cold margaritas on hot days sitting beside the pool now thats taste!!

My first and last intro to liquid pine needles came many yrs ago-- methinks on a outing with wife #1..[?].. Anyways, I had maybe a quart of them poured down me and some 6-8 hrs later everything came up.. it even felt like some of my inards made that trip up. LSS-- I weighed 10 pounds less the next morning.

And I was just starting to like the taste...

ohshooter:

"How does anyone acquire a taste for pine needles?"

Try Greek retsina (a very dry white wine, flavored with pine resin. As the story goes, the Greeks stored wine in
skins with the seams sealed with pine tar. The Turkish tax collectors couldn't stand the taste, so they didn't seize it, and the Greeks acquired the taste. Very low sugar = little hangover the next day - and you burp Pine-Sol.)

floodgate

Worked with a guy from Mass. who drank Moxie. Every time I go to the east coast I bring him back a case. He calls it an "Adult beverage". I can't see that it has no alcohol, but you do make the same face after drinking it as you do after cheap whisky. I always thought gin tasted like soapy pine needles, unless you get Bombay Sapphire that makes the best martinis. My wife says the look of it reminds her of 3000 flushes.

DE;
I grew up in Oak Lawn, when it was mostly farms, on a farm with 10,000 laying hens. When I was 12 we moved to Chicago, but I never lost my farmboy ways. Now Oak Lawn is a Suburb of Chicago and I have lived in Missouri for about 30 years, 20 or so down in the Ozarks, (Wright County) and for the last 5 in North Missouri.

About the magazine, if you put three in and one in the chamber it works fine. The info that came with the rifle says no more than three. It will hold 5 but won't feed well.

Good news, the snow is melting and was able to get to the range. Was in the 40's today and supposed to warm up more this week.
Tried some LEE 405 grain hollow base bullets out of stright wheel weights and light loads. With the open sights she was printing 1" to 1 1/2" inches off the bench at 50 yards and a lot bigger off hand. had some unique and 2400 loads. also made some fairly hot loads and some factory loads, found that even with the brass butt plate perceived recoil wasn't bad at all, felt similar to a hot 30-06 220 grain load.
Also put a couple of hundred rounds through a little ruger Mark II pistol I picked up this winter and have not shot yet. I'll try going through the mud again this week to shot up all the 38 spl. I have loaded, 3 coffee cans full of wad cutters.

It's good spring is here.

Ahem... Wasn't it Ambrose Bierce who said that "drinking whiskey gave you all the sensations of swallowing a lighted kerosene lamp."

What part of The State of ill did you live in ( if you want not to answer- it's ok. Some days I'm not too proud of living here either! )

I would also like to know how the rifle feeds rounds out of the magazine. ( Yes, I know- 1 at a time- but I need more than that.)