Now Colin is looking to outdo himself.  He has taken on a project in which he will build a DOUBLE BARREL 2 bore rifle.  He calls it the “Double Deuce” – and he’s documenting his build on YoutTube. I intend to keep updating this post and adding the videos in order as they come out.  So far he is up to video five, over forty hours of machine time alone.

Mr. Stolzer also has published a book on making muzzle loading locks from materials.  You can preview then order it by clicking here.

Do you lock your doors?  Do you remove the key from the ignition of your car? Do you go to the doctor? Do you have a fire extinguisher? Do you have tools for repairing anything? Do you have health insurance? Do you have car insurance (more than the legally mandatory amount)? Do you have home owner’s insurance?  Do you wear a seat belt? Do you have a pension plan or IRA? Do you have a savings account? Do you own stocks, bonds or mutual funds? If you answered “Yes” to any of the above then do you really trust God?

I’ve had the “if you really trusted God then you wouldn’t even own a gun, much less carry one” conversation before.  Yet the people who make the statement usually have various kinds of insurance, lock their doors, take the ignition key out of the car, have an alarm installed on their car and in their home, go to the doctor, take prescription medications, own stocks, bonds, mutual funds, IRA’s and have a savings account.  Somehow they don’t see the parallels between those areas of life and their personal security when it comes to “trusting God”. The same case of “you don’t really trust in God” can easily be made in each of the areas mentioned above – if you truly believe that God does not expect us to do what we can for ourselves and others.  But if you believe that God calls us to do what we can for ourselves and to lend a hand to those in need then you should also have no problems understanding that trust in God is about doing our part and leaving the unknown future in His most capable hands.

I don’t carry two extinguishers in the car because they are required by law or because I do not trust God to protect me and my vehicle from fire.  I carry two, both larger than the one minimum sized one required by law, because if a fire DOES break out one may not be enough and it is better to have left over capability than it is to run out in the middle of putting out a fire.  And yes, I have been called on to use one to help out someone else – who did not even have the minimum required by law here. Likewise, I do not carry a reasonably well stocked first aid kit because I’m hoping someone will gash themselves.  It is carried because sometimes folks DO need some serious patching up before they are transported to a hospital.

I believe God works through people, not just by “miracles”. Sometimes the “miracle” is that a prepared individual “just happens” to be where they need to be in order to help someone in need.  Like the guy who had his arm ripped off by an alligator while snorkelling in a lake.  He “just happened” to crawl out of the lake next to where a bunch of emergency medical personnel “just happened” to be having a picnic.  They “just happened” to have what was needed to stabilize him before the emergency services reached the area and transported him to the hospital.

Being armed does not mean that one is “looking for a fight” or “wants to kill someone” or “is taking revenge” or is “exercising the government’s duty of bearing the sword for punishment”.  Defense of self and others is not revenge.  Defense of self and others is not taking over the government’s job. Being armed and capable of defending one’s self and others is no more looking for a fight and the opportunity to kill someone than having an extinguisher in the car is the same as looking for a fire to break out.

Some, of course, will still “not get it”.  That is to be expected.  Some people are conditioned to trust in government even more than they do in God.  They expect “someone” from the government to magically show up at the precise time of need.  In the US, the average response time for emergency personnel to arrive on the scene is around 10 minutes – AFTER the call is made.  That is far longer than is needed for grave bodily harm to be done to an innocent person, especially since most calls are made AFTER the crime is committed. An armed response by a “mere civilian” is sometimes all that stands between a bad situation and a worse one.  My friend, Charl van Wyck, and his Rossi 38 spl snub nosed revolver were all that stood between heavily armed assailants and hundreds of defenseless people. His willingness to put himself in danger kept the Saint James Massacre from being much worse than the horrible incident that it was. Some will, of course, maintain that he should NOT have had that five shot revolver in the church building in the first place.  Some claim that his actions were “revenge”. Some claim that he should have just “stood there like a good Christian” and let them kill him and the others present at the time. But the fact remains that he was armed, he was trained and he was able to do what he could to keep the situation from becoming worse – because he trusted in God yet did his part to protect innocent lives. “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” – Edmund Burke

James wrote, “But someone will say,”You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith from my works.” Trusting in God is not about sitting there with your arms crossed expecting Him to do everything for you.  It is about doing your part and trusting in Him to bless what you have done and to fill in the gaps where you were unable to do anything.

I hauled my pack up by parachute cord and got ready for the long night. I placed my spare shells in the loops of my vest and checked the old H&R single shot 28 gauge shotgun before slipping the full brass black powder shell with a load of 3T shot into the hand cut chamber.  The Ruger MKII with the long tapered barrel was examined, loaded and slipped back into its place.  The quarry sought was deer and I didn’t trust my aim enough with the Ruger to risk using it.  It would be called on for small game only, smaller even than the tiny deer typical of this region.

With a flapping and squawking the tree filled with pemba.  The gamecock size birds went about their business of feeding, paying no attention to the motionless figure in the cloth sling.  They moved on to roost and calm returned to the berry tree.

Darkness came and with it came countless unnamed noises in the dark. The scurrying and rustling of tiny feet was easily heard as the rats, possums and other small creatures went about enjoying the succulent repast of fermented fruit under the tree. Occasionally a louder noise would provoke a blinding flash from my flashlight and the activities below would barely slow as I sought the source of what surely would prove to be at least a cutía or paca if not a deer.  Time after time I was greeted with the sight of some little rodent under a great pile of leaves, busily seeking out some morsel.

The night grew colder and the blanket was drawn tight.  A breeze moved the branches and wafted my scent through the trees, this was not good for not only did the breeze seem to penetrate to my bones, it had the effect of sending a warning to my quarry.

The cold grew unbearable as the southern winter night drew to a close and then came the faint tinge of light in the east, announcing the coming heat.  As the light grew more perceptible the pemba returned, squawking and flapping, to fill their crops with the morning meal.  The Ruger spoke twice before the pemba moved on to find a quieter meal, leaving two of their number to provide my own meal. As I climbed down from my perch to await my companions I reflected on the passing of this way of life.  The sertanejo’s life has never been easy. Now, with the vast acreages of virgin jungle being cleared to make way for vast plantations of rice, corn and soy, the game was disappearing and their simple way of life was threatened.

Those were simple days, simple times.  The people met in the vast southern regions in the state of Maranhão are sorely missed.  There is nothing that compares to their simple cuisine and carefree lives.  They are poor, most only having one set of clothes and only the bare necessities of life.  When they pack up to move on, their earthly possessions will usually only occupy the back of a donkey, perhaps two. But they are very hospitable and friendly, freely sharing what little they have.  Their diet usually consists of short grain rice, farinha (ground up manioc root which has been roasted until dry) and beans.  It is a diet short on vitamins, proteins and fats.  A typical breakfast consists of strong, sweet coffee (often sweetened by locally produced brown brick sugar) and “cuis cuis” – a steamed loaf of ground rice or corn, and, if the hunters have been successful, a bit of fried meat to go with it.  Meat and fat is craved by all and fruits as well.  When the oranges are in season they barely have a chance to turn slightly yellow before getting knocked down and eaten.

That is why the people hunt as they do.  There is no talk of sport, they hunt for lunch or supper or breakfast and returning home empty handed usually means white rice again with nothing to fill in the nutritional imbalance.  So they take to the trees at night with flashlights and carefully hoarded batteries to await what ever chance may bring their way.

Most houses have at least one firearm of some kind.  The “por fora” is very frequently found in various persuasions.  This is the typical Brazilian muzzle loader.  A typical one will have a paper thin barrel made even thinner by mistaken neglect.  The people believe that a muzzleloader or shotgun becomes deadlier as it builds up “veneno” (poison) in its barrel over time.  What actually occurs is that the barrel grows thinner and thinner and eventually will burst as the rust eats away at the already thin walls.  A typical “por fora” will have around a .40 caliber smooth bore barrel made of some kind of iron curtain rod type material.  The breach area will be wound with a layer or two of iron wire by way of reinforcement.  The nipple will be set in a bolster welded to the side of the barrel and the lock will not have a functional half cock.  A variation on the theme is the “rabo de macaco” or “Monkey’s Tail” muzzle loader.  In this variation the nipple is of the “inline” persuasion and the striker is directly behind the barrel. The typical load is a .38 spl case full of FFFg powder or possibly only a .32 SWL case full.  A wad of jute or other fiber is pounded over the powder with the iron ramrod and a few pieces of 3T or smaller shot will be loaded on top, followed by another wad of fiber.  When things work as they should, the por fora can be deadly out to 20 yards or so.  After that it scatters too badly to be effective.

It is not uncommon to find a variety of shotguns in the homes in the area.  The .410 and the .28 guage are probably the most common, but one can find all the gauges if time is given to search and to talk with folks.  The 9.1 mm, 36 (.410), 32, 28, 24, 20, 16 and 12 gauges can all be found.  Brazilian law forbids anything in a “magnum” gauge or caliber but I’ve seen 12 gauge 3″ magnums in the hands of some of the more well to do.  Full length brass shells with berdan primers and black powder are by far the most common fodder for the shotgun in northern Brazil.  Some of the smokeless powders are beginning to take root and find a following.  Tupan is one of the early powders to begin replacing black powder.  It got a bad rap because it split shells and had to be packed tight.  If there wasn’t enough compression it would not burn properly.  As a teenager I learned to load with this powder.  It was in a 32 gauge Boito that belonged to an american rancher.  He’d leave it with me while he was in the US earning money to keep the ranch going.  I’d use a mallet and dowels to pack the wad over the powder, keeping the primer from contacting anything by holding it in a special base.  The split shell problem was only in older guns with rusted, enlarged chambers.  I’ve seen a sertanejo shooting a shotgun that headspaced on string wrapped around the base of the shell.  This was because the chamber had eroded away from years of neglect.  It did OK with black powder, but the newfangled powders built up to much pressure and split the shells, or worse.

The 22 LR was the most common of the rifles.  It is used to hunt everything on the south american continent.  They will use it for everything from doves to mountain lions and jaguars.  The CBC single shot is fairly common as are the CBC bolt actions.  I’ve even seen Belgian “half automatic” rifles and others types brought in from the US and Europe. Some of the finest were brought in by priests or protestant missionaries.  The 22 is well regarded and often misused.  Some of the hunters will shoot a deer from over 100 yards away and then have to track it with hounds.

There is also a good quantity of model ’73 and ’92 Winchesters, mostly in 44-40.  These are left over from the rubber days.  The rubber workers demanded the best weapons available for protection from (and aggression against) the Indians.  I saw one 38-40 round during my time there and 32-20 ammo was available, but the 44-40 was king of the centerfire rifles.  I saw numerous examples of Winchesters in that caliber but never saw a 38-40 and only a few single shot CBC 32-20′s.

A good revolver was sought by many and the S&W was king.  The old Military and Police was very common and many an old timer refuses to give up his “smeetchy”.  Almost invariably the S&W was in .38 spl. Colts were not unheard of, they were known as the “cavalinho” or “little horse” revolver, but I never personally handled one.  Most folks carried them for protection against two legged varmints or because they WERE two legged varmints.  Few people used them for hunting, I was regarded as a rich man because I used my Rossi .38 so much.  With shells costing US$2 a piece, no wonder folks didn’t shoot them much.  I’d carried loading supplies in and so could shoot my .38 cheaper than a .22.  I paid for my loading setup by selling shells to folks.  I’d take six empties for one loaded round, not a bad profit, or sell ammo for half the store price if they supplied the brass.  The berdan primers would be drilled out and replaced with boxer primers and loaded with a light load of powder.  Some of the brass was balloon head and also received light loads.  My ammo was more accurate than that sold by CBC and I even sold 400 rounds to the police one time.  Once I learned more about Brazil’s laws I ceased selling reloaded ammo and only used it for my own shooting.  They finally allowed reloading, but not the sale of reloaded ammo.  I even replaced my supply of primers via mail order.  Powder was the “Especial de Caça“, a smokeless shotgun powder.  This I’d load under a hard cast WC or SWC HP.  The hollow points were cast from Lee’s 150 grain HP mold, the wadcutters were from a Lyman mold a friend swapped to me.

I learned to make do with about anything.  A friend showed up with a “broom handle” Mauser and some dud shells.  I pulled the bullets, drilled out the berdan primer, seated a fresh boxer primer, dumped in a load of Bullseye and pushed the bullets back in.  After firing twice the cases were too loose to hold the bullets, but making do allowed the old gun to speak once more after a half century of silence.  It had the original wood shoulder stock/holster and was in fairly good condition, but I never could convince them to let me have it.

One of my favorite places to hang out was at an old blacksmith’s place.  I’d sit in his shop and talk all day with him about guns.  He was self taught and could build about anything you needed to repair a gun, from scratch.   The only parts he couldn’t make were rifled barrels and revolver cylinders. His drill was home made as were many of his tools. Welding was done in the forge.  Empty 22 shells served to braze with and if he didn’t like you he wouldn’t do the job.  If he DID like you it still might take six months or longer because he couldn’t talk and work at the same time. What a character!  He learned the hard way not to double charge .22 shells.  Once he’d taken a dud shell apart and dumped the powder into a fresh shell he’d taken apart,  pushed the bullet back in on top of the double charge.  He then proceeded to fire it in a Belgian half automatic rifle he owned at the time.  The bolt cracked in two and the bullet buried itself so deep in a mango tree that he never was able to dig it out.   That was when he learned a) not to double charge .22 shells and b) how to weld a bolt back together again.  He later traded that rifle off.  I saw one like it, chambered originally for the .22 short.  It would eject the case when you fired it and keep the bolt open so you could load another round.  It was a single shot.  For some reason you could load it with .22 LR shells and it worked fine.

The sertanejo is typically a fine person.  Their ways are different from ours and I learned a lot from them.  They are very pragmatic when it comes to hunting, sport has nothing to do with it.  What ever it takes to get the dinner pot filled is fine with them.  Unfortunately the habitat is shrinking and the hunting pressure is too heavy for the declining population of game animals.  I gave up hunting because I didn’t need to hunt to survive.  We lived on goats which took care of our protein needs and I even helped others get into raising goats as well.  But I regret that I never did get one of the elusive deer while hunting from a hammock.

The article above was written several years ago, in 2000, while I was recovering from dengue fever in Barranquilla.  It was originally published on the old sixgunner.com website, was reposted on the Sixshooter Community and FiveShot.org sites and is now here (with a few edits for clarity, spelling and proper usage) for future reference as well.  I’d forgotten about this little piece, but the memories are pleasant and I enjoyed taking this trip down memory lane…

Click the image to view a larger version and then use the “Back” button in your browser to return to this page.

I don’t carry a gun to kill people.
I carry a gun to keep from being killed.

I don’t carry a gun to scare people.
I carry a gun because sometimes this world can be a scary place.

I don’t carry a gun because I’m paranoid.
I carry a gun because there are real threats in the world.

I don’t carry a gun because I’m evil.
I carry a gun because I have lived long enough to see the evil in the world.

I don’t carry a gun because I hate the government.
I carry a gun because I understand the limitations of government.

I don’t carry a gun because I’m angry.
I carry a gun so that I don’t have to spend the rest of my life hating myself for failing to be prepared.

I don’t carry a gun because I want to shoot someone.
I carry a gun because I want to die at a ripe old age in my bed, and not on a sidewalk somewhere tomorrow afternoon.

I don’t carry a gun because I’m a cowboy.
I carry a gun because, when I die and go to heaven, I want to be a cowboy.

I don’t carry a gun to make me feel like a man.
I carry a gun because men know how to take care of themselves and the ones they love.

I don’t carry a gun because I feel inadequate.
I carry a gun because unarmed and facing three armed thugs, I am inadequate.

I don’t carry a gun because I love it.
I carry a gun because I love life and the people who make it meaningful to me.

Police protection is an oxymoron.
Free citizens must protect themselves.
Police do not protect you from crime, they usually just investigate the crime after it happens and then call someone in to clean up the mess.

Personally, I carry a gun because I’m too young to die and too old to
take a whoopin’

Author Unknown (One of the world’s most prolific writers)

• You could not purchase a long vehicle until you were at least 18.  In some states you would only be able to purchase ANY vehicle after your 21st birthday.
• You could only obtain a short vehicle after your 21st birthday.
• The military would train young folks to use vehicles that they would not be allowed to use in civilian life.
• The military would send young people overseas to use vehicles they were prohibited to own at home.
• In some states you would be subject to up to a fifteen day waiting period between time of purchase and the day you could take your vehicle home.
• In some states you would only be able to purchase one vehicle per month.
• In some states you would not be able to obtain military style vehicles – even if the military features were only cosmetic, not functional.
• Automatic vehicles would be subject to a federal tax, extensive background check of the purchaser and you would have to advise the proper authorities prior to transporting them over state lines.
• Automatic vehicles would be illegal to own in many states.
• Mufflers for your vehicle would be illegal in many states.
• Mufflers for your vehicle would be subject to a federal tax, extensive background check of the purchaser and individual serial numbering.
• Possessing a vehicle fitted so that a muffler could be installed would be prohibited in many areas – even if you did not possess a muffler for the vehicle.
• A Federal Bureau of Automobiles would be able to drop in and examine manufacturer and dealer records and could arbitrarily shut down the dealer or manufacturer for any violation (intentional or unintentional) of the federal or local vehicle paperwork requirements.
• In order to be a vehicle dealer (buying and selling any number of vehicles for profit would constitute being a dealer) you would have to apply for a Federal Vehicle Dealer License.
• Congress would constantly be seeking ways to “shut the car show loophole” to prevent Mexican drug cartels from obtaining vehicles on the black market.
• Every time a vehicle was used to commit a crime the Brady Campaign To End Vehicle Violence would call on congress to enact further restrictions on law-abiding vehicle owners.
• Each and every vehicle would have to be accounted for through every step of manufacturing and a federal excise tax would be collected from manufacturers of vehicles and fuel.
• Manufacturing a vehicle without the special vehicle manufacturer license would be a felony.
• Modifying a vehicle from manual to automatic would be a felony.
• Possessing the parts necessary for modifying a vehicle to automatic would be a felony – even if no modification to the vehicles in possession had been done.
• People would be scandalized to find out that you owned an automatic vehicle – even if all the paperwork, taxes, fees and such were in order.
• Preachers would speak from the pulpit about the evils of vehicles and condemn anyone who owned one as a “violent criminal” – no matter how peaceful the person might be and no matter that the vehicle in question had never been used in a crime.

First Shot

The load was 68 grains of FFFg (because that’s what three INDUMIL 38 spl cases full weighs), a tallow greased cotton patch and a Lyman .440 diameter lead ball.  I played around with some cap gun caps, but ignition was iffy.  If I primed the nipple with a few granules of FFFG then the caps would fire the load. Otherwise it was iffy.  Somehow or other I had a few CCI caps as well, and they were more sure fire.

Firing was done off hand for the most part, two shots taken from sitting. Considering I’ve not done any shooting in a while and the load was completely improvised I don’t thing it turned out too bad.  One shot was fired by the club president who happened to drop by.  He saw my group and decided to try and center the bullseye.  His kentucky windage was off a bit.   One of these days I need to head back up there with a file and a drift punch and try to get on the target out at 50 meters.  But all in all it was a good day at the range.

First Group

Oh, and the neighbors dropped by.  There’s some folks building a place up behind the gun club.  Their son loves firearms – but had never had a chance to fire one.  He’s only 7 years old.  So I gave them the good ol’ safety lecture and let him try the pellet pistol and the kids’ sized pellet rifle.  Once they get their place built I suspect I’ll have occasional visits with the lil’ guy when I’m up there.  The picture shows him pointing to his second shot – which nearly centered the bullseye.

Proud Kid

]]> http://paulmoreland.com/2010/03/23/firing-the-kentucky/feed/ 0 http://paulmoreland.com/2010/02/14/the-volcanic-or-building-a-gun-from-scratch/ http://paulmoreland.com/2010/02/14/the-volcanic-or-building-a-gun-from-scratch/#comments Sun, 14 Feb 2010 17:07:32 +0000 paul http://paulmoreland.com/?p=269 I’ve been a member and a moderator of Paco Kelly’s leverguns.com forum since it was started several years ago.  It’s a great place to hang out when time allows and is populated by some of the finest folks on the internet.

Recently a fellow started posting there.  He goes by the name Charlie and builds guns for a hobby.  Now, a lot of folks do that anymore.  They’ll order up a bunch of parts from Brownells or Midway or one of a number of other places and put them together.  Some of the guns so produced are fairly easy to do.  Put everything in the right place and PRESTO! You’ve got a functional firearm.  Others are more demanding, requiring some filing or stoning of parts to get them to fit and function properly.  But all these have one thing in common – they rely on mass produced factory parts.  Not that I’m trying to take anything away from the folks who build a gun this way, not at all. I’m in the process of building up a Kentucky rifle from a poorly built kit that was given to me a couple years back.  It takes time and effort to get it right.

But Charlie does something a bit different.  He builds his guns from scratch – and makes his own scratch.  The rifle that is the subject of this little piece is his rendering of an old design.  The Volcanic was a weapon made by Smith and Wesson before they became Smith & Wesson. It was a lever action design that fired a “rocket ball” which was basically a hollow based lead bullet with a charge of powder and a primer in it. The ballistics left a lot to be desired but the design gradually evolved to become the Henry, then the Winchester ’66, the Winchester 73 and eventually the Winchester ’76.  The main problem with building a Volcanic today lays with the need to use an available cartridge.  The original design makes it impossible to chamber this rifle for anything much longer than a 22 short cartridge, although there’s enough room for the 41 rimfire.  So Charlie designed his own cartridge around the 40 S&W – by trimming it down, reaming it out and loading it with a pinch of powder.  My friend Hobie did a blog post on the building process of the Volcanic.

What I find interesting in this entire process is that Charlie basically came up with the idea, made some calculations, did some drawings and went to work.  The quality of his work has to be seen to be understood.  He is a careful craftsman who is very painstaking in his efforts.  AND – if he can build something like this, what could NOT be built?  All the efforts of the gun banning crowd are useless as long as people have the creativity and ability to design and build machines or tools according to their desire and inclination.  Many folks forget our past.  Bill Ruger started out designing a machine gun.  Can you imagine the trouble he would be in today for building such a tool in his garage or basement? J.M. Browning was constantly experimenting.  One time he even converted a Winchester leveraction to full automatic fire. Again, if you do that today you will be in a world of hurt if the authorities find out.  BUT IT IS STILL DOABLE. With the wide availability of machine tools in the US and the world as well as the skilled craftsmen who use them, it is impossible to prevent people from building any firearm they so desire.

So, what to do about violence and crime?  They do not stem from the availability of firearms.  They stem from a mindset that views others as less than one is and the desire of obtaining that which another worked for with as little effort as possible and the decision to impose one’s will upon others by violent means.  These things were going on LONG before the advent of firearms – and if by some miracle all firearms were to be destroyed overnight the violence and crime would continue because it stems from the heart, not the tools available.

In my library I have a few books that detail the building of firearms in primitive settings.  One is a Firefox book that shows how early settlers would smelt iron and then work it into usable form on the anvil and make some of the most beautiful and elegant firearms ever, the Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Kentucky “Mountain Rifles” or “Long Rifles”. Charlie holds my respect for building such an intricate design as the Volcanic.  And I extend to him my gratitude for sharing with us the process he followed.

Recently someone left a knife at our place.  It was in horrid condition and showed signs of abuse.  Since the same folks also caused stuff of our to no longer appear it wasn’t hard to convince myself to give the old abused cutlery a new lease on life.  So below is a photo essay on the process. Essentially it went kind of like this.  First, remove hollow plastic handle thingy.  Not too hard since one of the rivets was actually a melted lollipop stick. Then use a grinder to reshape the blade and angle the cutting edge. Use an orbital sander with coarse paper to give it a “matte” finish and then add a multilayered nylon rope/string/epoxy glue handle and sharpen the blade on a whet stone.  The abuse is still evident on one side of the blade, but it’s much more useful now. And then I finished it up by dipping the wrapped handle into liquid rubber to seal it from water and to give it a better non-slip grip surface.

The tools I used were basic.  The skill level low.  All I had to do was remember to keep the steel cool so that it would not lose its temper.  It would be a matter of maybe two minutes to reshape one of those “stab proof” knives into something that could easily be used to stab.  What the presumably well intentioned folks who invented that knife don’t seem to understand, it’s not the tool – it’s the person who uses it.  And if one is intent on going around stabbing folks, nothing will stop them from obtaining or manufacturing the tool necessary for such activities.  The weapon does not cause one to use it inappropriately. Inappropriate behavior comes from inappropriate thought patterns and belief systems.

You can click on the images below for a larger version of them, then use your browser’s “Back” button to return to this page.

Now, to many, pellet guns are “short range” affairs – unable to do anything past the regulation 10 meters used in Olympic competition. But since I was raised far from such things with a Daisy 880 in my hand I didn’t get the news. We hunted with our Daisys, taking small game out to fairly long distances (for a smootbore pellet “rifle”). In fact, my standard reactive target was a small vienna sausage can on a stick at about 20 meters or so. And it got riddled with BB’s quite regularly. Pellets offered both extended range and better penetration on the pests and game that we hunted. Now, with the CFX, I have a pellet gun that is capable of taking game out past 50 meters – as long as I do my part. And the IZH 46M is also capable of taking game out past 30 – if I can hit it. And that was the problem. Patterns rather than groups – and much larger than I hoped to see. Initial “long range” shooting of the pistol showed that it wasn’t giving me better than 8 ring accuracy at 25 meters – using a standard 25 meter slow fire centerfire target.

So today I managed to get up to the range and took a brand new .17 caliber brush and rod with me as well as a new brass jag and some JB’s nonembedding bore cleaning paste. First order of business was to give the barrel a good cleaning. Between the brush with some Hoppes spray cleaner and the jag with tight patches covered with JB’s paste I got a lot of black stuff out. Then I started fiddling with the sights. It seemed to be hitting high and to the left so first I took it 10 clicks right – seemed to have the right windage so 5 clicks down. Then another five, then another two. In between this I was shooting 5 to 10 pellets to check for some general grouping which would indicate where the sights were actually pointing. Once I got it to grouping in the 10 ring I moved to a fresh target. First I cleaned the barrel again finishing with a quick swipe with a patch oiled with “Paul’s Special Gun Lube And AntiOxidant”. Then I took a shot at a hanging bottle to push any excess lube out of the way and then fired 25 rounds of RWS Club pellets on target “for record” so to speak. A look through the spotting scope was followed by a walk down range to take a closer look and a picture.

Not too shabby! This was a DEFINITE improvement over the 8 ring patterns I was getting before. As you can see, most of the pellets are in the 10 ring with a good number in the “X” ring. I followed it up with another 25 rounds shot off hand at another target. (the target above was shot from a sitting position with the pistol rested on my off hand which was resting on my knee). A look through the spotting scope indicated that the shooter definitely needs tightened up. The pistol does fine, as evidenced above, but shooting off hand I had about 8 or so shots in the 9 ring.

Well success, of sorts, was mine. A pistol capable of holding the 10 ring at 25 meters. But, is it repeatable? What if I run out of RWS pellets? A tin of Gamo Match wadcutters was also in the case so I cleaned the pistol again (much less fouling than before) and shot another 25 rounds.

Now we’re talking! This time the group was mostly in the X ring, not just the 10 ring! I can’t account for the fliers at 8 o’clock and 12 o’clock, the sights seemed solid each shot with as uniform a trigger squeeze as I could manage. Perhaps deformed pellets? I’m not sure – but with the majority in the X ring I figure that if I carefully sort the Gamo Match pellets to eliminate deformed skirts and perhaps to sort for weight that this little popper should be capable of holding the X ring consistently. Now if only I can learn to shoot up to the gun. With a gun this accurate it’s just a matter of time and effort as misses are clearly either my fault or due to faulty ammo.