Can we have a rain dance in the North Island of New Zealand? we are in the midst of a drought to beat most records, its the dryest Ive ever seen it.
Rain Dance please for Radar.

If I could send you some of the rain we have been getting I happily would mate. I have moss growing in my bloody lawns because of the ground moisture.

Isn't the remnants of one of our cyclones heading your way?
That orta do it.

Nah its only going to give us a slight respite, we need the rain you buggars got up in Queensland over January....except not so heavy or quick.
Our farmers are in deep doo doo's at the moment and its going to be a very uncomfortable winter....

Its embarassing to speak to my relos up north when Im spreading urea on 6" of lush green grass trying not to get stuck in the puddles!!!!
I will do my rain dance for those up north but it might just give us more down here!!!
the west coast of the south is dry too which is just plurry bizzar....

Hey everbody-It's Saint Patty's weekend!Green beer and corned beef with cabbage-don't despair the rain,or health-just eat drinkl and be merry!
And Suz-hope your heart problems come around for you and all gets better.On another note-I've had one of those marlins since the late nineties and have done some "speerminton"with it.You might wanna try shooting the storebought remington 405 grain stuff for "trapdoors" and see how that recoil therapy works before stepping up to the hotter federals or hornadys.the rem stuff is supposedly loaded at the old black powder specs(kindof a big push instead of being kicked by a mule)and I have shot some of the federals and hornadys and was woke up twice in the same day!There are some really tame cowboy loads using "trail boss" powder that don't slap a person around also.Brass is getting expensive-cheapest I have found was $10.50/20 at gunshow from some dealers that i've known for some years-"starline" brand-I believe!Best of luck to you-keep us informed of your new adventures with the "jackhandle"!

Happy St. Patties Day!!!!!

Thanks Trbls I'm going to try and make it to the gun show this weekend, see what I can find. Lookin for some IMR3031 to try, dunno if I wanna spend the money on ready-made ammo. I have dies on the way and a Pachmayr recoil pad and Leupold scope base. Anticipation is driving me to get things done. Yesterday I took the lever off and ground the corners round, spot-blued it and smoothed other areas of wear. For a demo model it did show a surprising amount of wear so I just sort of polished those areas and the track that the ejector spring goes into on the bolt.

The trigger is weird and floppy, it breaks nicely but it needs a spring somewhere to keep it from flopping around. I didn't take that appart. Oiled it up and cleaned the bbl...I need a huge-er jag. The ballard rifling is not what I expected, it seems shallow. I'm used to seeing deep grooves, but I've never seen this type of rifling so I don't know....hope it works..I tried to find a photo example of the rifling but no luck. If anybody's got a photo to share I'd love to see it.

GREEN BEERS ALL AROUND!!!!

happy St Paddys.
woke up to the sound of rain on the roof so I sure hope it has reached our friends up north.
sounds like you are having fun with the new rifle Suz,just have to get it out and do some shooting to answer those nagging questions. look forward to hearing how it goes.

Gun show didn't have any powder, it was a collector's show and they had lots of really cool old guns there. I did pick up some loaded 45-70 that someone had made up (not commercial ammo), there's no crimp and I don't know what the charge is but for $25 it sounded like a good deal. I'll have to wait for my dies, I'm not shooting this stuff till I pull the bullets. One of them has a ding where the crimp should be and needs to be dealt with, haven't checked the rest of them.

Could have spent all day there talking to the old guys and their collections of old guns. Had to sit down tho. Was looking at the original 45-70s those things were huge and heavy, Sharps and some Swedish rolling blocks that were 12.17x42R in original military configuration with really long barrel. Not a bad price on them but they had broken or cracked stocks and lots of pitting (wall hangers I guess).

There was a really big collection of old Remingtons, lots of lever actions and lots of pistols. The old guys were so busy visiting and swapping parts and stories it was fun to watch. There was some really huge old 10ga shotguns you'd need a horse to haul them around, one was lever action and the others were pump action, didn't recognize the names on them, the guy said they were black powder guns.

Lots of reinactment western wear, holsters, ammo belts home made knives and some stuff for the folks that wanted to play Indians too. It's funny what they choose to use, pottery and baskets, kachina dolls and lots of feathered hatchets and beaded deerskin shirts. Not much for weaponry except for knives, or maybe they just throw the pottery? I've seen quite a few trade rifles in my time but not at gun shows, that'd be a prize to have.

ballard vs micro groove
here Suz-maybe this will help.Just confuzed me!

Ballard rifling is what we all know as standard or conventional rifling, whereas microgrove is exactly that...fine grooves.

Ballard rifling has 6 grooves...micrgroove has 12 very fine grooves.

Hey ya Suz...this is what I did to my Win Model 94 because I found the edges of the cocking lever uncomfortably sharp.





The knot is a Single Strand Ringbolt Hitch (I made the short end much longer and put it down the lever under the actual knot, hence the two tails).

Single strand ringbolt hitch

I also made a sling for the rifle today. Not the flashest, but it is very functional. I made it out of vegetable tanned leather, stained it a light red/brown, cut a piece of 6mm EVA padding, covered that with brown pig skin then hand sewed it onto the sling. I made it in two pieces so I can adjust it easily...plus I like the look of a two piece with a buckle. The leather is a bit stiff at the moment, but a few doses of leather dressing will soften things a bit.

Hey Vince the photos don't come up, it says you,ve removed or deleted them.

Should be right now mate.

Man Vinnie I don't know how you got such a great photo of the rifling, I tried but maybe I need better lighting...Great job on the sling! That came out really nice and the wrap on your loop is cool. I just rounded the corners on mine and spot blued it (and it needs more blue). I don't keep my hand in the loop when I cycle the bolt, I grab the bottom of the loop with my hand and cycle it that way. Otherwise it's too hard on my boney fingers. I like the way yours looks, I might just try it.

Here's what I got for rifling photos, the rifling seems so shallow but I guess, from reading TRBLS article, it's supposed to be shallow to help keep the gasses from going forward of the bullet. I think micro groove and ballard rifling do pretty much the same thing, just another way of doing the same. What gets me is, you can't even see the cuts in the cut off end of the bbl.


And just for the fun of it a photo of one of the rounds I bought yesterday. It has a split and a dent. I guess quality control was on a skittles break that time.