Old Lang's Sign?

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A New Year's Toast!

Mom and Dad were married on this date in 1948.  Everyone that came to the wedding had to chain up to get there and back home.  I have one of their wedding presents, and I fired it up today for you all to enjoy.  Their friend Pete Jeffries gave this to them.  He was born in Tennessee, moved to Iowa with his family when he was a young man, and farmed all of his working days except when he served in the Army during World War II.  He liked orange soda, and once drank a guy under the table who bet him he could drink more beer than Pete could soda. If you're going to be famous for something, that's not a bad record.  Pete encouraged me to go to college and get a degree, and I have been thankful to him for many years because of that.  He was a good guy.  You can see His Obit Here.

Here's his toaster:

Happy Anniversary, Mom!

Ruger's Auction To Benefit The Youth Shooting Sports Alliance

Ruger's auction this week is one of the ever-popular .44 Magnum Carbines  This one is the commemorative model marking the end of this carbine model.

This auction is proving the popularity of these little brush guns.  Late Tuesday night it is up to $1500.  Take a look and at least read all about it.  100% of the proceeds will go to benefit the Light Foundation.  This fine little rifle sells mid-day, Wednesday, December 31, 2014.

$1500

A Tale Of Two Tauruses

 Taurus Poly PT-22, and steel-frame PT-22

A couple years ago my Mom bought a Taurus PT-22 Poly pistol at Skunk River Arms near Sigourney, Iowa.  It is a cute little pocket pistol that doesn't weigh twelve ounces.  Dan, the proprietor, warned Mom at the time that she should run a brick through the little gun before she relied on it.  We went back to Washington, she gathered up a pile of .22's, and we found that Dan was right.  The Taurus had regular malfunctions 'till we got to 300, then it started running right.

My brother-in-law wanted a pistol that he could carry in his pocket without interfering in his busy work day, and he settled on a PT-22.  The one he purchased is the steel frame version, and I told him to run rounds through it until it was broken in.  I went with him to the range and stuffed magazines for him.  It ran right from the very beginning.  The only time it failed to work was when we had dud rounds from packs of bulk ammo.  



Encouraged by his success, B-I-L purchased another PT-22, this one is the Poly version.  He brought it down to the farm to break it in over the holidays.  He ran into frustration; I saw deja-vu.  This little gun couldn't go through an entire magazine without stove-piping or mis-feeding.  We persisted.  A little past 300 rounds, it began running right.  The only ammo that causes trouble is Remington Golden Bullets, which don't feed well from a fully stacked magazine.  It runs standard velocity, high speed rounds, and hyper velocity rounds without a hiccup now.

If you are thinking a PT-22, keep our experiences in mind.  The poly version weighs 11.3 ounces; the steel version is about 1/2" longer and weighs an ounce more.  The steel frame version seems to run better out of the box, but of course you should run a brick through either one before you decide to rely on it.  If you get a dud round, you're going to be hurting in an emergency.  The little slide is hard to rack, and this gun does not have an extractor. Duds have to be removed by tipping the barrel up, and coaxing the round out with the tip of a pocket knife or nail file.

Loading the PT-22 is easy.  Insert the loaded mag, drop a .22 LR round into the chamber, and click it shut.

Clean the breech face, feed ramp, and chamber after every shooting session.  A dirty chamber will cause malfs.

Clean the slide face, and the firing pin channel.  Do not use heavy oil on the firing pin. Oil the slide with a good light oil.  B-I-L uses Ballistol on his guns, and they never stutter.  I use PB blaster for cleaning, and Marvel Mystery oil for lube.  Whatever you use, oil the slide on one of these every couple weeks if you plan to carry it.  Oil runs away, and a dry slide is not your friend, especially on a little pocket .22

Tuesday Turbo Boost

Easy, Big Fella!

There have probably been more 1911's hurt by a Dremel than have been helped.  Fight the urge.  When you can see your deburring this easily, you have probably done too much.

Back To The Old Grind? (Clean, Lube, and Shoot a bunch of rounds through your new toy before you start messing around in it. Fight the urge, and talk to a good pistolsmith.)

What Was It Linus Said?

I think it was "Everybody should be issued a banjo when they are born."  I'll second that!

Not My Victrola

Let's wind up the year with one of my Dad's favorite bands; Ben Bernie's Orchestra, playing a well known Roaring Twenties song, Sweet Georgia Brown.  All the way from 1925.

Ralfy's Whisky Of The Year

Visits with Ralfy are always educational and entertaining.  His website is near the bottom of our blog list under Whisky Reviews by Ralfy. 

Weekend Steam

A Brand-New Advance Engine!  This is pretty neat, and it is producing about twice its rated horsepower on the flywheel.  This is a repro of a 6 HP engine, so it would have been rated around 18 HP on the flywheel.  It is putting out around 40 HP on the Prony brake.