Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire 2013 Quemado Campfire

not to mention cooking...

Minor correction, that's Brian shooting my High Wall .45-90. It was nice that a few people got to shoot it.

Have been quite reluctant to get into this issue on this thread for a number of reasons, but your question and comments seem to have taken it in a misleading direction. Misleading cannot be let stand in a serious circumstance. The big deal? -- your stated scenario is NOT what occurred.

That trigger was never touched once the pin was cocked - neither before nor after the safety was engaged. The involved shooter rarely, if ever, engages the safety on any rifle. His setup and concentration at the bench were interrupted by a self-appointed "helper" (unwanted) who walked in and got right down behind the scope eyepiece.

The shooter, being quite surprised and not certain what the "helper" intended to do, engaged the safety - for reasons of safety. Fortunately, the "helper" did not touch the rifle and eventually backed away. Then, while getting ready ready to aim, the shooter simply disengaged the safety. "BANG"

A number of very good and experienced riflemen watched that occur - so, yeah, a real attention-getter. To me, that malfunction was a pretty big deal. How about for you, BrotherBart?

Supplement here: I did not witness the event, but was well-advised that during the same day at the gathering a different rifle of the same manufacture/model fired spontaneously - no trigger touch - when the shooter simply closed the bolt. Another attention-getter.

I watched the second event occur and can confirm that it did indeed fire simply upon closing the bolt. Damn Remingtons!

That is Jeff shooting my 458 Lott; one of only two of you chickens who would shoot it, the other being the wild man, Jon. I put about 30 rounds through it in 15 minutes and it did give me a headache. The Hornady DGX shot much better than the cast bullet load. Looks like I need a different mould.

Ooohhh

Then I would lose.

I would like to attend a get together one day.

I need to learn how to shoot from you guys, my accuracy could use help. In case you missed it I was kidding about teaching you guys how to shoot..

The Springfield has taught me to open the bolt after pulling the trigger while on safe with every bolt gun I've climbed behind.
As for my " no big deal" comment. If you don't like it,too bad. What's really strange is the fact that the incident was probably intended to be kept in Quemada. Almost ironic considering your last post.

By careful intent, the Remington 700 trigger on my single-shot custom Nesika .220 Howell does NOT have a safety on it.

The "safety" is the shooter, who doesn't chamber a round or close the bolt until the rifle is pointed at his selected target and he's about to shoot.

Howell's Law of Certainties � Whatever can not possibly go wrong will go wrong sooner or later. (Murphy was a Pollyanna.)

Let some uninvited know-it-all butt-in with unsolicited "advice" just then, and the bolt comes open. (Or upon any other interruption.)

BB, it's really good that you you operate your Springfield and other bolt firearms safely. And, it's not at all a matter of what I do or do not like about your "big deal" question - your attitude seems to render that moot. It's lost like a small turd in high weeds.

Yes, it had been intended that specifics of the malfunction discharge events and those among whom it happened be kept to those in attendance. I did not want any of that to be a focal point about the gathering or in this thread - but not worth keeping quiet to the point of enabling half-baked misinformation to float. Thus, my reply to you.

I have addressed the product problems at what I see as the appropriate place.

At one Winchester seminar for outdoor writers years ago, a well known writer shot another fellow in the foot � and then urged the other fellow to sue Winchester.

That "incident" wasn't supposed to get-out, but it did � at least to other writers and industry people who weren't there at the time of the "accident."

Sure was a pleasure shooting your 45-90. Seeing the pictures puts a grin back on my mug. Thanks for the opportunity.

Winnie - I like your enthusiasm, and I was kidding as well. I think you would find these gatherings rewarding and hope that you can join in. If you are in CentCal, probably you are not as distant as some of our guys from TX and AR.

Dennis, I would LOVE to try your .458 Lott (next time?) - but probably not every 30 seconds for 15 minutes. However, I would be grateful to shoot for a group. Why don't we just see that you get some DGX (weight?) instead of your fooling with another mould that also may be not quite right?

Do you use that rig to pull a travel trailer?

Would love to see more pics and read the story of acquisition.

Very often, cast bullets shoot better straight from the mould (SFM) � lubricated, of course, but not sized. Consider giving that a try before you give-up on your mould.

Make yourself what Ideal used to call a "Kake Kutter" � bore the end out of a fired but unsized .45-70 case. (When I made mine years ago, I left the head of the .45-70 case intact and drilled it for a thumb-operated plunger to expel each bullet out the mouth. With the old Lyman "Kake Kutter," the procedure was to push each bullet on through with the next ones that you cut out of the lube. I also "over-chamfered" the mouth of the case inside and outside to give it a cutting edge.)

Stand your bullets base-down in a cake pan, pour melted lube around 'em deep enough to fill the grooves, let it harden, then "cookie-cut" the bullets out of the lube cake, load 'em, and shoot 'em.

Whether it's all worth the extra trouble, only you can decide. Often, it is.

Thanks for the correction.

I woulda shot it but did not realize it was up for grabs. Perhaps for the same reason I thought I heard ".405" (whatever that would be) Along those same lines, I'm thinking the most frequently repeated phrase at a Campfire gathering might be... "What?"

Say, ain't you the same guy what knocked over that ram silhouette at 200 yards with that .50 cal flinter longrifle?

Birdwatcher

Not seeing any conspiracy here, maybe more along the lines of not blowing anything out of proportion without being sure of all the facts.

The first question would be had either of those two rifles done anything like that before, which seems unlikely given that both shooters were apparently surprised when it happened.

And the important thing of course is that, thanks to the basic rules of gun handling, that sort of thing could have happened all day without anyone getting hurt.

I will say that this was a big event, with lots of people, in a new setting for most everyone. It has been my experience that unintended things are more likely to happen in that sort of circumstance.

The other important thing for everyone to recall is that this whole thing was an unbelievably good time. I only drove 900 miles one way to spend an evening, a day and a morning there but some people drove nearly twice that far.

I ain't heard a one of us say it weren't worth it, rather everyone has been saying "When can we do this again?"

Birdwatcher

Looks like a great time and some fun shooting!

CCCC- that is a beautiful truck! Count me in as looking forward to more pics and stories regarding same. It deserves a thread of its own!

As to AD's and Remingtons....I've seen it first hand.

Thanks for the link

FWIW the diamond set-up has been catching some flack from purists of late as being a re-enactorism i.e. not actually done back then. Though for my part I cannot quibble as they did not use 2x2's sawn into 4ft lengths to hold their tents up either



Most of what we have gotten to do are reenactments and living history where the public is invited to mingle at least part of the time. To that end we are looking to work up an arrangement that allows us to hide stuff out of sight if needed.

Also, given the crowded settings at such things, I am looking to work up a setup that uses as few staked ropes as possible, with a free-standing structure being the ideal. On top of all that it also has to fit into the back of an economy sedan.

Add to that we want to be able to walk the whole thing in on our backs (as opposed to backing a pickup truck to one's spot which is the most common procedure at these things) AND look reasonably period-correct while doing it.

To that end I'm thinking cedar poles instead of 2x2's would work, and going to a tripod arrangement at each end rather than the A-frame type deal in the pic might allow us to skip staked guy lines entirely.

Birdwatcher