AN OLD FRIEND, GUN FLINTS AND SNAKEOIL

ME | MAY 09.2013 | swampsniper

[SWAMPSNIPER]

Back in the days when we had an economy and the living was almost easy, when I was hunting and shooting and building rifles, and still had some color in my beard, I would not have considered not having a Dixie Gun Works catalog around.

Almost 700 pages, everything from tomahawks and gunlocks to snake oil. There are tools, gun flints and chunks of wood for fancy knife handles.

Well, the other day I ordered myself another one.

5 bucks, and for another 2 bucks they ship it UPS!

You can read a Dixie catalog for hours, even if you don't need any gun flints right now.

If Chuckie Schumer ever sees one of these his head will explode!

It's bigger than these pictures, about like an old Sears catalog.

[RAY]

Everybody should order one!!

[chesty_puller]

Pretty dam cool.

[JoeProBono]

[SWAMPSNIPER]

I bought any part I couldn’t make from Dixie or the old Numrich Arms Co. Numrich had gain twist cut rifled barrels that were hard to beat. A cut rifled barrel has firm square edges on the lands and will hold a round ball a lot better than the new swaged or broached barrels.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

Good Lord, if Chuckie sees that thing he will do an Al Roker!

[ussc1863]

We used to get the Dixie Gun Works catalog. Just bought our daughter and her husband a P35 Enfield musket for their combined post graduate gift. Cost a lot more than when we bought them 15 years ago.

[ussc1863]

We used to get the Dixie Gun Works catalog. Just bought our daughter and her husband a P35 Enfield musket for their combined post graduate gift. Cost a lot more than when we bought them 15 years ago.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

The price increases are scary!

[ZX12R]

When I took my first machine shop class in high school, the teacher, whenever he wasn’t teaching us, would be making muzzle loaders. He would by the barrel, and the rough sawn wood for the stock, and would make all the other pieces, including springs, screws, hammer, etc. He would give them away as presents to family and friends. We would all watch him make those parts and be amazed that it could really be done.

[MHGinTN]

Local University machine courses are teaching the college students to make electric guitars ... guns are a no no don’tchaknow.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

I think I could have forged a barrel but by the time you set up a forge and get enough charcoal to feed it you're into a huge project.

I did have a rifling machine I made out of the differential from a riding mower, and I reamed and rifled a few old shot out barrels. It is a lot of work!

[ZX12R]

Local University machine courses are teaching the college students to make electric guitars ... guns are a no no don’tchaknow.

At the university where I work, we teach a class to graduate students every summer. Starts Monday. The have to make several required projects, one is a very small steam engine that runs off a tea candle, and they get to pick a personal project. No guns so far. But I have cut scope mount slots into a revolver frame for a professor that is into shooting sports.

[osagebowman]

Thanks for posting pics of an old friend; I became acquainted with Turner’s book in junior high, we been good friends ever since. Add a Herter’s catalog and you had hours of reading. Which reminds me, I need to get another one.

[ZX12R]

I did have a rifling machine I made out of the differential from a riding mower, and I reamed and rifled a few old shot out barrels. It is a lot of work!

Yes, rifle barrels would be the toughest part, along with the rifling. And accuracy would be hard to maintain without modern equipment, but to a determined and reasonably intelligent man, anything can be accomplished. Much easier to just buy one, though.

It's the same way with telescopes. I've designed and built a few of my own. You can make your own mirrors too, but the investment in time isn't worth it. You can just buy them pretty cheap and make the rest.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

Oh Yeah, Farbenglas bows, arrows, reloading gear, all kinds of great stuff!

Used to get the Kittredge Bow Hut catalog too.

I made my own arrows for years.

[MHGinTN]

I’m about to do somehting I do not see anyone has tried ... at least nothing in the video world to indicate it. I’m going to thread the end of a CZ82 barrel with 1/2 x 20, attach an adaptor which converts 1/2 x 20 to 1/2 x 28, then grind down the outside of the 1/2 x 20 portion and the slide opening, so the slide will move unobstructed over the adapter attachment. I may have to weld the spring on the slide opening end to the slide, to give reliable functioning. I’m preparing a few tools for a 9mm suppressor ... waiting on the fedzilla to send me permission stamp for owning what the Constitution says is an unalienable right to own. The 9mm suppressor will be usable with 9mm, 9x18, 32acp, and .22lr, in rifle ands well as pistol configurations..

[SWAMPSNIPER]

I locked one drive axle, mounted the differential on a slide. There was a length of motorcycle chain in a groove that ran the length of the bed for the slide, had a sprocket on the other drive axle. The cutter head fit on the input shaft and would rotate as the differential was pulled along the slide with the sprocket engaging the chain. I could adjust it with different sprockets for any pitch I wanted.

Round ball barrels use a slow twist, 1 in 48 is considered fast, nothing like the modern barrels.

[wafflehouse]

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[ZX12R]

I’m about to do somehting I do not see anyone has tried ... at least nothing in the video world to indicate it. I’m going to thread the end of a CZ82 barrel with 1/2 x 20, attach an adaptor which converts 1/2 x 20 to 1/2 x 28, then grind down the outside of the 1/2 x 20 portion and the slide opening, so the slide will move unobstructed over the adapter attachment. I may have to weld the spring on the slide opening end to the slide, to give reliable functioning. I’m preparing a few tools for a 9mm suppressor ... waiting on the fedzilla to send me permission stamp for owning what the Constitution says is an unalienable right to own. The 9mm suppressor will be usable with 9mm, 9x18, 32acp, and .22lr, in rifle ands well as pistol configurations..

I'm not sure I understand exactly how you're going to do it, but a suppressor that would interchange with all those calibers and platforms sounds like an ingenious idea, and quite nice to have.