Cheap .32-20 Rifle

This guy built a .32-20 single shot rifle out of a shot-out No. 4 Enfield, using the original barrel. He cut the barrel off just ahead of the chamber, drilled out the chamber, and turned the end of the barrel to slip into the former chamber section. Then he secured it with setscrews and cut a .32-20 chamber with drill bits. Pretty ingenious, if you ask me. As you can see in the video, it works!

Reading Topo Maps: Grid, Distance and Elevation

Orienteering and reading a topographical map is becoming a lost art in this age of GPS receivers and smartphones. Any outdoorsman worth his salt should be able to use a topo map and compass to pinpoint his location and find his way in the great outdoors. Here is a US Army training film detailing how to read a map to determine distance and elevation.

Sub-Arctic Winter Bivouacking

This is a great, informative US Army training film covering just about every aspect of living outdoors during wintertime. From what you should carry in your pockets to how to set up the tent, cooking and heating equipment and a latrine, this video has all bases covered. This film was produced in 1955, so the equipment depicted is from the Korean War era. That is a good thing because that equipment is still usable and somewhat more readily available than WWII-era equipment. That doesn't mean you have to have that equipment to make use of this info. Rather, the point is that many outdoors people, preppers and survivalists do in fact use this equipment because it is available and well-designed.

Eskimo Hunters

This is a 1949 film about the life of a traditional Eskimo family in northwestern Alaska. When this film was shot, Alaska was still a territory and would not become a state for another ten years. Many Eskimos still lived their traditional way of life. I'm afraid things have gotten worse for them, not better, with the encroachment of outside civilization. This is a fascinating view of the day-to-day activities of these resourceful people.

Rat-shot

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Old Winchester Ratshot (right) with a Regular Winchester .22LR

Rat-shot (or "snake shot") is very small lead shot (typically #12 - 1.3 mm (0.05")) which is loaded into a cartridge not generally considered a shotgun shell. Such a cartridge with a shot load is often called a "shot shell". The most common cartridges loaded with rat-shot are the .22 Long Rifle or pistol or revolver cartridges. Using rat-shot cartridges allows one to convert a handgun or rifle into a small shotgun suitable for short-range use.

Uses

Rat-shot is generally used for shooting at snakes, rodents, and other small animals at very close range. It is used by farmers in rifles for the control of birds flying inside of barns and sheds, as well as for killing rats, for the simple reason that rat-shot will not damage the metal roof of a barn or the metal sides of a shed, while still being effective against small pests at close distances. Rat-shot is often used in 22 caliber rifles to train new shooters the use of a shotgun and as a first step in bird dog training for the dog to get used to loud noises.
Rat-shot cartridges are best used in dedicated smoothbore firearms such as Marlin Firearms' Model 25MG "Garden Gun", but can still provide suitable patterns of shot from rifled barrels at short ranges. Since smoothbore firearms with barrels under a certain length may be classified as sawed off shotguns, rifled barrels are legally required in some cases. The Thompson Center Arms Contender pistols offered barrels in some calibers, such as .357 Magnum and .44 Magnum, in configurations that contained special straight rifled choke tubes to improve the patterns produced by the rifled barrels when shooting rat-shot cartridges.
Rat-shot is used in some types of frangible ammunition, such as the Glaser Safety Slug. In these bullets, the shot is glued or sintered together inside a thin shell to form a projectile that fragments readily upon impact, reducing penetration and risk of ricochet.
The maximum effective killing range of rat-shot cartridges is limited, typically being less than 10 to 16½ feet (3 to 5 meters). At this distance, it only has a small chance of tearing through a sheet paper target.

Configuration

.22 Ratshot

While some makes of rimfire ratshot cartridges somewhat resemble traditional shotgun shells, with a brass case crimped closed, many other types of rimfire and nearly all centerfire rat-shot cartridges use a hollow plastic capsule, often shaped like a bullet to aid in feeding, which holds the shot. This plastic case shatters during firing, and allows the shot to disperse after it exits the muzzle. There are reports of the plastic casing shattering when being fed from a magazine. Crimped cases do not exhibit this problem but can fail to extract in some semi-automatic guns.

.45 Auto With Military Issue "Birdshot" (right). It was issued to pilots during WW2 in an effort to aid their ability to gather food if shot down.

Notes and references

1. ^ Barrett, Peter (1988). "A Gathering of Chinooks". Field & Stream 92 (11): 62.
2. ^ ^{a b} Horton, David (1971). "New Handgun Shotshell". Field & Stream 76 (7): 16–18.
3. ^ Warner, Ken (1986). Gun Digest: 1987 Annual Edition. DBI Books. pp. 38–43.
4. ^ Lesslie, Robert D. (2010). Angels on Call: Inspiring True Stories from the ER. Harvest House Publishers. p. 223. ISBN 9780736927406.
5. ^ Brister, Bob (1975). "Two Magnum movies and Other News". Field & Stream 79 (11): 129.

External links

• Handgun Shot Loads Work For Pests But Not Defense, Gun Week, 2005

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Hiking To Abrams Falls

This was a repeat hike for me. Abrams Falls is a waterfall in Cade's Cove, Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It is a five-mile round trip from the parking area, with several hillclimbs along the way. The trail is not paved, and there are rocks and roots on the trailbed, but it is not what I would consider a difficult trail. As I mentioned, it was a repeat hike. I hiked it once before, and had been planning to hike it again. Meanwhile, saplings along the trail grew up to be full-size trees. I was thinking about it yesterday, and realized that it has been approximately 35 years since I last hiked this trail! My, but time gets away from us. One thing that has changed since last time is that I can now legally pack a revolver (or autopistol if I preferred, which I don't) on the trail. I can't actually fire the gun except in a bona fide emergency, but it is nice to have it along, just in case. I'm not too concerned about the bears (which are abundant in this valley) so much as other people. Don't get me wrong; everyone I have ever met on trails in the Smokies has been friendly, but the fact remains that a lot of violent attacks occur in national parks, and the Smokies are no exception.

Rat Traps For Survival

This is a great idea for a wilderness survival kit. Rat traps are cheap and capable of catching a variety of small animals for food. While a chipmunk might not sound very appetizing under normal circumstances, in a survival situation it can be a welcome addition to whatever edible plants you can scrounge.

Percolator Coffee on my Optimus 8R Hunter Stove

Storms came through and knocked out the electricity the night before I made this video. Instead of starting the generator I decided to make coffee on my 40 year old Optimus 8R Hunter stove, using a stainless steel percolator pot I bought for a couple bucks at a flea market. I don't really like perk coffee (it overheats it; plain old cowboy coffee is much better if done right) but I find the thermodynamics of the perk assembly fascinating. Basically the stove heats the water on the very bottom under the inner plate, the heated water follows the path of least resistance which is up the stand tube, then out the top into the perk bulb (where by the way you can monitor the color of the brew) and down through the coffee basket where it re-enters the main chamber as brewed coffee. The stove is pretty fascinating in its own right: although it is a pressurized gasoline stove, it creates its own pressurization by heating the fuel tank. Unlike the typical liquid-fuel stove, it does not require a generator tube nor a pump; although an optional pump is/was available to make it easier to start and quicker to reach full heat. I have the optional pump, but I never use it. I hadn't used this particular stove in awhile, but what I like best about it is that it always works. And I have never yet had to replace anything on it.

Hobo Stove Vegetable Soup

Making vegetable soup from scratch on a simple wood-burning hobo stove. This is not me, but it caught my eye because I have been experimenting with hobo stoves in an attempt to find the most useful and efficient design.

Marlin 1894 .44 Magnum with Cast Keith Bullet

This is my Marlin 1894 carbine in .44 Magnum. It was made in 1978 and thus does not have the crossbolt safety. It does have Micro-Groove rifling with a 1:38 inch rifling twist rate. Although I would prefer the Ballard type rifling, I have had no problems with shooting cast bullets in this rifle. I suspect the slow rifling twist helps. I have had this rifle about five years, and in that time I have fired plainbase cast bullets exclusively in it. I'm not saying I wouldn't or never will fire jacketed or gas-checked bullets in it, but for my uses of plinking, varmint control and game up to deer or wild hogs at ranges to 125 yards I just don't see the need to spend the money for them.
In addition to the standard refrain about Micro-Groove being "no good for cast bullets," I have also heard that the Keith bullet is too long for the 1894 if it is crimped in the crimp groove. That has not proven true in this rifle. The bullet I use most of the time in this rifle is a Lyman #429421 from a 4-cavity mould made in 1997. That is the plainbase semi-wadcutter designed by Elmer Keith and usually referenced as weighing 245 grains (mine weigh 242 grains of my alloy). Lyman tends to arbitrarily and without notice change specs on their moulds, and their Keith bullets in particular have not always adhered to Elmer's original design. This mould, fortunately, does: it has the crimp groove in the right place and the single lube groove is wide and has a square section, as it should.
I cast these bullets of wheelweight metal, and I do not quench or heat-treat them. I usually size and lube them with a .430-inch die in my Lyman 450 lubrisizer, but this time I left them unsized (at .433-inch) and tumble-lubed with a thin coat of Lee Liquid Alox. I loaded this bullet over a 1.6cc dipper (15.5 grains) of Alcan AL-8 in assorted range pick-up .44 Mag brass. Disclaimer: If you use this data, you do so at your own risk.
I don't know of anywhere Alcan AL-8 is available anymore. I bought a couple of 8-lb jugs of it several years ago from Jeff Bartlett in Kentucky. AL-8 is between Blue Dot and 2400 in burning speed, and it is listed in my Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook with a starting load of 14.5 grains and a maximum of 19.5 grains with this bullet. 15.5 grains is thus a light-to-moderate load. I didn't want to drive it too fast and overcome the liquid Alox lube.
A few minutes before making this video, I ran a few rounds over my chronograph and got an average of 1,400 fps. The outside temperature was approximately 70 degrees Fahrenheit.
After shooting, I checked the bore. There was a very small amount of unburned powder (which this powder tends to do at less than full loads) and a tiny amount of leading just in the throat. I cleaned the bore with Ed's Red and a couple of cotton patches, then scrubbed it about ten full strokes with a bronze brush, and that was enough to remove the leading.

Raised-Bed Bushcraft Shelter

This is one of the most practical tarp shelters I have ever seen. One thing the guy doesn't mention is that you can also use the basic design with a hammock if you prefer or don't have enough wood to build the raised bed.