Pic Of The Month: October 2006

This installment of photo of the month features a custom Marlin 1895GS. (Photo courtesy of 45-70)

This custom Marlin features a Dave Clay loop lever, full action tune with 2-1/2 lb. trigger, Leupold 4X Compact, original stock/forearm, with removed checkering, slimmed forend and buttstock, fluted comb, epoxy glass-bedded, Sim's Limbsaver butt pad, adjusted LOP. The stock also features a hand-rubbed pure Hope's tung oil finish, wood-burned Acacia Thorn motif to commemorate 45-70's two great hunts in Africa with his rifle.

Thanks 45-70!

If you have a photograph you would like to share of your favorite leveraction and would like it featured on photo of the month drop me an email at reloadingandlevergunning@yahoo.com

Expansion testing the Ranch Dog TLC432-285-RF Part II

These are what the Ranch Dog TLC432-285 looked like after being recovered from a log after sailing through five jugs of water. The recovered bullets average weight was 225 grains with a completely different nose profile than the ones recovered from the bags of fertilizer.

Expansion testing the Ranch Dog TLC432-285-RF/C358-180-RF Part 1

I have been casting and loading up the Ranch Dog TLC432-285-RF for my Rossi 92 chambered in 44Mag and also the C358-180-RF for my other Rossi chambered in 357Mag. Im using straight air cooled WW but the only thing I have shot with them is mainly paper for accuracy testing besides a few plastic water filled jugs and my old digital camera. Click here for video.
With the possibility of being able to hunt with my Rossi next year here in Indiana I wanted to see how these expand and hold up with air cooled wheel weights. I used two old bags of fertilizer I had lying around and they went through one bag and just dimpled the other.

The Ranch Dog TLC432-285 weighs around 276 grains without the check and lube and the average velocity is 1470. The recovered cast bullets weight on average was 204 grains and only one recovered had the gas check still attatched on it.

For this test the recovered Ranch Dog cast bullets shed more weight than the C358-180-RF. I think due to the bag being full and more compacted and I tested the 44's first. After five rounds of these flat faced 44's there was plenty of fertilizer that had been turned into dust(OH YEA!). The bag wasnt as full by the time I sent the C358-180-RF sailing through it thus less shearing and weight loss.

The C358-180-RF weighs around 182 grains lubed with Felix lube and the recovered cast bullets weighed on average of 165 grains.
Here is a couple still shots from the video I took of me shooting the jugs filled with water and my old digital camera that laid down on me. I got the camera in the end though.




I will be testing different media as time allows for these cast bullets and will report the results.

A Walk In The Woods With Maggie

Had a chance to get out in the woods with Maggie and take some picts. The cartridges are my home cast Lee C358-180-RF with a charge of WC820(n). Should be a real flat faced thumper for sure. The Rossi 92 carbine is chambered in 357 Magnum.

Old Bullitts Mill/Spring Mill State Park

Spent time with family over the weekend and went to Spring Mill State Park located in Mitchell Indiana. I have enjoyed going to Spring Mill Park since being a kid and have some fond memories there from Frost family reunions to exploring the pioneer village and nearby caves. Heres some picts I took of the working grist mill/mueseum, cabins,old ammo, muzzleloaders and such. The grist mill is powered by the water from nearby Hammer cave.

The park is in the heart of Indiana's karst country, an area characterized by caves, sinkholes, disappearing rivers and massive limestone deposits.

(Click pics to enlarge)





Limestone has played an important part in construction and commerce in Indiana. In 1817, Bullitt's Mill (later Hamer's Mill) was constructed of locally quarried blocks of the St. Louis Limestone. It is ironic that this stone was used, for the world-famous Hoosier building stone, the Salem Limestone, is in the park and later was quarried there. The restored mill is now the centerpiece of the pioneer village at Spring Mill State Park near Mitchell.
The mill was immediately successful, and soon a thriving village developed and flourished. After construction of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, which bypassed the settlement, the village gradually declined. Abandoned in the 1880's, it became the property of the Lehigh Cement Co., which gave the site to form part of Spring Mill State Park.



Got to listen to some fine music as well. This is my dad and my cousin Carrolls husband Mark playing the banjo.(Thanks for bringin that banjo Mark!)






Some items located in the grist mill.







Spring Mill State Park also has the Virgil "Gus" Grissom memorial and houses the Gemini "Molly Brown" spacecraft.


A memorial to Gus Grissom, one of the original 7 Mercury astronauts and second man in space. Grissom was killed in an Apollo 1 fire on the landing pad, along with Roger Chaffey and Ed White practicing for their next mission.





On the side of Grissom's "Molly Brown" Gemini spacecraft.





The cabin for the pilot in the "Molly Brown" Gemini spacecraft. Virgil "Gus" Grissom flew this into space






No trip to Spring Mill would be complete without a hike to Donaldson cave.







Donaldson Cave, one of at least three caves within the park, is where the northern blind cave fish was discovered, a now endangered species that has no eyes. Spring Mill's historic impact is matched by the heritage of nature that the park preserves.




Containing some virgin timber, the area is pockmarked by sinkholes, and nine named caves lie within the park. These features were formed, and are being modified by rainwater percolating through the soil down into the underlying limestone. The topography was formed during the past few million years, but the bedrock originated in seas that covered Indiana more than 300 million years ago.


Donaldson Cave system and Hamer Cave are the major caves in the park, and both were intimately related to the life of the early residents. Both provided water to power mills; saltpeter for gunpowder was taken from Donaldson; and villagers prepared meat and cooled perishable foods in both.



Related Websites: http://www.stateparks.com/spring_mill.html

http://www.showcaves.com/english/usa/showcaves/SpringMill.html


http://www.indianatraveler.com/state_parks/spring_mill.htm




Contact Information:


Spring Mill State Park
Box 376Mitchell, IN 47446
812-849-4129

Sign of the week

Thanks Dan!


(click to enlarge)