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It's. Welcome to another edition of Old School Guns, the podcast that tells you exactly like it is. And this is episode number 224,224. And as always, if you have any questions or comments, you can email them to me at KB M A K E L A l dot com K B M A K E L O l dot com or you can leave them in the comments section on podbean. And there is a whole lot of stuff, and of course, a lot of stuff to cover. Of course, you had to be living in the Amazon. You had to be lost in the Amazon jungle or I can't think. Or maybe in the outback of Australia, you know, out of touch with civilization to not know that there's basically. I don't really like calling it a war because there's no ground troops involved at this point. It's an air and naval campaign against the psychopaths that run the country of Iran. And, you know, these maniacs didn't get the hint earlier on when they're, they're stupid nuclear sites got blown apart. They didn't get the hint. And now they're having to be taught a very hard and painful lesson. So it's a, it's a very, very interesting thing. It's, you know, going back to the emergence of air power, there have always been theorists or proponents who've said that air power alone can win a war and, you know, it can demoralize the enemy to such a point that they don't want to resist anymore and all these other things. That is really. That's been hard to prove that true. It's been very difficult to prove it true. And without. You could spend hours, you could literally spend hours talking about the bombing of Germany, the bombing of Japan, the, the blitz in London, you know, all these things. But, you know, it's. It's been very, very difficult. Usually it has to be some sort of a ground operation, unless there was a revolution and the government's changed, and I don't know that that can happen. I think their grip on power is still pretty firm. So we'll see what happens. But the Iran war is something to watch. A very bellicose and even more psychotic regime could emerge from this. And that's a very, very real possibility. And I predict this will end one way. There will be an international force that has to go in and take control of the Straits of Hormuz. No, no subsequent or, you know, legacy state of Iran is going to be allowed to control the Straits of Hormuz. That's just going to be out of the question. And one individual said to me, hey, want to just do a big pipeline across UAE and Oman, and you don't even have to go through the Straits of Hormuz. Ships can come there, pump it out, and ships on the other side can load it up and just sail away. Well, the problem with that is that you just, it's throughput and it's also the energy to pump all this oil across, you know, over 100 miles of desert or whatever. So that's just not a practical solution. Gotta have the Strait of Hormuz open. Can't trust the Iranians. They're going to lose the Strait of Hormuz and there'll be some sort of international force in there. Mark. Mark my words. Next thing, which is very disappointing to me, I think Kristi Noem was doing a great job. I mean, she's tough. I mean, I realize that there are people who make fun of the way she looks. You know, those people obviously haven't seen a picture of Debbie Wasserman Schultz or any of these other Democratic weirdos. The one, especially the one who's like 80 years old with the blue hair, you know, she was doing a great job. She was, she was tough. She was actually working on it. And this is the. One of the few areas where I just diverged from Trump. He never should have fired her, never should have moved her to this some what other job it is. She was, was doing a great job and should have been rewarded and not. Not shuffled off to the side. And the other part of it that really makes me angry is Senator Mark Wayne Mullen. Now I call him Mark Fake Mullen because the guy's a fake. I mean, he's, he's a fake. He's the guy who put his arms around the Capitol Police officer who shot Ashley Babbitt and said, oh, he had no choice. You know, it's a good thing he did out of the, you know, all the rest of it. Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting. And now this jerk is going to be in charge of Homeland Security. I just, I can't believe it. So I'm very disappointed with that. I think it's a terrible call. I think it was an absolutely terrible thing to do. But, you know, I don't make the decisions, so I guess I just have to live with them. But, man, I mean, that was just a. It's like replacing an All Star with a. Somebody who shouldn't even be on the team. That's what it feels like. Okay. The next thing is all Of a sudden now, especially in the Democratic controlled media, we're hearing about all these threats from sleeper cells. Now what a sleeper cell is, it's people who come into the country, they kind of live low key and then at the right moment they strike with a act of terrorism. And we've seen a couple of acts of terrorism already. Shooting at a university, shooting at us at a synagogue. And whether or not that's the work of sleeper cells, I don't know. But they're telling us, oh, these sleeper cell, this big threat now. And the people who are squealing the most are the Democrats who let these people in. They created the problem and now they're squealing about it. So, you know, I say it is a manageable problem. Law enforcement and the government security apparatus will eventually track these people down. But for you and I as citizen citizens, what can we do? Well, what we can do is the common sense things. Stay away from crowds, stay away from anything that could have symbolic significance. You know, they're not going to attack your local supermarket. But if there's some kind of, you know, big event with a lot of people where they can cause mass, mass casualties, that's going to be a much more lucrative target for them. So, you know, stay away from, stay away from that kind of stuff where you can go armed. Realizing you can't do that everywhere. And there are just times you're going to have to rely on instinct. You know, there's just, and actually more important than being armed is put a good first aid kit in your vehicle. So wherever you are, if a bomb goes off, something goes off, somebody gets hurt, and maybe even hurt badly, you've got something that you can help with. Standing there with a pistol in your hand when the bombers are long gone or they're suicide bombers and they've blown themselves up or whatever the deal is, may not be as helpful as having a really good first aid kit and brushing up on first aid tasks. How do you stop bleeding? How do you do? What are the priorities? All those things, I'm not going to go over them here. You know, go take a, even a Red Cross first aid course, anything. Be ready that somebody around you, maybe even a member of your own family, but somebody around you may get seriously hurt if a bomb goes off or, you know, guy starts shooting from a rooftop across the way. You know, I have no illusions. My Colt Detective Special 2 with a 2 inch barrel isn't probably going to do very much if the guy's across the street with a rifle on top of a building, you know, so you really got to kind of go with some of the, what I call the unglamorous stuff and make sure that, make sure that you have it. Other things you can do, depending on who you are, what you do, if you think you may be on their radar screen, take different routes to work, vary your times, be vigilant. If somebody appears to be following, you know, where the local police stations are on your route, just pull right into the police station and say, yeah, those two guys in the white car have been following me all morning. And so you just pull right in. All these kind of anti crime things, they essentially work. Staying vigilant is really the most important part. Stay vigilant, let people know where you are, where you're going, kind of when you're going to be back, you know, so that if all of a sudden you don't show back up, they know that maybe something that they should contact you, see if anything's amiss. One of the things I'm investigating are those, they're advertising them now. Those, those kind of walkie talkies, satellite walkie talkies. Hey, you know, that, that might be a great alternate form of communication. I haven't made up my mind yet, but I'm really looking at something like that very, very hard. But the terror threats are around there. And if you're active in a church, you know, you could be a target. Churches, churches and synagogues especially, but churches can be a target too. They don't like Christians any better than they like Jews. So I would, you know, you could vary worship times. You could do all kinds of little things just to, just to upset the routine so that you're much more, a little more difficult and unpredictable. That's just the way that is. It's just the world we live in. It's the world that Democrats have created for us. So that is my advice for that. And something that goes hand in hand with the terror threats is, well, hey, everybody's talked about concealed guns, handguns or even small survival rifles, you know, a lot of things. Fist folding, pistol caliber carbines, all these things. There's plenty on that if you want to learn about those. There's plenty out there on YouTube and other places. Some things you can keep in your car though, if you're prohibited from being armed with a, with a firearm, is put a couple baseball gloves and a bat in the, in your car. And that way if you use the bat, you can always, you can always say, well, look, you know, I do this recreationally and this just happened to be in my car. There are two other things that are, there are three other things actually that are out there. And one of those very cheap. Go down to Harbor Freight. They have survival knives. It's kind of a goofy looking, kind of a Rambo looking thing. Very, very inexpensively made, but they're sharp. And you know, just to have in your car is not a bad thing. Especially if you've got some gardening implements or something in there with it. You know, put a trowel, dirty trowel, and some gloves in there and say, hey, I use this thing to cut weeds and, and chop little, little saplings. You know, it's. Again, this is not a knife that you would parachute into Syria with and go attack isis. That's not what this is. It's just kind of a, for one time defensive use. It's, it's very adequate. Is it the pinnacle of knife making art? No, but for like eight or $9, you know, what do you, you know, it's, it's a great value and it's not really as bad a knife as people think. There's actually YouTube videos that show how people JB weld them to make them stronger and, you know, the joints stronger and all this. That's not really necessary. And, and the survival stuff in the, in the handle is kind of a joke, but it's okay. I mean, it's, it's okay. It is an edged weapon when you might need one. Same thing. Sog, they make kind of inexpensive stuff. Some of their stuff is really cool. And I picked up a SOG kukri and it was on sale. It was only. It was a tractor supply and it was only like 22 bucks. And normally these things are 40. And I said, you know what, I'm gonna give it a try. I'm just gonna have it again. It's a great thing if somebody reaches in your car trying to jack you because they're trying to escape from the crime scene or their terrorist. You chop it with it. They're gonna know. They're gonna know that's really gonna hurt them. You know, it's some. Sometimes any weapon you have can, can tilt the table in your favor. And now what I would say is when the cops come around, just drop the thing. Who cares? Drop the thing, put your hands up and completely cooperate. But you know, if you're holed up in a building and they're trying to beat through the door to get at you, they don't know that you have something like that that you might Just get the element of surprise and be able to do them some real damage before they can hurt you. One of the things I did buy was the Reaper survival spear. Not really for anything like this, but hey, you know, you're walking out in the, the woods or some other place, come across a snake, come across, you know, maybe feral dog or something, you know, anything that could kind of attack you, especially little four legged creatures, you know that, that could be a handy thing to have, especially if you can't have a firearm. You know, there are a lot of places you go where you can't have a firearm. So one of those would be pretty good. Again, that was a tractor supply thing and I think they're actually like 60 bucks. But you know, they're worth it. Anytime you can get an advantage, it's worth it. So I, I kind of like this kind of stuff. You know, it's, it's, it's stuff that's a little understated and if I can't have a firearm or I can use it in conjunction with a firearm, hey, that's, that's gonna be alright. Sorry, I had to excuse myself for a few minutes. Basically I've got allergies going on. So I'm editing out this, a few sneezes here and there and, and had to go. But you'll, you'll notice my voice is a little, it sounds like I'm talking through a jar or something, you know. So if you'll forgive that. Get on with this. I gotta give a, a review. Christmas. I got myself an H R M 16A1. One of the PSA Palmetto State Armory ones. It's semi automatic. It's legally an AR15 but it's marked M16A1 and feels and it, it, it, it looks the part and everything else really like it. I've put not much through it, maybe a hundred rounds through it and. But it is superb. I mean it's extremely accurate, easy to use, just as good an AR15 as you can imagine. It's as good as an SP1. It's as good as the ones Brownells put out. And you know, those are what I have most experience with. I got, I've also got DPMs and a few other things that are, you know, my DPMS is an A2 and, and I've got two M forgeries. But you know, I, I do have to say that this is a really first rate weapon and they're not that expensive compared to the value you get. And if you like the nostalgia, I Just like the shooting qualities of an A1. It's, it's so nice. I like, I'm one of the few, maybe I'm the only person who admits it, but I like the triangular hand guards. It's, it's really easy to get a purchase on. You push the rifle back into your shoulder a little bit. It's, it's really the, they, they're really very ergonomic. They put a lot of thought into it and to just dismiss it is, is foolish. The sites are basically indestructible. Once you get it zeroed, they are not going to move. And an A1 site is a really good site. They're easy to see. They're really, really excellent. So I really think that it's a, a real winner and just outstanding. And it's a gun that you could defend yourself with and not be outclassed by anything newer. If you, if you want to you can put the retro scope on it or the gooseneck and put something co witnessed with the sights. I mean it's, it can be modernized very, very easily. But I prefer it traditional. I like the way it looks, I like the way it performs and I use 55655 grain ammo. I don't use sometimes. I, you know, I have not found a qualitative difference between 22355 grain FMJ and 55655 grain FMJ. Some people may say there is. I've never found a difference. They, they all shoot about the same, the same to me. So you know, it's simple takedown, it's simple, it's very reliable. Even the H R mag, which you know, a lot of the YouTubers had said, oh, this is not as reliable as a GI Mag. I found it's fine. I don't, I can't tell the difference. And I've got GI20 round magazines. So it's a really good rifle. You know, if you're really looking for a simple AR lightweight and that's the other thing I just love about it. The older I get, the more I appreciate lightweight light recoiling rifles. You know, it doesn't the, it's not that the 16 inch M4 types have, have bad recoil. It's a little punchy, you know, it's a little punchy. I don't really care for it. I mean it's, it's no big deal. But I find that when I go then to the 20 inch a one that man it is so smooth. I mean it is, it just feels so much better and the A2 feels very good. Also, make no mistake, the 20 inch barrel was a good, good idea. And we, I said that in previous podcasts. You know, it's, I mean it's suited for everything. If you're going to be shooting at combat ranges out to three, even 350 or 400 yards, you can manage it with the A1. And if you're doing CQB, you can manage it too. So it's really a great rifle. I can't say enough good things about it. I don't think anybody has had a bad experience with one that I've, that I've actually seen. But we'll, we'll see. You know, we'll see. It's. The longer you shoot it, the better it is. But it, it really has quality components. That's the other thing I really like about it is the quality components. It's not a bunch of cheapy parts. It looks really good. Really looks about. It's, it's not a hundred percent authentic perfect. The ejection port cover is kind of this blackish bluish thing. It's not really parkerized like the originals. You know, I'm at the, I'm past the point where I care about that. The same thing with the selector lever. It's kind of blackish. It's not really parkerized. Gray parkerized. And they don't really parkerize them. I think they cerakote them gray so they look parkerized. But it's a very durable, nice finish. I mean I really like it. And the markings on it are obviously, I think laser engraved, not roll marked. But it gets the job done. It really. I don't know if I said this on the last one or not. Sometimes I don't remember everything but. And I was in the store, I looked down and I saw the markings and I know I'd been issued an H and R A1 somewhere in the past. I looked and it was just so familiar and that, that was the reason I had to buy it. I just said, man, this has taken me back. And it really is, really is a cool gun. The A1 is. Now people are starting to recognize the A1 was a lot better than anybody ever gave it to credit for. And I've, I've told the story. When I had SP ones back in the late 70s, people would literally walk by me on the range going, that's a piece of. We lost the Vietnam War because of that. Well, all these other things. Oh, that's unreliable and blah blah, blah, jams all the time. And there weren't a lot of alternatives out there. If Colt had only marked, you know, Colt didn't care about the civilian market. They marketed them and it's like, yeah, we sell them, it's no big deal. If they'd actually marketed them and had run some tests and shown people, hey, these things are actually really good, they wouldn't have had this terrible, awful reputation that, that it's garnered, which has largely gone away. Largely gone away. People realize, yes, the very early M16s, they weren't Chrome plated bores, they weren't chrome line bores, they weren't chrome plated chambers. So they, you know, they did, they did corrode. Yeah, they, they screwed up. They didn't have enough cleaning kits and all, all the rest of it. Once you got passed back that, that early phase, it's a superb weapon. It really is a superb weapon. You could, you could equip an army with A1s today and not be that outmatched on the battlefield by anything else. I mean, people, oh my, my HK416 is better. Okay, it's better, but it's not better in ways that make it superior. It's technically superior. But the bottom line for any of these things is can you hit the target? And how easy is it to hit the target? And the A1 really excels at that. Really does. So I, I'm, I'm a believer. I'm a true believer. Okay. The last thing I want to talk to you about is 5070 brass. If you have one of the old 5070 guns or even a newer made when they, they did, occasionally the reproduction companies put out a 50, 70 sharps. I think you can order it from Shiloh and then you. Shiloh Sharps or C Sharps. And you can wait a few, you know, whatever their waiting periods are. And you can, you can get a 50 70, that's no problem. I think the Italian manufacturers occasionally have turned out a 50 70. I don't know if they still currently have them, but you could, you could run across it at a gun show for, you know, especially a big one like the Tulsa gun show. Then there are a lot of vintage ones out there. Sharps, Remington, rolling blocks, early trapdoors, you know, they're out there. They were, they were made in quantity. So they are, they are out there. Most of the Sharps were carbines that were actually Union army carbines for the Civil war that took the.52 caliber linen cartridge. Doesn't linen cartridge just sound like a bad idea? And for the Most part it kind of was, but, but it was better than muzzle loading. So. But after the war these things were easily converted to 5070 and they were used in late 1860s, very early 1870s and were replaced by the trapdoor 1873 carbines. So you know, there were, there were a lot of them out and, and they weren't just phased out and thrown away. They were handed off to Indian scouts or to other scouts who were working with them or tribal police. You know, they, they, they kind of went down that hierarchy. Texas Rangers used them for, issued them for a while. I think most Rangers kind of looked at that and said, well, this is cool, but I think I'd buy my own Winchester and, and help my life expectancy. So although Chet, although the Texas Rangers were issued them, I think their use was probably a lot smaller because of the privately owned Winchesters that, that they went and got. You know, whether it was a 66 or 73 Winchester. But anyway, the brass is out there now. Starline has made a run of them and places like Midway, Buffalo Arms and other places have them. I didn't see any packaging less than a hundred and it's like 130 bucks for, you know, 100 cartridge cases, which sounds bad, but the ebay prices just a year ago were five or six dollars a cartridge case. And some of those weren't even brand new. Some of those were like once, twice fired. So this is really a good deal. The time to get it is now because I don't think it's in continuous production. I would say that they make a production run, then it sells out, then they get a bunch of back orders and when they can do it, they do. Was amazing to me that they would have 50 90. This was like a year two years ago. They had 5090 in stock, but 5070 wasn't there. Figure me, figure that out for me. I don't know. But so as a. During the scarcity there were intrepid souls and I was one of them who attempted to make 5070 brass out of 32 gauge solid brass shot shells, shotgun shells. I did that and I had marginal success. I was able to create, I was able to trim them and, and all that. I was able to create a 5070 style case. The problem I had was twofold, twofold. One is even with the, the black pot. And these are, these are balloon head cases by the way. Even giving it a as much powder as I could could get, it was still less than 70 grains. So it was less than that of 2F powder, black powder. It didn't expand enough to seal the chamber. So you got that blowback which is common in straight wall black powder cartridges. So I did get a little blowback. I don't really like that. But you know, it's, it's all right. It's not that big of a deal. The next thing was the rim isn't the correct diameter. It's smaller. So it's very difficult for an extractor to, to pick it up and pull it out. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it worked, but other times it didn't. That was kind of a pain in the butt. I can take these things and I could peen them and make the, make the rim a little larger. So I mean, that just seems to be like, I don't know that I really want to do that. I'm probably just going to keep the ones I have and I only have like 25 of them. And as a matter of fact, some of them I didn't even make. I think I only have 50. I think I have 15 unmade ones and 10 made ones. I'm just going to keep those in the back shelf. If there's ever a big shortage again and I need 5070 brass, I will pro, or if I'm really bored and I have nothing else to do, I'll make them into 5070 brass. But you know, to my mind it just isn't worth it when the, when the real stuff is out there and it's only a dollar thirty a case. I mean I could, you know, just jump on that. Jump on it. And the beautiful part is if you ordered it from a lot of these places, you can get free shipping orders. Over 100 bucks. You get free shipping. So hey, you know, that's, that's pretty, that's pretty awesome. I think that's a really good deal. But making it out of the 32 and you know, I watched all the YouTube videos and I watched, you know what I thought, man, I can do this. But I will tell you, it was challenging because the dimensions are just different. And of course the dimensions in the old rifles. I have two older 5070 rifles, a rolling block and a Sharps. And you know, Sharps has got a pretty generous chamber, but the Rolling Block is a little, little less so. And the 32 gauge were kind of a problem. Had to, well, I had to resort to a few methods I, you know, using using some half inch washers and things that I really didn't want to, didn't really want to do. And when you're investing it takes you 45 minutes to get a ca. By the time you do the trimming and the deburring and everything. If you're putting 45 minutes to an hour on a case, a single case, it only makes sense to, to buy the ones for a buck 30, you know, I mean, how much is your time worth? That's, I guess that's a question you can always ask yourself. So I do not recommend the 5070 brass route from 32 gauge shotgun shells unless it's an emergency, unless there's, there's nothing in between you and shooting. There's nothing there, there's no brass there. And you, that's the only way you're gonna get some brass to shoot your 5070 rifle. Then I would say, you know, you can roll the dice and try it and you know, you have really have nothing to lose. It's, they're fairly cheap. They're 30 some dollars the a box for the 32 gauge empties. And you know, it's, it's pretty, pretty basic to cut them down to 1.75 and, and debur them and all that. So you know, it's, it is what it is. It is what it is. Okay, we can now get to my favorite part which is questions and answers. And the first question is one I've so many times, I think, but I'm going to take a little different tack on it. So maybe it'll be better. Cap and ball revolvers for self defense. Okay, I'm going to say it. No, bad idea. Unless you happen to, that's the only firearm you can somehow get. And I would say if you're a prohibited person, just because a cap and ball firearm is not considered a legal gun by the federal government does not mean it is not a dangerous weapon. And if you get caught with it or use it and you're a prohibited person, you know, you could be in trouble. Same thing if you're a regular person. If you're in a jurisdiction like California, which is, you know, you can't carry realistically in most parts of that state, you have to, you know, you can't, you can't, you can't hide behind the, the legal loophole that oh, this is not really considered a gun, it will be considered a gun or a dangerous weapon. They don't, they don't care. They don't care. There are so many good guns that are out there and they don't have to be, they don't have to be, you know, the fanciest guns out there. But you can for what a cap and ball revolver costs you. You don't really, you don't really gain anything. You can buy something, a small defense gun. Now granted it's going to be a lower end gun, but you can buy it and though they're, they're out there, go check Palmetto State Armory. And you know you can get used Glocks. You get not from there, but from places on the Internet. You know, you can have your dealer order used Glock or you know, use Sig or use. There are a lot of police trade ins, other things out there that are going to be much better and safer for you to use. The cap and ball revolvers are awesome. I love them. But they're range things now. You know, if I'm just working around my little tiny acreage, I would have no problem. And I've actually done it. I've carried a. It's a real cheesy. I think it was a kit gun, but I bought it, I bought it secondhand from a, from a friend of mine. And It's a brass frame.36 caliber gun, you know, and kind of like the Griswold and gun Gunnison Confederate revolver, I guess. And you know, I could, I carry that around then kind of the end of my chores. I'll go shoot a cylinder or two through it. You know, that's kind of fun. That's. But I'm not really carrying that with any specific thread in mind. That's just recreational thing that I'm. That I kind of have. So it's a, it's. It's just not a great idea. You could use it for some level of. I'm trying to think of anything that you could really use it for. And, and the, the thing is there are guys who can make their own black powder and you can certainly cast your own balls, you know, your own revolver projectiles. You can cast those. And there are kits where you can make your own percussion caps. It's basically like a kid's cap gun cap type of deal. You know, it's that same kind of chemicals. I've done those and those are those, those work pretty well. Not as good as real percussion caps, I would find. I'd get like one misfire a cylinder or something, you know, and that's no big deal, you know, if it just keeps you shooting when you, when you don't have percussion caps. And during the last great shortage we didn't have them. So you know. But there are guys who could do that and I suppose in a completely end of the world as we know it. If you had that percussion cap kit, you knew how to make, so how to mill black powder and you could cast the projectiles. You know, I guess you could, you could be shooting a handgun when other people maybe aren't. So, you know, that's, that's something that you could, you could do. But they're really, you know, a lot of fun recreationally and a great historical lesson. So that's what I would say about cap and ball revolvers. Do not bet your life on the. The, the consequences of a misfire or jammed cap are just too great. It's just too great. The next question is somewhat related. Pieta versus Uberti. For black powder revolvers, the conventional wisdom will always say that Ubertis are better finished and better made. I have found that to be somewhat true, not completely true. I've seen beautiful pietas. My Pieta Remington is absolutely really nice. I mean, it's really nice. I really like it. You know, one of the things is you kind of inspect it when you buy it. I'm sure that, you know, some, some guns come out of the factories better than others. And there's, and there are plenty of YouTube videos which show both brands, you know, an example from each brand which won't shoot out of the box and all the rest of it. I have never found that to be the case. I find that they all, they all work. But I'm sure there's this percentage that, that don't. That's just the way it is. You know, they, they used to be extremely inexpensive. They are now, you know, more expensive. They're usually less than a regular cartridge gun. And so, you know, but they, you know, you have to look at what you're buying. And if you're buying it, the nice part is that you can, you could buy it and have it shipped to you because it's not considered a, a firearm that requires all the stuff that a regular firearm would, you know, then you kind of get what you get and you can return it if you don't like it. But they're very nice guns. I think, considering the cost, considering, you know, the complexity of making them and all the other things, I think they're really pretty good. I've always get asked the question, what about the conversion cylinders? To me, they don't get you anything because they're so awkward. Even in the Remington, which is the fastest one. But it's so awkward to take the pistol down, take it out, take that plate off the back, get the. Punch the empties out, put them in. I mean, you're not really saving much over the percussion loading of it. So really, what's the point? And you know, that's how kind of. And, and again, those conversion cylinders are not cheap. Those can run as much, almost as much as the gun. You know, if the gun costs 325 or 350, those things will cost 275 or 300, I'm sure. So, you know, now all of a sudden you've got a $600 and you know, how farther down the rabbit hole do you really want to go? That's the question you have to really ask yourself. How much do you really want to invest in this? How far down the rabbit hole do you want to go? And to be honest, for me, that's just too far. That's just way too far. Okay, next question. Forced reset triggers for ARS and other rifles. Well, I don't know that they make them for other rifles, but I'm sure there are engineers trying to figure out because if you could make one for a semi automatic Thompson, people I'm sure will buy that because that will give you something that's just like the real thing. I'm not a big force reset trigger guy. I'm not a big full automatic guy because ammunition is so expensive and in some cases it can be, it's not really hard to get anymore. But you know, I mean, after doing that a few times, it's going to lose the luster and you're going to say, why did I do, why did I do this? You know, I mean, okay, it's a thrill, but so here we go, you know, is it really worth what I'm putting into this? And I think the answer will come out to be no. There's a reason that they have the semi automatic position. In most fully automatic, even the lowly Sten gun has got a semi automatic position. There's a reason for that. Yeah, the Sten, the Thompson. I don't know about the MP40. I, friend of the podcast and I were just talking the other day and I should have asked him if the MP40 had one because I can't, I can't recall. But all of these things are, are there. And you know, after, after a while, once the novelty wears off, I'm not really sure that anybody really is going to want a forced reset trigger. The only exception I can think of would be the Thompson and that's because the fully automatic Thompson is such an icon. That would be the only one that would interest me. Okay, here's another question. How do you, what do you think of The Bren gun versus the bar in World War II? The Bren gun being the.303 caliber British light machine gun, the bar being the.30 06. It's an automatic rifle. It's not a light machine gun, it's an automatic rifle. So it's a different, it's a different animal. A better question would be the Bren gun versus the MG42 because you have to go back to tactics and how things were in the British army and in the German army. The Bren gun for the British and the MG42 for the Germans was the main weapon in the squad. And everybody else kind of hauled ammo for it or supported it with their rifle fire and they were there to support those two weapons. In a US Rifle squad, you generally had like two more guys and you had two. And they were broken down into two fire teams that would cover each other and fire and maneuver. Very, very good tags still used today. Tactics still used today. And each one of those fire teams had a bar and they would have somebody who, you know, carried extra ammo. But, you know, it was really an automatic rifle and it really engaged point targets with automatic fire. That's what an automatic rifle does. Light machine gun engages kind of a broader variety of targets with automatic fire. But the price you pay is a bit more ammo consumption and it's usually a much heavier gun. I think it was probably five pounds heavier than the bar, which you could say that doesn't mean much, but it's really, you know that every pound adds up. When you're an infantryman, every freaking pound matters. So the bar, and with the bar you had two of them as opposed to just one. So if one of your bars was taken out or broke or somehow was out of action, the other one would still be working and they could actually cover each other while they're reloading. So it's a very, it was a very effective weapon that way. But if you just compare it one on one with a brand, you would say, well, it's only got a 20 shot magazine. It's, it's, it feeds from the bottom. It's just not as good in some ways. But actually in the employment, I would, I would argue that it was a much better, much better solution than having the single squad around. A single automatic weapon. Yeah, that just seemed to be a much better idea. The next question, which precision.22 long rifle would you use for NRL? My NRL career was very short and sweet. I don't want to go into it, but I had a Savage Mark ii great accurate gun with a. I have looked at it in a while so I gotta see. It's. It's not a PSA scope. It was somebody else. But anyway had a good scope on it and the whole thing. What I found very quickly like my, in the first match was that, you know, if you're really smart, you're gonna go for A, A 1022, which is semi automatic. And I was so stupid. I should have known this. I mean, it's so freaking obvious. There's only like a hundred years of practical things that tell you, yeah, semi automatics are probably better than bolt guns because you're fumbling around with the bolt, you can't shoot as fast. You can. With the 22 bolt gun especially, you can induce, you know, if you don't pick up this, the round out of the magazine just right. I mean it was just, it was just enough so that I felt that man, I bought the wrong gun and I did. And especially now that even from Ruger you can get these heavy barrel, super accurate 1022s. There are some super, super good magazines out there for them. And the magazines change easy. They just drop right out that little box magazine. You know, it's just an idiot for not going with the 1022. I knew better. I should have known better. I guess I didn't know better, but I should have known better. That being said, I love the Savage. It's a great accurate. For, for anything else it'd be great. But the problem that I found with NRL was they, they did and maybe they don't now, but they were moving towards, you know, too much rapid fire. And it's like when you do that, you fall into the clutches of the semi automatics that just way it is. And I know a lot of guys were buying the CZ450. I forget the. But it was the nice 22 version of the CZ. I can't remember the model number. And they were swearing by those. They said this is the best thing going. And, and maybe they were right. Maybe it's more accurate than you can make a 1022. But I think, you know, the NRL stuff that, that I was used to, it was all 100 yards and under. So I mean, how much better could it be? I mean, I don't know. To me the convenience of a semi automatic and maybe that comes from military background. Maybe guys who grew up and all they ever shot was bolt actions would think I was foolish and maybe they Are. I mean, all I know is that it induced, it introduced more mechanical actions I had to do to shoot around than would be done automatically for me if I had a 1022, which is, you know, just a better. The magazines are better, the shootability is better, the ability to mount a scope is better. The whole thing, the whole thing in many ways is just better, you know. Yeah. So I would definitely, I would definitely say that if you're thinking about nrl. And again, I've been out of it for a long time now, so pre Covid. I've been out of it since pre Covid. So if you're, if you have more up to date info, follow that. But my deal is I would go with it. I'd go with a 1022 with a big honking bull barrel and put the best scope you can on it and then go to the races, man. I would also say that that probably is going to cost you less than some of the, some of the other stuff that's out there. But I do have to tell you that the nrl, you know, they had the sporter division and that was a complete farcical joke. There was no way that sporter 22s were going to have the, the ability to hit targets between 50 and 100 yards. And what I say is it, yeah, if you sight it in at 50 yards, it'll hit something at a 22. If you sight it in 100 yards, you're probably okay with usual sporter barrel, you know, kind of lightweight. 22. They. The problem is they don't have really great triggers. They don't have. A lot of times they don't. And they did not have the good scopes on them. They had the, the variety of scopes you see on 22s. It's a lot better nowadays than it used to be. But you know, they. And you couldn't adjust between the target at 50 and the target at 80 or 100 yards. Your ability to make those positive adjustments just isn't there on these, these scopes. And of course it's, it's. It's non existent with the iron sights. Just non existent. And even if you say, well, you know, I could be a smart guy, I could take my Kimber Model 82 government out there and smoke those targets and you might be able to. But you would have to know, you would have to know every adjustment that you're making on the iron sight. And I don't even know if you could see the targets at 100 yards with an unmagnified you know, open iron sight. And the other thing is traditional. 22 target rifles are clunky, man. You know, you're not going to be climbing around the, the tank obstacle and all the other stuff that, that they have with, with something that's like that and they're single shot. So there you go. Yet yet another problem. So you know, again, you have to get the right tool for the right task. To me it has to be semi automatic and the only semi automatic I would trust would be a Ruger. So there you go. All right. Cast bullet loads for.32 Winchester Special. It's, it's very similar to a.30 30. You get a. Well, if you can get unique powder, I don't know why, but we can't seem to get unique powder anymore. But if you get unique powder or something, there's a couple of powders that are just very close to it. 1012 grains. You know, your mileage may vary. Behind a castlet bullet, I cast a, I think it's a three. I, I have a Lee mold and I think it puts out a three.324 bullet that I shrink down to three. No, it takes out a.323 bullet. And I need a.321 for.32 Winchester Special. So I powder coat it, then I size it down and that works for me. I size it. Normally they say it's.323, but my, my gun seems to like. Or.321. I'm sorry. And my, my gun likes.323 bullets. So that's, that's what I do. And you get a good, you can get a good load out of that. 32 Special is one of my favorites. I don't know why it's. I think the reason is it hits harder at short range, which is what you're using a lever gun for. You know, you don't shoot long range with a lever gun. You shoot close. You know, I will tell you that I grew up in the era where your first deer hunting rifle was a.30 30. Now I don't know who thought this up, but I remember, I remember, you know, going out on my first hunt and of course my father and my brother, they had, you know.308 with, you know, seven power scopes and all this. And, and here I got something that looked like it just came off the set of gun smoke. You know, I'm like, wait a minute, if that's what they need, why don't I have something that looks more like that than this, you know, I mean, than this. And the answer is, well, that's what everybody's first gun looks like. And I'm like, but, but if I see a deer, how am I going to hit it? If you need a scope to hit the deer, I do not have one. And it's like, you know, no, no, you just use, you know, just use that. And so I never really became a dedicated deer hunter because it's like, hey, man, you know, it's like, it's like giving someone a model T and saying, yeah, you know, the Ford Mustang is a much better car. But everybody's first car was a Model T or a Model A, and that's what you've got. So you're going out with people, they're driving Ford Mustangs, and you're following along in your. Your Model A. You know, it just doesn't. It just didn't make any sense to me. Now, as it turned out, I, I really liked the gun. I mean, I used it for a variety of things. I lived on a ranch as a kid at the time, so it was a very, very good rifle. And, you know, I'm very happy I have it. But it wasn't just the continuity of if a deer rifle looks like a Remington 700 with a 7 power scope, my 3030 doesn't look anything like that. And I don't think it's going to work very well. So anyway, that's. And, and, you know, it turned. It turned out that, like I said, I was not the. I was not the great white hunter on that one, that's for sure. Okay, last question. Is Triple 7 black powder substitute in cap and ball, revive revolvers and black powder cartridge rifles. From what I understand. It's, it's. You can use it. It's a little bit. It's a little bit hotter than black powder. So FFG, Triple 7, you'd want to kind of load it back a little bit in the rifles. I use Triple 7 FFG and CAP and ball revolvers. And I really like it. I mean, I hate to admit it, I. I like black powder the best, but I like the Triple 7. It's a little more powerful than 2 FG black powder in the, in the revolvers, but it's not. It. It shoots really well. I've got two Pieta 1860 armies that shoot very well with that. And I learned that from a cast shooter who kind of does a Wild Bill Hickok impression. And he basically said, if you want to shoot these things seriously, you get 777, 2 FG and you get triso or slicks, slick six nipples. Put those on your gun. That reduces the cap jams and all the drama with that. And the triple seven just shoots very well and it's easy to clean. So, you know, I kind of, at the time I thought, like, yeah, I want to use black powder. I don't really want to do this. But then when I actually tried it, I said, yeah, he was right on. He was right on. And, you know, you gain that kind of knowledge by being a competitor. And this is why competitive shooting is so good. The things you know that are just second nature. Other people find out the hard way. And finding out the hard way just isn't very much fun sometimes. So anyway, that's the triple seven. It's. And you know what the nice part is? Triple seven is like everywhere. It's not the drama with all this other powder where, you know, I go in and I try to buy powder. They almost never have what I want. And so I have to have a list of, well, if they don't have this, then I'll take this. If they don't have this, I'll take that. If they don't have that, I'll take something else. You know, I mean, I have to go in there with a list with like five or six choices on it. And even that doesn't work sometimes. Even then I walk out of the place with nothing. So anyway, that's it for this edition of Old School Guns. Any questions or comments, email them to me. Kb m a k e l@aol.com K b m a k e l@Aol.com or leave them on the comments section of Podbean. But until next time, this is Old School Guns out.