What's Everyone Doing?

[BEAVERMAN]

well now...you got BIG BALLS!

[BEAVERMAN]

Working on a new batch of ball bags today, been cut, sewn, stuffed, dyed, we are jacking them at the moment, then I need to go to the shop and cut & drill some plugs, dye them and assemble, 6- 75 cal. 8 of the large up to 54 cal and 6 up to 40 cal, had a run on them lately and trying to build up some stock for the March show.

[Second-rate Marksman]

I braved the cold and took the Tom Caster .68 cal fowler out for a spin today in preparation for Sunday’s club shoot. Consistently hitting steel at 50 yards and beyond!

Slow-motion video of the fowler in action here:

https://youtu.be/IW0uPtKVGqk?si=kh_9y918_M8A1NMn

Even the ol’ man had to give it a whirl:

[Nessmuk]

Spent Friday afternoon recovering lead from local gun club. Like Eric my new .62 cal Fowler will eat up the lead. Lucky for me, my club has SASS range close to our muzzleloader range. The SASS guys shoot soft lead bullets at metal targets 15 yards away. Imagine all those bullet turning into nickel-sized coins of lead just dropping on the ground. I scooped up 50 lbs of lead in about an hour. So I'll be casting all winter. and probably harvesting more lead, too.

[Second-rate Marksman]

I’m envious, Mark! I had picked up 80 pounds of lead (converted into ingots from roofing scrap) from a gentleman on the Muzzleloading Forum and thought I’d be set for a while. Boy am I eating through it quick!

[LongWalker]

In my last "intro to flintlocks" class of the year,one of the students decided he "had to have" the horn and measure I'd recently made for the students to use.  After several offers during the class, one finally sounded good: he got the horn and measure in exchange for a case of Swiss powder.  That's enough to keep teaching the class for 6 months to a year . . . but now I'm having second thoughts.  I almost think I should have held out for ~ 60# of lead too!   

I did manage to pick up 5 horns that I figure are worth the effort of making powder horns.  One will probably wind up as my version of a horn carried by one of my great-greats; the others will get used for some projects I've had cooking in the back of my mind since the mid-90s. 

[No Powder]

If you've had projects cooking since the mid 90's, they should be well done and we need to see pictures when they're  finished.