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Tim Lyne
10-08-2008, 08:51 AM
Anybody know if this can be done? I picked up a Ballard in .56/56 last week and am wondering if cases can be safely made from 50/70's, or even from .348's. I use 348's in my 12.7X44R and 50/70 Rolling block, but it might be asking a lot to blow them out to .56.

Brady claims he makes his 50/70 cases from spent .22's; he says he can hold a loaded round up to the light to check them for powder. That's a smidge on the thin side for me....

I know I can get 56/56 cases from Buffler' Arms, but heck, where's the fun in that?

Tim Lyne
Knap's Batt.
#2952V

Jim Brady Knap's Battery
10-08-2008, 10:25 AM
Tim,

Give them a couple of wraps of Scotch magic mending tape. It doesn't do much to reinforce things but gives you something to do with all that tape you have laying around and can also be a great time filler while you wait for the fish sticks to thaw. :wink:

Yer pal


Jim Brady
2249V
Knap's Battery

Tim Lyne
10-08-2008, 12:55 PM
Scotch tape is silly and misleading; the experts use Duct tape and are verrry careful to oreint the tape seam the same way each and every time they chamber a round.

Living life as large as I do, I've found that by wrapping the whole cartridge with Duct tape, bullet and all, you get some amazing velocities but absolutely no soot on the cases. Currently I'm experimenting with duct tape encapsulated 44/40's in my 50/70 Rolling block; it takes exactly 18 wraps of duct tape to get a thousandth over bore size. Accuracy is very good and something that I take very seriously. I can consistantly hit a milk jug at 12 feet. The other advantage is you don't have to brush between shots; there is usally a three foot tail of tape hanging out of the muzzle after each shot and if you pull all the rest of it out you'll find the bore to be shiny and clean.

But why am I explaining all this to you?!? You have the "bin there, dunit" T-shirt.

Humbly, reverantly even,

Tim Lyne
Knap's Batt.
#2952V

(P.S. All of the above is absolutely false. Don't ever put anything in your bore that doesn't belong there....)

Jim Brady Knap's Battery
10-08-2008, 01:20 PM
Very good point about the duct tape oh wise Tim. Actually I seem to recall seeing a bit on tv where the members of an outdoorsmans club up in Canada were trying this very thing. Possum Lodge I believe it was and the head prepetrator was a guy named Red Green. They had this great saying in some version of Latin, "Quando Omni Flunkus Mortadi." Or some such.

Anyway this Green guy does a lot with Duct Tape. I'll bet if a person gave up on life and got a copy of every episode of that show, sat down and watched them all, (it would take a while) he may find reference to a barrel made of a soda straw wrapped in duct tape.

Thinking on all the marvelous uses of the sticky silver stuff I am formulating an idea of building a new camper using nothing but discarded beer cans and duct tape. That Red Green dude built a cabin cruiser with 2 liter soda bottles and duct tape so why not! I wonder how long I should make it?

Jim Brady
2249V
Knap's Battery

Tim Lyne
10-08-2008, 02:13 PM
I don't know about making the OUTSIDE out of beer cans and duct tape, but obviously you haven't been in Nolan Gipe's trailer in 2nd Maryland recently. My word, it's like a shrine to Old Milwaukee in there. Oddly enough it smells BETTER in there now than it did before...

He claims that whenever he goes in there all the black helicopters disappear. Being of the brotherhood of the foil hat, I can vouch for that as well.

Observantly,

Tim Lyne
Knap's Batt.
#2952V

Jim Brady Knap's Battery
10-08-2008, 03:52 PM
Ah yes, the Foil Hat! I DID see you wearing one at the nationals. How do yoooou think it worked. :?
I have bad news for you. When you said you had to leave Friday night and get back to work for the weekend I knew what you were thinking even with the foil hat and feel it best not revealed on the board. :roll: Does your employer know about this board?
Oh well, perhaps it kept the Russian satelites from receiving your brain waves and using them to conquer the world. You looked good in it too!

Yer Pal

Jim Brady
2249V
Knap's Battery

FlinchJerk
10-09-2008, 11:29 AM
All....This is from 5 years ago & sources and supplies may have changed....The Buffalo Arms .56-56 cases then were lathed down from Bell 50-70 Govt, as the headstamp on the cases indicates.

At that time, the mouths of the cases came in 2 purposeful thicknesses. I was not aware of this distinction and just went ahead and ordered cases.
It turned out I received the thin mouth cut-downs. The heel of bullets cast from the Rapine Spencer .56-56 mold were way too small for the thin walls and fell right out. (I know, I know, from this thread....use duct tape!)

I had never handloaded metallic cartridges before, but knew something egregious was afoot. The remedy was to have my magician gunsmith open up the heel of the bullet cavity in the aluminum mold; it was necessary to open it by .014" for the ball to stay put in the case.

After it was solved, later conversation with the Buffalo Arms folks revealed the thin/thick mouth option. I presume if I had ended up with the thick wall in the first place, a lot of my puzzled head-scratching and sleeplessness would have been avoided.

So do consider compatibility of bullet and case before laying out the $$$$.

yours in the hobby...
Dean Nelson
!st MD Infantry, CSA, N-SSA

paul w/McGregor's 385V
10-09-2008, 02:43 PM
Jim, Tim,
It must be said tha Nolan's taste seems to have gone down hill with his defection from Knapp's Battery. Drinking Ole Mystery instead of MD 20 20 and lining his camper with the cans!

Finchin',
Every one tries Duck Tape at one time or another to fix the hard problems, or as a quick fix to quiet the Big Dummy when Lefty is making a point. Paper patching with a bit of cardboard from a matchbook and some of Tim's clear tape would have given a more reasonable solution and less chance of a stuck case.

Take care and be safe
pfb


ps. ALWAYS check the reloading manual of choice before loading metallic cartridges for correct methods.