It's been quiet here

[Distant Thunder]

Gavin,

Congratulations! I'm a happy guy if I can place in the top 3 and I can feel like I made a good showing for my efforts. If we finished in 1st place every time what would be the point? Just gotta try harder is all.

My .44-77 continues to keep me busy and I am enjoying working with and shooting it. I have only had it for 4 months! It seems like it's been a year and 4 months! It was a bit of a long wait but that's the way it is with these Sharps rifles. The good news is that it was worth the wait.

Gussy,

I've been recutting molds for years. In fact my paper patch mold that works so well in my .45-70 Hepburn started life as a .40 gg mold. I have used it to win all but two of my Creedmoor matches so recutting a mold can be very successful. It's all in the step up. I even successfully recut several grease groove molds to change the nose shape before I made the jump to paper patch. That is a lot trickier than cutting an old to a larger caliber paper patch design.

I have used both my lathe and my mill to do these molds and either will work. The biggest problem I have in cutting any mold is that I never really know what I have inside until I break the setup and open the bugger up. And to know what sizes I have ended up with I have to cast a few. It can be a lot more work to set it up again when I only have to take .001" or less out in one place inside a long cavity! That has proved fatal to a few for me. Oh well, they sell new molds every day.