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Hey Froggie, good to see you over here. Hope all has been well with you up there in those mountains .... I do miss the Blue Ridge Mountains. Exactly what kind of project 25-20 rifle are you plaining ?

Hey fellows take it easy every one will get the wrong impression of me.
Froggie just so you know. Joe built me a great 256 win mag. With most of that stuff.Smile so it did go to a good use.Whitey

Ps also glad to see you here. Whitey

Froggie, frequently I think that if I did (still) have a brain, I'd probably take it out and play with it! I wasn't joking about the 'write it down' thing either.

Maybe you can just describe the tang to me in an email; as long as it's mostly still there then I can make up the difference by adding/moving steel. Even if it's already shortened and bent, I may be able to use it anyway. Email me.

I don't know what Whitey's gonna do with all those low walls once he runs out of nephews. I have 4 nephews and built each one a heavy-bbl 10/22 but I ain't giving them any of my low walls! Well, maybe after I'm dead...
Regards, Joe

Smile NEW DEAL Joe no more reletives.Got tired of son-inlaws etc.Got all guns back in my gun cabnit and closet.I am scared to put the Low Walls with the Martini's you know what might happen. Smile Whitey

Ken, the low-wall in question is one you would be sure to recognize... it got stalled on the back burner for a while, but I am itching to get it done now. The barrel is one of those little "small lever gun" models from Green Mtn that Charlie Dell and I fitted up leaving the "tulip" as suggested by JDS, and chambered to .25-20 SS so I can use up some of that brass (and my dies) that I have been accumulating. It really is cuter than a speckled pup! Did you ever reline the barrel of the .25-20 Stevens we used to shoot down there? IIRC, you were thinking of going with WCF to make brass easier to get.

Froggie

PS The Blue Ridge is starting to get a little chilly. Maybe you ought to bring your achy old bones up here come Spring when it's warm... maybe even for the June Schuetzen match out at Gretna.

Ken, IIRC that was the very last barrel done by Charlie Dell. He chambered it using the through-the-headstock method and Froggie had plans to write an article about it. At the same time I had an identical GM bbl that I was installing on Calvin the Bookie's low wall and I was chambering using the steady-rest method. Froggie's rifle would be 25-20SS while Calvin's rifle would be 25-20 WCF and I would write an article similar to Froggie's, with plans to publish the two articles as a comparison to one another. Theoretically this would give the readers the opportunity to evaluate not only the two cartridges and their respective performances & reloading requirements but also the two chambering techiques and the respective opinions of each smith about each technique.

Alas, many a slip, etc, etc....maybe one day.
Regards, Joe

Whitey,
I'm still available for adoption! I don't eat much, and I can take good care of your guns too!

J.D., I for one would be very interested in such comparisons/articles. I have used .25-20WCFs all my life (well, since I was 8), but never considered the round particularly accurate since it always seems to take last place with the "quarter bore" Scheutzen crowd. All the (many) ones I've had were "hunting accurate"--minute-of-ground-squirrel at 50-75 yds. but I never really developed accuracy loads beyond aping Ken Waters'.

I've always wondered how the WCF case would do with black powder too, but never experimented. Has anyone? I once tried .22 Hornet cases with black and cast bullets--now I see why smokeless powder was invented. But Ned Roberts did great things with the original .22 WCF....

Mike, we had planned to publish the companion articles in the ASSRA Journal back in the early 00's but things happened to delay Froggie's rifle completion and then things happened with the ASSRA and the Journal Editor. Long regrettable story and not appropriate to relate here but suffice it to say that I probably won't be publishing anything in the Journal any time soon (understatement, their choice, VBG). Actually had plans to do a series of articles on walls and their smithing problems, to be published one at a time and then eventually compiled into a book, similar to the way that Michael Petrov handled his articles with Precision Shooting.

It was suggested that the ASSRA publish a book of collected previously-published articles on smithing the rolling block, but none of the present ASSRA BoD seemed to think the idea was worth pursuing. Froggie volunteered to begin the process but I haven't heard any more about it. Meanwhile I'm looking around for another single shot rifle publishing venue.

BTW I'll bet that most of the perceived problems with the 25-20 WCF arise from the oversize chamber neck dimensions, while most 25-20SS setups use tighter neck and chamber dimensions with matching-dimension brass. Just a thought.
Regards, Joe

Joe why not talk to Steve Garbe, The Black Powder Cartridge News has twise as many readers as the ASSRA Journal and I am personally very fund on the Black Powder Cartridge News.

Michael