Lord...sitting around waiting to heal is a pain. I know I should just be grateful that I am "healing" but patience has never been my particular virtue. It's hard to think of one's self being "spoiled" in their mid 60s, but I clearly have been over the years (robust good health is clearly a blessing & I've enjoyed it for most all of my days). I did manage to get "out & about" yesterday, thanks to the generosity of a local elk-hunting buddy, and we grabbed some lunch at a local establishment and got "caught up" after my now month-long isolation. It all felt pretty good, so much so that when the time came to go home, I just couldn't face it. I hobbled back into my gunroom, grabbed the Newnham, a few stout loads (along with some more conservative stuff), climbed into my old pickup and headed for the range. We've had a pretty cold & snowy January so-far here, but the last few days have been fairly mild and sunny. Enough that I had hoped to be able to drive fairly close to where I might get to shoot a few shells out of this recent acquisition (& before I ship it off for a mild stock bend). The parking lot area was dry enough but the range was still a bit of a mudhole. Oh well, I crutched into the office and wrangled permission to blaze away (over some vast desolate space near to the empty & mostly dry parking area) and proceeded to do so.
I likely violated the terms of my new "walking cast" a little, but what the hell? The shells I used for my "proof" loads were some Kent Cartridge Gamebore "Pure Gold" diamond shot No. 6s that I've had laying around for a while now (they used to belt me fairly hard in an old John Blanch backaction ejector I once had). Still 2 1/2-inch and only 1-ounce, but with the highest brass I've ever seen on a modern British shotshell, and FWIW... they still "belt" you pretty good. I've no idea about the pressures involved here, but felt recoil was pretty noticeable in this 6lb 2oz gun. I sighted carefully down the tubes, both before and after, and saw absolutely nothing suspicious. I then followed with 7/8 ounce RSTs just as a comparison (the planned "feed stock" going forward with this unit) and they felt much more "normal" I suppose. The triggers were absolutely great, the gun cocks nicely (before ejecting) and said ejectors were brisk and timed perfectly. It would have been fun to break some clays with it too, but I wasn't willing to attempt any big muddy spots in my present state of disrepair. The bottom line here (at least for me) is that this gun is now "fine" for my intended purposes. I'll make it clear to my son that this is not a "rainy-day" gun (he still has plenty of those to choose from) and that it must be fed a tightly-controlled diet. For something to last this long (140+ years?) and still look and work this well is quite remarkable to me. I hope he sees it the same way too.
If he doesn't, the "old man" might exercise some Welsh-characteristics (my paternal grandmother was of Welsh extraction) and he'll be back to shooting a clunky old CZ.
Last edited by Lloyd3; 01/25/24 02:43 PM.
