Wowee, do we ever have some good stuff coming up right here on the ExNotes blog. Guns, motorcycles, adventure touring in Transylvania, and the results of a content safari through Arizona all the way to Albuquerque. Here’s an inkling of just a few of the topics coming your way.
What’s the real difference between a $1500 Colt Python and a $650 Ruger Blackhawk? Watch for our side-by-side, target-by-target comparo. It’s coming up.
Into resurrections? Hey, how about CSC’s replica of the original Mustang motorcycle! You read our recent story about the Al Simmons Mustang motorcycle collection and the origins of the Mustang. CSC’s Steve Seidner went a step further, and we’ll tell you all about it.
Ever have your well dry? I mean literally, not figuratively. Uncle Joe Gresh has, and he’ll tell you all about it. Gresh is a guy who makes MacGuyver look like an amateur. You’ll love this story.
We’re going to bring in a new writer or two (or maybe more). We have a blog loaded and ready to publish from good buddy Airborne Mike on a motorcycle ride through (get this!) Transylvania! I kid you not. Transylvania and the Transfagarasan Highway!
On that topic of new writers…Joe Gresh will tell you all about what you need to do to be considered for the ExNotes editorial staff. Watch for a blog on this topic in the near future.
The Pima Air Museum in Tucson is another treasure. Wow, that was a fun visit. There’s so much there we couldn’t take it all in during a single visit, and it’s a place that screams for more than a single blog. I need to return. The photo ops were incredible.
More good Joe Gresh stuff straight from Tinfiny Ranch, including the Gresh moto stable and the world famous Gresh project bank. Motorcycles, the MGB-GT, and more!
How about the Franklin Automobile Museum in Tucson, Arizona? Never heard of it? We hadn’t, either, but (trust me on this) it’s Tucson’s best kept secret!
White Sands Missile Range? Yep, that, too. Everything from a Nazi V-2 to current US weaponry, and we’ll have the story right here.
How about White Sands National Park? Think Sahara Desert, and you’ll have a good idea about what these rolling snow white gypsum hills look like. It was awesome!
The New Mexico Museum of Space History, with a guided tour by none other than Joe Gresh? That was a really fun visit with lots of cool exhibits. It’s coming your way.
How about sacred Native American ruins in New Mexico? We saw several and they were impressive, including the Kuaua Native American site along the Rio Grande River.
Albuquerque is quite a town, and Old Town Albuquerque is quite the place. We had a lot of fun wandering around and taking photos. It’s in the mix for a future blog.
And the Albuquerque 50th Anniversary Balloon Fiesta…wow, was that ever spectacular. The excitement and wonder of that event is one of the most impressive things I’ve ever experienced.
Stay tuned, folks. It’s quite an adventure, and it’s onging!
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Susie and I were recently in Arizona and we found ourselves near the entrance to Saguaro National Park. There are two sections of Saguaro National Park; we were near the one with an 8-mile driving loop through it. It was an easy one-hour ride with frequent stops for photos.
Arizona is a vibrant state. Bright blues, and green hills and valleys from the Tanque Verde’s waters.Another case of Mother Nature moving the vibrance and saturation sliders to the right.A barrel cactus, with two blooming flowers.There were a lot of butterflies flitting about. This one landed for a few seconds. I didn’t really have the right lens for this sort of photo.The 8-mile loop through Saguaro National Park is a one way road, with markings for tortoise crossings, rabbit crossings, javelina crossings, and more. All we saw was a lone rabbit. It was hot out there.The Starship Subaru. It’s perfect for these kinds of road trips.The Outback framed by the Park’s namesake cactus.
On these kinds of trips, I love traveling in my Subaru Outback. If it gets hot, I turn on the air conditioning. If it gets cold, I turn on the heater. If it rains, I turn on the windshield wipers. If I want music or news, I turn on the radio. If I don’t know how to get someplace, I turn on the nav system. I can carry as much stuff as I want, even more if I fold down the rear seats. Don’t get me wrong; I like riding my motorcycle and I’ve done some big motorcycle trips. But there’s something to be said about traveling with your wife in a comfortable car. This is the third Subaru I’ve owned, and my next car will be another Subaru.
We stopped in the small visitor center before we left Saguaro National Park, and to my surprise, a new Subaru Wilderness Outback was in the parking lot. It’s a version with different trim, more ground clearance, restyled bumpers (front and rear) for better approach angles, and lower gearing. I like the idea of everything except the lower gearing and the trim. Somehow, the Wilderness styling makes it look cheap (in my opinion) and the lower gearing lowers fuel economy.
I’ve owned three Subies now, starting with a 2006 WRX, a 2013 CrossTrek, and my current Outback. They have all been great automobiles.
So, about this most recent trip: We meandered through Arizona and New Mexico, and our travels included stops at the Tinfiny Ranch, the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, and more. Stay tuned; there are more blogs coming your way from this adventure. We had a blast.
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Finding reloading components of any kind these days (brass, bullets, powders, or primers) is a tough thing to do. Finding brass for more exotic cartridges is near impossible. One of my favorite cartridges is the famed .300 Holland and Holland. It’s a specialty item. I’ve not seen loaded .300 H&H ammo or brass in gun stores for years. I searched for two years for brass and found nothing. Prices for both ammo and brass have climbed through the roof (Nosler brass, just the empty brass, is now about $6 per round), but it’s all moot. It could be free or it could be $100 per round. Nobody has any. I know moot, and this is it.
I was recently in my local reloading shop (Phillips Wholesale, in Covina, California). I stop by there periodically just to see what Rick has in stock, and if it’s anything I might be able to use, I buy it because there’s no telling when it will be available again. While there, I was lamenting with Rick about the sad state of affairs in component availability, and I mentioned not being able to find .300 H&H brass. Rick perked up. “.300 H&H?” he said. “I might have something.”
Rick pulled a plastic box of 50 cartridges from under the counter. It contained .300 H&H handloaded ammo in virgin (previously unfired) brass.
.300 H&H ammo. It;s beautiful, isn’t it?The data label on the ammo Rick showed to me. It was loaded 12 1/2 years ago.
Rick helps folks settle estates when the estate includes reloading goodies. This was a box of ammo with that provenance. I normally wouldn’t fire someone else’s handloads. I’m a careful reloader; I don’t know that the someone else who loaded other ammo was. But I had, in my hot little hands, 50 rounds of fresh .300 H&H brass. I didn’t recognize the propellant (AA 86?), but I didn’t care. I figured I could pull the bullets, dump the powder, and load the new brass with my preferred .300 H&H load, which is 60.0 grains of IMR 4320 and a Winchester 150-grain jacketed softpoint bullet. My rifle (I’ll tell you more about it in a minute) has shot 0.25-inch groups with this load.
So I bought the ammo and proceeded to pull it apart. I removed the bullets (which mashed a few tips and scraped a few ogives), dumped the powder, and reloaded the brass cases with my IMR 4320 load. I reused the pulled bullets. The bullets weren’t perfect after the extraction operation, but I wanted to fireform the brass to my rifle and I didn’t care about their condition. Once the brass has been fireformed (fired so it conforms to that particular rifle), I will neck size only to maximize case life. The .300 H&H cartridge is known for short case life when it is full length resized.
AA 86 propellant and Remington 150-grain jacketed soft poin bullets pulled from the first box of ammo. I’m going to use that powder in .243 ammo now that I know what it is.
I weighed a few of the powder charges as I was pulling the bullets and they were exactly as labeled on the box Rick sold to me: 75.0 grains. Whoever loaded this (a fellow from Riverside who passed away) was obviously a careful reloader. The propellant was a stick powder, so I figured it was a rifle propellant, but I had never heard of AA 86. I recognized AA as most likely belonging to Accurate Arms, but there’s nothing I could initially find on the Accurate website called AA 86.
I called Accurate Arms’ customer service to see if they could shed any light on the AA 86 mystery. The kid I spoke with told me Accurate Arms had gone through an acquisition, and he didn’t know anything about their propellants before the acquisition. He specificially had never heard of AA 86. I poked around a bit more on the Internet and learned that Accurate Arms had occasionally sold surplus powders identified as Data Powder (or DP) powders, followed by a two-digit number. There was a DP 86 powder. I went back to the Accurate Arms site and found a reference to it, which said that DP 86 was essentially the same as their AS 3100 powder. The Accurate Arms customer service guy didn’t know this (he sounded like a young guy).
When I bought the box of .300 H&H ammo from Rick, he told me he might have some more. I gave him my phone number and Rick called a couple of days later. He found three more boxes. I was in the middle of doing something important (writing an ExNotes blog, actually), but Rick’s message took priority. I stopped writing and left for Rick’s shop immediately.
I told Rick about the phone call to Accurate Arms. Rick knew all about DP 86, and he told me that this ammo had indeed been loaded with DP 86. He also had canisters of the powder from the gentleman who passed away. It sold quickly, Rick told me.
After pulling the bullets, I reloaded the first box with my pet load. If I was loading for accuracy, I would measure each charge, but I just wanted to fireform so I charged each case with my RCBS powder dispenser. IMR 4320 is an extruded rod powder, but the individual rods are small and it meters well.
I mentioned above that I would tell you a bit about my .300 H&H rifle. My Dad bought it for me in the early 1970s before my US Army tour in Korea. The rifle began life as a 7mm Weatherby Magnum, but I never could get the rifle to group well with that cartridge. I had it rebarreled in .300 H&H, a cartridge I had read a lot about and learned to love in a pre-’64 Model 70 Winchester (don’t ask, it’s sold, and yeah, selling it was a dumb move on my part). I glass bedded the Weatherby action, and I stripped the rifle’s original epoxy finish and refinished it with TruOil.
A Douglas barrel chambered in .300 H&H. It has a 1 turn in 10 inches twist rate and it is accurate. The rebarreled Weatherby feeds the .300 H&H cartridges flawlessly.Rich, warm, and beautiful. There’s something about oil-finished walnut that is just right.The flip side looks just as good. About 10 years after I refinished this rifle, Weatherby introduced their Euromark line, which was the Mark V with an oil finished walnut stock. I own a couple. Both have highly figured walnut, but to me this custom .300 H&H looks better. It groups better, too. Weatherby has since discontinued making walnut Mark V rifles. They are all composite rifles now, which seems like a crime against nature.
I’ve been shooting and hunting with this custom .300 H&H Weatherby for close to 50 years now, and I’ve owned and shot quite a few other rifles during that time. This one remains my favorite. I am a big Weatherby fan and I love the .300 H&H cartridge. It is the perfect combination of power, accuracy, and manageable recoil. I greatly prefer the .300 H&H Magnum over the .300 Weatherby Magnum. The .300 Weatherby Magnum’s recoil is vicious and unpleasant. The .300 Weatherby’s recoil is aggravated by a need to load at or near maximum for accuracy. The .300 H&H is a more useable and enjoyable chambering.
I bought four boxes (200 rounds!) of this handloaded virgin brass, and I recently took two boxes to the range. One contained my reconstituted ammo with the IMR 4320 powder and 150-grain pulled Remington bullets; the other was loaded with 180-grain Nosler blemished bullets and AA 85 powder. On this blemished bullet business: Sometimes bullet manufacturers sell factory seconds at reduced prices. This was the only time I’ve heard of blems from Nosler. I’m a guy who loads for accuracy (I could care less about muzzle velocity or killing power), so the idea of using a rejected factory bullet seems silly. I’m firing this ammo only to fireform the cases, so I was okay with reusing the pulled bullets. And I felt more comfortable about firing the ammo as provided by Rick once I learned more about AA 86 and AA 85 propellants.
How did it shoot? Both the boxes I tried (my IMR 4320 load and the 180-grain Nosler load) shot very well. The 180-grain load predictably had a bit more recoil, but it wasn’t bad. The 150-grain bullet and IMR 4320 load showed no primer flattening; the 180-grain Nosler load showed just a hint of primer flattening (but not enough to be of concern).
My favorite 300 H&H load showed no pressure signs. The guy who loaded it snuck in a different primer on one cartridge.The ammo loaded with 180-grain Noslers and a near-max DP 86 load flattened the primers just a bit, but not enough to indicate excessive pressure. This load had more recoil, but it was still way below .300 Weatherby levels.
Accuracy was surprisingly good with both loads, especially considering that I dinged up the 150-grain Winchester bullets during the removal operation and the 180-grain Noslers were factory blems.
Here’s the target I shot at 100 yards with my IMR 4320 loads:
This is way below minute-of-wild-boar and more than accurate enough for ammo loaded with pulled bullets and brass that had not yet been fireformed. Next tme will be better. It’s a load that has produced quarter-inch groups in the past. I didn’t expect that kind of accuracy with this ammo due to the bullets’ condition.
And here’s one I shot with the 180-grain Noslers as loaded by the original reloader 12 1/2 years ago. You can ignore the group(s) circled in black. When good buddy Chuck gave me a target board at the range, it had a target stapled on it with usable real estate. I’m cheap so I reused the target (somebody had previously fired at the bullseyes circled in black; I only shot at the orange and blue targets).
Groups shot with the 180-grain blemished Nosler bullets and DP 86 surplus powder. It’s not bad for a dragon slayer at 100 yards. The shots circled in black were already on the target when I used it.
I’m quite pleased with this .300 H&H ammo. I picked up 200 rounds at about one-sixth what factory ammo would have cost at a time when neither ammo nor brass is available. It pays to maintain a relationship with local businesses.
About 10 years ago the late Jim Cavanaugh and I wrote an article on Mustang motorcycles for Motorcycle Classics magazine. The research for that story was a lot of fun. I thought I’d resurrect it and publish it again here on the ExhaustNotes blog.
The Magnificent Mustang
Mustang: The little motorcycle that could — and still does
Story by Joe Berk and Jim Cavanaugh
Mustang. Uniquely American, the word stirs the imagination. Wild horses. World War II fighters. Pony cars. And for those of us with good memories, some of the coolest motorcycles ever made. No one knows with certainty how manufacturing mogul John Gladden, founder of the Mustang Motorcycle Corporation, selected the name. Some say he thought of wild horses. Others say it stems from the P-51 Mustang fighter plane. Both stories make sense, but we like the one about the P-51. Gladden Products made parts for World War II combat aircraft, so it seems logical that the P-51 Mustang could have been part of the calculus that created the Mustang moniker.
Howard Forrest’s first 300cc motorcycle next to a Harley-Davidson.
Gladden Products had a lot of things going for it, but as World War II was ending, John Gladden knew he needed a new product. Synchronicity struck when he noticed a very unusual motorcycle in the company parking lot. It was scooter-sized, but it was a motorcycle — a miniaturized motorcycle. The bike belonged to Howard Forrest, a machinist and engineer, and a serious motorcycle enthusiast who constructed it using a water-cooled, 300cc 4-cylinder engine he designed and built himself, from scratch.
So this was the time and the situation, Gladden casting about for a new product, one of his engineers riding a personally-designed and fabricated small motorcycle to work, and millions of young men returning from the war. Gladden recognized opportunity when he saw it: His new product would be a small motorcycle.
Gladden challenged Forrest and Chuck Gardner (a fellow Gladden Products engineer and motorcycle rider) to develop a lightweight motorcycle. Forrest’s 300cc engine was intriguing, but would be expensive to build. Gladden wanted a lightweight and inexpensive bike; more substantive than a scooter, but not as big as a motorcycle — a scooter-sized motorcycle. What resulted was a family of Mustang motorcycles.
The First Mustangs
Mustang originally planned to use 197cc Villiers 2-stroke engines, but after building a few prototypes with the 197cc engine, Villiers instead offered their 125cc 2-stroke. It wasn’t what Mustang wanted, but it was the only game in town. Thus was born the first production Mustang — the 1946 Colt. The Colts had leading-link front forks, a hardtail rear end, tiny 8-inch wheels, a peanut gas tank and twin exhausts. Small, yes, but stunning.
Forrest and Gardner weren’t ecstatic about the tiny Villiers engine, however, and Villiers was making noises about cutting off their supply. Gladden recognized that making his own engines would be critical to Mustang’s success, so Gladden did what moguls do: He acquired an aircraft engine manufacturer that included Busy Bee, a maker of small industrial engines. One in particular seemed a good fit for a new Mustang motorcycle. It was a 320cc flathead single-cylinder 4-stroke, and it became the basic engine that would power future Mustangs.
Building bikes at the Mustang Motor Products Corporation in Glendale, California.
Forrest and Gardner went back to the drawing board. What rapidly emerged in 1947 was the Mustang Model 2, a completely new Mustang and the first with what we now recognize as the classic Mustang appearance. Bigger than the Colt, it had Mustang’s new engine and 12-inch disc wheels. The intake and exhaust ports faced rearward, with a finned exhaust manifold. The cast aluminum primary cover was adorned with the Mustang logo, and it had a 3-speed Burman transmission, a tractor seat supported by big coil springs, a rear brake, a rigid rear end and telescopic front forks. It weighed just 215 pounds. The Model 2 was not without its problems, however, including rod knocks and noisy timing gears. Mustang handled the issues with special production actions, and to make sure only good bikes left the plant, the production foreman had to personally start, run, listen to, and approve each engine.
More Models
Looking to expand the market, in December of 1948 Mustang introduced the Model 3 DeliverCycle, a three-wheeled, low-cost commercial vehicle. Police departments used DeliverCycles for parking enforcement — the city of Huntington Beach, California, was the first to use trikes for this purpose.
1946 Mustang Colt with the 125cc 2-stroke Villiers engine.1956 Mustang Colt with a 320cc flathead 4-stroke engine.1963 Mustang Thoroughbred with rear swingarm suspension.1964 Mustang Trail Machine “Rear Suspension” model.
Addressing the Model 2’s problems, in 1950 the Mustang team rolled out the Model 4 (known as the Standard). The newest Mustang engine incorporated Micarta timing gears for quieter running, a new magneto and alternator for improved ignition and lighting, forward-facing intake and exhaust ports to simplify the exhaust design, and a stamped steel primary case. The frame was also cleaned up and it got an improved 3-speed Burman transmission. The new Model 4 sold for $346.30. Mustang rolled these changes into a new DeliverCycle, too, the Model 5.
The Model 4 was a home run, and Mustang used it as the basis for several models over the next decade — the Special, the Pony, the Bronco and the Stallion. The Model 4 Special was a factory performance upgrade with higher compression and hotter cams. The standard Model 4 evolved into the Pony (the base model), which was the best-selling Mustang. Output climbed to 9.5 horsepower. Mustang also offered a 5 horsepower version of its iconic bike to meet some states’ requirements for junior riders.
The Model 4 Special morphed into the Bronco (Mustang had a practice of referring to their bikes with model numbers, which sometimes were offered as Specials and sometimes evolved into other designations). The Bronco kept the Pony’s engine and transmission and added a front brake as standard equipment.
Mustang upgraded the line again with the Stallion (the Model 8). It added a 4-speed Burman transmission and horsepower climbed to 10.5. The Stallion had a chrome flywheel and two-tone paint with pinstriping. The first Stallions had Amal carburetors; later models went to a 22mm Dell‘Orto.
1964 Mustang Model 7 DeliverCycle with a 4-speed tranny.
The market started to change for Mustang in 1956. DeliverCycle sales fell and Mustang dropped it. Perceiving a need for a lower cost motorcycle, Mustang introduced a new Colt in 1956, but it was a bust. Value engineered to reduce labor costs, the new Colt had a 9.5 horsepower engine, no transmission and a centrifugal clutch. The front suspension reverted to an undamped leading- link arrangement. The kickstarter was awkward and the centrifugal clutch wore the crankshaft prematurely. It wasn’t liked within the factory and build quality was poor, resulting in rework that offset any hoped-for savings. Mustang killed it just two years later.
Things improved in 1960 with the Mustang Thoroughbred. In a first for Mustang, the Thoroughbred incorporated swingarm rear suspension, a dual seat and an optional storage compartment under the seat. It had the Stallion’s 4-speed Burman transmission and a bump to 12.5 horsepower. This was good stuff, but the 1960s would not be good for Mustang. By the time the Thoroughbred rolled out, Howard Forrest had left the company. The Mustang organization was not without its politics, and for reasons few understood, the company had fired Forrest. Chuck Gardner took his place to lead development.
Offroad Expansion
In 1961, Mustang introduced the Trail Machine, the last in a legendary line of Mustang motorcycles. In a break from Mustang tradition, Trail Machines used Briggs & Stratton 5.75 horsepower engines. Staying with the Burman 3-speed tranny, the Trail Machine looked like the illegitimate child of a motorcycle and a lawn mower, with the standard Mustang diamond tread front tire and a more aggressive tractor tread rear tire.
While the machines were functionally excellent — weight was only 169 pounds dry — the rigid rear Trail Machine was tagged with the uninspiring “Rigid Frame” designation, and when Mustang introduced the swingarm Trail Machine in 1964 it was similarly (and boringly) named the “Rear Suspension” model. These bikes were initially offered only in yellow, but Mustang later added blue. Not many sold, and they are rare today.
Mustang resumed Model 5 DeliverCycle production in 1963, and then quickly upgraded it to the Model 7 in 1964. The Model 7 DeliverCycle incorporated the Stallion’s 12.5 horsepower engine and 4-speed transmission, but time was running out for Mustang. In 1965 production of Mustang motorcycles came to an end.
No one who’s talking knows with certainty why Mustang stopped production. Some say it was because Burman wasn’t supplying transmissions at the required rate. Some say there were management problems. Some believe it was all those nicest people you kept meeting on Hondas, motorcycles that offered electric starting, better performance and lower prices. There were a few revival attempts using residual Mustang parts inventories, but only a handful of bikes emerged. The Mustang saga, one of the most intriguing stories in our magnificent motorcycling world, was over. Or was it? Watch for a near term future blog on the California Scooter Company.
Today, original Mustangs are highly prized, routinely selling for $10,000-plus in concours condition. Even “beater” Mustangs — when you can find them — typically bring more than $5,000. There’s an active fan base (check out www.mmcoa.org), and enthusiasm in Mustang circles runs high.
Al Simmons with a few of his prized Mustangs.
The Mustang Colt and most of the Mustangs in this feature come from the collection of Al Simmons, the founder of Mustang Motorcycle Products, a designer and manufacturer of aftermarket motorcycle seats and accessories (www.mustangseats.com). An avid pilot, Al named his company after the World War II airplane. It wasn’t until Mustang Seats was well on its way to success that someone suggested he should own an original Mustang motorcycle. Al thought that was a splendid idea. Thirty Mustang motorcycles later, he still thinks it’s a splendid idea.
Jim Cavanaugh, back in the day and shortly before his passing.
The late Jim Cavanaugh started in the Mustang Motor Product Corporation’s manufacturing area at age 19 before becoming production superintendent. Jim was an avid rider into his 80s. You might have seen him buzzing around the Oregon countryside on one of his vintage Mustangs or his CSC replica Mustang.
When I wrote the above story for Motorcycle Classics, I was also a consultant to CSC Motorcycles. The initial CSC bike was an updated approximate replica of the original Mustang, and the above story had a sidebar to it that told the CSC story. Watch for it here on the ExNotes blog; we’ll publish that story in another week or so. In the meantime, if you’d like to know more about CSC Motorcycles, their Mustang replicas, and CSC becoming the highly successful North American distributor of Zongshen motorcycles, you should pick up a copy of 5000 Miles At 8000 RPM.
Some time ago I wrote about ordering a custom Buck folding knife. I’m not a knife guy (many of my friends are). The hook for me was an ad that floated into my inbox. I have a regular Buck 110 (an anniversary edition I bought on sale; it’s the other knife you see in the photo above), but I am the guy that marketing types dream about: Offer a custom feature or two, hit me with an email, and I’m in.
As promised, the lead time was a few weeks. When it arrived, all was not well. All priced out, I was into the custom Buck (complete with elk horn grips) for a little under $200. I liked the look of the elk horn grips, but on my knife the interface between the elk horn natural bark and the bolsters was not good. Some of the undulations in the horn butted up against the bolsters and it looked cheap. I realize the grips are a natural material, but I still didn’t like the fit.
I wrote to Buck, expecting to hear the above as an explanation (i.e., that the grips are natural material), but that wasn’t the case at all. Buck responded the next day. Send the knife back, they said, and we’ll make it right. I did, I had a new knife in about two weeks, and it was perfect. Buck selected a set of grips that had no bark interfacing with the bolsters, and the intersection was line-to-line everywhere on the knife. It is a thing of great beauty.
My custom Buck features included a mirror-polished blade, nickel (instead of brass) bolsters, and the elk horn grips I mentioned. And that blade…wow, it is razor sharp. The first time I closed it, when the blade completed its arc into the handle the tip caught my finger. It was so sharp I didn’t even realize it had cut me. The cut was so clean it healed in only a few days.
There’s more good news to the story. When you get a custom knife like this from Buck, you also get an official-looking certificate of authenticity, a knife case, and a holster. Somehow when I returned the knife for the new grips, I accidentally put all that stuff into the trash (which I only realized after Buck returned my knife). I called Buck and told them what I had done. I wanted the complete Buck custom knife experience, I told the nice lady on the phone, and she told me “no problem.” She shipped another set and it arrived a couple of days later, all at no charge.
All the above notwithstanding, like I said above, I’m not really a knife guy. Even though I have the two Bucks shown in the photos above, I don’t carry either one of them. I have a cheap Chinese copy (and its little brother) I bought at Lowe’s that is the same size and looks almost exactly like the standard Buck 110 folder. Sacrilege, I know.
The Sheffield name is laser engraved on the Chinese copies, but trust me, they are not from England. I think I paid $20 for both of them in a bubble-wrap package a few years ago. Once in a great while I’ll put the smaller one it in my pocket and carry it (even though the package included leather holsters for both), but I can’t remember a single time when I needed it and it was in my pocket. The big one? Its primary duty is opening letters.
If you’re thinking of getting a Buck knife, Amazon is a good place to go. If you’re thinking of an inexpensive Chinese copy, check out Lowe’s.
I recently tested several loads for accuracy in my Ruger .357 Magnum New Model Blackhawk.
The Ruger New Model .357 Blackhawk.
The .357 Magnum Blackhawk is available with either a 4 5/8-inch or a 6 1/2-inch barrel; mine is the 6 1/2-inch version. I like a longer barrel when I have a choice.
In this test series, I fired four 5-shot groups at 50 feet and then calculated the average group size for each load. I did not use a machine rest (more on that later); I used a two-hand hold rested on the bench, with no support for the barrel or any other part of the gun.
The Loads
I tested with five bullets and three propellants:
The Hornady 158-grain XTP jacketed hollow point
The Speer 158-grain jacketed soft point
The Hornady 110-grain jacketed hollow point
A cast 158-grain truncated flat point
A cast 148-grain powder coated double-ended wadcutter
Unique
Bullseye
Winchester 296
From left to right, the Speer 158-grain jacketed soft point, the Hornady 158-grain jacketed hollow point (designated by Hornady as XTPs), the Hornady 110-grain jacketed hollow point, a cast 158-grain truncated flat point, and the Gardner 148-grain powder coated double ended wadcutter (the wadcutters are loaded in .38 Special brass).
All loads were prepared using my new Lee Deluxe 4-die .357 Magnum reloading dies, with the exception of the .38 Special wadcutter ammo. All loads were crimped. I recently did a blog on the Lee dies. I think they are the best dies I’ve ever used. If you’re considering a set of Lee dies, a good place to buy them is on Amazon.
The different load recipes are identified in the table below.
The Results
Here are the results:
The biggest variable in this test series is me. But, I’m what you get.
The most accurate load was 8.0 grains of Unique with the 158-grain Hornady jacketed hollow point bullet and a regular (non-magnum) primer. You won’t find this load in any modern reloading manual. It’s one that was in Lyman’s 45th edition manual (printed in 1970) as their accuracy load with a 158-grain jacketed bullet. Sometimes there are jewels hidden in those old reloading manuals. There are folks who say you shouldn’t use loads from old manuals. When I do, I work up to them, watching for pressure signs. Another one of my old reloading books goes up to 8.5 grains of Unique with a 158-grain jacketed bullet. I didn’t go there because I didn’t need to.
The Lyman 45th Edition Reloading Handbook. I still use it. These older books contain loads the newer reloading manuals do not.Back in 1970, the good folks at Lyman identified 8.0 grains of Unique and a 158-grain jacketed bullet as their accuracy load. They were right!
Recoil with the Lyman accuracy load identified above was moderate, and there were no excess pressure indications (extraction was easy, and the primers were not flattened). I tried 7.0 grains of Unique first, and it was so calm I had no qualms about going to the Lyman-recommended 8.0-grain load. I was impressed with the 8.0 grains of Unique and 158-grain Hornady jacketed hollow point load. One of the groups was a one-holer (five shots clustered in a single ragged hole). Was that simply a fluke? I don’t think so. The other groups with this load were larger, but that was undoubtedly me.
I wish I could do this every time. This target was brought to you by 8.0 grains of Unique and the Hornady 158-grain jacketed hollow point bullet.
The second most accurate load (which is essentially as accurate as the load above) was the 158-grain Speer jacketed soft point bullet with 15.0 grains of Winchester 296 and a magnum primer. These bullets are still listed on the Speer website, but good luck finding them. No one has them in stock. The ones I used were from a stash I picked up from my good buddy Paul. Winchester 296 is a good powder for magnum handgun cartridges and it’s been one of my favorites for years. I was a bit surprised that 296 did not take the accuracy honors, but it was pretty close. 296 is a slower burning powder, and the reloading manuals show it gives the highest muzzle velocity. Recoil (and muzzle blast and flash) are significant with this powder.
The difference in average group size between the most accurate load and the next most accurate load was only 0.004 inches (the most accurate group average was 1.087 inches, the next most accurate group average was 1.o91 inches). That’s nothing, really. And I didn’t go higher or lower with the 296 charge with the second-place load; I only tried 15.0 grains. It’s likely that variations in the 296 charge would have shown a slighly different charge to be better. Maybe Bill Jordan (who carried a .357 Magnum) had it wrong: There is a second place winner.
Surprisingly, one of my previous accuracy loads (a near-max load of Unique with the Hornady 110-grain jacketed hollow point bullet) was not a good load in the Blackhawk. Accuracy was okay, but it was a fierce load and the cases would not extract (I had to take the cylinder out and drive the cases out with a rod). I only fired two groups with this load and then I stopped. This is a load that worked well in previous .357 Magnums, including a stainless steel Blackhawk, an earlier version of the Colt Python, a Smith and Wesson Model 27, and my current production Colt Python. I had the Python with me so I fired a couple of groups with it. It worked fine (it was accurate and extraction was easy). I proved, once again, that every gun is different with regard to what it likes.
What I thought would be a good load (a 158-grain cast bullet and 7.0 grains of Unique) was not. It was just okay accuracy-wise, but it leaded the bore big time and accuracy grew worse with each group fired as the leading increased. That wasn’t unique to the Blackhawk, either. It did the same thing in the Colt Python. These cast bullets are fairly hard, but the charge (7.0 grains of Unique) is driving the bullets to approximately 1200 feet per second, and it appears that’s enough to induce leading. The bullets are sized to .358 inches, so they should be sealing adequately.
The above observation led to a quest for a load using these cast bullets that wouldn’t lead the bore, and I tried a couple that kept velocity below 1000 feet per second (4.3 grains of Bullseye, and 5.0 grains of Unique). Neither produced appreciable leading, but the accuracy was mediocre.
Mild leading after the 4.3-grain Bullseye and 5.0-grain Unique cast bullet loads. These loads kept the velocity below 1000 feet per second.
After cleaning the bore, I tried the standard .38 Special target load: 2.7 grains of Bullseye and a 148-grain double ended wadcutter. I used Jim Gardner’s powder coated wadcutters and ammo I reloaded with my Star progressive machine. Accuracy was okay, but not exceptional.
Machine Rest versus Hand-Held Shooting
On the topic of machine rests, I don’t have one. In the past, keyboard commandos criticized me for that. I was recently was in the Colt plant in Connecticut. The Colt manager took us through the famed Colt Custom Shop and he showed me one of their custom gun test targets. It looked like my targets…four shots clusted into a cloverleaf with a single flyer. I asked my Colt buddy about the distance and if Colt used a machine rest. He told me the distance was 45 feet and said they do not use a machine rest. “A good shooter will outshoot a machine rest,” he said. I thought that was interesting and I liked hearing it. I never felt a need to use a machine rest and what the Colt guy said reinforced that.
A Note on Safety
This blog describes loads I developed for use in my revolver. Don’t simply run with them. They work for me; I make no conclusions (nor should you) about what they will do in your guns. Consult a reloading manual, start at the minimum load, gradually work up, and always watch for pressure signs.
What’s Next?
I have a blog in work that compares the Blackhawk to the Colt Python, and part of that is assessing how the Python groups with the same loads listed above. I think you’ll enjoy reading it. Stay tuned, folks.
This blog is about my friend Bob’s vintage BMW collection on display at Brown Motor Works in Pomona, California.
Bob is one of the most interesting people I know. He’s the founder of Brown BMW and he’s a guy with whom I’ve ridden Baja a couple of times. He is the fastest and most talented rider I’ve ever known. I’ve seen Bob riding well-worn BMW police trade-ins (bikes that weigh a hundred pounds more than regular boxer twins) smoke kids on Gixxers. When he wants to make a point, Bob will outride the Ricky Racers in the twisties while standing on the pegs.
Bob’s dealership does a lot of police motorcycle work, and Bob will usually grab a black and white police motor that’s been turned in (I think he likes those bikes because they’re black and white, like the old Beemers). That’s a police motor you see in the photo of Bob at the start of this blog, and no matter how many times I’ve ridden with Bob, my heart still skips a beat when I see that black and white motorcycle in my rear view mirror. It’s a good thing when we ride in traffic…Bob takes the lead and traffic parts.
But I’m going off topic; the topic of today’s blog is the vintage Beemer collection at Brown Motor Works.
This first bike is a 1928 BMW. It’s a 500cc model, and like all of the bikes in these photos, it’s a boxer twin.
The black-and-white paint themes on the first several bikes make these photos really pop. This used to be the classic BMW colors until maybe the 1970s and it works. It’s a classic color combo.
Here’s a 1936 750cc flathead BMW.
The bike above is interesting. It’s basically the model the Chinese copied, and until recently there were still folks riding around on Chiang Jiang motorcycles in China that are, well, Chinese copies of the old 1930s BMW flathead. In the 1990s, you could go to China and buy a brand new 1936 BMW (made in China under the Chiang Jiang name). It’s the bike my good friend Carla King rode around China. Those days are gone; you can’t register a motor vehicle more than 10 years old in China today, and they stopped making the Chinese early BMW boxer twin copies at least that long ago for emissions reasons.
This next BMW is a 1952 600cc model.
Here’s a 1951 600cc BMW.
Here’s one with a great story…it’s Bob’s personal 1961 600cc BMW.
Bob calls the bike above the original GS, and for good reason. He rode it all the way to Cabo San Lucas back in the early 1960s. You might be thinking hey, what’s the big deal? Bob did it before there roads to Cabo. Bob rode the distance on trails and riding along the beach. Sleeping on the beach. Spinning the rear wheel in the sand to let the bike sink in so he wouldn’t have to use the center stand. That is a real adventure ride. Bob was blazing trails in Baja while I was still in elementary school!
More good vintage stuff…here’s a 1971 R75/5 750cc BMW.
Here’s a 1972 model.
Another beautiful BMW classic is the 1976 R90S model. This motorcycle turned heads when it was first introduced, and it is still a show stopper.
The bikes you see in these photos are all in their stock colors. Most amazingly, most of these bikes (including the early ones) are not restorations…they are original motorcycles.
These last two are particularly beautiful. The first is the 1000cc 1977 R100RS.
And here’s the last bike BMW did in the R100RS configuration, the 1983 1000cc model in a beautiful pin-striped pearl white.
These photos are the results of a few minutes of shutter work on my part, and a lifetime of collecting by Bob Brown at Brown Motor Works.
The one that I found most intriguing was Bob’s early adaptation of a boxer twin into a dual sport. As I mentioned above, Bob refers to it as the original GS. When I was in Brown BMW ealier, I saw a current R9T 40th Anniversary model, and it pushed all the right buttons for me. It’s a little out of my price range, but I sure spent a lot of time looking at it. It’s one of the nicest ones they’ve ever done, I think.
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As ExNotes blogs followers know, we visited Indiana this year. The trip combined three missions: We visited with good buddy Jeff and his wife Sally (who moved to Indianapolis shortly after we finished college in New Jersey), we visited and interviewed the key people at Janus Motorcycles in Goshen, Indiana, for a Motorcycle Classics article, and we hit as many points of interest as we could while we were in Indiana. We hit home runs in all three areas, I think. We enjoyed our time with Jeff and Sally, we had a great visit with Janus, and wow, did we ever see a lot in Indiana. One of the coolest places we visited was the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site in Indianapolis.
I didn’t really know anything about Benjamin Harrison when we visited the site, but I’ve learned quite a bit during and after our visit. Here a few of his accomplishments:
Graduated Miami University at Oxford, Ohio in 1851.
Elected Indianapolis City Attorney in 1857.
Elected Supreme Court Reporter in 1860.
Breveted Brigadier Civil War General in 1865.
Appointed by President Grant to defend U.S. Government in Milligan case in 1871.
Argued five cases before the U.S. Supreme Court (the most of any lawyer-President).
Elected U.S. Senator from 1881-1887.
Elected U.S. President from 1889-1893.
Set aside 13 million acres of public domain land for national forest reserves.
Initiated the Pan American Conference in 1889, later resulting in the Pan American Union.
Established the United States Coast Guard Academy.
Expanded the Navy from three steel war ships to 22 ships by 1893.
Added six states to the Union during his Presidency (this was the most of any President).
Firmly enforced the 15th Amendment to secure voting rights.
Instituted the practice of displaying the American Flag over public buildings and schools.
The Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site is in Benjamin Harrison’s actual home. Harrison built it on the outskirts of Indianapolis, but the city has expanded and it’s now in what I would consider the downtown area. The guided tour made for an interesting visit.
This room is a parlor just to the left of the front door. The tour guide explained to us that it was restored to its original condition, including the creation of custom wallpaper to match that which was originally in the house.
The Reginaphone was an early record player. It uses a disk with protrusions to create the music. This one works and we listened to it.
This is Benjamin Harrison’s home office. The horn chair is cool.
These are items on top of Benjamin Harrison’s desk.
A very cool bookshelf dominated one of the walls in Harrison’s office.
I can’t resist this shot whenever I see a mirror.
The tour continued with a trek through the dining room, the kitchen, some of the upstairs bedrooms, and a workout room.
I was surprised to see this when we left the Harrison Presidential Site. Steve is everywhere, I guess.
The tour takes about an hour and a half, and it costs $14 (there are modest discounts for military personnel and a big discount for children). You need to book your tickets in advance.
If you are in Indianapolis, I’ve got a good lunch suggestion. One of the best kept secrets in that fine city is Shapiro’s Delicatessen. It’s only 4 1/2 miles from the Harrison home and the food is stellar. Both spots are worth a visit.
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You’ve read about good buddy Jerry, his vintage Honda 305 Scrambler, and his Dad’s service as a New Jersey State Trooper motor officer. A photo of Gerry’s father, Ralph Dowgin, graces the cover of The Complete Book of Police and Military Motorcycles.
Not surprisingly, and in keeping with the ExhaustNotes’ theme (i.e., that folks who play with motorcycles are frequently interested in firearms, photography, watches, and other shared interests), Jerry sent a note to me recently about his restoration of a vintage shotgun. It’s the one you see at the top of this blog. Here’s Jerry’s description.
I restored my grandfather’s pre 1900 12 gauge Damascus double-trigger black powder shotgun. I researched how to load black powder shells for it, bought the loading equipment, made some of it myself and made the reproduction shotgun boxes from that period.
Using 70 grains of powder and No. 6 shot I hit 2/3 of the clay birds. Not bad for someone who only shoots clays every couple of years! I have since then loaded a box of buck shot.
Black powder fires at 10,000 fps vs modern powder that fires at 100,000 fps or so I read.
My grandfather fed 8 children on his 50-acre farm and I am sure his shotgun helped do it. The only things he bought in the store were sugar, salt, flour, and tobacco. Everything else he and Grandma made!
I did not find anyone else loading black powder shotgun shells in the literature.
Grandpop’s shotgun has silver inlays and rawhide wrapping on the pistol grip because grandpop’s oldest son John borrowed the gun and accidentally broke the pistol grip. Instead of just bringing it home broken and saying sorry, Pop, he brought it to a jeweler who inlaid the silver inlays to strengthen the pistol grip part of the stock and wrapped it in rawhide. That corrective remedy is how all future Dowgin children should behave when they break items of their parents. Thank you Uncle John for being a great role model.
Jerry, that’s awesome. The shotgun story is interesting; your efforts in recreating black powder shotgun ammo (including the box it came in) is downright fascinating. Good shooting, and I’m looking forward to seeing you next month!
I used to work in the recreational vehicle industry. I ran a plant for Johnnie Crean at Alfa Leisure a couple of decades ago making See Ya motor homes (I’ve written about that before), and I consulted with Thor Industries on their travel trailers and Zieman on their trailers. It’s a fun business, although it was quite a bit different than the mostly aerospace work I had done up to that time. In the aerospace business, tolerances are thousandths of an inch, and if something is nonconforming (even if off by only a thousandth), it is rejected. In the RV business, tolerances are huge (usually denoted in fractions like ±1/8 or ±1/4 inch), and if the tolerances aren’t met, corrective action involves finding a bigger hammer.
You see a lot of elk statues in Elkhart. The RV and Motor Home Museum and Hall of Fame has one.
I loved making RVs and I loved working for Johnnie Crean. The guy is the most creative person I’ve ever known, and his ability to find simple solutions to complicated problems always impressed me. Johnnie came from RV royalty: His father was John Crean, the self-made billionaire who founded Fleetwood. I met Johnnie’s father a couple of times. He was a cool and unassuming guy. When Johnnie finished college, he went to work for his dad at Fleetwood and realized after a couple of weeks he could start his own RV company, and that’s what he did. I worked for Johnnie at Alfa Leisure and I ran the motor home plant.
Anyway, I’m getting off topic, which is the RV and Motor Home Museum and Hall of Fame in Elkhart, Indiana. It was a fun visit and not surprisingly, John Crean’s name appeared more than a few times. Check out the little travel trailer in the photo below.
A 1950 Fleetwood travel trailer. This one has quite a pedigree.The very first. This is pretty cool.
The RV/MH Hall of Fame also included the very first Bounder, another John Crean design that set a new standard in the RV business.
The first Fleetwood Bounder.John Crean drew the Bounder logo on a napkin in a Denny’s restaurant. It’s a cool story. It’s one of the concepts that made him a billionaire.The Bounder interior.The very first one.
The main exhibit hall in the RV/MH Hall of Fame displays iconic recreational vehicles and early campers along a walkway painted to look like a two-lane road.
Some early RVs and campers.
Mae West, the famous actress, was an RVer. Her RV was interesting.
Mae West’s housecar.A bit of info about the MaeWestMobile.The interior of the Mae West housecar.
This concept of movie stars having an RV is interesting. When I ran the Alfa Leisure plant, we also manufactured 5th-wheel trailers (they connect to a pintle inside a pickup bed instead of a trailer hitch). Alfa Leisure was the preferred 5th wheel in Hollywood, and big name movie stars’ contracts stipulated Alfa Leisure RVs.
The Museum also displayed several examples of early travel trailers and motorhomes.
An early travel trailer.An early motor home.General Motors dabbled in the motor home business briefly. It looks interesting, but GM’s interest in RV’s was fleeting.
In the early days, motor homes did not include bathrooms, showers, or other amenities. Today, high end motor homes include all of those things and more. Some sell for more than a million dollars.
Walmart used to allow RVs to park in their lots for free (maybe they still do). We joked about folks who would spend a million bucks on an RV and then spend a half day looking for a Walmart where they could park overnight for free.
