Author Topic: Cross Sticks  (Read 29951 times)

Offline wildman1

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Re: Cross Sticks
« Reply #40 on: February 19, 2013, 10:34:58 AM »
Jest picked up one a them Marlin 45/70's, run some 405's with 65gs of Swiss 1.5 thru it don't seem that bad. Tried some 300g with 65gs Swiss also, kinda quick averaged about 1425 fps on the chrono.
 My advice on the shootin sticks. Get some sticks about 3' long drill the holes fer enough down that the rifle will stay in the top put a leather pad on the inside top of the sticks ta protect yer rifle put a bolt thru it sharpen the ends. If ya wantem longer put the ends on the ground closer tagether if ya wantem shorter put the ends further apart. YA AIN'T GETTIN ANY YOUNGER GO OUT AND SHOOT THEM GUNS. WM
WARTHOG, Dirty Rat #600, BOLD #1056, CGCS,GCSAA, NMLRA, NRA, AF&AM, CBBRC.  If all that cowboy has ever seen is a stockdam, he ain't gonna believe ya when ya tell him about whales.

Offline dusty texian

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Re: Cross Sticks
« Reply #41 on: February 19, 2013, 03:00:35 PM »
Howdy there ,WaddWatsonEllis. That sure make's me feel better ,you sayin no harm done cause none was meant ,I thought I had accidently said the wrong thing . Me being a lot newer on the block and all. I have a tendency to stick it out there somtime's when I should just keep shut . Good luck on your project . ........Dusty (AKA Bucket Mouth).LOL

Offline Slowhand Bob

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Re: Cross Sticks
« Reply #42 on: March 09, 2013, 08:34:54 AM »
Lets throw in the best minds of CAS and build a set cross sticks, anybody want to play?  First thought, base caps.  I was looking at some of the cheap hardware leg bases for furniture when the notion hit me, would an all brass 12ga shell work, they sure would look good and would already have a hole through the base for the spike.  Im am thinking  3/4" oak dowels would probably be a close fit, no?  Would 3/4" oak be heavy enuff fer the pqair of sticks?  Some more thoughts from you guys who have seen the good ones please, before I spend money on brass and dowels.  I will also need a source for a couple or so pieces of 12ga brass. (Are there 10ga brass shells available and would there be a common dowel size that would fit well into them?)

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Re: Cross Sticks
« Reply #43 on: Today at 10:21:24 AM »

Offline Hargrave

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Re: Cross Sticks
« Reply #43 on: April 30, 2013, 10:39:15 PM »
Hello ....

shrapnel posted an image of a painting called "the hide hunter". I used to have a copy of that and another one similar. Anyone know where I can get a copy? I don't recall what happened to mine and I have just the place to put them.

Buffalo hunting prints
Battle of Buffalo Wallow too.

thanks,
"Prairie Smoke" Jake
Houston, TX
In matters of style, swim with the current;
In matters of principle, stand like a rock.
(Thomas Jefferson)

Offline shrapnel

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Re: Cross Sticks
« Reply #44 on: July 07, 2013, 09:52:41 AM »
Hargrave,

I got this print directly from the artist, Ralph Heinz. The copies of this print are owned/regulated by C. Sharps of Big Timber, Montana. I am sure if you contacted them, you could get a copy...


Shrapnel
I never considered myself a failure...I started out at the bottom and happen to like it here!

Offline WaddWatsonEllis

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Re: Cross Sticks
« Reply #45 on: October 16, 2013, 12:32:45 PM »
Hi,

I have rethought the whole cross sticks idea ... a fellow cas.city member is graciously selling some old full length 10 gauge brass shells ...
I am going to get some 3/4" dowels (a 10 gauge shell is .775 of an inch), and use them on the ends of the dowel as reenforcement ... that way I can set some appropriate-penny nails in the enlarged hole where the primer would go on the bottom, fixing them with epoxy.

As can be figured on the previous page, I have a problem with just exactly where to put the pivot point ...so I am going to hold off and lash the sucks together until I find my 'sweet spot' ... THEN drill the hole for the pivot screwS

The leather (to pad the forestock)  will have to done a bit later after I have put in the pivot bolt ...
My moniker is my great grandfather's name. He served with the 2nd Florida Mounted Regiment in the Civil War. Afterward, he came home, packed his wife into a wagon, and was one of the first NorteAmericanos on the Frio River southwest of San Antonio ..... Kinda where present day Dilley is ...

"Courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyway." John Wayne
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Offline FriscoCounty

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Re: Cross Sticks
« Reply #46 on: October 16, 2013, 02:22:59 PM »
Wadd,
For future reference, a 3/4" dowel will fit into a 12 gauge  Magtech brass shotshell.  I do like the idea of using a brass shotshell to furnish the end of the dowel.  Think I am about to sacrifice a pair of mine for just that purpose.
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Online Sir Charles deMouton-Black

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Re: Cross Sticks
« Reply #47 on: October 16, 2013, 10:00:12 PM »
Wadd,
For future reference, a 3/4" dowel will fit into a 12 gauge  Magtech brass shotshell.  I do like the idea of using a brass shotshell to furnish the end of the dowel.  Think I am about to sacrifice a pair of mine for just that purpose.
Frisco County

For me the Magtechs are too hard to  come by.  But if you have had a couple stepped on beyond recovery, why not.
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Offline PJ Hardtack

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Re: Cross Sticks
« Reply #48 on: October 17, 2013, 01:40:08 PM »
The ground at our range is so hard that we need 3"-4" spikes on the ends of x-sticks to prevent them from bouncing around. We hammer them in with a mallet or handy block of wood.
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, I won't be laid a hand on.
I don't do these things to others and I require the same from them."  John Wayne

Offline WaddWatsonEllis

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Re: Cross Sticks
« Reply #49 on: October 22, 2013, 12:07:47 AM »
PJ Hardtack,

I have to smile every time I see your name ... PJ showed flight time as a Parachute Jumper, and the name became the nickname for Pararescue ... as a member pf Air Rescue, the initials bring back fond memories ....

But the bottom 10 gauge shells will hold 3" 1/4-3/8" nails (with the heads removed). I plan to measure the diameter and drill out the shotgun shell and dowel to be a little over ... then sink the shell/spike in the epoxy coated dowel.

TTFN,
My moniker is my great grandfather's name. He served with the 2nd Florida Mounted Regiment in the Civil War. Afterward, he came home, packed his wife into a wagon, and was one of the first NorteAmericanos on the Frio River southwest of San Antonio ..... Kinda where present day Dilley is ...

"Courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyway." John Wayne
NCOWS #3403

Offline Oregon Bill

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Re: Cross Sticks
« Reply #50 on: November 03, 2013, 10:29:22 AM »
This has been an educational thread. I have always assumed there were two main varieties of cross sticks: the kind actually in use on the historic buffalo range -- and I'll go with Captain Baylor's -- and all the others, mostly associated with modern BPCR competition. The former had to be simple, free and obtainable along any watercourse; I personally don't believe bolts were used with any regularity, but I'm a cuss.  ;)
The others have nothing to do with hunting buffalo and everything to do with achieving consistent scores in modern shooting competition. Here you have your drilled holes, your butterfly nuts, your leather suspension crotches and blanket padding, your copper or brass ferrules to keep the sticks from splitting when pounding in the steel drill rod spikes at the silhouette range, etc.
Back to the originals, do you think your enterprising hide hunter is going to run into town -- possibly drawing the attention of the herds, or Comanches -- for a pair of nicely turned dowels and a bolt and nut at the mercantile? NOT HARDLY. He will have been keeping his eye on all the details of his environment -- from signs of game, Indians and water to a stand of willow or dogwood or whatever in your neck of the woods that might do in a pinch for a wiping stick or cross sticks. And speaking of wiping sticks, it was not uncommon to carry said wiping stick in the barrel of your rifle. And it will also serve as a rest stick, as per here:

http://www.buffalosoldiers-washington.com/CarlisleScans.html

Go down to the seventh photo. It is grievously mislabeled as a Modoc warrior on the warpath. This is actually a Warms Springs scout firing on Captain Jack's Stronghold in the Modoc war (and was the inspiration for the great two-volume series of guns of the west by Garavaglia and Worman).
By the way, checking native plant lists, I find hickory, dogwood and hazelnut native to Kansas and or the Texas Panhandle, offering perfect cross/wiping stick raw materials to hunters of the Republican and Texas herds.

Offline PJ Hardtack

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Re: Cross Sticks
« Reply #51 on: November 03, 2013, 02:47:35 PM »
Well, FWIW, I do have 318 logged parachute jumps and a "D" licence, but that isn't how I settled on the "PJ Hardtack" alias.
I bought a used '66 and it had a stylized "PH" engraved on the receiver. I became "Pete Hardtack", poor but honest miner to take advantage of it. I added the "J" just for hellry.

PJ Hardtack,I have to smile every time I see your name ... PJ showed flight time as a Parachute Jumper, and the name became the nickname for Pararescue ... as a member pf Air Rescue, the initials bring back fond memories ....TTFN,
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, I won't be laid a hand on.
I don't do these things to others and I require the same from them."  John Wayne

 

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