Good evening from NW Wisconsin! I don't know when my last post to the group was, but I bet it is going on five years! My handle is .56/50 Iron and I find it listed among the older posts (2010 etc). I had just gotten a new replica .56/50 Spencer Carbine and had lots of "developmental" problems with it, including having the barrel loosen up when I tapped on the front sight to "move" it when it was, unknown to me, one piece with the barrel! After much work and many posts to the group asking for more brain power than I had for the project, I got the carbine to feed and shoot accurately out to about 75 yards and actually carried it deer hunting one season. Reloading for the carbine was tough, getting loads to shoot accurately, even getting the case and assembled cartridge the right length was a chore as no one had been doing much load development with this carbine as it always was a rimfire, and no one loaded for them. In all the time I worked with reloading ammo for it, life could have been so much better if I would have had an original cartridge to copy. I had measurements to follow, but it seemed that the "old boys" didn't always agree on dimensions. About two weeks ago, the owner of a gunshop I frequent gave me three cigar boxes of old cartridges to sort out and bag up for him. He told me to keep the ones I wanted! I dug through one box while I was still in his shop and guess what I found? An original .56/50 Spencer loaded round with the SAW headstamp!! The big test I could hardly wait for until I got home. I wanted to take one of the loaded rounds that I developed and stand it next to the original and see just how close I really got. (Keep in mind my newly developed rounds feed smooth as silk). I got home, went to my ammo supply and from a loaded box of 50 rounds that I had loaded, took one round and stood it up next to the original. My God, it was identical to the original case by length and the bullet was also very similar! Overall length was correct to the thousandth of an inch! I just smiled and thought about all the work that had gone into that round and that new carbine and about all you guys on the list who had helped. It is a wonderful feeling to finally realize that the carbine works so well because I had created a round for it that is exactly like an original! Not being quite through, I took my reloaded round and ran it through the action and ejected it. Then I took the original and ran it through the action and ejected it. Both smooth as could be and they both ejected within 4 inches of each other on the carpet!
I want to thank all you guys again for the help "back in those days", and today I am working with a Uberti Henry, caliber .45 Colt, and at this point am going through the early stages of ammo development, using cases shortened to .45 S&W Schofield length, and have gotten 5 different .45 caliber lead slugs to feed smoothly loaded as dummies! (I use the Schofield length brass as it allows me to maintain the correct overall feeding length and actually use the crimping groove in each slug). More on this as I go along. I would have waited for an American Henry, but there is no telling how long these are going to take before they reach the market in numbers where they are really available. I am reaching my 66th birthday on the 19th (next week) and at this age waiting for anything too long can be problematical!!
If anyone wants to up date their personal address books, my email is: thorsrig@centurylink.net . I log in here as GregT from Hayward, Wisconsin, but I sign off as 56/50 Iron.
Best to ya!
56/50 Iron
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