By Tank Hoover

The habits and traits of some shooters may seem odd, or even weird to us, especially when we are young bucks. But heed cautiously, Pilgrim! In most cases, there’s a good reason these experienced men do what they do, or say what they say. Sometimes it’s better to just sit back, watch, learn and listen. Ya’ just might learn yerself sumptin’ in the meantime, and save yerself some embarrassment down the road.

Cold Fact

The first time I became aware of this anomaly was when I was in my early teens, chomping at the bit to be looked upon as a man. I noticed how my Pap always left his scoped Savage model 99 in the garage, next to the outside door, during hunting season. This was not by chance, but by sage wisdom on his part, only I didn’t know it at the time. One cold, chilly opening morning, I figured out why, the hard way. Is there any other way to learn in our formative years? Naah!

It was hunting season and I always brought my Remington 700 .30-06 into the safe confines of my grandparent’s house, where I would lovingly rub my rifle to sleep every night with an oily rag to inhibit any rust. Heck, I practically rubbed all the bluing off it, I was so judicious and dedicated to my nightly rifle ritual.

So opening morning, I’m out on-stand. Just as dawn breaks, I make out a fork horn following a fleet-footed doe 50 yards in front of me. I ease my rifle to my shoulder, confident of such an easy chip shot. Peering through my scope, all I see is fog! Holy heck! I try to wipe it off with my coat sleeve, but the cagey buck makes out my panicked performance and “high tails” it out of there!

Sick to my stomach, I learned a great lesson on condensation that day, one I will never forget! “So that’s why Pap leaves his scoped gun outside, in a steady temperature.” Oh yeah, his reason for leaving his gun by the door? He told me later, “When someone opens the door, my rifle is behind it, out of sight.” Simple Simon (me) learns another lesson.

Leave ‘Em Alone

When I was a rookie in the police academy, we were told to never “monkey around” on our issued service revolvers, especially the hammer spring! Our firearms Instructors didn’t want any “self-proclaimed” gunsmith tinkering on their duty gun for the sake of slicking up the action on their issued service revolver. Especially clipping the hammer spring on our Ruger Service-Six revolvers.

I wondered, “Why in the world would anyone want to do that?” As time passed, I learned it would smooth-up and make the double-action trigger pull easier. Sure, it would be a smooth, light trigger pull, but it could also cause light hammer strikes from not enough spring tension. Who wants to risk inconsistent ignition of ammunition when you need it most, as a police officer?

Six months later, one of the hotshots in my academy class is at our bi-annual qualification. First course of fire, click, click, click…nuttin’ but clicks. He said he read a gun book on action jobs and did it himself. He had carried his useless gun for six months without knowing it. Think about that one for a moment.

Burnin’ Sights?

Now here was a particularly peculiar thing I noticed shooting my first PPC match. Seems the “old salts” had a penchant for lighting the oddest looking lighter I had ever seen before every match. Called a miners carbide lamp, the flame burned dirty and sooty. They would fill the reservoir with water. Some used spit in a pinch, or perhaps superstition, and dropped in a chunk of calcium carbide. The chemical reaction produced acetylene gas, which was lit. Then they would run the sooty flame over the front and rear sights. Say what? Yeah, I was as perplexed as you, to say the least.

I later learned the soot from the acetylene flame left the blackest of black residue on the sights, producing a wonderful sight picture for old eyes. Son of a gun, these guys are slick!

Spruce Up?

Didj’a know the term came from our forefathers shooting their black powder rifles? After a hefty charge of black powder, next came the patch and ball. The lead ball was cast in a mold.

When casting, all molds leave a puddle of excess lead on top of the sprue plate hole. When the lead hardens, the plate is struck with a mallet, cutting the excess sprue from the projectile. A small flat is left on the cast ball. It is a few thousandths of an inch bigger than the diameter of the ball. When loading, this sprue is always loaded “up” by savvy riflemen.

It makes seating the patched round ball easier and makes for better accuracy, as the sprue position is consistently placed the same way, all the time. So the next time you spruce yourself up, think of your Kentucky rifle carrying kin for the sporty slogan.

Now You Know

So now you know just a few of the little tidbits, tips and tales pertaining to our shooting sports. They are fun to figure out and interesting to boot. So the next time you see an old salt do sumptin’ silly, think about it. He may just know more than you think. If you can’t figure it out, you can always ask. Remember, he who asks a question is a fool for five minutes. He who does not, is a fool forever.

And I’d know, trust me!

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