A New One

[mullet]

Whew! I just spent a 11 days at the Alafia River Rendezvous and I'm tired. It was my first time doing the whole event. This Rendy is the largest east of the Mississippi River. Most of my time was dealing with and setting up the 3-D archery range so I didn't get much time shooting on the gun range. But I did shoot the Wood's Walk. The first time I've shot competition, it was fun and I was happy to come in 5th place overall after 5 days of shooting.
 I did pick up a couple of new guns and am doing a "Happy Jig" over one. The first one I got is a genuine "Curley" NW Trade gun in .62 cal. Very pretty in one of the few done with maple. His Grandson, Paul was one of the vendors and he went over it with a magnifying glass and confirmed it was one of his Grandfather's guns. He could tell by the laughing fox on the barrel as he said he broke that stamp when he was very young. I also picked up a .66 cal flintlock pistol made by Morooka in Japan. Larry Callahan is making me a bag mold for it.
 I'll get pictures up this afternoon, I have to go back to the club. I'm still packing up and need to get my tent down and we have rain in the area. Sorry for the tease, but I'm a happy camper.

[mullet]

Here's the Curly,

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A few more,

[JW_Halverson]

Curly Gostomski's guns are better than a hot biscuit!

[mullet]

Yes, sir, John. I was offered a lot more then what I paid before I got it back to the tent. I just stripped it down and gave it a good cleaning.

[Eric Krewson]

I have a Curley gun, mine isn't the quality of the one you have, the lock isn't the greatest and the barrel has a tight spot about halfway down. Mine shoots a round ball really well and did very poorly with shot until I tried the sky chief load, this load made it shoot like a tight full choke.

My locks pan and frozen doesn't seal and it leaks the prime out it I tilt the gun, no way to fix it because of the way the frizzen arm is bent.

 

[Eric Krewson]

Curley guns have this mark on the inside of the lock plate. Some say it is a northstar, I thought it looked like a turtle.

[mullet]

I'll pull the lock back off and see. Paul, the Grandson told me that the early locks said LOTT on them and then were replaced with a better lock after early production. He believes this was a custom built gun, also because of the wood.

[chamookman]

Very nice Eddy ! Trade Guns are My favorites, love Mine  - Bob.

[mullet]

Thanks, Bob.

Eric, what is the Sky Chief load?

[Parnell]

They both look very nice, Eddie.  Good pick up!

[Eric Krewson]

There is a guy on the M/L forum that tied a load that most would frown on. He put his power, a few very thin (cereal box)cards over his powder, a load of shot followed by a 1/2" lube soaked fiber wad.

One would think they fiber wad would blow the shot pattern but it doesn't. I think the shot pattern comes out of the barrel drafting the wad like a nascar race car. The wad disintegrates and the pattern stays together much longer.

With my Gustomsky the pattern at 20 yards was so thin I may only put 6 to 8 shot on an piece of computer paper with the normal over powder and over shot card.

Here is my skychief load at 20 yards, my gun shoots to the left so most of the pattern is left of the crease in the middle of the cardboard. Imagine 6 holes where there are now 30 or more, quite and improvement. This is my first shot, I believe I can get much better by changing the powder and shot load. THis load made my jug choked 12 shoot a much tighter pattern as well.

Almost everyone on the M/L forum who tried this load had similar results.

[ksnow]

So you put the "cushion" wad with lube on top of the whole column? Pretty much reverse the traditional over powder and over shot wads/cards?

I may have to try that.

[mullet]

M/L must be where my good friend got the idea from. He just recently started doing the same with his double, Pedesoli 12 gauge and got the same results. I also read that going to a 1F powder load helps a lot also. Slowing the discharge down like modern skeet loads.

In the past I've used wasp nest over the powder and shot with very good results. With this gun I'll experiment with all three as I'd like to get a turkey with it this Spring.

[Stoker]

Nice trade gun. On my wish list. Turkey would be fun.
Thanks Leroy