I need some help here! Metalworking people.

[BX25D Rookie]

Nope, no thrown rocks from me.
My stepdaughter is a "girlie" girl. 17+ years old.
Her world is hair, makeup, fingernails, iPhones, clothing.
Also, boys/young men.
Which by the way, are a pain in the butt.

Several years ago during the 'Rona time we had her take our state Hunter Safety course.
Because it was available in an online format, you couldn't do in person things back then.
She did actually get out in the woods twice, once with Mom & once with her Grandfather.

Mom bought a new deer rifle for the stepdaughter and at the range, she blubbered and wailed
because she thought shooting a rifle would rip her shoulder off of her body. (thanks, Hollywood!)
It's chambered in .243 Winchester, you could fire it with the recoil pad placed squarely on your chin and not receive any damage from the recoil impulse.

But alas, hunting isn't her thing.
I had purchased a crossbow for her to use if she desired to do bowhunting. Nope, no joy there.
This fancy new crossbow is in PINK Camo! Equipped with a scope for easy/precise aiming.
It has a factory installed geared/crank/windlass device for drawing/cocking the crossbow.

Here in New York, this summer the bowhunting regulations were completely redone.
Prior to the regulations changes, crossbows needed muzzleloader "tags" and the only time you could use the crossbow during the "archery" season was the last two weeks of archery season.
(last two weeks of six)

The bottom line was the vertical bow bowhunters were just plain greedy. They wanted the entire bowhunting season to be exclusively for their use only. They didn't/wouldn't share the woods.

With the recent regulations update, crossbows need "archery" tags for usage, and you can use a crossbow during the entire archery season. That's about six weeks of bow/crossbow hunting before gun season.

The vertical bow bowhunters (stick, recurve & compound bows) over the last twenty years fought these regulation changes tooth & nail with highly paid lobbyists, and quite successfully I might add.
Right up until summer 2025 where they lost big time.

I do not have the interest (or the time) to do preseason practice with a compound bow to be a successful
ethical bow hunter. To do well and remain ethical using a vertical bow, the preparation and continual practice simply takes more time than I have available.

Back to that PINK Camo crossbow now. I have fooled around with it here at my home in the backyard.
I live out in the sticks, cornfields and woods as neighbors, so shooting a crossbow here isn't an issue.
I have a "block" target and fired a few "bolts" (short crossbow arrows) here just to see how it worked.
I was actually shocked concerning the crossbow performance!

Yup, starting in October 2026, I will be a newly minted crossbow hunter.
I personally consider a firearm to be a much better/more practical implement for big game hunting than any bow, vertical or crossbow. I will take that PINK Camo crossbow out in my woods and do my best to take away some big bucks from the vertical bow hunters. And doing it just because I can.

 

[BX25D Rookie]

@McMXi, this link is for you!
That .454 Casull lever action rifle you were wishing for? Made in Cody, WY

Here: https://www.bighornarmory.com/produ...-18-barrel-hunter-black-lever-action-rifle-2/

MSRP is $3,399.00 plus any optional accessories.
They also have .500 S & W Magnum and .460 S & W Magnum models priced similarly.

 

[McMXi]

@McMXi, this link is for you!
That .454 Casull lever action rifle you were wishing for? Made in Cody, WY

Here: https://www.bighornarmory.com/produ...-18-barrel-hunter-black-lever-action-rifle-2/

MSRP is $3,399.00 plus any optional accessories.
They also have .500 S & W Magnum and .460 S & W Magnum models priced similarly.

Why did you have to show me that! That's an awesome rifle. I'll have to go on a road trip next year to Cody and check out the museum while I'm there.

 

[BX25D Rookie]

Why did I send you the link?
Because that's what good "internet friends" do for their "internet friends"

I will be 70 in 2026.
My hand/wrist/arm strength/endurance and recoil tolerance isn't what it was ten years ago.

I have owned several S & W revolvers chambered in .500 S & W Magnum over the past 20+ years.
One, a short barrel standard production model. (2.750" un-ported barrel)
That one got sold about five years ago.

The second, from the S & W Performance Center with a 10.500" ported barrel.
That revolver was a hunting machine.
After it sat in the safe for the last five or so years without being taken out in the woods,
this fall I sold it. It funded the new-to-me Henry brass frame rifle.
Along with many boxes of reloading components.

I reload for every cartridge I commonly use. That totally avoids NY State Police paid background checks for store bought factory loaded ammunition purchases.

Yes, you need to pay that background check fee for a box of deer hunting ammo, or a box of small game shotgun birdshot, and even a box of .22 rimfire ammo. They record all your personal information, what caliber the bought ammunition is, the lot number, and the quantity. Nope, NOT doing that.

When the shmucks passed the legislation several years ago, I made a personal vow to myself to NEVER
become a line item entry on the NY State Police ammunition purchaser database.

I then stocked up on reloading dies, brass, powder, projectiles, and primers for every commonly used cartridge in our inventory here. Even IF they eventually make reloading components purchasing part of the paid background check system, I am close enough to state borders to easily dodge around them.
Presently so far, purchasing any reloading components, it only requires money, zero paperwork needed.
Possibly, before the new legislation went into effect, I may have stocked up a bit on .22 rimfire ammo.
Anything centerfire, I reload it.
Frankly & bluntly, they can pound sand!

I still reload for .500 S & W Magnum.

Here at my house, several of us are heavily invested in the Thompson/Center Encore single shot platform.
Both in rifle (cartridge type & muzzleloader) and handgun configurations.

Most firearms enthusiasts enjoy a recoil "blast" once in a while.

I have a .500 S & W 20" scoped rifle barrel that goes on a Encore rifle frame in minutes.
That barrel, I am keeping. It "packs" a punch from both ends!

When/if I get the itch for recoil, I have a 15" ported Encore pistol barrel chambered in 30-06 Springfield
that goes on a T/C Encore pistol frame. Yup, a scoped 30-06 single shot pistol.
The muzzle blast from that beast has removed "tin" roofing material on a covered firing point roof.

The T/C Encore frames for both long guns and handguns are identical in all dimensions and construction.
The difference between them is strictly the BATFE paperwork, (4473) when purchasing.
Rifles frames with a butt stock, can never have a barrel less than 16" installed.
Doing so would create a NFA regulated short barrel rifle. ($200 tax stamp & Federal paperwork)
Unless you live in a state that allows NFA firearms, then after tax stamp & paperwork, would be legal.
New York State, no NFA regulated short barrel shotguns or short barrel rifles allowed, so a non issue.

T/C Encore Pistol frames with a handgun grip use the under 16" length handgun barrels.

Back to the pair of now sold .500 S & W revolvers, I really don't miss them.
Using "BOOMER" handguns now with aging taking place, the .44 Magnum is "enough" for me.

 

[McMXi]

I bought a Ruger Super Redhawk "Alaskan" in .454 Casull around 2008 and sent it to Hamilton Bowen of Bowen Classic Arms around 2017. He turned it into a GP100 on steroids and it's my "go to" bear gun shooting a handloaded 360gr hardcast gas checked bullet at 1,200 fps. I was so impressed with Hamilton's work that I sent him my Ruger Redhawk in .45 Colt a couple of years later for some custom work as well. Not as extensive an overhaul but some nice upgrades.

Thanks for the story above and the link. That .454 Casull variant lever action has me drooling for sure.

 

[BX25D Rookie]

^^^ And that my friend, is what friends are for!

 

[BX25D Rookie]

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/1125884067

McMXi, something to drool on!

 

[BX25D Rookie]

@Flintknapper,
That premium walnut is stunning!
I got my Henry Big Boy brass frame .44 strictly as a "working" deer rifle.
Winter conditions. But likely a winter day when it isn't snowing or sleeting.
Just for the days when you wanted to go deer hunting, just like Grandpappy did it.

If you spend any time at all outside and hunting, you know the occasional bumps & bangs
will happen, they are inevitable.
My new-to-me rifle was acquired used.
If you examine it closely, there are a few tiny dings/dents.

With the previous owners installed dings/dents, the rifle has just enough character marks
that I have zero regrets taking it out in the woods and using it for it's intended purpose.

 

[Mark_BX25D]

@McMXi, this link is for you!
That .454 Casull lever action rifle you were wishing for? Made in Cody, WY

Here: https://www.bighornarmory.com/produ...-18-barrel-hunter-black-lever-action-rifle-2/

MSRP is $3,399.00 plus any optional accessories.
They also have .500 S & W Magnum and .460 S & W Magnum models priced similarly.

Sweet!

But I'd like one in a 20" barrel, please. .454 Casull for me.

 

[McMXi]

If you spend any time at all outside and hunting, you know the occasional bumps & bangs
will happen, they are inevitable.

I have a Browning Citori 725 Field shotgun which is about as nice a shotgun as I'd buy for upland bird hunting. The second year I took it on a pheasant hunt I slipped down a river bank and the side of the butt found the only rock on the way down. I consider it a badge of honor since most firearms are tools to me. I really need to get the stock fitted to me since it beats the crap out of my cheekbone which isn't a lot of fun.

 

[BX25D Rookie]

Quite some time ago, most of the countries in upstate NY were shotgun only for big game.
Why? Dumb a** regulations and politicians.
Lead pumpkin ball one ounce lead slugs for deer and black bear. Smoothbore barrel.
Effective range? 75 yards, maybe 85 yards.

Then copper solids/sabots/rifled shotgun barrels were invented and became common.
Your effective range just about doubled using scopes/rifled barrels/copper solid sabot slugs. My Remington 11-87 shotgun, it got the rifled barrel, copper solids/sabots, optics.
It was a genuine 150 to 175 yards deer killing firearm.

The Remington rifled shotgun barrel had a steel bar cantilevered over the shotgun receiver.

The cantilevered steel bar, firmly attached to the barrel, extended over the receiver,
and your optics attached there. That cantilevered scope mount bar was unsupported at the rear of the receiver. This allowed the barrel to be removed from the shotgun for cleaning or swapping the barrel for another, such as for upland bird hunting, and still having the attached optics remain zeroed on the now removed rifled barrel.

One day while deer hunting with my now deceased brother-in-law, I walked down a gentle hill out in the woods, the Remington 11-87 slung over my shoulder on a sling.
Unseen on the forest floor due to fallen leaves was a big flat slab of some type of shale type rock. I stepped onto the rock, and in a fraction of a second, fell backwards with both feet sliding out from underneath me. That 11-87 shotgun took most of the fall impact
on that cantilevered scope and scope attachment steel bar. Unfortunately for me, it was obviously bent down closer to the receiver at the rear unsupported end of the steel bar.

Hunting with that shotgun was done for the day. I did eventually remove the rifled barrel, removed the optics, straightened the bent cantilevered steel bar, remounted the optics,
and sighted it in again. It lived to hunt another day.

But it shows you just how fast something can happen when you are outside hunting.

Today the shotgun only regulations are gone and we use scoped rifles with bottleneck cartridges. And handguns, lever action rifles, single shot rifles.
During muzzleloader/black powder seasons, inline rifles, side hammer cap lock rifles, and flintlocks. I even have a 15" muzzleloader barrel for a T/C Encore pistol frame.
Times have changed for the better here, except for the ammo purchasing fiasco.