My new rimfire, and it ain't a Henry

[RanchRoper]

Looks great.

[BillyBoy]

Well, after a few shots out at the BLM range, I called it quits. More on this later.

So back to the shop to change out the hammer and trigger springs for the lighter "tuned" springs from Wolfe Gunsprings, and to refinish the grip.

Here's some photos. 1st is after refinishing and 2nd is before I refinished the grip.

I know my woods, and knew that Italian Walnut is rather grey-brown, unlike the rich dark brown/black of English and American Walnut. So I chose not to fully strip the bright red varnish, and chose instead to carefully break the shiny surface by sanding it down a bit with a 220 grit sanding pad from Ace Hardware, my go-to for final finishing. I then stained it with Fiebing's Medium Brown leather dye from Tandy Leather, my standard leather finish. Being alcohol based, it bit into the varnish. I then polished the heck out of the grip with #0000 extra=fine steel wool.

The last step was waxing (two coats) it with my special "Magic Goop", of Renaissance Wax tinted with artist's black powered tempera pigment.

Still has a pleasing reddish tone, but with a deep and beautiful finish.

The Wolfe hammer spring is the one with the slot in it. The new springs really lightened up the forces, but still has a solid and firm engagement.

Now, a question. I was shooting CCI Mini Mags, and even with ear plugs the retort made my ears ring for like five minutes! Quite a surprise! I'm going to try the CCI "Quiet 22" ammo. But do any of you have suggestions? Maybe a serious pair of muffs?

Bill

[PT7]

Nice finish to the finish...congrats on both the refinished grips and the hammer/trigger tuning.
As a wheel gun guy, and especially a wood nut, your post-revolver results look really sharp!

[Lyman]

Looks great. Nice job.

[Redthies]

Nice job Billy. You can actually see the grain now. I guess gun makers want them to all look uniform, but the heavy handed finishing they do is not exactly a selling point.

[Catherine]

Congrats!

Beautiful combination of a handgun and rig to go with your HENRY rifle!

Thank you for sharing.

Cate

[If1Hitu]

Very nice Combo you have there.

[jstanfield103]

I waited to comment on this post, so I could see the finished product. I liked you're rifle post so well and you did such a good job on it. This pistol also looks very nice after you finished with it. They make different levels of ear plug protection. Just find the best protecting level that you can find and use those. I would think that they are much better than muffs.

[BillyBoy]

Went out to the BLM range yesterday to do some serious play time with the Cattleman. Great weather, but windy, and my target kept blowing over. Gotta get some sandbags!

I tested CCI "Quiet 22" ammo, as well as Standard Velocity. The "quiet" is really quiet! Photo shows my grouping at about 20 yards. Understand that we have to pace off the range through a landscape that looks like a WWI battlefield...

Overall, I'm very pleased, considering I have not shot a pistol for over 50 years! But "the way a musician gets to Carnegie Hall is practice, practice, practice", as my mom used to say.

The other photo shows why our New Mexico roads are notorious! Looks like our old driveway!

Also, the guys at The Outdoorsman, my Santa Fe, NM LGS, all recommend and use electronic muffs, called the Howard Leight Impact Sport. So I bought one, and it's the best $54 I've ever spent. Absolutely amazing. It's actually a pair of headphones with a microphone and amplifier. You just set a moderate volume to suit, and can carry on a normal conversation, hear range orders, or whatever. But the instant a shot goes off it attenuates the retort down to 82 dB. Guy next to me was shooting his 10 gauge pump, and you could hardly hear it. Super investment to protect your hearing!

Bill

[North Country Gal]

Good for you on the muffs, Bill. I lost 30% of the hearing in my left ear by shooting revolvers w/o good ear protection, back in my youth. I now wear both ear plugs AND muffs when I shoot. Once you lose it, you can't get it back when it comes to your hearing.

That's great shooting for not having shot a pistol in 50 years. Don't think you have a thing to worry about, there. Just keep shooting.