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My first one,

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Rifletom
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Re: My first one,

Post by Rifletom » Sun Apr 17, 2022 12:27 pm

Dang, accuracy ought to be better than that. Do you think the "can" could have an effect? More about this later, heading to Church and lunch.
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DsGrouse
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Re: My first one,

Post by DsGrouse » Sun Apr 17, 2022 12:49 pm

I did it with and with out the can. Im not a dedicated rifle guy, but, maybe itnis me
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Re: My first one,

Post by Rifletom » Sun Apr 17, 2022 7:44 pm

Ok DsGrouse, back from my Easter Church and lunch and finished Dodger baseball. Those powders you're using are not the best choices for .45 Colt, altho I know nothing of W244. What other powders do you have? Unique, Universal, Red Dot would work better in your rifle. Don't take this the wrong way, using different powder and bullets is part of handloading. Been there , done that. Still do on occasion! :oops: Hope the longshot works. We'll see.
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Re: My first one,

Post by DsGrouse » Sun Apr 17, 2022 8:11 pm

Yeah, i hear you there. I'm limited to what I can get my hands on. Longshot might do it. We will find out.

Its best groups were with eh Berrys plated 230grn round nose loaded one at a time into the chamber. It was a 3.5-inch group for all 10 rounds. So, I know the gun is capable, just not what I am missing in the equation.

Other first's today. The cover for the short story collaboration came through. I am not sure when the book will go live, but it contains my first story sold. "The finder of things"
Malta. Alchemists, Saints, and Heroes have all made their way to this place, defended its walls, and added to its ranks of ghosts and lore.

Besieged, battered, and bombed, this archipelago has seen every tide of war, turmoil, and more than a few bits of piracy. It's also been the land of courage, resilience, and grace under fire.

Ten authors have set out to bring you tales of the ghosts of Malta past, present, and future. Open the pages and meet the ancient guardians, ghost cats, and interdimensional spies that will be your guide...
Image


LawDog (author)
C.V. Walter (editor)
Nicki Kenyon (author)
Kelly Grayson (author)
Evan DeShais (author)
Dan Zeidler (author)
JL Curtis (author)
Brena Bock (author)
Cedar Sanderson (author)
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Re: My first one,

Post by Rifletom » Sun Apr 17, 2022 8:28 pm

Wow! That is going to be an interesting read. One heck of a topic 'ol Malta is. It's been battered and still remains.
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Re: My first one,

Post by DsGrouse » Sun Apr 17, 2022 8:34 pm

It will be an interesting read, I mean I like my story, but I am interested to read the other author's work.

A description of Malta from LawDog,
LawDog’s Guide to Maltese History

The Maltese Archipelago started out as highpoints on a land bridge connecting Sicily and North Africa, and were occupied by various forms of wildlife – including, but not limited to: elephants, hippos, aurochs, and other Neolithic fauna.

As the sea-level rose, the highpoints became the islands of Malta, Gozo, Comino, and some other tiny islets; and everything went swimmingly until about 5900 BC when a pack of hairless bipeds showed up, turned the wildlife into Critter McNuggets and introduced farming methods that might not have been the best practices for 120 square miles of sunbaked limestone.

In what became a staple of the stubborn Maltese personality, the settlements lasted for a lot longer than anyone would have given them credit for, but the proto-Maltese finally either died off, or left for greener pastures about 4800 BC.

About 3850 BC a second wave of homo sapiens arrived. This second group looked around, decided they liked what they saw, and proceeded to build bloody great temples at a time when the folks who built the Pyramids and Stonehenge were still scratching for tubers and debating the technology of stacking stones. These folks hung on by their eyeteeth (see “Stubborn”, above) until about 2350 BC, then things get kind of murky. Nobody is really sure if the Temple Builders scarpered off, or got assimilated by someone else, but 2350 BC until about 800 BC is a great big question mark.

According to the locals, about 1180 BC a Greek smart-arse name of Odysseus on his way home from a dust-up in Turkey forgot to enable “Most Direct Route” in his navigation system and wound up spending several years canoodling with a sorceress named Calypso in her munificently-appointed … cave … on the island of Gozo.
(Nota bene: Odysseus managing to wind up in the Central Mediterranean when he was trying to travel a mere 565 miles in the Eastern Mediterranean is a feat not regularly rivalled until the invention of the GPS system in the 20th Century. Brilliant tactician and strategic genius, my fuzzy butt.)

Around 800 BC the Phoenicians showed up, decided they liked the place, asked if anyone had a flag, named the island Maleth (“Safe Harbour”), and claimed it as part of their sea-faring empire, bringing money to the island, along with a fine disregard for the customs regulations and tax laws of, well, everyone else. You might want to stick a pin in this little factoid.

Somewhere around the middle of the 6th Century BC, the Phoenicians gave way to the Carthaginians, who figured out a couple of things. The first of which was that Maleth was right dead square between the Italian Peninsula (where people liked to buy things) and North Africa (where people liked to buy things); and the second was that that those limestone islands were full of caves, and only had a couple of spots where a tax official or customs inspector could land. Coincidentally Maleth became wealthy enough that it attracted enough Greek business that a distinct Hellenistic influence began making itself apparent.

Unfortunately, in 255 BC the Romans – as part of their First Case of The Hips With Carthage – landed some troopies on the island who proceeded to enthusiastically, one might even say efficiently, express their irritation with Carthage; followed up in 218 BC during the Second Case of The Hips With Carthage, when the Romans landed on an island still reeling from their first visit, renamed it Melite, and welcomed it as part of the Roman Empire (or else).

Malta’s period of Roman rule is notable for a couple of things. Well, more than a couple, but two of note. The first of which is that after the kerb-stomping of Carthage by the Romans, the only thing Malta – excuse me, Melite – had worth exporting was roses and honey. That’s it. Yet Melite quickly rose up through the stratified levels of Roman municipalities to the rank of Foederatas Civitas; and was making beaucoup money. Enough money to buy a couple of Roman Senators.
Remember that pin earlier regarding a “fine disregard for the customs regulations and tax laws”? Couple that with the caves, and the fact that Malta is surrounded by cliffs with only a couple of places where a customs inspector or tax collector could land, on top of being right dead square between people needing stuff in Italy and people needing stuff in North Africa … and I’ve got a pretty good idea how Malta – sorry, Melite – made their money.

Speaking of “only a couple of places” where safe landing could be made, along about AD 60 an important figure of a burgeoning religious movement named Paul ran afoul of the cliffs, and after his ship got turkey-stomped he washed ashore in one of those safe spaces. He becomes fairly important to the islands later on.
The second notable thing is that the Romans were the first folks recorded doing the Maltese unofficial national sport known as “Let’s fortify this bastard”. Pretty sure the Phoenicians and Carthaginians did some fortifying, but the Romans made records.

Come the 5th Century AD, the Roman Empire is getting kind of creaky, and the Vandals notice those islands. Which they promptly land on, sack, and may have briefly occupied. Probably building fortifications in the process. (See “Maltese Unofficial National Sport”), however any occupation by Vandals, and the later Ostrogoths who also raided, is speculation.

In 535, the Byzantine Empire took notice of the Maltese Islands, occupied (seeing a pattern here), and used the archipelago as the naval base anchoring the Western edge of their empire, and possibly as a prison or place for exiling folks. The reason we’re not sure about the Byzantine occupation shows up about 29 August 870, when Malta became the last of the islands protecting Sicily to fall to the Aghlabid dynasty of the Muslim expansion, but it cost the Aghlabids their battle leader. In retaliation, the Muslims massacred the entire population, razed the main city, looted everything, and – most importantly—burned every bit of history they could get their hands on.
From 870 to 1048 AD Malta remained more-or-less uninhabited, until a community of Arabs (and their slaves) from Sicily arrived, took a look at the ancient city of Melite and rebuilt it as Medina. Being basically a tabula rasa – 870 having wiped out everything – the period of Arab rule from 1048 to about 1091 has had the greatest impact on Malta. The language, place names, agricultural techniques, and crops all stem from this period in Maltese history.

As we’ve seen, this couldn’t last, and about 1091 AD along come those rampaging extrovert Normans in the form of Roger the First of Sicily, who landed on the islands with all four feet.

Initially the Normans didn’t fuss about the Muslims, and as long as they swore fealty, the Normans left them alone. However, in 1122 the Muslims got cranky about stuff and staged an uprising. Probably not smart, because Roger the Two stepped rather firmly on some Islamic necks, and this time period got all flaggy and arrowy (including having the entire male population of the city of Celano, Italy sacked up and dumped on Malta as penance for pissing off somebody) with the islands being traded like Pokémon cards, attacked by everybody with a boat and a case of the hips; and being involved in every religious dispute, brush war, and Royal grudge match.

And, of course, during this whole time the Normans happily went about the (unofficial) national sport of Malta – fortifying everything.
Come the end of the 15th Century, and everyone on the island had a choice: embrace Christianity, and take a Latinized surname, or go have a discussion with Mr Sharp and Pointy. Surprising absolutely no-one, the population whole-heartedly embraced the Church of Rome.
And now we start coming to the fun part.

The Knights of St. John (also known as the Knights Hospitallers) had come out of the Crusades with in a slightly peevish mood, had traded in their hospitals for warships, and made it their job to be a major pain-in-the-arse to the Ottoman Empire by conducting amphibious raids on Ottoman coastal cities, and doing hit-and-run attacks on Ottoman shipping.

In 1522 they discovered that they had succeeded beyond their wildest dreams as an annoyed Suleiman the Magnificent showed up at their fortress on the Island of Rhodes with the stated intention of solving this problem. Which he did. -Ish.

He did force the Knights to leave Rhodes – after a six-month siege that cost him about 50,000 dead troopies -- but the Knights did so flying their battle standards high, marching in full armour and arms, drums playing, and boarded 50 ships provided to them by the Ottomans for transport to Christian lands. So, while the “Rhodes” part of the Knights problem was solved, the “Knights” part of the problem most assuredly didn’t stay solved.

Holy Roman Emperor Charles the Fifth wasn’t stupid. On one hand he had a rapidly-expanding Ottoman Empire with designs on Europe, on the other hand he had a salty bunch of knights with a reputation as being somewhat fuzzy on the concept of “Don’t raid the shipping of allies”; and on the gripping hand he had this strategically-vital island that nobody wanted.

So, in the Year of Our Lord 1530, in exchange for one Maltese falcon (the bird, not the statue) delivered each All Souls Day to the Holy Roman Emperor, the Knights of St John were awarded one (1) archipelago. They immediately came ashore on Malta, spit, started fortifying the hell out of it, and building their fleet back up.

Which leads us to GruntPa and the Pirate.

35 years after sealing the deal on their new home of Malta, the Knights had succeeded (more on this in a moment) in irritating Suleiman the Magnificent to the point that he sent 30,000 to 40,000 troops – including 6,000 elite Janissaries – to the island with orders fix this issue. Permanently. Unfortunately, they showed up while de Valette was Grandmaster of the Knights of Malta.

Jean Parisot de Valette was born probably around 1495 to a noble family in France, and joined the Knights of St. John around 1514 – 1515 when he would have been about 20 years old, and was a full Knight during the Siege of Rhodes in 1530 when the Knights left Rhodes under treaty. This seems to have annoyed de Valette, which was A Bad Thing, as we will see.

After the Order settled on Malta, de Valette did a little jail time for punching a moron, did a year as an Ottoman galley slave after his ship was captured, and wound up as Captain-General of the Order’s galleys, before being elected as Grandmaster of the Knights of Malta in 1557. He was known as one of the top three Christian maritime commanders of that age, was one of the finest strategic and tactical minds of the time, and in 1565 when the Ottoman punitive invasion arrived off the coast of Malta he was the poster boy for “Fear the old man in a profession where men die young” because he was a seventy (70) year old warrior knight at a time where men were still fighting with swords, pikes, crossbows, and matchlock harquebuses while wearing steel armour.

A taste of my introduction to the Malta Anthology:

Just … damn.

Ironically, once of the other top three maritime commanders was a good friend to de Valette, another Knight of Malta named Mathurin Romegas.

Mathurin d’Aux de Lescout – later known as Mathurin Romegas – was born to a wealthy family in Gascony, France, and I’m not sure what their family motto was, but if Young Matty is any example it was probably “Yarr, Me Hearties!” He joined the Knights in 1542, and made full Knight in 1546, coming to the attention of the historians in 1555. During that year a storm hit the Grand Harbour – some historians call it a hurricane, others state it was a tornado – but whatever it was it wound up sinking a large number of galleys of the Knights of Malta, including the one being commanded by Romegas.

The morning after the storm passed, rescuers were combing the wreckage, when they heard banging sound coming from a galley which had turned over and was floating upside down in the water.
They knocked a hole in the hull, and out jumped the monkey that belonged to Mathurin (apparently Pirates R Us had parrots on backorder when Matty visited), followed by the man himself; who had spent the storm, and the period until he was rescued, with his head in an air pocket inside the overturned hull.
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Rifletom
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Re: My first one,

Post by Rifletom » Sun Apr 17, 2022 8:45 pm

I know this is off topic, but, I really like this. DG, we will continue this once we get your rifle figured out. I'd like to think both are important.
Cool stuff indeed.
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DsGrouse
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Re: My first one,

Post by DsGrouse » Sun Apr 17, 2022 8:50 pm

Yep. I have work coming up this week. I will do my best to get a few rounds loaded. Hopefully, longshot will make the difference. I'm not looking for one-hole groups but, just acceptable accuracy.
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DsGrouse
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Re: My first one,

Post by DsGrouse » Mon Apr 18, 2022 8:54 pm

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