by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier
The American Zimmerstutzen.
This report covers:
- I didn’t know the gun was loaded
- And again…
- And again
- STOP!!!
- Blanks?
- Can real blanks hurt you?
- They were blanks but he fired too soon
- KaBOOM!
- So what?
- Sooner started…
- Does this thing even work?
- No fit?
- Serendipity
- HOWEVER
- Summary
I first titled this report, “Can blanks hurt you?”
In writing about the American Zimmerstutzen today, I rediscovered all my fears about shooting blanks in guns. Why would I worry about that? Well, this home-built pellet rifle was made to be powered by a blank cartridge. And, over the three score and ten years of my life, I have seen countless injuries and deaths from blanks.
I didn’t know the gun was loaded
You may have heard the story that actor Brandon Lee, son of Bruce Lee, was killed during filming, “The Crow.” He was shot with what Hollywood and the media called a “blank gun.” But it wasn’t really a blank gun — it was a firearm. And he wasn’t shot with a blank; he was shot with a bullet. How, many ask? Simple — the film crew was careless while using a firearm to shoot blanks and someone loaded a live cartridge into the handgun that shot and killed Lee. And that was not the only time it’s happened.
And again…
In 2015 an actor was shot with a bullet during a stunt gunfight at Tombstone, Arizona in a live portrayal of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. The marshal of Tombstone believed the shooting was an accident, but BB doesn’t. He believes it was a stupident! That’s because he has seen it in person.
And again
At Frontier Village amusement park where I worked during college we were looking for a part-time actor to be a western character to give our outlaw character a day off each week. Several people applied, including a San Jose policeman. We brought the police officer in for a trial run and schooled him on the script of a gunfight. When he had the timing and the lines down, we went for a dress rehearsal with live ammo, which were blanks. He had brought his own revolver that was a .38 special, so he also had to furnish his own blanks, since all of our guns were .45 Colts. No problem, he said. He had a box of them on hand.
STOP!!!
When the gunfight was run the marshal yelled, “Stop!” just after the shooting started. Bullets were tearing through the walls and fence posts next to where he was standing.
Blanks?
It turned out that the policeman wasn’t shooting blanks — he was shooting midrange wadcutter bullets that he thought were blanks because the bullets didn’t stick out beyond the case mouth. We learned a lesson that seems to keep repeating itself throughout history. We thought a policeman would surely know what blanks are. What he thought I don’t know because we promptly said goodbye to him. I don’t know if he learned anything from that, but we sure did!
The bullets on midrange wadcutters are flush with the end of the case, or very nearly so.
Can real blanks hurt you?
So much for stupidents. What about real blanks — ones that have no bullets. Can they hurt you? Well, watch this.
They were blanks but he fired too soon
I remember one gunfight when the marshal’s gun fired before clearing his holster. The blast of flame from the shot tore his heavy wool trousers from the end of the holster to his boots. The skin on his leg was burned off in a patch almost the size of an American football and the meat underneath was — well, it wasn’t pretty!
KaBOOM!
We loaded our own blanks at Frontier Village and they were a .45 Colt case full of black powder (about 40 grains) with a cardboard wad on top. When we shot, a ball of flame stretched about 8 feet from the muzzle of the gun. It was loud and dramatic and we had to stand about 20 feet apart to avoid getting hit by anything.
Our sawed-off double-barreled shotgun held about twice as much powder and shot a ball of flame about 12 feet long. We fired that one from rooftops and special places where no one could get too close. We had to make sure that the crowd that numbered between 20 and 150 people was safely out of the way whenever we fired. Thank goodness the only “accidents” were ever had were the two I have mentioned. But the danger was real and it instilled a great respect in me for blank cartridges.
So what?
Why am I telling you all of this? Because I am trying to work up the courage to fire a blank in the American Zimmerstutzen. Because that’s how I will have to test it. You learned in Part 2 that this rifle uses a blank cartridge to propel a pellet — or at least that is the theory. I’m a test pilot for this gun because it’s handmade and it didn’t come with a set of directions. I know how it is supposed to work, but whether it really does is an entirely different story.
I bought these months ago for this test. I don’t like the subtitle “Noise Blanks”!
A couple months ago I bought some CCI blanks for this test. They say “Noise Blanks” which means they are filled with powder that burns even faster than gunpowder. That’s so they will make a lot of noise with no resistance in the barrel. It also means the pressure curve will be faster and probably higher than with a cartridge. No problem if there is nothing in front of them, but if there is — like, say, a pellet — the pressure could rise too high. And this gun is homemade!
I thought that at least I could try one without a pellet and see how bad it really is.
Sooner started…
Okay, I’m scared. So safety glasses, long sleeve shirt and coat and gloves for the hand. Shoot in the garage to not scare the kitties. Here I go.
Does this thing even work?
I removed the “bolt” which on this gun is 27 hand-filed parts that do who knows what. Then I fiddled with the mechanism to get the chamber open.
There’s the bolt out and the chamber open to accept a blank cartridge.
And there is a .22 Short blank pushed into the chamber as far as it will go!
No fit?
Wow! In an instant everything changed and my life did not have to flash before my eyes. The person who made this treasure knew something after all! A .22 Short blank is too large to fit into the chamber. What gives?
Serendipity
Talk about luck! Talk about being blessed! Talk about good fortune! Do you know what this means?
No? Then I’ll tell you. I would have anyway, because I am so excited.
What is almost like a .22 Short blank, but a little bit smaller? That’s right — a real 4mm Zimmerstutzen cartridge! I should have some 4mm cartridges without balls in my collection, but it may take awhile to lay hands on them. However, the U.S. supplier of 4mm cartridges is Neal Stepp who is headquartered about 15 miles from me. With luck I can drive up and buy some.
Ironically, I titled this series The American Zimmerstutzen. When I did that I had no idea that it might actually be one! That’s a trip to Serendib.
HOWEVER
The really big deal in this is the fact that a 4mm cartridge uses priming compound, only. There is no powder. So the pressure will not be too high. In other words, this thing might just work, after all.
Summary
I am still not understanding how a builder who was so smart as to create a low-pressure propulsion system did not understand that a .22 rimfire barrel is too large to be accurate with pellets. But I hope there is more to discover. This little series is turning into a journey, rather than a traditional vintage gun test report! I’ll take that!
And, just so you know — yes, this does relate to airguns. How? Well, every 10 years or so somebody else “invents” a system that uses either primers or percussion caps to power a pellet. By the strict interpretation of the law these are not airguns, but way more than 90 percent of the shooters treat them as if they are. All I’m doing is showing you something that was made a long time ago that uses the same principle.
B.B.,
I would still recommend strapping the gun down and using a long string to pull the trigger. This gun sure makes for a good mystery story. Be careful.
Don
Don,
I will!
B.B.
I saw this done on a reality show called “Wild, Wild, West”. As I recall that was the name of the show. It was abut a gun shop in Alaska. They had two gunsmiths and some sales staff. They would take special orders to build custom rifles from scratch. They machined everything with the exception of the barrel. I don’t recall that they machined the barrel. When the rifle was complete they would take it out to a range and fixture it to a table. Then they would take a long string and connect it to the trigger. Then they would move behind a barrier and pull the string. They did have some breeches fracture and they would then machine another and make it stronger. It was pretty interesting how all that was done. I think the owner of the gun shop also started another gun shop in Las Vegas. Sometimes if they weren’t busy, the gunsmiths would walk out into the wilderness and look for guys that might need some gunsmith work done. Some of those guys weren’t too happy to see anyone out there. Haven’t seen that program for a while and don’t think it is on TV anymore but it was sure interesting.
Geo
I use to watch that show. It was a good show.
George
It took a while but now I remember the show. I think it was on for about two seasons.
Don
B.B.,
I second Benji-Don’s thought. If and when you decide to shoot this thing, it ought to be tied down to a truck tire with a string to pull the trigger from a safe distance. I don’t care how mild or weak that primer is supposed to be. By the way have you run a patch through the barrel? Isn’t the chamber more prone to corrosion due to the primer?
Siraniko
Siraniko,
I have looked through the bore. It is corroded from years of shooting black powder rounds with corrosive primers. A typical .22 rimfire barrel from 1900.
B.B.
Never assume anyone, even a police officer is versed in various ammo and weapons.
Back in the 80’s we shot “combat competition “ it was what became 3:gun competition.
A Very senior officer in the Rapides parish sheriffs department was at the range one day, and we offered him to use our weapons to try his hand at the sport.
I handed him a Remington 870 pump with a extended magazine tube. And a box of shells.
He looked at me and asked me “how do you load it…”
At least he asked.
While on the Parish police, I read an after action report during a safety briefing, 2 detectives, with 16 years experience between them, from the New Orleans police dept were issued an Ithaca 37, and 5 round of buckshot for a stake out.
At the end of the shift they returned the shotgun and 4 rounds of ammo.
They were adamant they signed for the shotgun, and only received 4 rounds, not 5.
Eventually they fessed up, that they had loaded the gun, but at the end of the stake out, they didn’t know how to UNLOAD The shotgun.
They used a pocket knife to fish the 4 rounds from the magazine tube, and not knowing how to empty the chamber, they fired off the round in some boxes in a dumpster.
Another report was from Crowley, Louisiana, an officer cocked his Smith & Wesson revolver in a confrontation, other officers took the individual into custody.
The officer didn’t know how to uncock his revolver, so he wrapped the hammer with a handkerchief, put it in his flap holster, and carried it the rest of his shift until he could ask his supervisor how to un cock it.
The only times he had ever shot his revolver single action, he had always fired it.
Not everyone is a firearms enthusiast.
That’s scary.
45 Bravo,
Yes. It doesn’t seem right, but that is exactly the way it is.
B.B.
B.B.,
These stories make Andy’s decision to give Barney just one round to keep in his pocket seem just about right.
Michael
Yeah, and I recall Barney accidentally shot his revolver into the floor trying to get it out of the holster. Maybe he did that more than once too. Then Andy would put his hand out and Barney would give him the bullet from his pocket.
Geo,
As I recall, the bullet that was mis-fired (was the one in Barney’s pocket) and Barney had to turn over his sidearm to Andy at that point,…. as I recall. Then again, my re-call ain’t what it used to be either. 🙂
Chris
Good ole Barney.
That was a good old show.
While where on the subject of old shows. Anybody remember Paticoat Junction and Green Acres. And I should bring up Hee Haw.
Anybody remember them?
GF
Don’t forget the Beverly Hillbillies .
And the Real McCoys.
tt
TT
Yep the Beverly Hillbillies.
And of course Gun Smoke and the Rifleman.
And I just got to being it up.
The good ole Duke boys. That was probably one of my favorites. Could relate to that show in too many ways.
And as it goes they just don’t make em like they use too. Even the old shows we watched. Good stuff.
GF
Your foot feeling a bit heavy again ?
tt
TT
Yes.
My little modified turbocharged Chevy Sonic is cool.
But you know how those V8’s sound and run when the right parts are used.
That Mustang I’m talking about is a 95 GTS with the old pushrod roller cam 5.0 in it with the E303 cam and GT 40 heads and intake. It runs. And never has been on the bottle yet. And he’s even the original owner. The cars got 98,000 mile’s on it but the drive train has been done in the last 3 years. It’s very clean.
TT
Yep and forgot the Mcoys. I imagine I was watching the last episode and reruns in the late 60’s and early 70’s I think. Don’t remember them real well. But I do remember them.
Now you make me remember the famous old rivalry with the Hatfield and Mcoys.
I didn’t like history in school. But I for sure liked learning about that. Then can’t forget Bonnie Clyde and the gunfight at the OK Corral. Loved the movie Tombstone.
GF
And the music of the times too.
Those were the days.
I have XM on my radio in the Camaro . I also have a horde of rock on a USB thumb drive plugged into the infotainment system .
tt
TT
Yes for sure the music too.
Just heard what’s the name of that song. Nobody’s gonna beat my car? All I can say is I’m getting real close to buyng a muscle car again or a race car.
One of my daughters is out on here own now. The younger ones getting ready. So maybe just maybe I can swing one again. My buddies got a older 5 litre Mustang with a good ole C4 in it with a 4:11 Ford 9 inch. I would rather have a GM. But I had those Fox bodies in the past. They work. So who knows. Might be back in the car scene pretty soon again. The stars are looking that way anyway. 🙂
GF
Hottest thing we got is a ’15 Stang GT . 5.0 440 horse. Sluggish compared to the Camaro, but has more horses.
tt
TT
That’s the overhead valve V8. No pushrods anymore. Those are proven hot engines.
And yep you mentioned both cars before. Your V6 Cadillac engine Camaro are runner’s too even if they are a V-6. And yes I know you remember the Grand Nationals.
And horsepower is not everything. But when torque and horsepower work together is when you get the pull to make you quick and still keep gaining mph when weight of the car starts taking over.
Wow sounds like gun ballistics to me. In a different sense. Always more to it than meets the eye.
The Real McCoys was my favorite.
GF1,
Yup,…. all of them. Hee Haw was prone to “parental discretion” due to the rather buxom ladies,… at least I think anyways. Dad did like the guitar bits,… so usually we kids got to watch it.
Chris
Chris
lol yep maybe so with Hee Haw.
But do you remember the old Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck and Tom and Jerry cartoons. As well as Yosemite Sam and the Tasmanian Devil.
Think about them cartoons. There was pretty crazy stuff in those cartoons. Oh and don’t forget Elmer Fudd and Longhorn leghorn.
You remember them?
GF1,
Of course. No lackage of shooting stuff and blowing things up. The “Coyote” may very well be a good parallel to the current conversation of how (not) to do things. I do believe that he got blown up many more times chasing’ the Road Runner than he ever blew anything up. (Just to bring this all back around to airguns/shooting,…. just sayin’)
Chris
Chris
Oh yeah. The Coyote and the Road Runner. How did I forget that. And all those crates of Acme stuff. What always brings me back is when I started in the machine shop business I ran Acme Gridly screwmachines.
Makes you wonder how all those cartoons got composed. Maybe there was hidden sponsors involved and us kids never had a clue.
That’s something to think about isn’t it.
Yup, I remember all those old shows. My favorite westerns were Gunsmoke, Wanted Dead or Alive, The Rifleman, Bonanza, and Have Gun Will Travel. My most favorite cartoon was Huckleberry Hound.
Geo
Yep those too.
Gunfun,
That reminded me of a classic: “Operation Petticoat”.
A movie. Not a TV show. But still a classic.
Really, I just misread your post. But it still gave me a trip down memory lane.
StarboardRower
StarboardRower
Yep goog ole memory lane. 🙂
Does anyone remember the story of the policeman who accidentally fired a shot into the ceiling of the police station? Embarrassed, he told his captain he had dropped a 9mm round on the concrete floor and it had gone off, sending a bullet into the ceiling. Thing is, without a steel chamber to contain it, the soft brass cartridge case would have exploded outwards, not propelling the bullet anywhere near that ceiling.
Joe
I don’t remember. But you are right about the case exploding.
I know a few stories about shot gun shells that I should not even mention here.
Gunfun1,
:^>
—Joe
BB,
If it were not for all the “decorations” on the stock, this would be an awesome “steampunk” weapon. I am really pulling for this thing to work.
RR,
Me, too!
B.B.
B.B.,
Even if it were to be fired just once, yes, that would be gratifying.
Michael
Michael,
I’m working on it.
B.B.
B.B.,
Another fine installment on this oddity. Have you rodded a lead ball or pellet down the bore to determine (for fact) just what size the bore is?
If confirmed to be too large for a modern pellet, then what? A purposeful pre-load skirt expansion may get you started.
Without looking back, are you even sure that it used pellets? Given the age, weren’t the “trash can” pellets the only thing around then? Maybe it used lead balls? Maybe it had to have a custom made (sized) ball/pellet/bullet?
Looking forwards to more.
Good Day to you and to all,…… Chris
If the bore is too large for a modern 22cal pellet, Perhaps running a 25cal pellet through a size die might work.
B.B.
I shake my head at the stupidents you relate – there is no excuse for them – period!
“I didn’t know it was loaded” is total BS…
Anybody who handles a gun should know these as they are basic common sense…
Rule number 1 is: TREAT ALL GUNS AS IF THEY ARE LOADED – ALL THE TIME
Rule number 2 is: NEVER POINT A GUN AT ANYTHING THAT YOU DON’T WANT TO SHOOT
Rule number 3 is: ALWAYS BE SURE OF YOUR TARGET AND WHAT IS BEHIND IT
As teenagers we had our springers with us all the time and the area (fields and bush) we frequented had a lot of people walking their dogs, riding bikes etc..
Our rifles had no safeties and we always carried them loaded (not a recommended practice) and ready for a quick shot. In all the years (and tens of thousands of shots) we roamed those fields with our rifles we never had an accidental shooting or even an unsafe discharge because we followed the three rules all the time.
I don’t believe in accidental shootings… somebody had to miss-handle the gun.
As much as I a curious about the American Zimmerstutzen I would not shoot it with a pellet/ball unless I was planning on doing some accuracy testing. A starter-pistol blank would be enough to demonstrate if the rifle worked – think that this one is a wall-hanger.
Happy Friday all!!
Hank
Hank,
You are right about no gun handling accidents. They are stupidents.
As for the started pistol blank, that’s what I tried today and it’s too big to fit. I have to find something smaller.
B.B.
B.B.
These are the blanks that I was thinking about…
Hank
Hank.
They are shorter. I will look into them but I still want to try some 4mm cartridges.
B.B.
BB—-When I lived in Brooklyn, about 60 years ago, there was a gunsmith who repaired police pistols. One day he showed me a revolver that was so rusted that it was stuck in its holster. When the smith had cut away the leather, he saw that the pistol was cocked and wrapped with rubber bands because the cop did not know how to uncock the gun ! The cop had carried this revolver for years, until the captain decided to inspect the cops revolvers. This smith also told me that one of the local officers accidentally cocked his loaded revolver , in his apartment. Since he did not know how to uncock the pistol , he discharged it into the toilet because he knew that water would stop a bullet !
I saw the rusted pistol and the pile of rubber bands, but I never found out if the second story was true. ——-Ed
Ed,
Wow! I had no idea!
B.B.
Gun Safety.
Hard not to be deeply concerned, on many levels, about guns being vilified and shunned nowadays. Everyone should be taught how to properly use and respect these tools.
Without widespread education and proper respect for guns and table saws there will be unnecessary accidents.
Just yesterday rising country music star Justin Carter accidentally killed himself with a gun while filming a music video. Tragic and preventable.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2019/03/21/justin-carter-rising-country-star-dead-accidental-shooting/3236744002/
Terry Kath, guitar player with The Chicago Transit Authority (later named just “Chicago”) shot himself accidentally back in the 70s – apparently he didn’t realize the pistol he was holding had a round in the chamber even though he had removed the magazine.
There’s a film maker named Scott Shaw – unless you are a devotee of really (really) bad films you probably won’t have heard of him – who claims in hos book “Zen Filmmaking” that all of the firearms use in his films is done using live ammunition because “It’s hard to get the special permits you need for blanks… and blanks mess up the barrel of the gun anyway.” I believe this was just stupid posturing to make himself look hardcore but, after hearing him pontificate on various topics I believe he actually might be dumb enough to use live ammunition.
Just about the only thing I liked about the movie Pulp Fiction was the scene where one character (Travolta’s I think) has his gun go off accidentally while he’s waving it around in the usual casual Hollywood manner. It’s one of the only times I can think of where a movie or TV show has shown that this can happen.
Whenever I am holding a gun I always seem to move in slow motion. Slow, deliberate one-at-a-time actions, always conscious of the potential for something to go wrong. All I do is target shoot, and don’t do this in any sort of time restrained competition so I have all the time in the world to be extra careful.
Nowhere,
If I recall correctly, Terry Kath grew up around firearms and was something of a collector. His “stupident” was in front of a road crew member/friend who was over at Kath’s house when Kath was cleaning a number of his guns.
I have always considered Vincent’s (Travolta’s) “accidental discharge” in the car to be intentionally ambiguous in the film. Remember that the guy he shot was suspected by Vincent and Jules of setting them up to be killed in the previous scene. Vincent is not at all concerned that he just shot to death someone who was supposed to be a comrade. In fact his reaction is quite casual and matter-of-fact. We are left to wonder if it was an accident or an “accidentally on purpose.”
Michael
Michael
Right. Accidental or on purpose.
There always seems to be more to it than relized. Maybe a on purpose “stupendant”.
Mel83,
Do you really think the Handwerk (craftsmanship) quality of the action is up to the Standart (standard) of a Wanderbursche/Geselle (journeyman)? It certainly might be the work of a beginner Auszubildende/Lehrling (aprentice) minus all the decorative additions to the stock. The rifle’s stock shape doesn’t make me think German, Austrian or any other Central European design/style!
Was denken Sie! (What do you think!)
shootski
B.B.,
Earlier this week I thought of this series. A seller on a famous, huge auction site sells heavily modified (furniture-wise) old Daisys, and that got my mind working back to this.
Jon-Erik Hexum was a 26 year old Hollywood TV actor who, during as break from filming, held a .44 magnum loaded with blanks to his head and pulled the trigger as a joke. His head wound from the blast and the wadding killed him.
I have been in community theatre and college productions in which actual professional prop guns (not actual firearms or blank guns, but ones made for the stage and screen that fire blanks) were used. The rule was that when it was not in the hands of the actor who was to use ot on stage, it had to be in the hands of the propmaster, or on the prop table, with a sign next to it that said, “DO NOT TOUCH.”
Michael
Michael,
I did hear about that, but didn’t know the details so I didn’t mention it.
Thanks,
B.B.
BB, I wonder if the gun was meant to shoot round ball? Is there a shotgun shot or roundball that will fit a rimfire barrel?
David Enoch
David,
You’re the second person to ask that. A number 4 ball is close, at 24 caliber. I will look into it.
B.B.
That’s exactly what I was going to say. Wanted to read the comments first.
They should even be less drag exiting the case than a pellet.
And is the barrel smooth bore or rifled. I forget without looking.
And I had a blank gun that I used as a kid when we was training our hunting dogs. And yes the fire blast can be dangerous.
And you know PA sells blanks 9 mm even if I remember right.
And I don’t know what to think about this gun safety wise when firing. I would just load a blank at first and fire the gun before l put a projectile in. That’s when the pressure builds and the danger happens.
Without the projectile it will be like dry firing. I would definitely go that way before actually trying to send a projectile down the barrel.
B.B.,
The Apache Fire-Ball is 24 caliber. The #4 shot I found was not uniform in size or shape so not much accuracy. I did get good accuracy with 25 caliber pellets that were resized to the barrel.
You could pull some .22 bullets from the case, that does kind of go along with the function of the rest of the gun.
I have seen some corroded black powder barrels that were still accurate. You may need to liberally apply some bear fat to the bore; it had a cult following back in the day.
Don
BB,
In Europe, apprentices traditionally had to craft a “Gesellenstück” during the course of becoming a fully acknowledged worker. (And to become a master, they had to craft a “masterpiece”) .
The Gesellenstück was examined by the teachers, and in the old days it was also used to show the workers proficiency to would-be employers.
In have seen Flobert calibre Gesellenstück rifles, and that makes sense due to limited danger, lower price and laws if you wanted to carry that thing around.
And of course, the apprentices wanted to show what they were capable of, and deliberately built complicated arms with a lot of bells and whistles. Your gun reminds me of such a Gesellenstück!
Mel,
🙂 That makes the most sense of anything I have heard yet. B.B. has him one of those Gesellenstucks!
Chris
I remember a few years ago I took the boys to a Western re-enactment, complete with a shootout on mainstreet.
To show us how ‘safe’ the blank firing guns were one of the participants held up a phone book (back when there were such things)…average phone book, likely a few hundred pages. The shooter shot it from a distance of about 3 feet…all that was left was a bunch of confetti.
Pretty darned impressive I thought!!
Cowboystar Dad,
That is impressive. That video that B.B. linked was also. Awhile back, I made a reactive target that uses nail gun charges. Very safe and well contained,…. made (only) to make a “pop” when hit. Between your comment and B.B.’s link,.. I have a more profound respect for blanks and nail gun charges.
Chris
All,
I posted my first ever pic taken from my cheap flipper phone on another site yesterday. Quite the struggle with no/little guidance. At any rate, I recall a preferred pic size? or something to that effect for the site (here),… but do not remember the pic posting tips. Anyone?
Thanks,… Chris
Chris U,
I think the max size is 2 meg. I know jpg format works and that is about it.
Benji-Don,
Thank you. I will take all the help I can get at this point. Note made.
Chris
Chris
I just size the picture down till it will post the picture.
On this blog it will tell you the size is too big. Then I just crop the picture till it’s the right size.
GF1,
No need to crop the picture. Just compress it to a smaller file size. You won’t see any difference at
all in the picture size or quality when viewed on a computer screen.
Geo
Geo
Works a little different on a smart phone. And I guess even with Chris’s flip phone.
Cropping is the easiest way to size the picture down to get rid off all the extra picture around the object.
Plus it zooms in on the object so to speak when cropping.
Your way your just sizing the whole picture smaller.
It seems like when I first started posting pictures here the max size was 1 MB, wouldn’t swear it.
It’s not about the physical size of the picture, it’s about the file size. Pictures from a digital camera, and maybe a cell phone, with high resolution are 3-4 MBs. If you have MS Office you can open the picture with the built in picture manager. There is an option in the picture manager to compress the picture for smaller file size and faster loading. This works very well for pictures you want to attach to an email too. People use to email me with pictures attached in their native size of 4 MBs. When I opened my email the program would choke on those large files sizes.
Geo
Don’t know. I just know cropping works. So that’s how I been doing it.
GF1,
Whatever works for you is fine. Just saying, compressing the file size of a picture does not change the physical size as far as viewing it on a computer. I zoom my camera to get the picture I want and then just compress the picture from 4 GB down to about 265K for posting or emailing. You may not be able to do that with a stupid, oops, meant to say smartphone. 🙂
Geo
Might be able to do it on a smart phone. I just don’t know how that is if it can. Guess I need to get smarter. 🙂
B.B.,
I can’t tell from the pictures, it may have already been answered. Is that a ramrod under the barrel?
Don
Don,
It’s there for style, only. It doesn’t remove and so has no purpose.
B.B.
B.B.,
Only guessing,…. but if I were you,.. this would be the most prized piece in my entire collection. Value aside, prestige aside,… the workmanship and uniqueness are simply priceless.
Chris
Hi Tom,
I remember Frontier Village. I was there in the early 60’s.
Greg
I never knew about it probably since I was born in the early 60’s.
But from what BB has talked about it I think it would of been a cool show to see.
And I’m sure this no way compares. But back in the late 80’s to early 90’s we went to Six Flags alot. Occasionally they would have some gun fight shows in their “Old Glory” amphitheatre I think it was called. It was indeed very entertaining to watch.
Gunfun 1————-I just stopped laughing ! Longhorn leghorn—-Its FOGHORN leghorn ! I would love to see a longhorn rooster !Perhaps it would look like the famous jackalope. ——————-Ed
Ed
I was close anyway. And maybe so. 🙂
Oh, you oldsters!
Do you remember Nervous Norvus singing Transfusion? It was banned from many stations in the 1950s. How about Ape Call, also by Nervous Norvus.
Later there was Gitarzan — the Guitar Man.
B.B.
B.B.,
This has officially “gone off the rails” when the teacher hops in on the “off in in the ditch” conversation! 😉 50’s?,…. count me out. ’61 vintage. Your site,…. your rules,………… 🙂
Chris
I remember Gitarzan ! I think ?
Greg
George of the jungle ?
Rocky & Bullwinkle ?
tt
Of course I do ! That was just 4-5 decades ago.
Greg,
Somethings are better left forgotten.
Mike
Rocky&Bullwinkle has been released on DVD’s. I liked the side story called ‘Fractured Farytales,
Yep good ole Rocky and Bullwinkle.
BB
Don’t remember them.
BB
So we are both older than rock-n-roll and should remember just about everything from the early years. Who was the pigeon-toed, under-growed ( We wear short shorts ) wanna be in a rock and roll band guy from 1958.
Bob,
The band was the Royal Teens. Bob Gaudio, Billy Dalton, Billy Crandall and Tom Austin.
B.B.
Bullwinkle (and associated characters) were so popular ( in the 1962-63 school year) that they became my class mascots. I used them in sketches, diagrams and posters. One of my 7th grade classes was a gifted class. At the end of May, I told them that there would be a final exam, in the last week of school. When they came to my classroom for the final, I gave out paper and pretended that they were going to take a real science final. You should have seen their reaction, when I removed a chart that was covering the “exam” on the chalk board. The test question read DRAW A PICTURE OF BULLWINKLE. ————Ed
Ed
Now that’s how all the finals should of been. 🙂
BB
I know firing an empty .22 cartridge ( no bullet ) with only primer left in it, in your house, will be something you never forget. Hearing protection.
Discussing UFO’s is high tech compared to todays blog spin off !
So BB, we are both older than rock-n-roll and should remember all the early years…. Who was the pigeon toed, under-growed, wanna be in a rock-n-roll band song celebrity of 1958 ? Hint … ” We wear short shorts! ” Anybody?
I was into cap guns back then.
( Same question above must have posted accidently ? thought I lost it )
Bob M
Bob M,
That would be the FPPE! I became 12 that year.
Bugbuster
Bugbuster
You got that right. Hard to ever forget that song. I was 11. BB took the easy way out and went for the Short Shorts song. The words from that song were also in the Flying Purple People Eater song.
Bob M
B.B.
Sifting through my emails and found one I had forgotten about, December 31 got an email with the subject “A look back at Tom’s Top 10 Blog Posts of 2019”, and it linked to this American Zimmerstutzen. If you get a chance I hope you can follow up on this interesting item.
Mike
Mike,
I want to get back to it but I cannot find a cartridge that fits it. Believe me — I haver tried!
B.B.
The pneu dart brand tranquilizer guns use a simiz low pressure system to project darts. Maybe there is a connection?
Mel83,
No connection. This gun uses a cartridge explosion to project round lead balls through a rifled barrel.
BB
Tom,
I guess you have not found the the correct cartridge to use with this rifle.
Mike