# Firearms and Shooting > Projects and Home Builds >  Hawkins plains rifle project

## homebrew.357

Hi All, new old hunter here, but going back to my second child hood, Now to get it right I`m not an engineer or gunsmith, just a self taught metal lathe hobbyist with some hunting thrown in.
So on my lathe I have made myself a Hawkins Plains Rifle in .440 cal, rifling is 1 in 33", 6 groves, barrel is 26" long and it weighs only 7 lbs 12 oz, nice and light for hunting. I do hunt with a .308 Win and a Marlin 3030, and reload for both.
The Hawkins has just been finished, proof tested and now seeing if it will hit what I point it at,using Patched round ball and 220gr bullet. Will see if I can post some pics, :Have A Nice Day: Homebrew.357.  PS, I see pics are down loaded using URLS ?Ithink, will try.

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## Gibo

In the quick reply box use the tree in a box symbol. Looking forward to seeing it  :Have A Nice Day:

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## homebrew.357



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## homebrew.357



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## homebrew.357



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## Toby

How'd you make it an octagon?

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## Gibo

> How'd you make it an octagon?


Octagon lathe Toby what else  :XD:

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## Gibo

Sorry Hexagon lathe!!!

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## ebf

Very cool  :Thumbsup: 

Did you machine the barrel yourself ? Rest bought as a kit ?

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## homebrew.357

Hi Guys, yep this is kiwi number 8 wire stuff, I only have a lathe and drill press, plus grinder in my garage and yes I did make 95% of it my self, lock, stock, and barrel. I did buy a few bits from (Track of the wolf in the US, mainly the brass but stock end, back sight and a packet of assorted screws with the side wedge plates.
This all came about when I found on line,(WWW Bill Webb`s Rifle Barrel Making Machine) it is a stand alone machine he made to make him self a few bench rest barrels,I got his DVD and info for this but I just made up some add on bits to fit on my lathe to make the barrel on and yes I did buy a gun drill from the USA to drill the hole in the barrel, AISI 1045 steel. cheers, home brew.357.

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## R93

Fricken awesome stuff mate. :Thumbsup:  I hope she goes as well as planned for you. Would love to see your process for rifleing the barrel. That will one satisfying hunt when you are successful with it. :Cool:

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## Toby

> Octagon lathe Toby what else


Real or are you pulling my tit?

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## Gibo

> Real or are you pulling my tit?


Tit pull. I own your tit now!

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## Toby

I assume its grinded like that I can't see how it can be done on a lathe

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## homebrew.357

Hi, This has taken me about 3 years in the building and working out how to do it, but the good news is as I did it I kept taking pics of the build. This I have posted on a forum in the USA, really got the yanks going, so if you want to see the full build go to,(WWW The home machinist), look at Gunsmithing then making rifle barrels in the lathe, by Homebrew.357. 
All will reveled, also have just joined the A K L branch of the deer stalkers and shooting it on the range to work up loads, cheers,homebrew.357.   Remember, while there`s bullets in the air there is hope!!

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## homebrew.357

:Wink: The round barrel was tool cut on the lathe , yep no such thing as carn`t do it, pics, cutting the octagonal, the home made lock for set triggers.

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## homebrew.357

And made the stock on the lathe as well.

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## homebrew.357

:Wink: Attachment 12596Attachment 12597Attachment 12598The round barrel was tool cut on the lathe , yep no such thing as carn`t do it, pics, cutting the octagonal, the home made lock for set triggers.

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## kimjon

Good skills, very inspiring stuff.

kj

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## Scouser

Mate that is mint, being a toolmaker by trade i can really appreciate the skill there....im a member of NZDA Auckland too....will have to see (hear) it at the range......

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## R93

Eh? To me it looks like you cut your flats with the tool post and HS steel bit? If thats right how deep of cut and how fast did you run the bed?
The dividing head is genius!

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## homebrew.357

Hi Scouser and you other guys, Tool maker, yikes, I`M not in the running there, my trade was Electroplating, did 25 years with Air N.Z, hard chrome and stuff. Was at the range on the 30/6/ for the first time, a bit off a stuff up, having breki at 8.00 finly saw the range times so got there at 1..2.00. Tryed my P/H.308 first on the 25m range, old cac amo and got a miss fire, so stoped that and got the Hawkins going with p/r ball , fired 2 shots good and but the no 3 shot, NO powder in the barrel,##@$%**#! had to git the r/b out a home. So will be up a the range on sun 28 again to give it another go, was all so at the A G M to join and will go to club nights. and pic no 213 is the set up for cutting the rifling in the barrel , left hand twist, cheers ,homebrew.357.

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## homebrew.357

Hi R 93, The way I did it is I had already made up the barrel breach plug with the octagonal machined on it, so after fitting in the breach plug I set up the breach end in the 4 jaw chuck other end in the turning center. the pic shows the barrel and cutter, but I cut only half of the flat at a time, it was to hard to do it all at once. So the plug was my divider for cutting the octagonal and just used the hand wheel on the saddle for up and down, nice and slowly, fine cut. Homebrew.357
PS, The bike parts and gearbox in pic #206 are for cutting the rifling in the barrel.

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## homebrew.357

Thanks Gibo, go it.

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## Maca49

Excellent project and well done, you thought it thru be keen to see how it shoots

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## ebf

Brilliant, looking forward to seeing the range results  :Thumbsup:

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## homebrew.357

A few more pics. #1, barrel in lathe cutting octagonal, #2 Job done,@3  Yes I browned it my self.

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## Maca49

You need a mill for your next one!

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## R93

> Hi R 93, The way I did it is I had already made up the barrel breach plug with the octagonal machined on it, so after fitting in the breach plug I set up the breach end in the 4 jaw chuck other end in the turning center. the pic shows the barrel and cutter, but I cut only half of the flat at a time, it was to hard to do it all at once. So the plug was my divider for cutting the octagonal and just used the hand wheel on the saddle for up and down, nice and slowly, fine cut. Homebrew.357
> PS, The bike parts and gearbox in pic #206 are for cutting the rifling in the barrel.


Awesome. You must be patient.
When I seen the sprocket I immediately thought dividing head but did wonder how you measured it for a cut.
Hard case either way. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

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## homebrew.357

Hi, No ,not patient, just retired with plenty of time to waste, I mean the barrel was meant to be .450"cal and the rifling suppose to be 1 in 36, But 1 in 33" should be good for bullets, but not so good for round ball, will just use light loads for them and see.
Pics, The rifling cutter head,  The barrel breach plug in .

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## Toby

What do you use to cut the barrel so the sights can be mounted?

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## Maca49

Hacksaw and file, in the traditional way, or you get a box of sight wedge holes and use one of those

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## Maca49

How many hours did you keep a total? I had a guy came in with a model train the other day, amazing work, just like yours, a retired gent, asked him build time and he said 7 years! Told him to write a story on the build and how he did it so his grand kids will have an understanding of the achievement and not sell it off for a few bucks. Gotta become a family heirloom

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## homebrew.357

Wedge holes,! now why diden`t I think of that . Now Toby it was the essaist of all the jobs to do, angle bracket on top slide, vice bolted on to the face, barrel clamped in, a slot cut and then a wedge milling cutter, easypesy. (I made the cutter). Maca49, I would say about 3 years. I tryd a diffrent way at first and then had to get myself a bigger lathe, had a Myford 7, to small a hole in the head stock. My new one is 38mm bore and .900mm b/c.
If you look hard at the rifle cutting gear boxes, the end one looks very much like an angle grinder head,? there`s also a skill saw gearbox and the one holding the gun drill is a 1 turn in 28. And a gun drill needs high pressure oil to flush out the metal chips.
A pic of the chips.homebrew.357

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## Maca49

Sing out if you need more power tool parts, have a few around from time to time

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## homebrew.357

Hi, All, a few stuff ups on my part is holding up getting a good group out of this rifle. #one, fired two shots with P/Rball, 3rd shot no powder in the barrel, Aaaah!, I now have a tool for removing a stuck lead ball. Stuff up#two, loading 60gs fffg with 220gr bullet, shot was good at 50m, hit at 2oclock on target, cleaned bore with damp patch, and then dry one ,whole jag end and patch stay in the barrel, AAAaah!, I`m learning.  Anyway some more pics of how I drilled the barrel, I used a car power steering pump for the oil pressure feed to the gun drill, pic 175 shows the oil at 200 psi, pic 174 is the set up with the drill going in through the plastic chip and oil box,pic #092 is how I made the lathe for barrel drilling and gearing it down for slow in feed.home brew.357.

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## homebrew.357

Hi, Guys, A bit more on how I cut the rifling in the barrel. The splash guard has two spaced bolts holding it on ,I clamped to upright steel brackets to them, then a long angle piece with clamps welded on to it,this was clamped to the upright brackets and it could move up or down. On top of the angle flat a length of bike chain was bolted on inline with the lathe bed way. The geared head is driven by the large bike sprocket that runs along the chain. The gearbox sits on a sliding assembly that runs up and done the tail stock bed way and it is cranked up and down by a loop of bike chain under the top slide, this is bolted to it.  The rifling is only cut form the head stock to the tail stock end,e g left to right on the lathe. At the back end of my lathe head stock at small bit of thread is what I used to attached the barrel holder, this has four grub screws to chuck up the barrel true. Any way a look at the pics should show it all, cheers, Homebrew.357.

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## Maca49

Can you post a pic of the cutting tips you used?

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## Scouser

Fark Homebrew, thats real hard case 'no 8 wire' kiwi ingenuity right there.....my cap is doffed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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## homebrew.357

Hi, Yea, it was a lot of stuff from the scrap bin all right. Ok, a look at the rifling cutter head, The round body is four inches long x .422" o/d ,it has a hole through and one end is threaded 6x1.0 metric in the ID.  A shaft fits in side with a ramp at one end, then a sliding hut to fit the 6x1.0 thread in the body, locks it in, but it can slide in and out. The next large nut is threaded on the shaft and this is for adjusting the cutter with the fine thread on the small shaft, a end nut is soldered on to hold it all together. 
The other end  an adapter fits in and is pin to hold it on the long rifling rod, a spring on a small piston holds the cutter head down on the ramp and the cutter is all so pined in place.  Adjustment to the cutter is made by screwing out the the large nut, then the ramp assembly can go in a bit more when pushed in, risers the cutter. HOPE you can understand all this, anyway a pic is thousand words, Homegrew.357.    PS In #2 thread is a pic of the cutter and shaft, in this pic the cutter is down.

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## ishoot10s

Hell mate, that is indeed some serious DIY genuine kiwi ingenuity right there! :Thumbsup: 

Well done.

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## Maca49

Thanks for the pic, you have thought outside the square on this one!

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## homebrew.357

Now hang on a minute mate, I did not design the cutting head, it was Bill Webb`s idea , I copied it for a bore size of .433", for a black powder barrel. Now Bill was making B/Barrels for bench rest shooting and his cutting head was for a 6mm bore!, yik`s, a man would go cross eyed at that size, or a .17!!. It was hard enough a at .433", and I`m now making a new body for my one. Cheers, Homebrew.357.

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## lloydcj

Beautiful mate

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## homebrew.357

Hi, Guys, a lot of the time doing this was making up the bits to fit on the lathe, and once I had it all sorted making the barrel took only about 3/4 weeks. Now this is the the first barrel, it came out a .440 bore, not what I wanted and it is a bit rough in side. Have made up a new cutter head with a t/c tip this time from an old saw blade, getting the gun drill sharped and getting some 1018 steel for another barrel, this time .450" bore I hope, Cheers ,homebrew .357  :Thumbsup:

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## homebrew.357

Hi all, I think I`v got it right, I have re reamed the barrel out to .430" I D made up a new rifling head cutter and re cut the rifling 0.010" deep so it is .450" cal. Then honed and lapped the bore and re fitted the breach plug . On Sunday 13th went to the Deer stalkers range with my son and gave it a work out, shooting at 50ms cast lead 260 gr bullet, 70 grs FFFg black powder and also patched round .440" lead  ball with 45 grs of FFFg  b/powder. It`s looking good, all on the money at 50 ms, minute of deer.
Had the camera, so some pics of the action, what a blast!, I don`t know the fps , my be around 1,300/400 with the 26" barrel but if it hits something it will know all about it, I call it ,LEAD POISON, Pics of the shoot ,Cheers, Homebrew.357, aka Davy Crocket.

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## Maca49

Great project well done, you have some patience. It may need new rings with all that smoke she's blowing :Cool:

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## Scouser

Like the 'home made' rest too......

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## homebrew.357

Hi, well she`s shooting good, I found, so far, it likes 50grs 3f with patch .440 ball at 50m ,and the 70grs of  3f with a 270gr bullet. Have gone through one tin of 3f powder and now trying 2f to see how it goes. there`s the 50m ,p/ball target 4 shots.    Cheers, Homebrew.357.

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## veitnamcam

nice, that must be real satisfying  :Cool: 

Sent from my GT-S5360T using Tapatalk 2

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## TOFAB

Hello all,
Homebrew.357 I be leave in the middle of this thread some one asked if you were a toolmaker and you said no.
Well I am a toolmaker and I am telling you, you are indeed a toolmaker and if you do not be leave me just look 
at the MOD's you made for the lathe and the rifle you made LOCK, STOCK, and BARREL. 
Those are your Journeyman’s papers.

Thank You,

John H.

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## Marty Henry

As Ian Dury said "there aint half been some clever bastards", I have enough trouble hammering a nail in straight.

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## deepsouthaussie

This whole thread is inspirational well done @homebrew.357 looks like your enjoying retirement.. 🔨👌

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## kotuku

An absolute bloody marvell,hope you get many happy hours out of it ,for you deserve it!

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## homebrew.357

Hi Guys, Having a rest up at the moment, have just had my 3rd and final , "a last" hip op, will be on crutches for about six weeks to break it in, then she`s  all on. Now seeing I`v finished  the Hawke plains rifle I had to have another project , so looking on E bay I found one!, just wondering if any one would keen to see it, NO, well ok, Cheers, Home brew.357.

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## veitnamcam

Say its a 2 bore  :Cool:

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## homebrew.357

No wont,  :XD: , because it`s not, so will close this thread with thanks for your words and support and will be posting a new one soon. And speaking of threads this is what I`m making for my new rifle, a gun cover for it , while I`m recuperating from my hip op. Cheers to all and see you soon, Homebrew.357. Remember, If it`s got Wheels ,Tits , or it floats, you are going to have trouble with it.

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## oneshot

Nice photos. I used to have two Hawkins rifles, a 50 and 45 cal, great fun for hunting, I shot probably 50-60 odd goats with my 50 cal, brilliant fun.

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## homebrew.357

Hey, Oneshot, Is here any reason the 45 was no good? , or you just liked the 50. When I can would like to have a go at the goats to test what my 45 will do with  a 270gr bullet, with 70grs 3f b/powder, say out to 50m, don`t think they would like it at all. One thing for sure, the 50 380gr p r ball?, would be on their hate list.   :Zomg:   Homebrew.357.

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## oneshot

Nah the 45 was just as good as the 50, I just happened to have both, I used the 45 more for target shooting on the move in competitions, and used the 50 for longer range and hunting, the 45 smashed goats sideways just as well though.

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## homebrew.357

Well that's good to know, as you can see I lean more to the heavy bullet for hunting, want to put them down quick , you have  only one shot,  but haven`t used it yet for hunting , just on paper. So have you fed them a 45 pr/ball, I`m using 50grs 3f, 130gr pr /ball , I thought it mite be a bit light for hunting?, Thanks, its good to get the facts form someone who has done it. Cheers, Homebrew.357. :Cool:

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## oneshot

Its been a few years since I used Blackpowder so I couldn't tell you what load powder I was using, even light loads will be fine, its a seriously heavy projectile and using round ball it hits extremely hard, I had the odd wounded goat but they were not able to move very fast because of the fist sized hole in their side, I carried a fighting Tomahawk to thump them on the head, a blade through the brain did the business to finish them.

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## mudgripz

Very impressive Homebrew..  Grouping is good too.  

Does anyone have an idea of ballistics for 0-50, 0-100m shooting for these old blackpowder rifles.

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## homebrew.357

Hi, Could be 1.300/1.400 fps, mine is not standed  with a 1x33" twist, most are 1-48" and or 1.60' for pr/ball. and my barrel is not that good, but ok for black powder.  I made it for hunting with a bullet with a fast twis and was surprised then it shot prb ok, they don`t like a fast twist. Look at www The Muzzleloading forum in US,  a heap of imfo, and they are not "old black powder rifles, can buy then brand new repos that are tack drivers. Cheers, Homebrew.357   :Thumbsup:

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## Maca49

With muzzle loaders you can only burn a certain amount of powder from ignition until the projectile leaves the barrel. Old timers would shoot over snow and tune back until they had no un burnt grains of power on the White stuff this gave them maximum loads.Powder burns at different rates FFFFG is very fine and used for frizzens or ignition powder FFFG for smaller cals, FFG for larger, FG for cannons. I use FFG for my 45 and bigger cals FFFG for my 38 cal. Pressures increase with finer powders cause they burn faster, producing pressure faster. Grade of powder I think is more dangerous than amount of the correct grade for the calibre, I wouldn't use FFFG in my 500 BPE I stick to FFG, I would need to research it well before changing to the finer powder, obviously FPS increase is the result

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## homebrew.357

Hi, All , the homebrew is fizzing my brain or my left hand does not know what my right is doing ,or hip op is making me cross eyed ! :36 1 5: . I apologise to all, I said new project coming up, I`v all ready starting to post it. Making a sharps barrel on my lathe, or should be , Making the Quigley  Sharps 1874 45-70 rifle on my lathe. yes, this is my new project, Sorry for any confusion, Homebrew.357.

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## Micky Duck

holy smoke batman........ just read both threads with interest..... you are a master craftsman Mate.

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## homebrew.357

Flaming heck, 6 years on and you've just read it, just shows what you can do with some number 8 wire AND a bit of steel tube with a few groves in it,  :Cool:

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## Micky Duck

yes well.....for some reason my interest has been pipped about .45/70s :Wink:  :Wink:  and I thought to go digging back through to see what is about....plurry glad I did.

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## homebrew.357

Now where's the plurry home project???, you can't let barrels lay around doing nothing!!!.

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## canross

Just wandered into this thread - homebrew.357 thank you for posting the pictures and explanations. Very impressive and lots of fun.

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