Enough? (1858 New Army Remington replica)

"Enough" is a powerful concept.

Figuring out how much is "Enough" is not as obvious as it appears.

1858 New Army Remington

I got to shoot an 1858 New Army Remington replica today.

It was the Pietta version and we had some nipple-cap issues, but that was anticipated. The owner has new nipples for #11 caps (the easiest ones to find locally) coming. Five of the nipples cheerfully held their caps. One would not.

By-the-numbers:

Source

A .357 Magnum case holds 1.7cc of volume which converts to "25 grains by volume" of blackpowder.

25 grains of FFFG Triple Seven "by volume" can be expected to push a 140 grain, .454" lead, round-ball somewhere between 750 and 790 fps. 25 grains-by-volume of FFFG pencils out to 300 rounds per pound of Triple Seven.

35 grains of Pyrodex P can be expected to push the same ball at 900 fps.

The first load is the equivalent of a wadcutter target load out of a .38 Special and the second load is the equivalent of a "combat" load out of a snubby .38 Special.

A 1858 with a 5-1/2" barrel tips the scale at 40 ounces which is almost exactly twice what a steel-framed, .38 Special "snubby" weighs.

The recoil on the 1858 is negligible, the sights are "fine" and the trigger is lovely.

If a .38 Special loaded with wadcutters is "just enough", it is hard to argue that a 0.45" diameter ball of the same weight and velocity is totally inadequate. Even if you might wish for a bit more, it still beats a harshly worded memo when things go bump-in-the-night.

The Pietta 1858 has parking-notches in the cylinder between the nipples. You can park your hammer in any of the notches to keep it off a percussion cap and avoid accidental firing if the weapon is dropped.

If push-came-to-shove and the mission was to shoot across the width of your bedroom at somebody who busted through your bedroom door, an 1858 New Army replica in .44 would be "enough" if you could keep the caps on the nipples. By the same token, if you needed to pot a deer at 15 yards, you would still have "enough" as long as you restricted yourself to broadside "lung" shots.

It will never be a "Magnum". It doesn't have enough steel in the right places to support those kinds of pressure. But within the envelop of what it is, it performs well.

As a side note, if you look at the cost of shooting one of these beasts on a per-hour basis, you will be hard pressed to find a more economical gun. It is entirely possible to burn through 100 rounds of ammo in a semi-auto in ten minutes if you have enough magazines. That same 100 rounds would last you for HOURS and HOURS in a replica blackpowder pistol. And since you have so much invested in loading it, you are more likely to slow-down and attempt to learn more each time you pull the trigger.

Bonus video Shooting pop cans at 21 yards after adjusting the sight. Not me nor my buddy. Just a video found on the internet.

Notes: The chamber for the Pietta is 22.8mm from the mouth to where the wall breaks for the angle of the drill bit. It measures 11.2mm in diameter.

Internal volume is 2.2CC plus the volume for the drilled-and-tapped hole for the nipple.

1.7CC FFFG Triple Seven is 25 volume-grains equivalent and weighs 22.7 grains by weight. 23 grains of FFFG Triple Seven + 0.7 CC of turnip seeds plus a 3mm greased felt wad (0.3CC volume) plus a 0.451" pure lead ball makes a good "package".

Fee, fie, foe, fum; I smell a dum-dum

 

Secretary Lenawee County Democrats- Joaquin Ramos

Joaquin Ramo

Age: 27. 

Occupation: Currently unemployed. 

Spouse/kids: None. 

Government experience: My experience with government has come from my activism on local and national campaigns in Adrian, Lansing and Detroit. I have observed and logged the city government for more than five years and have attended every meeting possible. I have experience working with city and state governments through numerous boards and groups, including All About Adrian, Housing Help of Lenawee, Lenawee Poor People's Campaign, Human Resources Commission, Adrian District Library, Continuum of Care  SOURCE

***

Probably off of his meds.

The backyard flock

I got a text from Southern Belle. Her family likes to eat eggs and the price is skyrocketing. Some of that is due to flocks getting culled due to bird flu. Some of it is due to Michigan's Democrats aping California and outlawing birds kept in a cage-free environment. 

As a side-note, I have to wonder if the cage-free environment accelerates the spread of bird-flu. In general, any kind of fire-break is helpful in slowing the spread of epidemics while any kind of mobility is bad.

Southern Belle asked for a brain-dump.

***

Hello Southern Belle:

There is nothing wrong with having several breeds in your home flock. I think it adds visual interest.

At their peak, you will probably get five eggs every week from each hen. Four hens will give you twenty eggs. Six hens will give you thirty eggs.

You do not need a rooster.

Breeds

#1  ISA Brown. In my opinion, this is the best choice for a backyard flock in our part of Michigan.

#2 Black-sexlink is a close second place

#3 Tied for third-place are Barred Rocks, Black Australorps, Rhode Island Reds and Gold/Silver Lace Wyandottes

Honorable Mention: Americana (Green egg layers). They have better free-range "survivability" because they are a little more paranoid than the breeds listed above. Unlike the other breeds, Americanas are not standardized for colors so you will automatically get a mixed looking flock.

General notes: 

White birds tend to get picked-off first if you let them free-range.

Breeds with large "combs" (the pink growth on the top of their head) suffer in cold weather.

"Roll-out" egg nests are a wonderful thing. Even better if you can make it so you have a trap-door in the side of your coop and can access the eggs from outside.

If bird flu hits the local hatcheries then chicks will become very hard to get and will be expensive. Beat the rush.

You can buy one-year-old birds that are molting. There is a local guy who "dumps" his flock this time of year. He charges $15 a bird.

Consider ducks!

#1 Khaki Campbell duck

#2 Indian Runner Ducks, available in multiple colors. Some people call them "The Bowling-pin Duck"

Ducks can be superior to chickens for free-ranging. They are more effective at catching bugs. They are more resistant to the cold. They WILL foul any open water, so maybe not the best choice if you have a swimming pool.

Lifting notes: 135 X 6 raw. 205 X 6 with straps. (225 x 6) x 3. Total of 6090 pounds

How much blood can a human lose?

The average adult's body contains between 4.5 liters (roughly 9 pints) and 5.5 liters (roughly 11 pints) of blood.

Blood doesn't have to leave the body to become unavailable. Your circulatory system can leak into your abdominal cavity and thoracic cavity in large enough quantities to be a problem. Dehydration can also impact blood volume.

Loss of 15% is likely to lead to dizziness.

Ötzi, the Tyrolian Ice-man, had many injuries at the time of his death, including a severed left subclavian artery. The dude went down fighting!

Loss between 20% and 30% is enough to generate a traumatic response sometimes called Hypovolemic Shock. Symptoms of Hypovolemic Shock include:

• rapid breathing
• weakness or fatigue
• confusion
• cool, pale skin (caused by the body shutting down blood-flow to non-critical organs)
  
• sweaty, moist skin
• anxiety or unease
• low urine output
• drowsiness
• unconsciousness

Key Point: It doesn't matter how strong of a will you have, once you start experiencing Hypovolemic Shock you stop being able to take care of yourself. You need outside help.

At 40% blood-loss the body runs out of "tricks" to maintain function of critical organs. Those organs start dying and the patient is in dire danger.

At about 50% blood-loss, damage is irreversible and even if you are given massive transfusions of whole blood, there is no guarantee that you will live. (SOURCE)

That may be counter-intuitive to athletes. "I can exercise for hours at 15 Metabolic Equivalents and you are saying that my body only has 100% redundancy?"

The issue isn't the number of red blood cells or the efficiency of your lungs exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide. The problem is INADEQUATE VOLUME. It is like a bicycle chain that is too short. It doesn't matter how strong the chain is if it isn't long enough.

Protocols for first responders when the patient has lost a lot of blood is to push volume extenders like Ringer's or plasma. They will even put a blood-pressure cuff around the bag to generate positive-pressure to push it into the patient's vein.

The Golden Hour

In Emergency Medicine there was a (now partially discredited) concept called The Golden Hour that was suggested by R. Adam Cowley at University of Maryland's Shock Trauma Center.

The concept was that if you can get the patient to the Emergency Room with a pulse within the first hour of when the trauma was experienced, there is a darned good chance that he can be saved.

Consider the body-parts that can be damaged by trauma. Some of them are so critical that even if the patient was already coming through the doors of the Emergency room, doctors would not be able to save the patient...massive damage to the Central Nervous system or a severed aorta, carotid or femoral arteries for instance. Carotid and femoral get mentioned because they are not only large, but they run close to the skin.

(The Golden Hour might be a good example of the Survivor Bias. Your chances of surviving are much higher if you don't die before you get to the Emergency Room. Not controlling for those "suspended data points" can bias perceptions)

Due to the rapidly branching nature of arteries, most of the high-pressure side of your circulatory system are smaller and often run close to a bone. They are still too big for your body's clotting system to seal but you have a more time before you exsanguinate. Since these smaller arteries are dispersed, it takes a lot of cutting or punctures to sever enough of these to come anywhere close to the volume potential of a femoral artery, for instance.

I am pretty sure that I have at least three readers who work in Emergency Medicine. Please feel free to pick this post to pieces.

Ten characteristics of highly prepared people

 https://www.theorganicprepper.com/10-daily-habits-prepared-people/

• Highly prepared people have a Plan A, Plan B, Plan C....
• Highly prepared people are masters of their emotions, not slaves of them
  
• Highly prepared people are able to think analytically even during stressful times
• Highly prepared people carry basic-necessities with them...always
• Highly prepared people can solve problems using ubiquitous resources
• Highly prepared people live a skills-based life-style
• Highly prepared people are physically active
• 
  
   
• Highly prepare people value items that have multiple uses
• Highly prepared people abhor waste
• Highly prepared people exhibit an exceptionally high degree of situational awareness 

Note, descriptions slightly modified to suit my tastes.

The power of blackpowder

 

And for those who doubt the power of cap-and-ball, blackpowder pistols.

Three hundred thousand killed with blackpowder muzzleloaders and two-hundred-seventy thousand wounded Source

On a more serious note, blackpowder killed and wounded over a half-million soldiers in the US Civil War. By modern standards, the loads used in the Civil War were pretty wimpy, usually 60 grains of blackpowder behind 510 grain, 0.58" diameter miniball. That produced a very pedestrian 975 feet-per-second.

A little East of Paris: Moving

“What do you think about spending the rest of the winter in Texas?” Gwain asked.

“Texas is the last place on earth I would ever want to go” Jana replied.

And on that note, a Nutritionist and an Occupational Therapists entered the room and interrupted the conversation.

The next four weeks were a blur. Jana learned how to stand up (her muscles were as weak as water) and how to safely sit down. Gwain learned how to use equipment to lift and toilet her and how to bathe her.

Seven weeks after Jana’s slip-and-fall, they were sitting in Detroit Metro Airport with tickets to Texas. Janna was sitting in a wheelchair and wearing a helmet. She felt like everybody was looking at her. Her emotions wheeled between mortification and anger, depression and a need to lash-out, helplessness and the tiniest glimmer of hope.

On the one hand, she resented that Gwain had not consulted with her. On the other hand, she realized that she would not have been able to offer any useful advise; the doctors had been very clear about three points: Her thinking would remain wooly-headed for the immediate future, her emotions would remain volatile and that another blow to her head would kill her. Not “might kill her” but WOULD kill her. Hence the padded helmet.

During the four weeks of therapy Jana learned how the University had closed-ranks to support her and Gwain. Colleagues had taken their classes including the grading of the end-of-term papers. Their peers had discretely reached out to professional associates and alumni in southern states where ice was a rarity and asked about positions and housing.

It was the Dean of the College who found the house in Lefleur, Texas and had made inquiries at the local Texas A&M about positions for Gwain.

Jana had always thought the Dean to be a bombastic buffoon with a forced hale-fellow-wellmet demeanor. In their moment of need, Jana was forced to admit that perhaps there was more to the Dean than her emotional reaction to his mannerisms.

Jana really didn’t have a choice. She was going to Texas.

***

LeFleur, Texas (Jana insisted on spelling it with a capital “F”) was a little bit east of Paris, Texas and was one of a string of towns that had grown up along New Boston-to-Savoy railroad. They would have died when the railroad closed except that Texas Highway 82 paralleled the old rail-line. Businesses switched from servicing the railway to serving commuters and truckers who were going to Paris.

The rail-bed had been converted to the Northeast Texas Trail.

Jana’s new home was a single story, 920 square-feet bungalow with fifty year-old pecan trees in the front yard. There was a vacant lot that separated the house from Veteran’s Memorial Park which had a walking-track, parking and provided access to the Northeast Texas Trail.

The transfer of all of her files to the Paris Regional Medical Center had been seamless. Her therapy sessions were a scant 20 minutes away from where they lived.

The pansies were blooming in profusion as Gwain wheeled her to her first session. The sun made the temperature feel warmer than the 60 F.

Jana was completely prepared to hate Texas, but she had to admit that flowers in early February was something she could grow to like.

 

Next Installment

 

(C) 2025 Eaton Rapids Joe, All Rights Reserved

 

---Note to Readers---

Gwain and Jana are Professors of Language Arts at University of Asphodel, a small, Liberal Arts college in Michigan. Although past the age of retirement, they continue to pick up a few classes to help with the budget and to keep their mind's sharp.

LeFleur, Texas is a mash-up of Blossom, Texas and Detroit, Texas. Blossom is 7 miles east of I-286 which circles Paris and Detroit is 14 miles east of I-286.

Roughly 300 miles from the Gulf of America, 15 miles from the Red River and 100 miles (as the crow flies) from Dallas. 55 inches (1400mm) of precipitation in an average year and USDA Zone 8a.

I will take liberties with certain things. The Texas A&M campus which is in Commerce will be relocated to Paris.  Any resemblance of the characters to real people, living or dead, are purely coincidental.

These start-off installments are likely to be short as the background is sketched out. Trying to stretch them out to 1000 words makes them an impenetrable thicket of information.

Incidentally, I stole the title for this series from a frequent commenter whose sig line is "a little east of Paris". Thanks bro. I am making you famous.

Any intelligence on the area will be much appreciated.