Student brings 'big bullet' to class; school evacuated

Yeah, I was waiting for it to be a .50 or something. Was kind of disappointed when it turned out to really be an artillery shell.

what a great true story!

That would have the "Really Big Bang"

I wonder if it was filled with smokeless powder

That Hawken could have become Tri-State missile

Many think old tins of caps are harmless

I have several tins in various sizes that will prove that is wrong

Good catch on the Hawken - modern metallurgy

I used an oversized Armi San Marco forged steel Walker frame and a prototype late '60s Colt Hartford Continuation 2nd Generation barrel with top stamping but no SN and several modern top-quality repro cylinders - on the wall I use an unfired Dixon & Sons engraved cylinder in the original white with a very low 4-digit SN

Grips were hand-carved with the early "flared" (from original drawings) 1-piece Colt design and fitted to my right hand - I "cheated" by cutting it half and gluing in a center spacer block. - Time consuming - I rarely touch grips now unless it for fitting to one of my own Colts as the BS/TG often requires reshaping too.

A Colt barrel will not just "fit" on that style San Marco barrel - the vertical dimensions are wrong and it takes a lot of hand work to make it look correct and original - cylinder pin requires alterations - front of the frame requires lots of slow and careful hand filing and polishing to blend it into the lug of the original sized Colt barrel - but it is ultra-safe with the largest loads and makes a great paperweight in the office when closing a deal.

Would I build another custom Walker? No! - I gained a lot of respect for those custom gunmakers who build those high-dollar exact reproduction custom hunting Sharps (and a few others) longarms (using modern forged steel and machining) that often sell for quite a bit over a decent original.

A top grade industrial adhesive/glue is smart to use on the threaded cylinder-pin on Colt percussion revolvers - things can loosen up over time and the John Wesley Hardin technique of pushing on the rear of his badly worn Colt Army cylinder to take up the huge gap leaves much to be desired.

I also use a custom wedge with a grade 8 adjustable screw when firing it. Not authentic but safe and consistent shots.

I'm waiting for two modern bolts for my Walker and after I carefully hand-fit them both (I "over-tuned" the bolt edges where it fits the hammer button and it broke! Reshaping the button slightly is smarter. But I had to be trickier than Sam....) I'll be sending it to my older brother I used to hunt with.

I always get a kick out of little Mattie with her daddy's big Walker in True Grit.

John Wayne's charge in "True Grit" also reminds me of chasing down and disarming two careless idiot hunters (after polite warnings - they hit our feed barn that I was in alone mixing feed for our Brahma steers twice) on old "Polly" carrying my Mossberg semi-auto .22lr carbine at 15 years old - except they had real ammo and so did I and it was not a Hollywood movie and I was not wearing a Stetson. - The young are fearless - or some are.

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Reminds me of a few weeks ago - a "maintenance man" was busy cutting live wires on a lighting fixture using the light from the light bulbs to see by

I mentioned it would be smarter if I simply turn off the wall switch and brought in a floor lamp for him to see by safely

But - Oh no! - "I'm doing just......" ZAaaaap!

If his hand had been on the damp sink all his troubles would have been over -

Wow! That is simply horrifying. He is a very lucky (and now wiser, perhaps) man. Also, please understand that my reference to the movie and following question were simply curious responses to devolve's experience with the Walker. I wasn't going to go build a stick of dynamite with a trigger (unless my little firecracker/pop gun actually had put me closer to death than I calculated, which I still doubt). I did enjoy watching black powder muskets fired in American History class (well, outside by experienced folks with no projectile) But, those little firecrackers had the most powder I've ever played with! :)