I’ve been saying I’m getting light strikes with the new Tracker, but the past couple of outings it has gotten worse and now it looks like a timing problem…
Click to embiggen, though alas not to sharpen the focus.
They say that Louis XIV had the inscription Ultima Ratio Regum cast into all the cannon of the French Army. It means “The Ultimate Argument of Kings,” and that always struck me as one of the most honest and up-front things any ruler or would-be ruler ever said. “We can dress it up prettier than this, but when it comes down to the unvarnished truth this is what it’s about: You’ll do as I say or I’ll send my goons to kill you.”
I thought about that for a long time. If there’s an ultimate argument, it seems only logical that there must be an ultimate answer. For years I thought the ultimate answer must be the bullets in my rifle, but it never seemed quite right. I’ve got bullets – he’s got frigging Cannon Balls. I mean, if there were three hundred million rifles throwing bullets at him, then maybe. But we all know that’s not going to happen. So if there’s an ultimate answer to his ultimate argument, it sure as hell ain’t bullets.
It finally came to me – and that’s when I abandoned the city and most of my stuff, and gave all that was behind me a good stiff Randian Shrug.
The ultimate answer to kings is not a bullet, but a belly laugh.
Little Bear 2009-2018
Laddie the Amazing Torso Boy 2011-2020
"Freedom Outlaw. It’s not what you do; it’s how you do it. It’s an attitude — from which actions always follow. It’s a do-it-yourself occupation. And a lifetime vocation."
- Claire Wolfe, Backwoods Home Companion, 6-07-10
I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.
- G. K. Chesterton
"If every Jewish and anti-Nazi family in Germany had owned a Mauser rifle and twenty rounds of ammunition and the will to use it, Adolf Hitler would be a little-known footnote to the history of the Weimar Republic."
- Aaron Zelman
"Authority should derive from the consent of the governed, not from the threat of force."
- Barbie
"Never underestimate the ability of shit to find a fan."
- F. Paul Wilson
"You can't make an omelet without breaking eggs." The sophistry of villains - Bah!
- Robert A. Heinlein, Double Star
“Truth is, I’m not specifically interested in an armed society. What I want is a free society.”
- George Potter
I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself.
- D. H. Lawrence
Aristippus passed Diogenes as he was washing lentils.
He said, “If you could but learn to flatter the king, you would not have to live on lentils.”
Diogenes said, “And if you could learn to live on lentils, you would not have to flatter the king.”
Sandy Hook was a Gun Free Zone. So was the Westroads Mall. And the Aurora Theater. And Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Should I go on? They were all Gun Free Zones.
– Reality
“Political tags — such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth — are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.”
- Robert A. Heinlein
"Civilization is the process of setting man free from men."
- Ayn Rand
If ever a man should ask you
For your business or your name
Tell him to go and fuck himself
Tell his friends to do the same.
For a man who'd trade his liberty
For a safe and dreamless sleep
Doesn't deserve the both of them
And neither shall he keep.
- Frank Turner
Don't be afraid to try something big, just because you're an amateur. The Ark was built by amateurs. The Titanic was built by professionals.
- Anon
"Nothing scares a police officer more than the threat of being treated the way that they treat people every day."
- Anon
"Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet."
- Gen. James Mattis
"Lust for power is the most flagrant of all the passions."
- Tacitus
"The man who knows what freedom means will find a way to be free."
- F.A. "Baldy" Harper
"The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude."
- William James
We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.
- Viktor Frankl
The free man will ask neither what his country can do for him nor what he can do for his country.
- Milton Friedman
“We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.”
- William Faulkner
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.
- Ernest Hemingway
"Everything the State says is a lie, and everything it has it has stolen."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
John Moses Browning - The most badass Mormon who ever lived.
"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are 'I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.'"
- Ronald Reagan
The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose.
- James A. Baldwin
"It is better to be a warrior in a garden than to be a gardener in a war."
- Anon
“I tried to live in such a way that, when dying, I would rather feel happy than scared.”
– Witold Pilecki
Few men desire liberty; most men wish only for a just master.
- Sallust
"Place your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark."
- Lazarus Long
Read, every day, something no one else is reading.
Think, every day, something no one else is thinking.
Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do.
It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity.
– Christopher Morley
“I have found that, to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason. He must be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery; he must be made to feel that slavery is right; and he can be brought to that only when he ceases to be a man.”
-Frederick Douglass
ESSE QUAM VIDERI –
To be, rather than to seem
– Marcus Tullius Cicero
“A Winchester rifle should have a place of honor in every black home, and it should be used for that protection which the law refuses to give.”
– Ida B. Wells
Do what thy manhood bid thee do; from none but self expect applause.
He noblest lives and noblest dies, who makes and keeps his self made laws
– Sir Richard Burton
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
– Winston Churchill
“Happiness is a journey, not a destination. Dance as though no one is watching you. Love as though you have never been hurt before. Sing as though no one can hear you. Live as though heaven is on earth.”
― Father Alfred d’Souza
Well, damn. That’s no good. Off to the gun doctor. The Ruger .357m revolver had a problem right out of the box, and the smith found a small rough area on the hand that was catching, keeping the cylinder from turning completely at times. A few swipes with a fine file, and the problem was solved. It’s never so much as burped since. Might take a close look at that first…
If ya wanna go gun-geek on it, ya might number the chambers and keep track to see if the off-centers are always from the same chamber or not.
Just a thought.
That looks like a timing problem, for sure. Get it to the Doc presto. Had a Model 29 that did that, and I did not realize it until it started shaving lead.
Before you ship it out, check how clean/dirty she is at the front of the cylinder. My tracker has the tightest cylinder gap of any wheel gun I’ve ever shot, (colt python and several troopers, pile of rugers, as well as a dozen various smiths of various vintages included) and I’ve heard this same statement from other tracker owners.
A bit of carbon build up on the front of the cylinder and you start to drag on the forcing cone. I mostly shoot mine single action, and its gotten dirty enough to hang up even when I pulled the hammer back manually. Had to work to clear the cylinder and get her open, and a quick solvent soak and scrub with a brass brush and she was running back again for the next range trip.
Seriously check the gap, and scrub her up. Now I never let mine go more than 200 rounds before a SOLID scrubbing of the front of the cylinder and the forcing cone.
I can still remember when I used to tell anyone that would listen how wonderful revolvers were for their simplicity of form. Then I decided to put a little more effort into understanding the workings of my own favorite make and model of wheelgun and it’s cousins. That was 5-6 years ago and there is no way on earth I would say something like that now. I guess the good thing about learning more about all those parts and their relationships is that I have a much greater appreciation of what goes into a reliable revolver.
I had a moment of horror a couple days ago when I was looking at – and then dry firing – my go-to right-there gat a few times. I suddenly realised the cylinder stop was failing to fully engage in SA. It wouldn’t back up under light pressure – but it was a fraction of a millimeter shy of dropping in fully. I was locked in after the hammer fell in DA – but in SA unless it was vigorously cocked it would generally not quite fully engage. Almost felt physically ill when I noticed it.
Having the cylinder fully loaded would have put momentum in my favor – so that’s one thing. (grasping at straws – I know…) I did notice the cylinder rotation was stiffer than I recalled and it behaved better after the cylinder was warmed up a bit – so it looks like some cleaning is in order.
Numbering the cylinders is a good idea. I’d also be really interested in what position the off-center strikes were. Horizontal is more to be expected – vertical would be worrisome!
I’d second the cleaning statements, I had a Python and a Vaquero do that to me, but I suspect you already did that.
I hate to say it, but Taurus offers a lifetime warranty for a reason. I’d sent mine back before and am about to ship one of the Rossi single shot shotguns back.
Mine was tight as well.dragged at times..took a fine file to the end of the barrel..used a bluing pen to finish…works great now..