CaptainBeaky

Ah, the Sharp Innova...Great fun, and lots of exercise! Still have one tucked away in the loft somewhere

Pull! Clay flies, gun speaks Target becomes orange dust Only in my head...

What about a camo pump? You will join the dark side eventually, young Skywalker...

80 hour-plus weeks during term time. 12 weeks 'holiday', well over half of which is spent working - just because you aren't in front of a class doesn't mean you're not working. Pension - getting eroded just like all the other public sector, as they are an easy target. Benefits? What benefits? Hundred quids-worth of soap and chocolate once a year? (plus chocolatey soap and soapy chocolate) - great incentive that one... Constant interference from politicians in how you do your job - from people who almost invariably are not qualified to have an opinion (cough... Gove...cough...). Regular changes in guidelines and new "initiatives" - which seem to go in cycles. What is currently in vogue is pretty much the same as was being taught 30-odd years ago. All driven by seagull politicians eager to leave their mark (fly in, flap around, **** over everything, fly away again). Governmental obsession with measuring everything - "let's test kids who are too young to understand what a test is for, twice a term, to show how our wonderful new initiative is working" (see above). Yes, and your current cohort of sow's ears don't make sufficiently convincing silk purses, you'll be monitored even more closely and "put into special measures" until they do. Oh, and you get to put up with people telling you that you work a 6-hour day and get 12 weeks off a year. Yes, I come from a family of teachers, and a lot of my friends are teachers, so I have been observing the profession closely for pretty much all my life - and there is no way on Earth I could do that for a living. And - breathe....

Voted from clean link

I made a carrier for a friend of mine, from an old Karrimor frame rucksack. Removed the bag, and built an extension onto the ally frame to hold the battery. Added a hook to hold the lamp when not in use and Robert is your father's sibling. Still in use 15 years later!

Simon and Patrick SP6 cedar top, plus an old Eko 12 string (18th birthday present!). My ancient Japanese classical has been half-inched by my daughter to use at college, so I suspect I've lost that one :( Play mainly at home, but do a few local gigs - folk clubs and local festivals etc.

Not off the top of my head, but his website is easily found, and the number is on there.

There is a long running thread on British Blades about the various incarnations of the F/S knife - that would be a good place to start.

Tim Greenwood in Pembury is yer man!

OK, thanks - I'll have a look in the library for some of his stuff.

Bernard Cornwell, by any chance?

Not on mine, you can;t! If you rack the bolt to eject the cartridge from the chamber without firing it, the gun won't feed another round until you push the magazine release by the trigger guard. I presume this is so you can get the round out of the chamber without having empty the magazine as well (the Russian version of a magazine cut-off?)

But have you been touched by His Noodly Appendage?

Where to start? No, it's been a long day... Deleted

double post?

I have the synthetic stock version, so can't comment on the carpentry. As far as the mechanics go, they are a bit agricultural, but once broken in will happily cycle most cartridges, from 67mm 24g clay loads up to 3.5" 63g flak shells. Balance and fit are a little eccentric - lop is very sorry, and they are quite front-heavy, but this is fairly easy to sort out, especially on the wood version. A thicker recoil pad plus some spacers and a bit of lead weight under the pad should do the trick. I added 1.5" length and 4oz ballast on mine, and it balances under the bolt release button. This does give it a high polar moment of inertia, so it swings very deliberately, helped by the 8.5 lb ish weight. Yes, they're heavy - good for soaking up recoil, not so good for lugging long distances. It's a Baikal - fit and finish may not be anything to write home about, but you won't wear it out, and as long as you clean it, it should always go bang at the right time. Have a look on YouTube - the Italian magazine that put 50,000 rounds through one in 4 days, and the Canadian lad dumping the bucket of mud in the action then firing it are highlights They are cheap because they are designed and engineered to be cheap to produce, not because they are a cheap rip-off of another design. Cost and reliability were part of the design brief, aesthetics were not... Optional extras - gym membership (it's heavy), squash ball to exercise your right thumb (bolt release is very heavy!), thick skin (for absorbing snarky comments), smug expression (your"spare boat oar" break clays and kills game just as well a few grand's worth of English, Italian or Belgian gun). To borrow a quote from another forum, it makes me smile when I pick it up, and doesn't make me cry if I drop it!

If I recall correctly, someone in Austria(?) successfully defended a court case to be allowed to pose for his driving license photo wearing a colander on his head, as he classed it as "required religious headgear" as a member of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Update: Works perfectly Also broke 20 on skeet for the first time today

Tidier than mine, I'm afraid to admit!

If it doesn't cycle, I'll try making another one without the annular grooves, bore the inside out to 33/64 or even 17/32, and use 4.5mm or 5mm holes. I'm not convinced that a piece of aluminium threaded on to a steel bar would stand up to the stress. I'll update when I've shot it.

I had one of these supposedly from a friend of mine, claiming to need money to get back from Greece. It was quite amusing as he was sitting at the next table in the pub at the time

Good point... Looking at the photo of the two bolt handles, the perspective is a bit misleading - makes the new one look huge! The handle end OD is 5/8", ID is 1/2", so it is quite thin-walled. The original weighs 11g, the replacement is 22g. Taking into account the weight of the gas piston, action bars and bolt (quite heavy on one of these), I don't think the11g difference in weight will have any effect. It is, after all, a gas-operated action, not inertia. It may slow the cycling down slightly, but I doubt I will be able to tell the difference. I will, of course, report back when I have shot with it!

+1 World Cup? Ain't' till next year...

"Where can I get one?" seems to be a common question, and the usual answer seems to be, "You can't!" Hmmm... we have a lathe at work... A quick dig in the Box of Useful Items turned up some pieces of silver steel that I retrieved from the local tip. OK, I haven't actually used a lathe for over 30 years, but it's like riding a bike - once you get going, you soon remember how not to fall off! Incidentally, the rail is there to mount a case deflector/catcher which is under construction - a place I go lamping is really hot on not leaving empties scattered around! Next job after the catcher is a bigger bolt release button - back to the box of bits