Mojave Lever Crew - Roll Call!

[200Apples]

I need to get a pic or two up, but I just received some black pearl (plastic) Altamont grip panels for one of my .44 flat tops... and they are fricking stunning. Now all of my four New Model action single action Rugers have decent grips. The factory grips are too thin for my hands.

Got 'em off Ebay from a leather guy, I guess. Got tired of looking on Altamont's website and seeing "Temporarily Unavailable" for the last two years. lol.

[pennstater]

Altamont grips on Ebay? Going there pronto. Can't wait for the pics Chris.

MLC

[200Apples]

They're not advertised as such, but check out www.mantaleather.com, the Ebay seller's email address I got sent when I received my grips.

[200Apples]

WARNING: Ginormous pictures, apologies

Only way I can post pics now is through third-party hosting, the way we used to do it.

These are the latest black pearl plastic grips made by Altamont.



Lipsey's exclusive .44 Special flat top 5-1/2" Blackhawk from the original run back in 2009



These are also Altamont black pearl but notice how different the pattern turned out when these were moulded four years ago...



TALO exclusive one-of-one-thousand stainless 4-5/8" Ruger flat top .44 Special Blackhawk

[pennstater]

Those look mighty sharp Chris. Like those after market grips. I sense a 30-30 and S/A shoot looming. Bring those bad boys!

MLC

[Kerplow]

Any update on this? Have you received it yet?

Dan

[bergmen]

Excellent! We'll need pictures (of course) once you bring it home. I still need to take pictures of mine and post them up here.

Dan

[ar15barrels]

Oh, man..... that's nice!

I hope you have brass for it.

I think I bought 200 pieces of 25-20wcf 20 years ago to make 218 bee but I only resized 100 pieces of it into 218 bee.
I will have to go look into that.
Otherwise, I'll just set in-stock notifications for when 25-20 brass comes in stock and wait.
It's one of those calibers that they only make once a year.
I have enough other toys to keep me occupied if I can't load for this one yet.

[bigbossman]

I think I bought 200 pieces of 25-20wcf 20 years ago to make 218 bee but I only resized 100 pieces of it into 218 bee.
I will have to go look into that.
Otherwise, I'll just set in-stock notifications for when 25-20 brass comes in stock and wait.
It's one of those calibers that they only make once a year.
I have enough other toys to keep me occupied if I can't load for this one yet.

I hope you find it....... I don't think anyone is making it any more.

[splithoof]

These are the latest black pearl plastic grips made by Altamont.

[ar15barrels]

I hope you find it....... I don't think anyone is making it any more.

Most of the low-volume cases get once a year production by the manufacturers that make them.
This current components/ammo shortage will eventually end and we will go back to how it was before covid.
Midway still has winchester and remington 25-20 brass listed and will notify me when either one becomes available or is actually discontinued.
I expect it will take a while until the new owners of Remington's ammo plant suss out their product line and actually start discontinuing products or decide to keep running the low volume cases once a year like they have for a long time.

[Spyder]

Back around 1987, my SCUBA buddy had a 218 Bee lever action. I think it was a Marlin...

That was a fun lever to shoot. Not a common cartridge, but easy to make/reload.

I need to bump up my old pre-1900 Marlin 25-20 cut to .255 Dean project up near the top of my winter to-do list. Very fun, but impossible to find ammo for. I've got a bunch of 25-20, and a source for a whole bunch more, and it seems that fire forming it and loading will be pretty simple, once I figure out just what I want to do for dies.

[bigbossman]

Most of the low-volume cases get once a year production by the manufacturers that make them.

That's the thing, though.... I don't think anyone is making it anymore, even seasonally. I shoot a lot of 25-20, as do the folks I compete with in lever gun silhouette. We all have "notifications" set, and 25-20 just isn't around and hasn't been for a long (pre-pandemic) time. I even called Starline, and they told me there wasn't enough interest, that there was no market for it.

The last time I bought 25-20 from a primary source was many, many years ago (5 or 6?) - before the pandemic hosed everything up. All my 25-20 brass has come from secondary sources. Now, Starline and others make 32-20 brass and you can theoretically reform it to 25-20, but in practice you lose about 1 in three to the process because the case mouths are so thin.

Bullets are available, but mostly cast..... at least for lever guns. Your rifle should be able to use spire pointed bullets so you should be good there. Speer used to make a dandy little flat nose jacketed bullet, but it was discontinued a few years back

If you do find a primary source that has some, please drop me a PM.

[Spyder]

Big spender.
I'm on a Savage kick.

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/915493240

Hopefully you were able to talk him out of the "No sales to CA".

I think I bought 200 pieces of 25-20wcf 20 years ago to make 218 bee but I only resized 100 pieces of it into 218 bee.
I will have to go look into that.
Otherwise, I'll just set in-stock notifications for when 25-20 brass comes in stock and wait.
It's one of those calibers that they only make once a year.
I have enough other toys to keep me occupied if I can't load for this one yet.

I hope you find it....... I don't think anyone is making it any more.

I know a guy that has 25-20. PM inbound. As long as you promise not to buy all of it, since I should get a couple hundred more rounds for my Marlin .255 Dean.

[bigbossman]

I need to bump up my old pre-1900 Marlin 25-20 cut to .255 Dean project up near the top of my winter to-do list. Very fun, but impossible to find ammo for. I've got a bunch of 25-20, and a source for a whole bunch more, and it seems that fire forming it and loading will be pretty simple, once I figure out just what I want to do for dies.

Funny you should mention the .255 Dean. A good friend of mine bought a Marlin lever gun at auction that was described as chambered for 25-20, and when he shot it the first time he got a surprise.. Not a bad surprise, it just fire-formed the case to what he researched to be .255 Dean. That's a pretty rare wildcat, and yours and his are the only two I know about.

We took a #8 78" bolt and a fired casing to a machinist and he made up a die for it.