February 25-March 1, 2009
Winter Range
February 24, 2009
Tuesday
Cowboys TV-Long Hunter Episode
We went back to Cowtown. I was to do a quick review of a Long Hunter USFA Single Action. They weren't there. I called Michael. They were at Ben Avery. The Winter Range crew decided to let them in and shoot at the new Fort.
It would have been a real shame if Cowboys TV had not been able to shoot at one of the new permanent sets at Ben Avery. This is Fort Sinclair, named after Old Deadeye, an Army Captain who was terribly wounded in Vietnam and became an inspiration to a lot of SASS members with his grit and determination.
My part in this episode was about a minute. I fired 5 full charge Ten-X BP rounds through a .45 Colt Long Hunter USFA SAA and then gave a synopsis of my test on it, comparing it with a Colt that had been done by Peacemaker Specialists. The SAA is a magnificent gun, extremely accurate, smooth, extremely well-fitted and finished.
It's about time Long Hunter was featured in a Cowboys TV episode. In addition to being a champion shooter, he is an example to other shooters in his high competition ethics, and he is an excellent teacher and gunsmith.
The Margarita party was pretty big. Tupelo Flash's wife brought over her camera, and, with an adapter cable from Sagebrush Molly, I was able to download her pictures, including those shown here.
February 23, 2009
Monday Filming
Cowboys TV
Met Michael Bane, Tupelo Flash, and their crew at Denny's at 0800 for breakfast. After that we went to Cowtown. The plan was to use the end of Cowtown, but it proved to be a funnel for the sound of gunshots. They seemed amplified there, and the sound guys nixed it. We started looking for a quieter place. We went further down, to an old TV set of a Mexican village. It's now used as an impact area for the sniper school on the hill. The crew picked an area that had a white Pepper Popper in the middle of it. I was hoping they weren't training today.
The view from the monitor as I go through the different kinds of powder. That's American Pioneer Powder in my hands.
This is sound synchronization. Then we got the "action" command. Then the biplane high overhead did some maneuver that involved spinning or spiraling down over us, making a lot of engine noise, and causing the sound man to stop the take. This occurred over and over all day. Apparently the biplane had a really big fuel tank.
Tupelo Flash shooting my Evil Roy pistols with Ten-X factory ammunition. He wouldn't shoot it in his guns.
Jack Houston worked hard
Here we're trying to make gun cleaning look sexy. Of course, to do that one of us needed to be a naked beautiful woman.
I loaded the percussion pistols several times, often interrupted by the biplane.
The crew eating Subway sandwiches--with Jalapeños.
After several takes due to the biplane and a lot of "B-roll" of Tupelo shooting BP and me reloading the ROAs multiple times in order to shoot them for the cameras, one of the producers dropped a smoking white phosphorous grenade in my lap and said ,"Think fast." At least figuratively he did. He said they wanted to interview The Redhead and me in the bus and get pictures of me in the trailer working and B-roll of the rig moving down the road.
After the paramedics hit me with the paddles, I explained that it takes 3 hours to move the bus and 2 hours to get everything set up when we stop again. That came out of the script. I called The Redhead and told her the plan. She said she had just waxed the floor, so the bus was fine. Then I begged her to look at the trailer and try to make it semi-presentable. It, of course, was in match mode, meaning chaos.
I didn't get her voice message until much later, which is good. It went something like, "Curt, there is no way I can straighten out this mess. I don't even know where to start."
Jack Houston went back to see what he could do.
When we got there, I looked at the shop. It was presentable, not like ready to drive the car in, but where you could walk in. They had done a fantastic job. Debbie cleared the floor, and Jack did the countertop. The countertop was semi-cleared off, and it was possible to use the loading machines. They got pictures of me using the Dillon XL650. I figure Dillon owes me big time, and so does American Pioneer Powder. They took long segments from different angles. I loaded about 250 rounds of .38s with the APP bottle prominently displayed (product placement).
They interviewed us and me in the bus. They took pictures of Arthur Pendragon in the windshield of the bus.
After all was done Tupelo Flash and his wife came over for Margaritas. Several people were here for Margaritas, in fact.
The Redhead said I owe her a really nice dinner after Winter Range.
February 22, 2009
Sunday
Fire and Ice, Day 2
At least no more procedurals today. One miss. Had to make up 2 shotguns, though. Not a great day in other words. Good stages, though, for Winter Range practice. Judah Macabee kept his lead. Left as soon as the shooting was over. Lots to do.
Figured out how to level the trailer, which had been prevented by the high trailer hitch mount. Raised the trailer until it cleared the trailer hitch. Removed the insert and lowered the trailer until level. This meant putting a lot blocks under the jack to raise it enough to clear, then use the bottle jack to remove blocks, then raise the trailer's jack to remove the bottle jack, then lower until level. Much better inside.
The site next to us, Area 51, has been vacant. It's marked "Do Not Rent" on the site map in the office. The Electrical Transformer or whatever extends into the site and has concrete-filled posts around it, making it a site for small, skinny RV's only. Suddenly they're using it as a dump station, so RV's are going through it often. Jack's KIA is parked there. I'm waiting for a big RV to decide to dump there and have a flattened KIA stuck to one tire.
Cleaned the guns and put the needed extras for tomorrow's Cowboys TV session into the car. Put stainless firing pins in Jack's Stoeger. The Stoeger is his new spare, obtained in a trade. It's supposed to be match-ready, prepped by a name gunsmith, but it's hard to open, easier than stock, but not match ready. The chambers have been barely chamfered, and the auto safety was intact. Different definitions of "match ready" apparently.
Tired.
February 21, 2009
Saturday
Fire and Ice, Day 1
We started with 6 posses, but they got huge, over 30 per posse, and they divided us into 12. Evil Roy was wearing a new hat, not the same style as his old one. He's looking for a shop to flatten the brim out. Long Hunter and Tupelo Flash were on our posse before it was split. Good conversations with both.
Picked up jack Houston's guns by mistake. We're sharing my cart for this event. He'll have a rental for WR. Figured out I had his guns when it was my turn to shoot next (duh!). Got my guns and moved back in the line one. Should have gone to the back of the line. Totally botched the stage. First shot with rifle didn't go off. Levered it out and shot while the RO was trying to tell me to stop. Dumb. Dumb. Then shot out of order (complicated order), earning a penalty. Reloaded the rifle. Slow stage with 10 seconds on top. I spotted Judah Macabee at least 15 seconds on that one. Missed one on the next one. Let's just say it's unlikely I'll be able to shoot 20 seconds faster tomorrow. So I'm just considering this good training for WR.
It is pretty good training. Despite the physical limitations of Cowtown vs. Ben Avery, they've written very WR-like stages, lots of gun carrying to different firing positions, Vertical Gun Staging :( Lots of stuff that's good practice for WR.
Jack's day was no better. Squib on 2nd rifle shot, stage 1. Glad I hadn't loaded this ammo. He yelled a lot at the guy who did--him.
Beautiful day, good match, lot's of people. More tomorrow.
February 20, 2009
Friday
Jack Houston arrived this morning about 0830, having driven pretty much straight through from beautiful downtown Mineola, Texas. He's staying with us through WR. We went to Cowtown. I just did a little testing, shooting a few stages with the match guns. Left before 11.
"Fire and Ice" is tomorrow. The entire SASS competition world is in town now. Cowtown sounded like a medium sized fire fight, and getting a place to shoot was tough. More people were pouring in, including a lot more RV's, as we left.
Jack installed the new ballast in the workbench light, I loaded 1000 rounds using new Starline brass. 2 chewed up pieces of brass out of 1000. No upside down primers. I think I've got the 650 and the PF100 adjusted correctly. Took a bit over 2 hours. I believe I've taken split cases off the list of things to worry about at major matches until these rounds are all gone.
February 19, 2009
Thursday
Made it to Cowtown earlier than I've been able most of the week. Shot the SSROAs several stages without cleaning, shooting 3 different powders. Except for the cylinders getting hard to take out and put back in, the guns worked fine. Of course, talking to people while capping pistols is always dumb, and I had a couple of "Oh, shit" stages with one gun going click click click. Not good. Then I decided to clean the guns, dry out the nipples by popping caps, then continue shooting. Memo: Don't ever do that again.
February 18, 2009
Wednesday
Before I could go play I first had to make several items in the bus disappear. I can't understand why The Redhead wanted me to. I left her enough room to sit down occasionally. I don't know why she was bothered by all of my "stuff" just because 95% of the "stuff" in the bus is mine. Now it's down to 60-70%. She's happy, and I was then allowed to go play.
Another day of turning loaded ammunition into empty brass and hulls and empty brass and hulls into loaded ammunition. Got more hulls from Sportsman's Warehouse. Would have bought more stuff, but they didn't have much stock.
An interesting read:
Dispelling the myth of 'The Wild West'
February 17, 8:48 AM
by John Pierce, Minneapolis Gun Rights Examiner
These are interesting times in the fight to protect and enhance our rights as gun owners. In Wisconsin, we stand on the eve of an historic court ruling regarding open carry. In Texas, South Carolina, Oklahoma and Arkansas, local activists have succeeded in making their voices heard regarding restoring open carry to these otherwise gun-friendly states. With all of this pro-gun activity, it should come as little surprise that the anti-gun forces are out in-force repeating their aged mantra … “This isn’t the wild west.”
And this rhetoric is not limited to anti-gunners. Recently, I was quoted in a USA Today article about the open carry initiatives around the country and in that article, Texas Senator Jeff Wentworth ®, a supposedly pro-gun legislator denounced open carry saying "I think that's harkening too far back to the Wild West."
With all this talk of “The Wild West”, I thought it might be informative to look at the reality of crime in the “wild west” cattle towns and compare them to the peaceful streets of such eastern, gun-control paradises as DC, New York, Baltimore and Newark.
In his book, Frontier Violence: Another Look, author W. Eugene Hollon, provides us with these astonishing facts:
In Abilene, Ellsworth, Wichita, Dodge City, and Caldwell, for the years
from 1870 to 1885, there were only 45 total homicides. This equates to
a rate of approximately 1 murder per 100,000 residents per year.
In Abilene, supposedly one of the wildest of the cow towns, not a single
person was killed in 1869 or 1870.
Zooming forward over a century to 2007, a quick look at Uniform Crime Report statistics shows us the following regarding the aforementioned gun control “paradise” cities of the east:
DC – 183 Murders (31 per 100,000 residents)
New York – 494 Murders (6 per 100,000 residents)
Baltimore – 281 Murders (45 per 100,000 residents)
Newark – 104 Murders (37 per 100,000 residents)
It doesn’t take an advanced degree in statistics to see that a return to
“wild west” levels of violent crime would be a huge improvement for the
residents of these cities.
The truth of the matter is that the “wild west” wasn’t wild at all … not compared to a Saturday night in Newark.
February 17, 2009
Tuesday
Went to Cowtown to shoot again. Talked with Mad Dog Too. The WR people just can't arrange it to make a bay available, so it'll have to be Cowtown. Gave him the phone number for Denise "Indiana" Jackson, Michael Bane's assistant. He convinced her that it would be a better location than Ben Avery. The lighting will be best down at the end. He told them to bring an air horn if they needed to quiet the rest of the range for a shot. She said Michael Bane isn't bothered by gunfire.
Mad Dog and I went up to the old Cowtown set, up the hill, which is now a sniper school. The old west town is still there, but fire damaged. We were walking down main street, and a man came walking up main street with a professional camera and a lens about 15" long and 6" in diameter. He told us that he was doing a shoot, and the model was down the street and didn't have many clothes on, and he would prefer we didn't go down there. Mad Dog said nudity didn't embarrass him. The photographer said the model might be embarrassed. I had thoughts I didn't express about how embarrassed. she'd be when the May Penthouse came out. Mad Dog said, "You have a camera. We have guns."
This bothered the photographer, but we turned around and left.
When I got back to the bus there was a series of emails from Denise ranging from upset to near panic to "talk to Captain Baylor" to thanks for getting Mad Dog involved and arranging Cowtown. She'd looked at the pictures on the web and thought it would be a better place anyway.
Indeed, with saguaros and mesquite and the like all around, it probably is a better place.
Went to dinner at Tex Az for chicken fried steak with Mad Dog and friends.
February 16, 2009
Monday
While at Cowtown talked with the guy in charge and got okay to shoot the Cowboys TV segments at Cowtown if we can't arrange Ben Avery. Talked with Mad Dog Too, who has been on the WR board since God was a child. He said he'd take care of it.
February 15, 2009
Sunday
Went practicing at Cowtown. Discovered that Blackjack Zak didn't know about the Cowboys TV filming next Monday and Tuesday and hadn't made provisions for same. Thus Cowboys TV can't film there. Contacted "Indiana" Jackson, Michael Bane's assistant and told her what was going on. Gave here several WR board members' phone #s and emails.
February 14, 2009
Saturday
ACSA Monthly Match
Because the ACSA people didn't reserve Ben Avery for February, the match was at Cowtown. I didn't mind, especially when we (posse 5--out of 7, meaning over 100 contestants) started on stage 5, and the course of fire was one I'd practiced several times during the last few weeks. (If you have 4 pistol targets and 4 rifle targets and 4 shotgun targets, what are you going to practice? Continuous Nevada sweep with the pistols, Nevada sweep with the rifle, 4 shotgun targets. I'm told the scenarios were on their website, but I hadn't looked.) Anyway, shot clean, 7 stages, all in the 30s. Won Frontiersman against a field of 45 ex-national and world champions and got a "Clean Match" award despite the oft-repeated comment that "That wasn't clean! He just didn't have any misses!"
Really tired after only 7 stages and an early start. Don't know why that would tire me out. Back when I was a young lieutenant I could stay up for 72 hours, doing things incredibly strenuous while under extreme pressure from superiors and still feel good. Oh, what was that? Yes, that was in 1967, what's your point?
February 12-13, 2009
Thursday-Friday
Went practicing both days. Friday, after the practice session, I took the door awning to Sun City RV. The part had come in. I left it with them for painting and installation. When it's painted, I'll have to take the bus there for re-installation. The mount will need to be replaced as the tech says it fell off (at EOT) because the mount got "torqued" by the pressure of the wind. Yes, it's taken this long.
Then to Sears for jack stands. Then to Sportsman's Warehouse where they still have no Federal small pistol primers. Then back to the shop. I intended to use the jack stands to level the trailer, but the tongue is so high, that jacking up the rear enough to level it takes the wheels off the ground. Mad Dog Too came by and kibitzed, suggesting that I need to change the trailer hitch insert to lower the ball. My question is what does that do to towability. The trailer tows very well right now. Turning the insert over and removing and reinstalling the ball "upside down" (meaning right side up after turning the insert over to lower the mount) will lower the ball a few inches. He wanted to do this right then, but I was exhausted and put it off till later.
February 9-11, 2009
Mon-Wednesday
Catching Up
Drove back to Pioneer RV Monday, in increasing cross winds. Lots of fun when an 18 wheeler passed. The length of our rig usually makes it stable in cross winds. But when a passing 18 wheeler reached the rear wheels of the bus, the bus darted to the right. The 18 wheeler was blocking the wind from the rear of the bus and the trailer, making all of the wind force apply to the front wheels only. You get the picture.
Very cold Monday night, and rainy. Mad Dog Too and wife moved in a few spaces down, here till Winter Range. They came over for Margaritas. Rain got worse, and we tried to order a pizza without success. Eventually we got in their truck looking for a Chinese buffet. Found a nice Chinese restaurant instead. Nice evening despite the cold rain.
Tuesday went to Cowtown to practice in the cold. Delayed by conference with our financial planner's office. Shot main match guns then WB guns. I'm coming to the conclusion that the Wild Bunch is taking too much from my main match efforts, both logistically and practice time. The likelihood of my winning anything at WR's WB match is about the same as the girls who just left Hugh Hefner will move into the bus. Gotta think about that. Switching to shooting the Plainsman match would only require practice with the Handi-Rifle and loading more .45-70 cartridges. The odds of winning are a bit better, closer to Jennifer Anniston moving in. (No, The Redhead wouldn't allow that either, and she's armed and dangerous.)
Started loading shotgun shells. Remington hulls are working quite well. No rejects.
Wednesday went to Cowtown and practiced main match guns.
Went to Sportsman's Warehouse and bought their ONLY box of shotgun primers (Remingtons).They have very little of anything. They have shot at $29.99, nothing between 6 and 8. Got the only box of .457 round balls. No 12 gauge chamber mops!!! Virtually no gun oil. Dangerous Dan, Half-A-Hand Henry, and Dan Diamond were unsuccessfully looking for things they need.
Bought Break Free and Rem Oil at WalMart since I couldn't buy it from Sportsman's.
Made more shotgun shells. The key to the Dillon SL900 working, aside from everything being adjusted correctly, is to feed it perfect hulls. I hand select, clean, and sometimes skive, each hull from my hull bags. Once fired Remington hulls give the best results. Winchester AAs are reserved for practice loads as they tend to stick more. Selecting proper hulls takes as long as making rounds when the machine is working right. But if I feed it a bad hull, it might cause a hang up at station 3, which results in shot spillage, which then causes trouble with stuck shot. This makes the selection time well spent.
February 8, 2009
Sunday
High Noon at the Tombstone Livery
Awards Day
Because it was raining early in the morning I skipped the speed side matches. Just as well. Speed pistol was in the 2 second range (10 rounds from the leather). Speed rifle was 3.00 seconds. Both by Hells Comin'. No derringer side match for some reason. Awards Presentation started at 1015 or so.
Hells Comin' won first overall and first 49er. Arizona Redneck was second OA. Johnny Meadows won B-Western despite his rifle jam on Stage 10. I won Frontiersman despite my train wreck start. Anabelle Peacock was high lady. Silver Heart won Ladies B-Western. Didn't take notes. You'll have to look on their website for the rest. No printed results that I saw.
Good match. Friendly club and property owners. Friendly group of contestants. No reason not to come back next year.
Bisbee
Drove to Bisbee in the afternoon. Topography is completely different, mountainous. Bisbee reminded me of Swiss and German mountain villages. Narrow, twisty streets with buildings right up to narrow sidewalks.
Had lunch in the only place open. Saw the Copper Queen Mine (I guess, no signage). Huge open pit, terraced hillside. You could see the Copper in some cuts in the hills. Everything closed now, of course. Nice drive.
February 7, 2009
Saturday
High Noon at the Tombstone Livery
Main Match Day 2
Afternoon shift--much better. Still had 2 misses. Johnny Meadows demonstrated the need for a Screw Knife for people who shoot Winchesters. He short stroked round 2 and wound up with a double feed. It took him 20 seconds or so to clear it with the Screw Knife, but he would have lost 9 rounds otherwise.
Dinner was in 2 shifts in the meeting room up the hill. Had plenty of time to go get The Redhead.
February 6, 2009
Friday
High Noon at the Tombstone Livery
Main Match Day 1
Early Shift--No wind. Bright sun. Much glare. But that didn't cause me to miss 2 on stage 1. It started with a plate rack of itty-bitty SASS Marshals. Missed one. That blew my concentration, and I missed an easy one. Stage 2 was too painful to describe. Missed another on stage 3. That was the start. Last 2 clean. I'm getting tired of starting off bad.
Dinner was at Big Nose Kate's Saloon. Not bad. Cheap drinks for SASS people.
February 5, 2009
Thursday
From The Shooting Wire, February 4
When you consider that the Republican National Committee's new head, Michael Steele, is quoted in the Examiner as saying "society should draw lines. What do you need an assault weapon for, if you're going hunting? That's overkill. But I don't think that means you go for a total ban for those who want to us a gun for skeet shooting or hunting or things like that. But what's the point of passing gun laws if you're not going to enforce them? If you want to talk about gun control, that's where we need to start."
Shortly after I received that, the Republican National Committee called, asking me to pledge them a certain amount of money. I said I'd keep it and invest in an "assault" rifle before their new Republican National Committee head, Michael Steele lets the left ban them. For RVers who read this for the RV stuff and know nothing about guns, assault weapons are not sold to the general public in the United States. By definition, an assault rifle is a fully-automatic rifle that uses a medium power cartridge (or less) so that controlled hand held automatic fire is possible. The M-16 the military uses is an assault rifle. New production of automatic weapons has been forbidden the general public since 1986. The AR-15 and variants sold the public are semi-automatic weapons and differ from hunting rifles of the same caliber by looks only. They look gnarly, and the sheeple are scared by them. The left wants to ban them first, then big caliber weapons, then "sniper rifles" (meaning hunting rifles), then "high power rifles" meaning all rifles, then "High capacity automatic pistols" meaning all semi-automatic pistols, then revolvers, then... Eventually they'll get around to the guns of the 19th century that we shoot in Cowboy Action Shooting (California once banned the 1860 Henry because it held more than 10 rounds.)
The left's ignorance of firearms is exceeded only by their fear of firearms which is exceeded only by their fear of free men.
High Noon at the Tombstone Livery
Plainsman Match and Wild Bunch Match
3-stage Plainsman match, very good, using the targets already set up rather than putting targets out to 1,000 yards because we're shooting single shot rifles. Shot the APP Sticks™ loads in the rifle. Very consistent. Not wimpy, but no targets fell down. Missed one pistol (an oops while cocking). 6 shooters, some pretty good. Sheriff Pack Wolf has always beaten me before.
When all was said and done I won by 2 seconds.
The Wild Bunch match was good, nothing goofy, 55 pistol rounds. I had a round that almost chambered then wouldn't eject without pounding the recoil spring guide against a door to retract the slide. On another stage when I pulled a magazine out of the pouch, the first round stripped off the magazine. This has happened before. I need new and better pouches. A shotgun belt designed for WB matches is needed.
San Juan and Johnny Meadows shot Traditional--very quickly.
The D BarJ campaign hat with goggles added
J B Fast captured my best side while I was shooting the 97
Changing magazines, very important skill in Wild Bunch
One too many Wild Bunch photos of me. I didn't have time to take any. J B Fast was kind enough to take a few of me
February 4, 2009
Wednesday
High Noon at the Tombstone Livery
Warm Up Match
Shot a 5 stage warm up match. The Tombstone Livery is a few miles out of Tombstone on US 82, about 7 miles from Tombstone Territories RV Park. There's an RV park at the livery, but it's hilly and crowded. Last year we got power, 30 amps, and water. Much more dry camping. The Redhead is happier at Tombstone Territories. The warm up match had decent stages, a slightly procedure trappish. There are only 6 stages at the livery, all with 3-sided berms. Faces south. Lack of wind in the AM and glare was a problem with smoky loads.
February 3, 2009
Tuesday
Drove to Tombstone Territories without incident. Well, first we had to do all of the usual to get the slides in and the bus disconnected, then connected to the trailer (first try). Then put the ML in the trailer (first try) and secured same. Both The Redhead and I did multiple walkarounds before we drove off.
February 2, 2009
Monday
Spent the day cleaning the 400 sq. ft. windshield on the bus, and the side glass, mirrors, and clear bra, then cleaning out and putting away the garage, sweeping, vacuuming, etc. I tried the new magnetic sweeper just picked up recently. Recovered one Wilson extra power firing pin spring for a 1911, nothing else of value. The other missing springs have gone to spring heaven.
New bullet/ammo boxes purchased recently (5" x 5" x 4" tuck tops, white) have already made packing up the right side cabinet easier and neater. As old boxes are emptied, they'll be replaced by these. Space efficient. I need bigger labels so I can tell what's what from standing up.
The Redhead back flushed and refilled the water softener with fresh salt and sprayed the interior of the black tank. You hook up a (grey) water hose to a separate connection and run water for a while, and inside water comes out of jets all the way around, cleaning off the sides.
Larsen came over at 5 for Margaritas. He backed up Blackjack Zak's statement Sunday that they have 600 entrants for Winter Range (55 BP shooters, including 18 in Frontiersman[!]). They're way down on vendors, though 30+ of last year's vendors have gone out of business.
February 1, 2009
Sunday
Velvet Glove and General Lee at the 2007 End of Trail best dressed costume party. Velvet Glove won both best dressed lady and best lady's shooting costume. General Lee won best dressed military. The photo was just sent by Slick Vic, Ulster Ranger, who won Best Dressed Couple at the 2008 EOT
Yes, I know General Lee is in the way
CCSA
Good match, good posse, lousy shooting on my part. First, after having been interrupted while loading the pistols, I started a stage with a pistol with caps, powder, and wads, no balls. Got a reshoot, but there was that embarrassment factor. Next stage either I didn't get a cap on one nipple, or it fell off (unlikely). After that it was smoke, and occasionally, that pesky Mexican, Juan. Finally, on the sixth stage, having no clean stages, I shot in slow motion and got a clean, if slow stage.
Unicorn Horn
A question on the SASS Wire was about what cap and ball
shooters use to seat caps on their gun’s nipples. Several people gave several
answers. All of them wrong. You have to understand black powder. There
is one and only one way to do everything. Just ask any black powder shooter,
and he will tell you the one and only way–his way. Ask 2, and you’ll get
2 different answers. Ask a hundred… well, you get the message. I seat caps
on my guns with a unicorn horn with the end ground to a flat bigger than
the nipple. This is the only acceptable tool for the job.
It is unnecessary to hunt unicorns. Instead you make friends
with one (hint: they love M & Ms). In the forests where unicorns live M & Ms
are hard to get, so they appreciate them and will give you their horn when
they molt seasonally. A couple of unicorn horns are pictured for reference.
You might find one in the forest if you search enough. By the way, molting
season was last month.
If you don't have at least one unicorn horn, of course you can't shoot Frontiersman.