Bubba's Halll of Shame

[Patrick Chadwick]

Here's a splendid new entry to show, yet again, that Bubba's determination to make his mark knows no limits!

Unencumbered by experience, know-how, technical ability, or the wit to ask someone who had any of these, Bubba decided to "improve" his revolver. Observe the oddly off-centered hole, although you can see the co-axial turning marks from manufacture.




The top of the hole - yes I know it should be a forcing cone, but that's the whole problem! Note the step.



And the bottom. Note there is no step:



Now you know why I call it a hole, not a forcing cone, because there is no forcing cone. Not any more.

Marks on the hammer and cylinder showed that the gun had been wildy out in its timing, and Bubba must have had lead spitting out all over. Not being able to correct the timing to suit the barrel, he apparently decided to give the barrel more "tolerance" - by drilling out the forcing cone with a 10mm drill. Off-center!



After this, Bubba will have tried it out, and discovered that he was firing scrambed balls all over the park.

For those collectors and shooters of a nervous disposition: No valuable original was injured in the making of these photos! The poor, wrecked object was an Italian replica from the 70s blackpowder boom that was handed in for scrapping (and quite rightly so). It has now been "recycled".

[jmoore]

Bubba moved to Mauserland? He sure seems to get that "double wide" mobile.

[Patrick Chadwick]

Bubba moved to Mauserland?

Oh no sir! We have our own home-grown Bubbas here. Like the one in a neighboring village who decided that his house should be modernized with a drainage ditch all around to keep the foundations dry. Why spend money on a statics engineer - just get digging. A pity that the foundations were rather shallow and the gable end collapsed into the ditch, leaving an interesting sectioned view of the house that got good coverage in the local newpaper.

Occasionally these characters are candidates for the Darwin Award, like the other bright spark (also in the local paper) who wanted to overhaul his car, drained down the brake hydraulics to fit a new brake cylinder, reassembled everything and drove off without any brake fluid. Killed himself at the first sharp corner. Some live and learn. Some don't.

[Salt Flat]

Everytime I buy a gun at a gunshow or pawnshop I hold my breath. You never know what lurks beneath its surface. Now with the internet you have to be extra cautious. Fortunately Bubbas work is usually quite visually evident. A lopped off stock or buffed off markings are common. But sometimes it's hidden and potentially dangerous. Several years ago I bought a 1st Gen Colt single action. I wanted to put a correct barrel on it and when I unscrewed the barrel I discovered that our friend Bubba had run a large drill into the frame and took out all the theads. The barrel was held in with some epoxy! @^#$*!!. Look them over carefully and make sure you bring a good set of glasses and even a magnifying glass. My eyes have betrayed me more than once.

[Midmichigun]

One of the gents I used to work for... was both a Crown Subject and also from the land of the Teutonic knights. He was "continually shocked by the amount of laws and lawsuits in the US of A". He said that the Average European creature didn't need laws to live in a civil manner, and that the keen intellect and common sense kept most of them out of trouble... He would mention lawsuits regarding ladders and roofing, and how in Europe, you would hire a certified contractor to fix your roof. Nobody would dream of being a DIYer in Europe....
Glad to see that we collected the DIYer's into the gunowner category!

[Vincent]

...... and he only wants $8,000.00 for it!!!!!

[m4a3sherman]

...is that a hardware bolt there?

[Patrick Chadwick]

...is that a hardware bolt there?

I do believe you are correct . It looks to me like a fairly modern cadmium-plated/passivated steel bolt that was never made for a firearm.

[kenwest516]

You gotta give him a little credit. At least he used a good grade 8 bolt. It could have been a 2.

[firebyprolong]

Really wish I had taken pics of my last bubba buy. As i did not i'll give you a quick run down. It was a 1916 #1 *3. Wood was cut so was the tube, hacksaw crown, outside edges of the new "crown" were run off with bench grinder. At this point our boy put on sights from a rem 700 and in the process punched 4 little holes at odd angles into the bore. Couldent get the treads to hold so he slatherd the bases up with JB weld and let her fly. Rear gaurd screw was also epoxed in place. I picked it up as a lamp at the local city wide yard sale for the princely sum of 20 bucks. Just couldnt walk by it, had to save it. Had a new tube in 30-30 layen around so the "The freak" was born, it feeds, it extracts, it ejects, and it shoots. Ill have to post some pics, it really turned in to a fun little gun.