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Description
No... that is not some 'edgy' title implying anything underworldly, those are the literal tools of my trade, in a sense. Now whilst the majority of the shell casings I use in my art come from friends and those out there willing to help me find rare calibers, these firearms (with the exception of one which I'll explain) provide the bulk of my 7.62x54r and .45 Long Colt.

Topmost Rifle: Mosin Nagant 91/30
Manufactured in Tula Russia at the height of the war in 1943 it was a 'wartime expedited' manufacture. Issued originally in a non sniper version to some unlucky Russian conscript and returned to the armor sometime before 1952, when it was re-barreled and from the best I can find, sat in the armory until it was imported to the USA in the mid 90's. It is not an original PU sniper variant, the work to make it so was all by my own hand with the help of some very kind people in the Mosin community. PU scope is an original 1943 Yoshkar-Ola Russian made scope with a reproduction mount, properly aligned and secured [as in not skipping installing the pins and just relying on the tension screws] with a bent bolt from a friend of mine.

Topmost Revolver: Remington Patent 1858 'New Army'
Popular in the American Civil War due to being one, if not only, revolver of the era to have a top strap design with an easy to remove cylinder pin [as opposed to Colt's wedge block design] my original 1858 is rather unique in the fact that is is one of the -few- that were not bought by either side for war. Serial number 2026 manufactured in 1862 it was bought by a humble wife of a tree farm owner in NJ to take care of pests and varmint around the farm and stables... then sat in the kitchen drawer for the next one hundred and fifty years. How do I know this? I know the grandmother's great great grandson, who gave it to me saying 'fix it'. Still lives on the same tree farm. She's an old girl, I've never fired her with the original cylinder for obvious safety reasons... The firearm is built to last, but let's not push it. A Pietta Italy reproduction cylinder fits into the frame like it was meant to be there, go figure, and the barrel and bore are in excellent shape. I make it a point to put 20 rounds through her every time I'm at the range.

Lower Revolver: Pietta Italy reproduction Remington 1858 'New Army'
This was, really what started it all for me. I'm not sure entirely what first drew me to black powder, or this particular revolver... Something about the shape, the lines, the neat factor of a bygone propellant, that and I did have a historical love of the time period. Started it's life as a simple replica of the revolver above it, but my tinker's mind could not leave well enough alone. Once I found out that in ~1864 Remington themselves were converting their stock of 'New Army' model revolvers to straight bore cylinders to fire the .44 Colt Cartage of the time... I had to do it. However since that is a defunct round, and no one makes a modern conversion to it, I settled on the .45 Long Colt conversion which is how it sits today. Continuing on the tinkering every part of that gun's mechanical workings have been polished, de-burred, reblued, and generally made to feel like butter when firing on a hair trigger when the hammer is on full cock. "Fan the hammer to be a cowboy"? Not so much, as I didn't want to change the indexing marks, however smack a 12 inch steel gong at 100 yards? Maybe? How good was my handloads and how tired am I?

All and all just even having such interesting and not seen everyday at the range [insert everyone having 1911's, glocks, and AR's] usually gets them all to talking to me, and thus more knowledge is passed, things learned, new avenues of ideas flow... and everyone going 'the hell was that?' when these three... very loud... firearms are shot... no seriously, black powder is deafening if you don't have ears on.

To see what I'm talking about with making art from shells, visit my shop at; shop.suncofarms.com

Description
No... that is not some 'edgy' title implying anything underworldly, those are the literal tools of my trade, in a sense. Now whilst the majority of the shell casings I use in my art come from friends and those out there willing to help me find rare calibers, these firearms (with the exception of one which I'll explain) provide the bulk of my 7.62x54r and .45 Long Colt.

Topmost Rifle: Mosin Nagant 91/30
Manufactured in Tula Russia at the height of the war in 1943 it was a 'wartime expedited' manufacture. Issued originally in a non sniper version to some unlucky Russian conscript and returned to the armor sometime before 1952, when it was re-barreled and from the best I can find, sat in the armory until it was imported to the USA in the mid 90's. It is not an original PU sniper variant, the work to make it so was all by my own hand with the help of some very kind people in the Mosin community. PU scope is an original 1943 Yoshkar-Ola Russian made scope with a reproduction mount, properly aligned and secured [as in not skipping installing the pins and just relying on the tension screws] with a bent bolt from a friend of mine.

Topmost Revolver: Remington Patent 1858 'New Army'
Popular in the American Civil War due to being one, if not only, revolver of the era to have a top strap design with an easy to remove cylinder pin [as opposed to Colt's wedge block design] my original 1858 is rather unique in the fact that is is one of the -few- that were not bought by either side for war. Serial number 2026 manufactured in 1862 it was bought by a humble wife of a tree farm owner in NJ to take care of pests and varmint around the farm and stables... then sat in the kitchen drawer for the next one hundred and fifty years. How do I know this? I know the grandmother's great great grandson, who gave it to me saying 'fix it'. Still lives on the same tree farm. She's an old girl, I've never fired her with the original cylinder for obvious safety reasons... The firearm is built to last, but let's not push it. A Pietta Italy reproduction cylinder fits into the frame like it was meant to be there, go figure, and the barrel and bore are in excellent shape. I make it a point to put 20 rounds through her every time I'm at the range.

Lower Revolver: Pietta Italy reproduction Remington 1858 'New Army'
This was, really what started it all for me. I'm not sure entirely what first drew me to black powder, or this particular revolver... Something about the shape, the lines, the neat factor of a bygone propellant, that and I did have a historical love of the time period. Started it's life as a simple replica of the revolver above it, but my tinker's mind could not leave well enough alone. Once I found out that in ~1864 Remington themselves were converting their stock of 'New Army' model revolvers to straight bore cylinders to fire the .44 Colt Cartage of the time... I had to do it. However since that is a defunct round, and no one makes a modern conversion to it, I settled on the .45 Long Colt conversion which is how it sits today. Continuing on the tinkering every part of that gun's mechanical workings have been polished, de-burred, reblued, and generally made to feel like butter when firing on a hair trigger when the hammer is on full cock. "Fan the hammer to be a cowboy"? Not so much, as I didn't want to change the indexing marks, however smack a 12 inch steel gong at 100 yards? Maybe? How good was my handloads and how tired am I?

All and all just even having such interesting and not seen everyday at the range [insert everyone having 1911's, glocks, and AR's] usually gets them all to talking to me, and thus more knowledge is passed, things learned, new avenues of ideas flow... and everyone going 'the hell was that?' when these three... very loud... firearms are shot... no seriously, black powder is deafening if you don't have ears on.

To see what I'm talking about with making art from shells, visit my shop at; shop.suncofarms.com