Colonial period

After a period of exploration by people from various European countries, Spanish, Dutch, English, French, Swedish, and Portuguese settlements were conventional. Although Leif Ericson was the first European to land in North America, Christopher Columbus is credited as the first European to set foot on what would one day become US country when he came to Puerto Rico on November 19, 1493, during his second voyage.

Spanish explorers came to what is now the United States start with Christopher Columbus' second expedition, which reached Puerto Rico on November 19, 1493. The first confirmed landing in the continental US was by a Spaniard, Juan Ponce de Leon, who landed in 1513 on a luxuriant shore he christened La Florida.

Within three decades of Ponce de Leon's landing, the Spanish became the first Europeans to achieve the Appalachian Mountains, the Mississippi River, the Grand Canyon and the Great Plains. In 1540, Hernando de Soto undertook an extensive investigation of the present US and, in the same year, Francisco Vazquez de Coronado led 2,000 Spaniards and Native Mexican Americans across the modern Arizona–Mexico border and travel as far as central Kansas.

History of America

The first residents of what is now the United States emigrate from Asia over 15,000 years ago by crossing Beringia into what is now present-day Alaska. Archaeological evidence of these peoples, the associates of the Native Americans, dates back to 14,000 years ago.

Christopher Columbus was the first European to land in the country of what is now the United States when he arrived in Puerto Rico in 1492. The subsequent entrance of settlers from Europe began the colonial history of the United States. The Thirteen English colonies that would become the original US states were found along the east coast start in 1607. Spain, France and Russia also founded small settlements in what would become US territory.

The population of the Thirteen Colonies grew quickly, reaching 50,000 by 1650, 250,000 by 1700, and 2.5 million by 1775. High birth rates and low death rates were increased by steady flows of immigrants from Europe and slaves from the West Indies. Occasional small-scale wars involved the French and Indians to the north, and the Spanish and Indians to the south.

For more details visit : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_history

Vitali Klitschko Sport Boxer

Vitali Klitschko

Vitali Klitschko (Ukrainian: Віта́лій Володи́мирович Кличко́, Vitaliy Klychko, IPA: [ʋiˈtɑlij klɪtʃˈkɔ]; English: /vɨˈtæli ˈklɪtʃkoʊ/; born 19 July 1971 in Belovodsk, Kirghiz SSR, Soviet Union (now Kyrgyzstan)) is a Ukrainian professional heavyweight boxer and the current WBC world heavyweight champion. He has the highest knockout percentage (95%) of any heavyweight boxing champion in overall fights. He also holds the distinction of being a three time world heavyweight champion, having previously held the WBO and WBC titles, and has never been knocked out or knocked down in any professional boxing bout.
His younger brother, Wladimir Klitschko, is the current IBF, WBO, IBO and Ring Magazine world heavyweight champion. Vitali is the first professional boxing world champion to hold a Ph.D. (in sports science).
Vitali Klitschko has recently announced that he intends to retire from professional heavyweight boxing at the end of 2010. As a result of his success he has been awarded Germany's highest award Federal Cross of Merit.

Source ; WIkipedia.com

Audley Harrison Boxer Sport

Audley Harrison

Audley Harrison (born 26 October 1971) is a British professional boxer from Northolt who fights in the heavyweight division. At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney he became the first British fighter to win an Olympic gold medal in the superheavyweight division.

Harrison turned professional 2001 after signing a contract with BBC Sport. Harrison had 17 fights on the network before BBC Sport pulled all boxing from their programming. Harrison left England and went to America undefeated and continued his career.

In October 2009, he won the Prizefighter tournament. He became European heavyweight champion after knocking out Michael Sprott in April 2010.

Source : Wikipedia.com

Floyd Mayweather Jr Boxing Sport

Floyd Mayweather Jr

Floyd Joy Mayweather, Jr. (born Floyd Sinclair on February 24, 1977), is an "Undefeated" American professional boxer. He is the son of Floyd Mayweather, Sr.
From July 18, 2005 through June 2, 2008 he was rated by The Ring magazine as the "Number 1" pound for pound boxer in the world. Mayweather has won nine world boxing championships in five different boxing weight classes; he is the former WBC welterweight champion, a title he vacated upon his retirement. For his achievements he was named Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year in 1998 and 2007, Best Fighter ESPY Award 2007 and 2008, BWAA Fighter of the Year 2007 by Boxing Writers Association of America, and also ESPN.com Fighter of the year 2007.

He is the former WBC World Super Featherweight Champion, WBC World Lightweight Champion, The Ring World Lightweight Champion, WBC World Light Welterweight Champion, IBF World Welterweight Champion, The Ring World Welterweight Champion, WBC World Welterweight Champion, IBO World Welterweight Champion, IBA World Welterweight Champion. Furthermore he was also the WBC World Super Welterweight Champion, And recognised as WBC Emeritus Champion.

Mayweather is undefeated with 41 wins including 25 by knockout and is currently rated by The Ring Magazine as the number two pound-for-pound boxer in the world. And rated "Number 1" pound for pound boxer in the world by BoxRec, BBC Sports, Yahoo Sports, BoxingScene.com and The Sweet Science.com.

Floyd Mayweather was involved in the most lucrative fight ever in boxing history, The fight was with "Six Division World Champion" Oscar De La Hoya, with over $120 million in generated revenue, live gate of $19 million, beating previous record of $16 million held by Evander Holyfield vs Lennox Lewis rematch, and selling a total of 2.4 million household PPV buys. Beating the previous record of 1.99 million held by Evander Holyfield-Mike Tyson II.

After his win over Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton he was ranked "Number 14" by Forbes Magazine as the Biggest Celebrity Paydays of 2007. He is also the co-founder of HBO 24/7, HBO alongside Floyd Mayweather produced an excellent series of countdowns previewing their big pay per view fights. These shows are 30 minute specials designed to get undecided and casual fans excited enought to pay $50 needed to watch the fight live.

Floyd Mayweather, Jr is one of two boxers ever in Compubox history to go an entire round without being hit, The other is Roy Jones, Jr.

Mayweather is widely regarded as one of the best boxers of all times. Having wins over such celebrated opponents from all over the world, Including Genaro Hernandez, Jose Luis Castillo(twice), Diego Corrales, Arturo Gatti, Zab Judah, Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton, Juan Manuel Marquez and Shane Mosley.

Source : Wikipedia.com

The Zephyr is alive and well!

Contrary to viscous and nasty rumors, I am pleased to report that Pacific Rifle Company is still alive and well. A recent phone call to PRC HQ confirmed that while the old website is defunct, there is a new one in the making.

It seems that PRC owner, Bill McCart, had been struck down with some sort of persistent respiratory ailment that left him incapacitated and unable to get into his shop, or take care of other business such as keeping up the website, for quite some time. I’ve heard of this, or a similar bug, that just does not go away and bites you again just about the time you think you’re getting better.

Thankfully, it seems that the bug has finally left town and Bill has been back to work. He claims that he is caught up on his backlog of orders and is now ready to take and fill new orders for his famous Zephyr rifles. He said that he is still offering the 20-bore (.62) standard Zephyr, the Alaskan 12-bore (.72), and the 8-bore (.82) African. He also hinted at a .50 caliber offering designed specifically for long bullets - that is, not patched round balls which have been standard fare from PRC for nearly 15 years.

For more information about the rifles that put Genuine Forsyth Rifling on the map, the Zephyr, check out the new PRC site at: www.pacificriflecompany.blogspot.com. Bill reminds that the site is still under construction, so if you have questions that aren’t answered on the site, e-mail him at: pacificriflecompany@gmail.com or give him a call at: (503) 476-4609.

For you purveyors of esoteric knowledge, here’s a bit of Zephyr trivia.

I’ll bet you didn’t know that the Zephyr is the first production percussion rifle in history to offer Forsyth rifling. Now there is a tidbit to share that is sure to add a bit of excitement to your next party.

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Nicastro Target Rifle

They say that necessity is the mother of invention, although, at times many of us know that necessity is just simply a mother. There's nothing poetic about it. Especially if you can’t accomplish the invention aspect of it. It seems that once a good idea takes hold it will nag and frustrate the mind until it is finally realized – or until you've gotten a frontal lobotomy to be free of it.

One of our faithful readers, Peter Nicastro, wanted an underhammer target rifle but faced the financial challenge to fill the need. However, his resourcefulness and craftsmanship has resulted in a successful transformation that resulted in a very racy underhammer that I’m sure you will find interesting as well as inspiring.

Understand that Mr. Nicastro began this endeavor at the age of 72, which is testament to the fact that a vision empowered by pure determination knows no limitations, as Mr. Nicastro’s photos and comments explain.

My Custom Underhammer

By Peter Nicastro

I guess the best place to start is at the beginning…


At age 72 I got to thinking about taking up an activity I would enjoy. The idea of taking up target shooting came to mind and after some thought I said to myself, “Hey, why not?” At the time I no longer owned any firearms.

My muzzleloading interest all began back in the early sixties (1960’s). I had a percussion single shot pistol and a Bob Tingle Hawken rifle. Dixie Gunworks was then the place where you could get what you needed.


Well, at 72 it was my thought that I would get back into shooting muzzleloaders. So the hunt began for my first purchase. I picked up a copy of the Blue Book of Modern Blackpowder Firearms (available from www.dixiegunworks.com ) and there it was on the front cover – the Feinwerkbau Billinghurst Underhammer Pistol.

I had to have it.


The pistol was of the highest quality and has given me many 5-shot groups that would fit under a quarter at 25 yards from a benchrest. After about a year of working with the pistol I decided that I had to have a rifle of the same quality, but everything of the same quality was way out of my price range.


That's when the idea hit me to make a rifle/pistol combo with the Feinwerkbau pistol action.


Have you ever heard the expression, "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."?


The first thing I had to do was to make a model of the stock. I chose to make it out of balsa wood that had been soaked in Future Floor Wax, which made the wood much harder. When it was finished drying, I sent it off to Pecatonica River Long Rifle Supply, www.longrifles-pr.com, to be carved from a nice blank of curly maple. They also supplied a matching forearm blank. I added all the burl accents.

 Clicking on the photos will enlarge them. 

Clicking the Back button to return you to the text.

I had to make the rifle breechplug longer to go deeper into the barrel, so I also had to make an extended hammer. This also required that I change the pin location in the hammer to get more striking force in the hammer. I also exchanged the #10 nipple that came with the pistol for a #11 nipple.

 
I order a 30” X 1” .36 caliber Match Grade barrel from Rice Barrels, www.ricebarrels.com, and added the Schoyen palm rest from CPA, www.singleshotrifles.com, for offhand shooting.

The scope that is mounted on the rifle for now is just for working up the best loads. I will shoot the rifle competitively with metallic sights.

All photos copyright by Peter Nicastro

Our thanks to Mr. Nicastro for sharing his rifle with us. I do hope that more of you readers will share your underhammer rifles and experiences with us. The rifles don’t have to be as exotic as Mr. Nicastro’s for our readers to have interest. If they work for you, tell us about it. If they don't work for you, tell us about it. That’s what this blog is all about – underhammer shooters sharing with other underhammer shooters.

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