How fast was that going?

A friend wanted to see how his 9mm reloads were running at 3.9 grains of Titegroup powder with 124 Gn bullets. I brought this to the range:

A Competition Electronics Chronograph. Here are the results:

 Last round was a Speer Personal Defense round for comparison. 

Interesting spread. The pistol ran fine but occasionally would not go to slide stop. He's going to bump it up a tenth of a grain and we will repeat.

Enjoy the Decline or AKA: Gaming the System.

So today I get a little yellow slip in my Mailbox at lunch. It tells me that since a signature is required for my three packages, they are waiting on me at the Post Office. I immediately go to the Post Office. If my packages actually were loaded on the truck, they would not be at the Post Office at this time, yet they were there.

There is no urgency here. I hear two people out of earshot talking about how politicians greed has brought the USPS to this point. HA! USPS will be insolvent in a couple of months due to pensions more than anything else. 

Finally, a young woman reviews my slip of paper. Starts to look in the envelope sorter for my packages. I tell her they will not be there, they are heavy. She finds my packages in the bottom of a canvas roll around cart. She gamely attempts to pull one out of the cart and simply tells me: "We are supposed to be able to lift 70 pounds and I told them I am not doing that". That was the quote of the day right there.  

I ask her if she can hold the door open for me as I retrieve the packages. She does so and I make three trips. 

Inside the boxes we find this (click to enbiggen):

So lets recap. For a total of 47.10 bucks American, one box of 4000 rounds of 9mm jacketed bullets at 115 gr. weighs in at 65 Lbs, not counting the packaging. The 2000 rounds of 230 gr. .45ACP run the same. The 1000 rounds of .380 at 95 gr. weighs in at 13 pounds. Total for all three packages 143 pounds. Humped from here to here:

Heh. So how are the bullets? 

They will work! 

 

Ammo.....

Many have posted about a proposed online ammo ban. The most humorous came from my friend over at Murphys Law. The M-60 picture was icing on the cake.

I really don't have a dog in this fight yet, but I will voice my opinion on it to the Congresscritters.

I ordered some ammo online right before I posted this (clicky to embiggie). 

That's 4000 rounds of 9, 2000 rounds of 45 and 1000 rounds of 380. Should go well with this:

Some assembly is required however:

As always, Americans will adapt and overcome. The thing that galls me is the fact that no one stocks stuff below like this locally and it is the online vendors that can afford to stock it as it is not really popular to have on the shelf, pay property tax on, etc.

I don't shoot these things a lot, but I would like to shoot them if I want to (well except my only Glock in the corner)! Yes, I can reconfigure the press and make this stuff, but still. Going after online sales of ammo is yet another feel good, does nothing thing. The vendors have a copy of my drivers license, I have a FFL and my CCH permit as well as my instructor permit from my State DOJ.

 I am ashamed of the people supposedly representing us. Icing on the cake? The people at Montana Gold have engineered sturdy shipping boxes to fit in the flat rate flimsy USPS "It fits, it ships" boxes. Heh. I like that as they will hump 50+ pounds per box across the country for oh, 7 bucks.

Reloading question and random stuff.....

So first off this. About 10 percent of my 9mm reloads will not case gauge. Looks like this:

They WILL however chamber and eject in the Smith and Wesson M&P. Anyone have any ideas on that? 

Secondly, I have a cleaning lady. Love her to death and she is thorough. I trust her implicitly. She came through today and did her thing. I then turned the Roomba loose on the bedroom. Dust bin on it looked like this:

 






























Hmm. I guess the fact it goes UNDER furniture is the point here.

I like this thing!



Yeah, someone with a cordless circular saw can take it, but it does work and does what it needs to do.  

Actual conversation at work today: Me- "Yeah I can do that but as soon as I make something idiot proof they will just come up with a better idiot". 

Still deciding if I will put up a Christmas Tree or not. Better Homes and Gardens will not be by for a photo shoot either way, your thoughts?

Any help here gang?

FTC thingy. I bought everything in this post. So there. Your mileage may vary, check local store for details. 

I'm Going Green!

I have finally yielded to the logic of going green. Last week I received these from the local power co-op:

CFL's! And they were free (well not really but we will let that slide for now).

They were actually delivered via USPS. I'm sorry, a meter reader runs through here every month, how about THEY deliver them? 

So here is what you do. Give these to your favorite tree hugging Gaea worshiper. It is your duty to tell them that they contain the heavy metal Mercury and if they break one they need to leave the house and call a HAZMAT team. And of course they cannot dispose of them in the trash, they must be taken to some secret location for proper disposal. While you are at it tell them they will not work in any traditional incandesant dimmer circuit. 

After they take them, save the box they came in. It comes in handy.

The box is perfect for holding your reloads before you case gauge them! 








I DO recycle! Tonight's activity? Recycling a metal!

9mm Brass in a ultrasonic cleaner. 

 
 

Automation!

Just installed. It is a wonderful thing! 

Case feeder. Hornady forgot to ship two 10-32 machine nuts. I thought, OK there should be at least a pound of those here, but rummaging through the garage was profitless. Then it hit me to try the laundry room. 


I hope my man card will not be revoked, but this saved the day:

I need to get to the hardware store soon! 

Still Packing!!

So I have finally completed this task in preparation for my trip:

1200 rounds of .45ACP. 4.2 grains of TiteGroup powder, CCI large pistol primers, 230 grain Montana Gold round nose bullets. 

Pay no attention to the Atwater Kent radio speaker in the upper right corner, a project for another day! 

This is ready to go as well:

I don't know what "Near IR Compliant" means except that I am sure I paid for it! 

Packing for vacation

Instead of wondering if I have shorts and a swimsuit I am working on this:

For here:

Hey! .45ACP Reloaders!

I just ran into something here on the bench. You may have already run into it, but just in case, here is what I ran into tonight.

One of these Blazer casings is not like the other. The large pistol primer that is crimped behind them tells part of the story. 

Lets see whats going on, shall we?

Miked the primer pockets. This is the one that crimped the primer. Then to the other one:

This is the other Blazer casing. It appears that some bean counting dweeb said "Hey, we could cut .002 cents cost out of each round if we went to small pistol primers!" 

It does not stop here, apparently at the last bean counter convention the Blazer people told Fiocchi USA and Federal about the amazing cost savings!

De sighing....

So the "Brown Truck of Happiness" brought this today. A new chronograph from a different manufacturer and a 100 bucks cheaper to boot!

So, I tested it here before going to the range using sophisticated calibrated instruments to insure I would have accurate readings at the range:




A rubber band clocked in at 83 feet per second! Good to go!

Clues.....

I am normally very discreet within my home except for several rooms when it comes to being a "Firearm enthusiast". There are many reasons to do so, the occasional cable tech, tradesman, or others would not be able to casually glance around to gather that there may be firearms about.

I am preparing for class the first week in June, and the semester at the community college is in the final two weeks. I am getting sloppy! First exhibit:

Foyer table and floor. A typo on my part for a student on CCH. A new certificate for him awaits. A box of brass from the range this weekend The talented B. article for my class on open display as soon as you open the front door!

My office desk.A great recipe for Wedding cookies and some factory ammo with personal defense stuff mixed in, left around for the unloading of pistols for the class last week. Yes, students get to learn on my Firearms for administrative tasks with dummy ammunition.

Bedroom dresser. Nipper and Chipper are here as well as new personal defense rounds to replace the GASP! 20 year old .45 ACP frangible rounds I carried. Tam pointed out the dangers of bullet setback. They shot fine however!

New t shirt from the Range. Draped over a living room chair.


It has spread everywhere! Kitchen counter:

Even next to the kitchen sink. Brass cleaning underway:

I am really getting behind!

Fireplace hearth looks like this:

Diversity....

I haz it!

Some assembly required!

My UPS driver delivered this today:

 

I cheated after looking at one of Brigid's posts and got one of these. Anybody have any words of wisdom before I hook this thing up?

 

Getting ready for the weekend!

Ok, so first up is the "redneck engineering" exercise for spent primer collection:

Works for me and now on to "working for the weekend":

The venerable .45ACP. Learned a bit trying to reload this cartridge. Hornady ships a generic .45 caliber set of dies. To get the ACP down you need the ACP taper die. Got it and so now I am back off to the races this weekend!

I also need to see if my spring and recoil guide replacements from Wollf works on this little pony:

 I do like the look as compared to the black plastic guide that came with it! Call me vain! On the left is the hundred rounds of .45 made tonight. All of this will be tested this weekend.

Anybody have a recommended load for zombie bowling pins? Running 4.6 grains with a  185 grain Hornady XTP bullet right now. Running a Colt Combat Commander for this!

Competition Shooting!

I was totally unaware of the coming hoard of zombie bowling pins.

I have been enlightened now. It seems that true believers hone defensive skills against this coming menace by conducting tactical training known as "Bowling pin matches". Now that I know that this training may save my life, I have entered one. If you wish to join me information is here.

Seriously, anyone have any practical advice for someone doing competition shooting for the first time? What caliber to use? Where to hit the thing? I understand it must fall off of the table, not simply knocked down.

When I heard that it must clear the table, my first thought was this for the toolkit (Click to enbiggen):

 Other than that, any recommended loads? Wal-Mart round ball stuff, hollow points, custom loads? I have the dies and Hornady XTP 185 grain hollow points and Montana gold SWC bullets, plenty of brass and Winchester primers. Oh and Tite Group powder.

Any help? As someone else today said: "this is a pulsating ball of suck and fail". I do not want to meet that definition!

Range Report Preview (Not really)

So after cleaning brass for reloading with a recipe supposedly handed down from a 1957 NRA article, I have decided to give it up.  It involved water, vinegar, salt, and dishwashing detergent. Makes a big mess in the kitchen sink! So today my best new friends at Midsouth shooters supply brought me this:

 I will give it a test run and let you know what happens! 

I have plenty of test subjects.

And yes, the first photo is the dining room table. Lucky for me Better Homes and Gardens is not coming this weekend for the photo shoot! 

Kel-Tek Part III

I am about done with the Kel-Tek P3-AT. I don't trust it. So looking around the interwebs I ran across this:

Ok, so S&W is selling a .380 semi-auto at about the same price a Kel-Tek and a crimson trace would cost. It's DAO but also has a thumb safety. Interesting, but I hear that may be for the Kalifornia market. No biggie to me as I always sweep the thumb anyway, the Colt Mustang has a propensity to drive the thumb up after shooting (activating the safety) and the Combat Commander is always "cocked and locked" so no big deal.

But I have problems with the commercial. Women get the revolver and guys get the semi-auto. Still. And lets whip something out and sweep the place. Need dry ice and fog to make the gun look cool nowadays I reckon. For such a storied manufacturer I expected better.

Even worse is the fact that after calling two gun stores they give me the slack-jawed look and say they know nothing about this gun. According to Smith, its available May 2010. Sigh...

I will not entertain debate here on the "minimum stopping power caliber" war. I know that something is better than nothing, and I don't have a lot of options for carrying concealed.

For those lamenting the lack of .380 ammo, I feel your pain! That is why I felt compelled to do this:

I can make it!

If it does not feel right....

it probably is not. A good first rule for reloading. Perhaps life as well. Here is my latest happiness:

I seem to have really cranked down on a cartridge not properly seated in the shell plate during decap/resizing. Bent the spindle, broke the holder for the decap pin, destroyed the pin itself, and generally made a mess. I have visually inspected the die body and it appears to be ok. Ran some cartridges through it and they size ok and are not scratched. They are carbide dies and I used case lube on the cartridges.

Can anyone tell me different? I think this happens frequently as Hornady sells a "Die Maintenance Kit"  that includes 2 spindles, 2 decap holders, 5 decap pins and a handful of retaining springs for the rest of the dies for about 8 bucks. At least the cartridge came out of the die, it was pretty done!  And Hornady is running the free bullet promo for dies so I get some bullets out of the purchase anyway.

I think that the shellplate spring is going to be the weak link in this system. But never fear! In my supreme anal state in all things reloading as a newbie, I have ordered a new .380 die set, the maintenance kit, and five shellplate springs. So, if things work out with simply replacing the stuff broke, anyone need a 3 die set for .380's?

Now with 50% more shooty goodness!

OK, went to the range today to test my .380 reloads. Started with 5 rounds in a Colt Mustang PlusII and everything worked great! No exploding gun, no bullets stuck in the barrel, no FTF. Then stuck 5 in a Kel-Tek P3AT. Same result! So, off to the races I am (props to Yoda) ! I just hope I do not wind up looking like a bad genetic experiment with a huge right arm from cranking the handle on the press and a small but precise left hand due to seating bullets!