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Shockbottle Products and Info


shred

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Thanks for stopping by the Shockbottle forum. This is where you can post questions, comments, gripes, whines and otherwise interact with the people behind Shockbottle R&D. There aren't a lot of us but we do exist, really.

If you haven't had a chance to check out the products, sad to say our web site is not a good place to look right now, so here's a quick run-down of the top gear. All our stuff is available from dealers anyway, so unless you like paying full MSRP, go hit them up.

Shockbottle 's really cool patent-pending 100-round 'flipper' case gauges available right now in 9x19 and .40 S&W.

Keep the link handy for when your better half asks "so, what gun stuff do you want this year?"

Here's a totally unsolicited video review (although we reserve the right to send this guy some cool swag ;) )



Some dealers (here) and (here) I know have them in-stock. Pester your local shop into stocking them as well!

Ok, so you are a well-informed shooting gearhead and knew about those already... we also make some basepads --

Got a GSG or SIG 1911 .22? We invented the +1 design everybody copied. Then improved it into a +2 and brand-new, you-read-it-here-first (assuming you read this fairly soon) +3 basepad. Get 'em from NicTaylor00 here. Throw in a follower and spring for 16 rounds in the mag and never worry about blowing out a plastic basepad again.

Colt/Walther 1911 .22 basepads just out too. No added capacity, but they look cool, reload a lot faster and won't give you the cracked-plastic golden shower of ammo and springs.

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Tanfoglio large-frame pads with the IP protected and fabulously nifty Shockbottle easy-off pocket are also out there.. if you can catch them. Most of the first production run went to some pretty speedy shooters and they seem to be hoarding them with little chuckles of glee.

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Give us your thoughts and ideas. If it's a really good idea, send it to us in secret and we'll put you on the patent royalty gravy train... er, sign the NDA first though.

Thanks

- Roy

Shockbottle R&D

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Where to begin?

Every video demonstration seems to represent the gizmo as hard to use when it comes to flipping into boxes and loading 100 rounds into them initially.

It is still cumbersome to get 100 rounds into the gauge. Not as bad as a single gauge but still slow none the less.

Looks like Robot put feet on his? These things need feet on them for all of us 9MAJOR loaders. Not only does it allow for longer rounds but it would make picking it up much easier.

They seem like a great concept that still needs some tweaking before I would spend $100+ on one.

Also,did not realize this was the hundo gauge. PM inbound

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ok so I run a small ammo manufacturing facility and we have both a 9 and 40 of these fine guages. I have only one suggestion for these 2 items. A little more lip around at least 2 of the edges so that you can stick some 1/4" square wood strips to hold the guage off the table. This way I have an instant headspace feedback while loading the guage. Once the guage is loaded I can pull out the strips and see if any rounds are loaded to long. I know I can lift the guage up to check headspace but we do this hundreds of times a day and it is not an efficient motion.

otherwise thanks for a great product. We want 2 more in 9 and 40 and are looking forward to 45.

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Thanks for the feedback. Feet and/or standoffs are ideas we've heard and are looking at doing when time allows (the do-it-yourselfers will find two 1/4-28 tapped holes in one end of the latest batch of black gauges that can be used to bolt handles or feet or other things to the gauge).

It is also possible to lift the gauge, check the rounds, then set it back down and place a flipper-box on top of the gauge, then pick up the stack and flip it with both hands, which can be easier for people with smaller hands. Obviously that doesn't solve everybody's needs, so as above, we are looking at some more options, although I doubt we'll be able to please absolutely everybody all the time.

There are also a few reasons the gauge is shorter than a loaded round that I'll share-- it makes kicking stuck rounds out easier and reduces weight and material (even at $1 a hole, I'm pretty sure y'all don't want to pay more for them). It also decreases wear and improves consistency by providing a constant (within local gravity variations) light insertion force to minimize stuck cases. Its easier to swipe a marker across the base of the cases while they are sticking up without marking up the gauge, and lastly if we raised it up, then people might assume it checks for OAL as well, which it doesn't, our legal guy would probably want us to set the feet to SAAMI OAL just to be safe, and then the long-loaders would still have the same problem.... :mellow:

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All very good points on the depth Shred. Is there room enough for us DIY types to drill and tap the corners for small machine screws to act as legs? I am very interested in these as gauging is the only part of my process that is not streamlined. And I gauge everything.

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I don't like the feet idea. I like the fact that you can put it flat on the table. It's kicks them out as pointed out above and it instantly shows you a round that was not seated properly and is longer than the others. We don't use the flip into a case idea. We cover half and dump 50 into a shallow large cardboard box so we can roll them around and do a final visual check for split cases. Then we package them.

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I don't like the feet idea. I like the fact that you can put it flat on the table. It's kicks them out as pointed out above and it instantly shows you a round that was not seated properly and is longer than the others. We don't use the flip into a case idea. We cover half and dump 50 into a shallow large cardboard box so we can roll them around and do a final visual check for split cases. Then we package them.

I guess since I don't load commercially I don't go for mass volume all the time. My rounds fail because of problems in the base area. It would not matter how deep the gauge is for me as long as it is long enough for longer 9mm rounds to hang free underneath.I can find rounds that are too long after putting them in a case. But I rarely have a problem with oal.

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On the .40 gauge there are a lot of places you could put up to a #10 screw in, although you do run a bit of a risk of distorting the nearby holes-- You might be better off drilling for #8 or a 1/8" pin and loctiting it in. I think somebody (Cha Lee) already did that on here.

The 9 gauge is tighter. A 1/8" pin could be squeezed in, but there's not a lot of extra room. Drilling holes or otherwise modifying the gauge is of course going to make it non-returnable, so be sure you like it before doing that.

Another option is to make a stand-- mill a stepped channel into a block of wood, metal, plastic, etc or make a stepped box or arrange some blocks on a board that hold the gauge sides with some blocks/strips/nails/pins underneath holding it the desired distance off the surface (and not blocking any of the bullet holes). A handful of nails and some artful hammering would probably do it although in true backwoods-style, the nails would need to be rusty re-straightened pulled nails. In a pinch, the gauge can be rested on top of an empty ammo box and aligned with the holes, although it tends to slide around without some guidance.

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There already is a large enough lip on one side to place a 1/4X1/4 strip under it. All I need is similar on the opposite side. I do see how it would add material and cost however. I may simply "add" something like aluminum angle to extend it.

Sarge on the 9mm there is enough room along the edge to drill and tap for some small 6/32 legs. On the 40 there is enough room to drill and tap for some 8/32 legs

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  • 2 months later...
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Resurrecting an old thread here, but does any body have these (9mm) in stock? I have found numerous dealers,all with the same 'OUT OF STOCK' note beside the 'add to cart' button.

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9x19s should be in stock at dealers in black in both regular and SuperMatch spec. Silver 9x19 are running low until the next production run.

I have one of the very first silver 9mm Hundo's sold through Ben Stoeger's site... I love it... If one of my rounds fits in your gauge, it shoots in my gun...

In the early days you said that anodizing would change the accuracy of the gauge... I guess you got that figured out, or are the black gauges less accurate?

What is the 9mm SuperMatch option?

What is the long option on the .40 gauge?

Thanks!

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Anodizing does make the holes vary slightly from hole to hole, although now we are holding the anodize tolerances better than before, so in regular use, most people will never see the difference.

The SuperMatch option is a gauge made to the absolute minimum SAAMI cartridge spec. It is made with a smaller reamer than the regular 9x19 gauges and recommended for tight-chambered custom guns or shooters that want some extra assurance they'll never try to load a bad round. It does tend to reject more rounds than the regular gauge-- 9x19 brass is all over the map size-wise since it's been made in hundreds of countries for more than a hundred years.

The "40 Long" is reamed straight through instead of including the SAAMI chamber leade. This is for long-loaded (over typical .40 max OAL) and rounds loaded with lead or coated-lead bullets to be checked, but obviously does not check for OAL interference with the leade.

.

Leade.jpg

There's a bit more information on the Shockbottle FAQ's - http://www.shockbottle.com/faq.html

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Thanks for the answers and the link to your FAQ... I didn't know you had a web site or a FAQ until now.

I used to use an EGW 50 hole gauge that was sized to minimum SAAMI's specs... I like the sizing of your gauges better... seems like they were designed for my CZ SP-01 Shadow's barrels! and I really like the double-flip MTM box feature... Big time saver... I have to wiggle the first box a bit to get the brass to slip into the MTM box, but the second box is an easy flip... Very cool... Big time saver over dumping the rounds out and individually placing them in an MTM box.

I'm planning to start shooting .40 limited in the future and I will definitily want one of your 100 round gauges... Not sure whether I'll need the 40 Long gauge or not yet... Still deciding on a gun and whether to buy a second press... 2011... STI of some kind... Maybe an Edge...

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  • 4 weeks later...

FWIW, I have been playing with one (silver .40) and am so far having good luck with it as is. The method I first tried seemed a bit awkward at first but works.

--Inspect the rounds then put them nose down into a 100 count box

--Place a second box over that and flip them so that they are nose up

--Put the gauge over that and flip them in

--Find any that are too high and remove them and replace them from unchecked

--Set the gauge flat and look for any long

--Mark the base of the rounds so I know they've been checked (red for major, green for minor)

--Reverse the flip process back to the storage box

BTW, if you set the gauge down on an empty 100 count box, the rounds won't push up.

The only issue I have with this so far is that it means I need one extra storage box that won't get used for storage.

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That will work, but whats your reasoning to not drop straight into the gauge? I usually drop them in the gauge from the Dillon bin, pick out the bad ones and then mark and box, but I'm curious to hear other ways of using the gauge.

Here's a trick I use when I don't have a spare empty box around and need more than 100 rounds (practice, club match, etc)-- flip-load all my boxes nose-down except the last box which stays nose-up, and then once I empty the first nose-down box, flip the nose-up box into it.

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