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CocoBolo

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Everything posted by CocoBolo

  1. AQ lot depends on your set up, IMHO the burn chart is pretty accurate softer shooting than 3n37 and about like 3N38. Meters well and shoots clean, and is very consistent lot to lot. And it seems to be all weather.
  2. I think some may be caught up in a Paradigm dilemma. I could never bring my self to buy a $9000 Gibson Guitar, my mind draws an imaginary line at $1000, which let me buy a fantastic Martin Acoustic, but then again I have 8 Guitars. If asked why don't you buy that Gibson, I'd say cause I don't play as well as Eric Clapton. Guns are a lot like Guitars they can appear identical but one will have that unique special sound that you want, that feel in your hand that makes you want to play it all day. I'm guessing that is why when I shoot limited my STI Edge (Dawson HPF HardChromed circa 2005-7) gets a day out of the safe and the SVI dual caliber replaceable breach face gets to stay on the shelf. Make no mistake I had 3 prior Edge's before I bought the Dawson HPF, the SVI came later, they all looked the same but nope the HPF Edge has that something special going on. That said its Friday, classic rock time, you know Smoke on the Water, Can't get No Satisfaction, Sultans of Swing, all other days are country Broken Halos. The punch line you will never know if it is the one till you pick it up and play it a while.
  3. My apologies, you said it was ridiculous, not unsafe. I really love my Edge, a Dawson specially prepared hard chromed version (2007), I like it better than my dual caliber SVI, with the replaceable breach face. The Shadow I just converted to CO I have had since 2010, so nothing new about loading shorter on fat profiles, just like the other CZ's I have owned in the past. The nose of the bullet will drag on the mag if you go beyond 1.165, that is how long my Montana Gold 124gr JHP's are I use in the gun, 124gr FMJ's I load to 1.150, the RN's feed a little better. My gun may be throated, I have a throat reamer, and don't remember everything I did in the last 11 years, sometimes I can't remember what I had for dinner yesterday, that's why I have a reloading journal, well its a database since I am a retired database administrator/application developer. The down side is you can run cost reports.
  4. I don't know that 1.080 is dangerous, I've shot 9 major in open over a decade, I've put those rounds thru my Shadow and it survived. It is a tank. One of my good friends ran a 75B for years and that was his OAL 1.080, he was using TiteGroup with 147gr coated. The recommendation is to make sure that it isn't short for no reason, and to start low and work up paying attention to the primers, if they flatten out back it off.
  5. I broke 2 cheap Lee's (the frame) (they were $25.00 back in the day) then I got the RCBS jr, its done many thousands of 223 (just deprime and sizing), loading is done on the Hornady L&L.
  6. I tried a Lee Load Master so long ago I can't remember what I did with it, its at the bottom of a lake or I sold it. I did manage to crank out a few thousand rounds, but it was a constant battle against the machine, you don't forget things like that. I bought a Hornady Lock and Load, while some will bash it cause it ain't blue, I have loaded 100's of thousands of rounds on it. One day my sponsor asked me if I'd like a Dillon 650, huh, you kidding me, well I took it home and discovered the truth about big blue. It was a learning curve, I broke more parts on it than the Hornady, it took a good while to learn all of the things that go wrong and how to remedy them. I acquired a second Dillon 650 in a gun deal. The time came when 3 was too many, I sold a 650 kept the Hornady, and if I could only have one it would be the Hornady. To be fair the Dillon is a few rounds a hour faster and a little smother. The Dillon is more complex and harder to get right, once right its good till something breaks. Keep the powder out of the primer punch and the Hornady hums along, The Dillon can be filthy and still keep going, then something goes out of whack, the primer wheel, the indexing or the case pusher. I tried the bullet feeder thing and it wasn't faster than grabbing a hand full of bullets at a time, and the noise was distracting. Bottom line if your time isn't worth anything get a Lee and a bottle of valium, but if it is, you can't go wrong with a Hornady or Dillon. Only get the Dillon if you get the case feeder, feeding it manually is like trying to bottle feed a badger. I got lucky I won a Dillon case feeder at the Double Tap Championship.
  7. Now to the real topic, if you have not shot open you don't really know what you want. I started that way and bought a used Tanfo Gold and it was a great gun except it hurt my hand to shoot it. I ditched it bought a used Briley (STI) for $1200(2007). In the next couple of years I bought a few guns one was a worn out SVI, I had it accu-railed, then a couple of STI competitors. I customized them aka modernized them. I had a shorty built, and a 5" built by Chris Monolito (phillipines) both great guns. I really didn't know how much I loved shorty till I sold it about 8 years ago. The Briley I still shoot it for steel, had to replace the slide last year. One of the Competitors new slide last year, 60-70k. Point being no sense spending a lot of money till you are sure what you want, just get a good used gun and give it a go. All the bedazzling won't make you any faster, but it will make you look cool.
  8. 3N38 is another good choice . I tried it for a while it was good, nice flames, just couldn't find it reliably. Here is a whole thread on it 38SC w/ 3N38 Load Data - 9mm/38 Caliber - Brian Enos's Forums... Maku mozo!
  9. I use the MTM plastic 100 RD ammo boxes. They cost a bit more than a sandwich bag but there are some important advantages. 1st you know how many rounds, you need 150 for a match, two cases. 2.nd - When you put the bullets in nose down you can easily see things you might have missed in the drop check, like a high primer, upside down primer, or none etc. 3rd - If a round is long or short you will see that. 4th - When loading magazines you can use the rows of ten to help you know how many are in the mag. 5th - They stack well on shelves and it is easy to take an inventory of how much ammo you have. Although some only load what the need on Friday night I tend to load a few thousand then use them up over time.
  10. You could start at 8.0 gr crono and adjust. If you search you will probably find 100's of recipes between 8.0 and 9.0 (8 is @ 166pf 9 is @ 180 pf) standard OAL 1.245. Personally I never found the love for it, I settled in on AA#7 10.5gr 175pf to get flat with a 5" Bedel Comp and 2 holes, power factor at 10gr but love at 10.5gr with 125gr Zeros. So you have to experiment some, and evaluate the results with a timer and a standard drill to set the bench mark, how you feel could be slowing you down.
  11. I scored mine at Search results for: 'bullets' (wideners.com). I didn't buy all of them they still have some.
  12. The secret is to polish the mag outside and inside where the button rides. I used a fine diamond file. Some people also polish the button surfaces, mine have run 100% for a decade without doing that. You also need to clean them after every match, I have a stainless steel brush I use for that. You can feel the difference after the polishing and they don't make noise when the button slides.
  13. Eric they shoot pretty well, that said make sure you don't shave the coating, a little more bell, and just enough crimp to hold it in place. If you shave the coating it will deposit lead in barrel, if you crimp to much they tumble. I bought a case of MonkeyBrassBullets they are coated 125gr, loaded a sample batch just have not tested them yet. Ordered on Monday arrived on Friday about 6 cents each.
  14. Thanks for the Info. When I got the RedDot I loaded about a 1000 45's, it was ok but my goto for 45 is Clays (200gr SWC).
  15. I hear you I just paid $85 for two pounds of N320, the last two within 100 miles. When it runs out I'm going use some of the 16#s of WST I bought during the OBAMA decade. Now if I could just find a use for 8#'s of RedDot.
  16. Something new I learned. The 6 moa dot in my new Romeo 1 is super bright compared to my 5 C-more sights, 4 being 8 moa and one being 6 moa. The size of the Romeo 1 6 MOA is about the same as the C-more 8 MOA. With the sight at full brightness I aim it at a 60 watt equivalent LED bulb about 2 feet away the 6 moa C-more is so pale I have to hunt for it, the 8 MOA C-more is pretty washed out but easily visible, the Romeo 1 has to be turned down it is too bright. Sunday I totally tanked a stage with the 6 moa, facing the morning sun the dot was so washed out I had a hard time finding it. If it was the off season I would have switched mounts and gone to a Romeo 1 but being I want to shoot and I know C-more's last for ever, almost, I just ordered an 8-moa C-more to replace the 6-moa. Since the 6 moa is more than a decade old I decided to get a new one, and send the old one in to be rebuilt and keep it for a spare. You mileage may very, but this is my story.
  17. That Butt Slam is no joke, it can drop check and still not feed, been there done that. You will be shocked how much a tenth of a grain can change the grouping.
  18. I actually have a 9 mm throat reamer, and have used it on my STI Open guns, I'm way more concerned with OAL on 9 major. When you stuff 10grs of powder in a 9 mm case you can't make short bullets, and if you did it might not be wise. FMJ and JHP's work at normal OAL in the CZ, its just the coated round nose that are fatter towards the point that need to be loaded short. The CZ is very accurate and if it ain't broke don't fix it.
  19. Plated bullets take a little extra care in loading. Do a search here, belling and crimping.
  20. A plunk checker is almost useless with my CZ SP01 Shadow. When I load any new "bullet" I pull the barrel out and make up a test round and drop it in the barrel, but the true test is getting it out! When pulling it out if it resists at all that's a problem. The ACME 125gr is a good example, I loaded 1,000's at 1.135 shot them in Glocks, my Carry gun Kahr PM9, PCC, Sig P226, etc. I take the CZ to range and shoot a 100 work good. I go to a match, and its all good till unload and show clear, I can't open the slide. Not every round is like that that small variance in the bullet and the OAL made a few too snug, my barrel plunking said 1.130 would cure the issue. ARMSCOR 125 FMJ, no problem at 1.150. By the way really like the Acme bullets, but my latest supply is Monkey Brass Bullets 125gr and those had to go to 1.120 for the CZ. Like you I'm a fan of N320, but have a lot of WST and RedDot.
  21. In 38 Super my favorite loads were AA#7 10.5gr with 124gr JHP, or 11.3gr with 115gr. OAL was standard 1.245. Out of my guns it ran 175pf, I didn't like 10gr because it didn't produce enough gas, so gassed it up. 5" 2 holes and a Bedel Titanium Comp. I liked N105 just never could get it when needed.
  22. As always, Open the Registry Editor and navigate toHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlPrintIf you see a key named PostSPUpgrade, right-click and click on Delete.
  23. I took the plunge into the PCC pool. Bought a used stock Freedom FX9 gun from a guy that shot it in matches. It has been a disaster. Today 4th time to a match it ran and the dot stayed on. I had trouble with double feeds, my trusty old EOTec would go lights out after a few shots. The recoil wasn't exactly pleasant, but nothing like my 30-06 deer rifle. The trigger wasn't very good, ok it sucked. I took it to 3 matches, and had trouble every time as stated above. Yesterday the mail man brought the parts, I installed the CMC Trigger, and I installed the Blitzkrieg HD buffer with the Orange 308 spring. I didn't get the Extractor and spring which I thought I needed. Today at the match on the first stage I had 2 mags of normal minor load 125gr Acme with 4.0gr of N320. Thinking that heavy spring might stop if from cycling I had a mag full of 115gr Armscor with 6.2 gr of Autocom, that should blow it back. Shocked and pleased the gun ran 100% all day on the regular minor ammo. It went from more recoil than an AR or more like the M1 carbine to a soft almost pushing sensation, no more jack hammering my shoulder. The EOtec stayed lit the whole time, I went thru it before and found nothing wrong, so I guessed it was the jack hammer effect losing power momentarily in the battery case. Trigger is nice, much better than stock and it went bang everytime. Just have to say the Blitzkrieg buffer set p did exactly what they said it would, the gun ran and it was much easier to shoot fast.
  24. The only place I found Jacketed bullets in stock is Weidners, they had ArmsCor 115gr and 124gr FMJ, I'm saving my MG JHP's for the more important matches.
  25. The most important aspect of any Rim Fire in SC, is that it runs 100%, everything else becomes a mood point if it don't run. My RFPO has a rail mount C-More in 6 moa, my open guns are side mores, the rail mount works fine for SC. Finding the dot lol, just lock on to it while at low ready, arms up bang, not like drawing an open gun where muscle memory is everything. When it comes to dots Buy once cry once. C-More is a good solid choice, however it is old school and not sexy like the new micro dots. I have a Romeo 1 on my CO gun, so far it is excellent. Carry extra C-more batteries they don't last long. Couple decades ago I went to my first SC match, I was completely humbled by an 86 year old woman shooting a Bersa Thunder. Put some of your money into practice.
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