njl

Do you know the type of steel and thickness of your plates? Have they dimpled at all from bullet impacts, or do the bullets leave no mark whatsoever other than knocking the paint off if you've painted them? Mine have dimpled from every 9mm hit. I'm still waiting to hear back from the seller.

Not for legal reasons, but for personal/business reasons. Not all FFLs are willing to do things other than sell firearms. The first time I went looking around for a local FFL to do the transfer paperwork for out of state purchased guns, I got some angry responses along the lines of "if you want a _____, buy it from us. Why should we help you undercut our pricing?" Refusing to help with an intra-family transfer where the gun is being gifted is kind of lame...but there's nothing forcing an FFL to do transfers for guns they didn't sell.

For cardboard targets, if you get a couple of these http://www.pcsoutdoors.com/southbendcompanyrh1sbheavydutyspiralrodholder.aspx at WalMart and then get some 1x2's from Home Depot/Lowes/etc. and then trim the 1x2's to fit, you can have target stands for about $5 each that are ultra portable. Two of those spiral fishing rod holders and one 1x2 cut in half will hold a target very nicely if you can sink them into the ground. Probably no good in gravel pit ranges, but works fine where I've used them. I've got a RL550B, bought through Brian. I reload in a spare bedroom, 9mm and .45acp so far...but will be doing a few rifle calibers either when my supply of factory runs low or when I feel like giving it a try.

That sounds kind of short. Hodgdon lists that as the min COAL for a 125gr FMJ load with Win 231 with the start charge at 4.4gr. AFAIK, with those bullets, 1.13x-1.15x is a much more common COAL. With the numbers you posted, I suspect you'll be well under 1000fps, and may even have function issues. My Speer manual lists 4.0gr 231, 124gr FMJ, 1.135" COAL as 887fps. If power factor's not an issue and it functions your gun, that ought to be awfully soft shooting.

From 60rgp49? If so, how much have you shot them (with what calibers/bullets) and how are they holding up? I got the 1/4" AR plates. Since you're between jobs, I'll warn you, the deli is not cheap...but the food is really good.

Are you saying they didn't actually charge the residential surcharge for shipping to your home? I've been having them ship to me at work to avoid it.

Would love to...but I can't during the week...work would frown on that. Sunday's are pretty much the only time I can get away. I see you're planning to shoot tomorrow. Are you retired or government employee and have Veteran's Day off? Did you eat at Cohen's or just find it? Try one of the sloppy joes. What do you have for steel? I just bought some cheap ones via ebay, and wonder if we have something similar. I'm still trying to figure out exactly how I'm going to shoot mine.

That looks like a CA state handgun registration form. The transfer still has to be executed by a CA FFL who will execute a form 4473, and I would expect any FFL operating in CA would then also help you with or simply do the paperwork for whatever the state requires as far as registration and fees for handgun ownership.

A chrono should be a basic part of every reloader's gear. Unless you're copying someone else's load and really trust your scale and theirs, or are staying so close to starting loads, that you're really not concerned about overpressure, you should chrono your loads so you know what you've created. OTOH, if you trust your scale and are using well established load data, and all you care about is "does it function my gun(s), and shoot accurately?" then you can certainly get by without one.

This is federal law. § 478.30 Out-of-State disposition of firearms by nonlicensees. No nonlicensee shall transfer, sell, trade, give, transport, or deliver any firearm to any other nonlicensee, who the transferor knows or has reasonable cause to believe does not reside in (or if the person is a corporation or other business entity, does not maintain a place of business in) the State in which the transferor resides: Provided, That the provisions of this section: (a) shall not apply to the transfer, transportation, or delivery of a firearm made to carry out a bequest of a firearm to, or any acquisition by intestate succession of a firearm by, a person who is permitted to acquire or possess a firearm under the laws of the State of his residence; and ( shall not apply to the loan or rental of a firearm to any person for temporary use for lawful sporting purposes. So...I'm no lawyer, but my understanding of the above is your out of state dad can't give you the frame (unless he died and it was left to you)...but if you want to get technical, he could loan it to you...if you feel like arguing about the meaning of "temporary". CA state law being what it is, probably has further restrictions.

It's got to go through an FFL [in your state] if the firearm is being transfered between residents of different states.

Did you chronograph either of those loads? 4.6gr Universal put me up at just over 1100fps. 4.3gr Universal gets about 1060fps. I load the 124gr FMJs to about 1.145". I've been shooting the 4.3-4.4gr load for about 2 years, almost exclusively in Glocks, and it even ran a brand new Gen4 17 (before they had any of the revised recoil assemblies) without any problems.

I originally bought some WST for loading .45 as an alternative to regular Clays, looking for an easier way to make PF without exceeding max recommended load. Then I tried it out as a lower smoke alternative to Universal with BBI 130gr bullets. I figured as long as I'm using WST for 9mm, I may as well try some loads with my usual load (124gr jacketed...either PD or MG). I loaded some samples of PD 124gr FMJ in the 4.3 to 4.6gr range. With each load, I got nearly identical velocity to the same charge weight of Universal. This 8lb jug of Universal may be my last.

I tried Universal first, and was really unhappy with the amount and foulness of the smoke. Now I'm using WST.

There could be a bit of variation in the powder charges you're dispensing. Taking the avg of several tells you your avg powder charge as opposed to weighing one and assuming the rest are going to be the same. Even before I completely lost faith in my Lyman digital scale, I strongly suspected it read low at the low end. With a good scale, that shouldn't be an issue though.

If there is a local area group buy, I'm curious what brands and prices of primers he has and what the cost is for MG 9mm and 45acp bullets if we pick them up.

I'm shooting Glocks...so the barrels are not stainless. I took my cleaning stuff with me when I tested out the first BBI loads...and cleaned the barrel before and after shooting them. I think all the residue came out pretty easily with a patch and CLP...but there was quite a bit of it after just 20 shots.

I'm trying out some BBI 130gr 9mm bullets, and after loading just 100 of them last night, my left thumb and first two fingers were pretty well coated in the grey coating BBI puts on the bullets. Is this normal for coated bullets like BBI and Precision Black Bullets? When I test fired/chrono'd some a few weekends ago, the barrel got pretty dirty...with what I assume was this same coating/residue. I think next time I load some, I'll wear a nitrile glove on the bullet seating hand.

What do I shoot? I don't currently do much competition shooting other than the yearly GSSF match at CFRPC and bowling pins at the Leesburg Gun Shop range when I can get up there. I do my regular target practice at EGC up in Tavares. I tried USPSA at CFRPC a few months ago, but the stage setups they did were just a little too elaborate for me. Lots of running around, lots of targets that could only be seen from certain points and were easily missed if you didn't map things out well during your walkthrough. What/where do you normally shoot...and where are you shooting pins?

Is this Manny you're talking about Universal Shooting Academy 4300 C.R. 630 East Frostproof, Florida 33843 USA Do you know if bullets can be picked up there (perhaps at some savings)? I'm close enough that I could occasionally drive there.

You need to figure out what types and weights of bullets you'll be using and what level of power (do you care about power factors) and recoil you want and are willing to deal with...only then can you select appropriate powders. i.e. from my own experience Universal is great for 9mm 124gr jacketed bullets. A starting load makes minor PF easily, and is mild in recoil. Universal with 147gr, you're not likely going to make minor PF, but it's still a nice mild shooting load. Universal in .45 with 230gr jacketed bullets is really dirty (incomplete combustion) and low powered at the low end, and really harsh recoil at the not so low end. Clays is much nicer, but barely makes major PF without exceeding max load. WST shoots about as mild as Clays with less smoke and has more room (can make major easily) before you run up against max load. WST also works nicely for 9mm...but you'll be hard pressed to find any published load data for it in 9mm.

IMO, you're nuts to be loading with WST (a powder for which there's just about no published 9mm data) and no chronograph. That said, I recently loaded some 147gr Gold Dots to 1.115 with about that amount of WST and had no problems shooting them from a G17. I'll be trying some 147gr X-Treme plated bullets with Universal and WST soon.

Some of my first .45acp loads ran just about that slow...and the brass just fell out of the gun.

I've shot several thousand rounds of 9mm 124gr (FMJ/CMJ/JHP) loaded with 4.3-4.4gr Universal. This makes minor without any trouble, is softer shooting than factory 115gr ammo (i.e. CCI Blazer), and I've not noticed any muzzle flash. Universal is kind of questionable for making minor with 147gr bullets. You just won't get enough velocity in a G17 without going beyond what Hodgdon says is max load. OTOH, WST, for which Hodgdon doesn't even publish 9mm data and dis-recommends its use in the caliber, can make minor with 147gr bullets in what seems to be generally accepted as safe limits.