bgary

The office staff doesn't have anything to do with writing rules or adding guns to the approved production list.

You can check your scope for cant at home, too (or, at least, I do). Run a "plumb line" somewhere across the room - I use a piece of string with weights on it, and hang it from the curtain rod. Set the rifle in a rifle vise, put a bubble level on the rail, and lock it in the vise with the rifle level aimed at the plumb line. If you look through the scope, you should be able to see at a glance whether your reticle is aligned with the plumb line or not (you may need to dial back the eyepiece focus a bit to see the string, but... you get the idea)

It's simple to get absolute pressure on the Kestrel, just set the altitude to zero on the baro screen. If you have an altitude set, the Kestrel will adjust pressure for that altitude.

A little, but it seemed like most the loads being discussed were for 1:10 barrels... I'll give it another look. thanks!

Title says most of it. Want to start loading .300BLK and testing it with a 16" Noveske 1:7 barrel. Curious what powders/bullet-weights people have had success with. At this moment I'm leaning towards the supersonic side of the spectrum, so especially interested in good loads with 100-150gr bullets.

rumor has it that Discovery Channel has now nuked its gun-related programming as well (American Guns, Sons of Guns)

Here's the tip from one who has "enjoyed" chronic bronchitis for... my whole life. -- lots of fluids -- keep your chest warm - heating pads are good if the air gets cold -- ask your doctor for "bactrim" - it is an antibiotic that works particularly well on respiratory stuff. -- cough syrup with guafenisen. Lots of it. Helps "loosen stuff up" -- and, avoid taking any sort of cough suppressant, decongestant, or things like Nyquil. They make you feel better, but they tend to dehydrate you and you stay sick longer. Bottom line, You *want* to cough stuff up, it's your body's way of getting rid of crap.

Yes - recommend saving your money until you can afford a good one.

Huh. As a fellow reader of Tom Clancy at the time, I thought there were a lot of parallels with "red storm rising". Not set in America, sure, but... soviet bloc troops occupying [a place] in conventional action for strategic reasons. $.02

http://www.ericwesselman.com/store/RemmyORing.html

Every time I think I have "enough lube", I start getting dented shoulders coming out of the sizing die. Which means I really have "too much lube". Any hints on how to hit the just-right amount?

Thanks, guys. This is a press that has run-and-run-and-run, and I haven't changed the toolhead or dies in... years. I checked and they're still all tightened down. I also know it isn't a case-mouth hitting the bottom of a die, because the "clunk" happens just before the case enters the first die. When it happens, I can look and see daylight between the case-mouth and the bottom of the die at each station. The weird thing is that when there are no cases or primers in the press, it moves like butter - the "clunk" only happens when it is fully loaded up, and once it starts it happens on *every* downstroke. I'll take a good look at the priming system. I haven't changed out the rubber tubing in a couple of years, maybe it has worn or flattened - that's a good possibility, one I'd forgotten about. I'll also check the detent ball. Thanks!

I've noticed that the bullets have gotten a little lighter in recent years. I shoot their 124gr JHP in 9-major... for years, the bullets were always spot-on at 124.1 gr. The last couple of boxes I opened, they were consistently 123.4 gr. Not a huge difference, but... enough to think about while waiting my turn at the chrono station.

I've got an RL-1050 set up for 9mm, it's always been rock-solid reliable. The last two times I've run it, it has developed a "hitch" in the downstroke. Feels like it is hitting a hard stop somewhere towards the bottom of the stroke. If I raise the handle slightly, and down again, it is fine... until the next downstroke. The downstroke itself is smooth, no resistance... until it hits something, and stops. I haven't changed anything recently, and I keep it clean and lubed. I've checked to see if there is a random primer stuck somewhere in the works. It's not an upside-down case or anthing like that. Nothing "obvious" appears to be wrong. Before I start tearing the thing apart, any ideas what I might want to look at?

Case length does not have ANY effect on overall length.

Hey, Chuck! If you can get a such-a-deal on a rail-mount laser from CT, would you pick one up for me? I'll be at the CCS on Saturday... B

Quick update.... I just got a notification saying that Vortex has shipped the scope back my way. No word on whether they did anything or not ... will be very interested to find out what's different, if anything.

Call Winchester. They should know. Failing that, you could model it in your ballistic calculator using the BC for a similar 62gr bullet, get a good chronograph reading, shoot some at distance and see how the results line up with the predicted trajectory. real-world data is always better than predicted/calculated data, anyway...

First, understand that the difference(s) between 5.56 and .223-Rem are not about the external case dimensions. For all practical purposes, the cases are identical. The relevant differences are in the *chamber* of the rifle the round is being fired through, and in the pressure rating of the ammunition. A .223 chamber has less freebore length (leade) and a sharper throat angle. A 5.56 round is rated for 20% higher pressure (60k CUP vs 50k CUP). The combination of these means that a 5.56 round fired in a .223 chamber may produce over-pressure... NOT because the case is different, but because the chamber is different. With that knowledge, case-prep for 5.56 and 2.23 is effectively identical. And case-gauges are effectively identical (I don't even know that Wilson makes a 5.56-specific gauge, I'd be very surprised). What the gauge does for you is tell you whether the relevant relationships (base-to-datum and datum-to-casemouth) are right. The "datum" (an imaginary point on the shoulder) determines both how far the cartridge can go into the chamber (affecting things like bullet-jump), and it affects how much headspace there will be between a chambered round and the closed bolt. You can "check" the location of the datam with a comparator, but a case-gauge tells you, at a glance, whether all the relationships are right. Starting with sizing -- a case on which the case-head sticks out past the upper shelf needs to have the shoulder pushed back. -- a case on which the case-head drops in past the lower shelf has been over-sized (too much headspace) AFTER sizing appropriately, -- a case on which the case-MOUTH sticks out past the upper shelf needs to be trimmed (over-length) And, if a case won't drop into the gauge cleanly, it should be tossed (or reprocessed). Either it is out of round, or the web is stretched, or the rim is deformed, or... in some other way, it is not ready to stick in a chamber. The ideal situation is that you drop a case into the gauge, it falls in with a "plonk", the case-head is just below the upper step at one end, the case-mouth is just below the upper step at the other end, and it falls out freely when you tip it out. $.02 Oh, and BTW, unless you are trying to do long-range precision stuff (for which 5.56 isn't probably the right round anyway), don't sweat the 10-thousandths (0.000x"). Most of us measure to the nearest thousandth, and in practice plus-or-minus a couple of thousandths doesn't hurt anything. e.g., after sizing I trim cases to 1.752", but anything with +/- .003" of that is still well within the chamber spec.

No, you still want to have a case-gauge. The comparator only tells you lengths... a case-gauge tells you whether your cases are within spec at mouth, shoulder, datum, body and rim. There are *lots* of ways a round can pass a comparator test, and fail to fit a case-gauge. $.02

These kinds of materials are already available. A call to the USPSA office will get [anyone] a bunch of brochures, membership applications, Front-Sight annual issues, etc. There are club program manuals. There are point-of-sale materials which a retailer can put on the counter and can benefit both themselves and USPSA by signing up members. Etc. Perhaps what USPSA *really* needs to do is make sure that members and clubs know what materials and resources are already available and how to take advantage of them...

Well, crap. I stuck my app in the mail this morning, and *then* read the forums.

So, you ran 400 round through it, and then ran it in a match, without tearing it down and cleaning it? That's correct. I've wiped the gunk out of the receiver with a shop rag, lubed the areas where the bolt rides, and run a bore-snake through it a couple of times. That's it, so far.

Just a quick update - I got my Firebird Akdal two weeks ago (thanks Nanci!) and spent last week running a bunch of stuff through it. Based on their recommendation, I ran a bunch of full-power ammo (buck, etc) and then started switching to my normal match loads. Ran roughly 400 rounds through it and by the end of the day it was running flawlessly, with me doing nothing but loading the mags and pulling the trigger. Running so well, in fact, that I decided to "take a chance" and run it at the NW Multigun Challenge last weekend in Oregon. Happy to report that the shotgun only hiccupped once - it failed to completely eject one of my puff-load slugs (Fiocchi Aero 7/8-oz). A squirt of lube onto the bolt pathway and it was 100% for the rest of the match, running Winchester AA 1-1/8oz #7-1/2 loads. VERY happy with this thing. No mag problems, no ammo pukes, totally happy with the way it ran. $.02

Just wanted to echo the kudos for Doug, Scott and all the match staff. Had a great time, wish I'd shot better but, hey, maybe if I did this 3-gun stuff more than once a year I wouldn't have to spend the whole first day figuring out how things work.....