shred

From way back when Clark was around (is he still with us??), in this thread I theorized from the VV data that 0.1gr means about 10 fps and 800 psi plus or minus, everything else being equal. I've found this to be roughly true velocity-wise in my open blaster for "normal", 160 to 180 PF Vihtavuori N340, N350 and 3N38 loads with 115 - 124 gr bullets in .38 Super. Now I worry a lot less about +/- 0.1gr.

Ron's right-- HHF percentages in Open are generally (it varies by classifier, but the trend is there) harder to meet than HHF %'s in Limited, especially in the A, M & GM classes. My theory on this is that when they invented the HHF's, the top Limited skill levels weren't quite as refined as the top Open skill levels were. (Edited by shred at 2:50 pm on Oct. 15, 2002)

Yeah-- I've never been asked about ammo weight, though occasionally about how it's packed. What I tend to do at the check-in counter is check two bags-- one with ammo in it and the other with the guns. I don't even say "I need a firearms declaration tag for this bag" (note the language: it works well) until after the luggage routing tags are printed. At that point, they usually chuck the ammo-containing bag on the conveyor and do whatever fussing they are going to with the gun bag. Detlef is right that there's no US limit or law, despite what the airlines might say. Alaska airlines allows 40+ lbs, and last time I went Continental, it was 11lbs per gun. The other airlines wimp out and use the international IATA 5kg rule. Also, if you plan to ship ammo, by far the easiest solution is to go to a friendly gun store and get them to do it for you-- they already have the right boxes and a UPS guy that doesn't care what's in them. Going to the shipping counter yourself can be a nightmare.

Yeah, while 'common' is a bad thing, they happen occasionally. My feeling is that they're probably tiny cracks or defects in the brass that leak gas when fired. Back in the 9x25 days, I had some Remington nickel 10mm brass would crack 50% of the time on the second firing-- they didn't heat treat or stress-relieve that batch correctly.

20-something splits aren't bad for any normal revolver shooter-- Jerry M is some sort of space-alien. If you're worried about splits period, you should probably go read some of the other threads, since smoney asked us not to tell him to worry about other things than splits in this one..

Around here bypassing the firewall via modem might be frowned upon if discovered.. you may get more traction by finding some moderately-work-related sites that have the 'w-word' on them as in "This XYZ gadget is the latest w**** in the fight for customer service" or something, then bitch about that. Everybody that surfs ESPN at work should be hitting the same block, and enough pressure will get words removed.

I posted part of this already, but last week I won top-A at the Paper & Iron match... but I wasn't my usual happy self about it. I'd screwed up some reloads and generally didn't feel like I'd shot to the level of my ability, and winning was a 'I guess everybody else screwed up worse" deal. Same for today's club match.. I won it, against several other A's and M's, but didn't feel good about it-- I'd thrown two uncalled mikes and wasn't watching my reload, among other things. What's up with that? Am I being too hard on myself? I realize everybody makes mistakes during a match, and fewest-mistakes wins, but not usually to the level everybody else did today. Maybe I'm just getting off a results-oriented kick or being more aware of what's happening, but it's annoying.

Shot it today.. 58 pts in 6.6 sec. My reload magazine crashed into the one coming out of the gun. First time I've done that, but as I didn't see any of it, I need to practice what I'm looking at on reloads.

This is in reference to the Nuevo El Prez-- I think Flex's top time is off.. Clean in 5-1/2 or so will get you 100% open.

Thanks David. I talked to Dillon this afternoon and that's what they said too. The Super 1050 doesn't even have those parts.

Well, I got this 1050 for about what another 650 rig would have cost me new, and I'm pretty happy with the deal.. The advantages I've found so far are the downstroke priming, and overall smoother running-- not having to shove the handle forwards every time, no live primers everywhere if the casefeed jams up I'm keeping the 650 for other calibers since it's so much easier to convert and I have a bunch of toolheads already, but if I won the lottery, it'd be a row of 1050's.

I don't think any of them are available for sale (with the possible exception of Birchwood Casey's Brass-Black, which is probably a bad idea on the case head for unload & show clear reasons). A chemist threw together a list of them over on rec.guns a long long time ago, and Deja might still have it. Try these.. but most of them say "it's not worth it, use a marker". The ultimate would be brass with no headstamp and a custom breechface with your initials slightly raised on it-- Your brass would stamp itself every time you fired it. Once you can no longer read the mass of initials, it's time to throw it out.

I discovered that my splits decreased on their own, without me doing any particular thing to work on them. Others have suggested blasting rounds into the berm and 2-yard bill-drills to work on relaxing the rest of the hand, which is key to fast finger movement.

I just stuck the small end of the .223 case up into the hole where spent primers come out, sawed off the case and slipped a piece of clear tubing over it that runs down to a beer bottle on the floor, ala the 650 tips page here I've heard that newer 650's have a square spent-primer hole, so maybe newer 1050's have something goofy going on there too.

As a long-time 650 user that just added an old-style 1050 to the bench, here are my first impressions after 400 rounds-- Physically the 1050 is bigger and sticks out more towards the operator, but takes about the same amount of bench space. Everything looks super-beefy on the 1050. The operating handle location is much higher than the 650-- this was annoying since I built my bench for a non-strong-mounted 650 which makes the 1050 about 2" too high for comfort. The 1050 has many many more parts and things going on and the manual is fairly minimal [update: I've discovered that the Super 1050 manual is much better]. Don't get one as your first machine. It's pretty easy to look in the 650 when it's operating and see everything behaving in one glance. The 1050 has a big main shaft in the way and so many more stations that you can't see all the parts working, tappets tapping and such every time. On the plus side, there's more control of the cases, so it's much less likely to misfeed a case or otherwise jam. If it does, the primer feed doesn't feed primers if there's no case-- the 650 always drops one, which can get irritating. Downstroke and adjustable priming is the cat's meow and probably where the 1050 gets most of it's speed over the 650. Downside is you can't tell when you're out of primers if you forget to put the warning rod in.. Speed? So far I'm probably not any faster on the 1050, but it feels so much smoother than cranking the handle on the 650, so I bet it won't be long. (btw, a slightly-sized-up & cut-off .223 case also works great as a spent-primer dump tube attachment for the 1050)

The only way I ever got all my brass back was when I shot 9x25 Dillon. Nobody wanted that. I'd be getting cases back months later. There are a few brass-coloring formulas around, but I don't know anybody that's tried them.

FYI-- if you're like me and go through tons of scope batteries, if you disassemble a Duracell 28A battery (available at Radio Shack), you get 4 alkaline LR-44 / 76-size batteries, as used in Aimpoints and such, considerably cheaper than buying lithium singles.

I picked up a used 1050 the other day and it came without the toolhead ratchet thing. The previous owner said it works fine like that, and as far as I can tell, its only purpose in life is to make sure you cycle the handle fully and be irritating if you need to fix something. Does it do anything else I need? Otherwise, I think I can live without it.

DB, same here.. I run about 0.1 faster on hands at sides-- I figure it's because my hands are that much closer to the gun. I use the Burkett-style draw. Everybody else, pay careful attention to your shoulders-- you may be 'sagging' them more on hands at sides and not from surrender. Dry-fire draw (slowly) in a mirror at various angles.

The Volquartsen hammer was what I did.. works great and easy to install. Fix the bolt-lock-back while you're in there and maybe throw on a mag release if you anticipate speed reloads in your future. (Edited by shred at 1:00 pm on Oct. 8, 2002)

I noticed my new moniker today and got a huge kick out of it. Thanks. (Edited by shred at 2:37 pm on Oct. 7, 2002)

While unfortunately not belly-dancing related, I shot the Paper & Iron match this weekend, and if you'd asked me how I was doing right up until the end I'd have said "maybe OK". I had some bobbled reloads on the steel stages, makeup shots, and so on. But, when the results came out I won top-A. On the way home (300 miles ) I started thinking... A while back I noticed that I can no longer tell time when shooting-- what time I think has passed has no relation to what the timer says. This morning I saw some videos of the match-- what felt like an eon trying to get a magazine turned around the right direction to go into the gun didn't cost me near as much as it seemed. So, while I'm shooting, I'm also noticing all the things I'm not doing cleanly, and thus think "I'm not shooting well".

http://www.brianenos.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard...27&topic=79 if EGW is out again. (Edited by shred at 1:43 pm on Oct. 7, 2002)

I have a Ceiner I hacked onto an STI frame. So long as it's reasonably clean, it's super-reliable. Accuracy isn't 1"-at-50-yards like the Marvel, but plenty good enough for me (maybe 4"). Supposedly people have been having reliability troubles with mass-quantities of ammo and the Marvel (like for Steel shooting), but you'd have to ask somebody else about that.

I'm with Carlos in the no-scrubbing-the-barrel camp. Clean the chamber and every so often push a patch through the barrel and I'm done. No problems so far.