fastmtnbiker33w

Finally got the camera, but wife has been sick, so had to use the time to get a shot with both hands on the pistol. Not sure if this will tell anything, but it may help me explain what I'm feeling if you have something to look at. In order for me to get the pad of my finger on the trigger and have it pull directly back and not at a slight angle with is not a good thing, I have to the contact with the upper part of the grip and the meat between my thumb and index finger disappears. This seems to force me to grip a bit tighter up front to control recoil instead of letting the gun do what it's supposed to do. Should I be wrapping my left index finger around the trigger guard? I've never really liked the way that feels. I have a Gen 4 on order. I've yet to actually hold one, but I'm hoping the additional backstrap is the ticket to helping me get a better grip. Here are the links to the photos: http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u316/fastmtnbiker/PA300595.jpg http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u316/fastmtnbiker/PA300594.jpg http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u316/fastmtnbiker/PA300593.jpg

While chamber checking my loads, I noticed some WCC that made it through. I guess it had been swaged and reloaded already. I went through all my brass and sorted out anything that appeared to be crimped, S&B, and of course some 380. It's in my garbage brass bin. When it gets totally full, I might pull out the possibly crimped brass and give it to someone who might want it. What a PITA. That was the only cool thing about reloading 45. It was easy to see what it was. I've got good vision, but after going through a couple thousand 9mm hulls, I may need to see an eye doctor.

Pretty good prices on other media as well like Alu-Oxide for prepping metal for refinishing. No walnut media though. I still ordered my 40 lbs worth.

Too funny that my friend from El Paso suggests the balance to verify the digi. My students always ask, "Meeester...why can't we use a deeegital scale?" My answer is that scales measure weight or force....not mass. And then I add, "How do you know your digi scale is correct? Are you going to trust the number that comes from a box full of crap made in Asia?" It always gets them going good. Digital scales don't stick around a my school. The gang bangers steal them so they can weigh their drugs. As for media dust....I always give my brass a good wash before putting it in the tumbler. I'll set the mesh bag on concrete and hose it off really good. I don't like my media getting super contaminated with dirt. Hopefully that reduces the amount of lead in the batch. No mattter what, I'm going to start wearing a mask when I separate the media. I've got a few of those around as well.....no money spent.

This rifle is 1/8 twist. Seems to like a little lighter bullet. 1/8? That's interesting. Usually they are 1:9. Sounds like some fun times trying to see what load will work best.

I was just reading another post on a different thread about lubing. Some guy put a silicone soaked rag in a plastic bag with all his clean brass (probably Sarge). Shake it, brass has enough lube to do fine in a carbide die. I've never lubed pistol brass. Loaded a few thousand 45's with no problem. I've also never used a digital scale. It's that science teacher in me. I'm a fan of the balance. I've checked it with check weights and it's perfect. It just takes a bit more time to get your charge correct.....and it saved me a little bit of money. I also use a cheap mesh bag to sift out the media. Pour everything into the mesh bag over a bucket, shake it a bunch, pour the clean brass into a container. Done. It's what I had laying around, so no money spent.

Doug, At the rate I'm going with finding this stuff, that's becoming a viable option. Sarge, Some of my stuff is WCC 10 as well. Being a military post it's bound to happen. I'm not disappointed that so many people leave so much brass. My range has a new policy that doesn't allow you to scavange brass. You can pick up your own or ask others if you can have theirs. I've gotten away with it by picking up the stuff that is forward of the normal firing lines. Lots of classes take place in areas forward of the firing lines. Range personnel will only pick up what can be swept up on the concrete. Yesterday I took a quick cruise and saw a range with a lot of brass on it. I signed in on that range and picked up a few hundred +p nickle 9. I'm blown away by how much 40 brass I've collected. I don't even own a 40, but I've got a couple thousand in brass. After finding the nickel nine brass mine yesterday, I started passing up 40 brass to beat sundown. 45 shooters are like crackheads picking up their brass. For every couple thousand pieces of brass I pick up, I'm only getting 4 or 5 pieces of the bigmouth.

How 'bout I just leave them in that can of trashed brass. My hands are too big to be dealing with those tiny pieces and a drill.

I'm just getting back into the firearms thing after a few years of being really serious in another really expensive hobby. Wife doesn't mind as she know's I'm budget minded and a pretty serious reloader. I do about 30 minutes of brass pickup for every couple hours or so that I shoot. Most of my brass has been from the concrete floor pistol bay at my range. I just kind of sweep it all up with my hands and toss it into a mesh bag. About 10% has been military brass with the crimped primer pocket. '97 headstamp. Now I have to strain my eyes semi-sorting the headstamps on 9mm brass. Something I really didn't want to do. Thanks mil-surplus ammo stockpiler from the late 90's. You made my reloading session take at least another 20 minutes from me having to loosen the base plate on my 550 to get the two pieces of your bargain crap ammo with the primer 1/3 mashed in out of my machine. Yep.....it took two pieces for me to decide to check every dang piece. My eyes aren't what they use to be. Oh well. 300 rounds in just over an hour after getting everything set up.

If you've got a 1 in 7 twist, roll up some 69 grain boat tail match ammo or even something with a 77 grain boat tail bullet. That Black Hills is great stuff. Buffalo Bore is getting good review too. You want to go long and accurate, start reloading with those heavies.

What about heavier steel salvaged from old shipping containers? I know they are in excess around the country. Don't know how much they cost or how much it would cost to cut the pieces out, but it seems like it would make a good material that you could weld up to steel poles or bolt on with brackets to stout wooden poles....like telephone poles. Sounds like you need bunkers.

I'd suggest drilling and tapping a hole near that point where you have the spring attached to the E-clip. Put in a small bolt for the spring to attach. Having that spring attached to the E-clip looks like trouble.

I'm no 650 expert, but go to Brian's homepage or to the Dillon page and look up everything you need. It will take a few minutes, but it's not too hard to navigate around. http://www.brianenos.com/pages/dillon.html Get a price together and make her pay for it. It won't be cheap. That 6.8 brass is expensive. Is he allowed to take that stuff to Iraq?

Glad I found this thread. I'm saving up for a LR308T and didn't like the stock upper. Nelson Tactical has the LR308T with an A3 upper for just a few bucks more than what others are selling the non-A3 upper for. I just hope they still have one in stock when I'm flush with funds.

It won't be an SDB. They only do pistol, and use proprietary dies (not a standard die). Ahh. I did not know that. No wonder you don't see many of those out there.

Nice. I always love hearing stories like this. I'm lucky....skinny, tall, always involved in sports. But even with some graduate work in Kinesiology, I know how hard it is to fight fat. I finally got down to 190 this year and can't wait until next summer when I'll be racing bikes again and possibly doing MGM Ironman in the Trooper category. My knees don't hurt and I move much more quickly. Even at 200, I was able to bike well, but other sports I wasn't so hot. Even noticed it moving around the range. Keep up the good work. If everyone was like you guys like me wouldn't get frustrated watching shows like Biggest Loser. Ha! This is the first season I've ever watched that show and even though I think it's ridiculous, I seem to keep tuning in every Tuesday.

If you load a lot of magnum rounds, the bar might be worth it. I've loaded 300 win mag on my 550 with a standard bar. I ended up needing to run a double charge. I'd size and prime all the brass first. Then I removed the size prime die, refed into the machine and did a double charge working the handle twice for each round. I'm not sure if it saved me time or not compared to doing each stage individually with a single stage. I don't think it would work any better with extruded powder than a normal sized powder bar. I just stay away from using the long grain stuff in my Dillon.

That's an awesome idea. I've been trying to figure out how to put a bit of lubricant on pistol brass without making a mess. Especially bigger stuff like 45LC or my 454 Cassull.

I kind of use Seedticks method. I have reloaded a lot of 308. A few years back my dad gave me one of those crappy Lee Anniversary presses. I mounted it up and used it to size and deprime the brass which I lube with RCBS spray lube. Throw them in in the tumbler, then put them in the 550 with a carbide size die and deprimer to knock out the media in the primer hole. I've never had problems running the previously lubed/sized/now cleaned brass through the second sizing. Not sure if it causes any stress to the brass or not. If YOU are concerned, just back off the size die (or get a universal depriming die as Seedtick recommends). I don't reload for premier long range accuracy, but I don't see why this method couldn't be used with a Rock Chucker press and a competition sizing die then into the 550. Seems I remember seeing and reading some stuff on the web long ago where David Tubb used a method similar to this. He may have used a trimmer somewhere in the process. Might be worth setting up an SDB or another progressive with the competition sizer/deprimer then a trimmer.....you could get all creative. No matter what, rifle cartridge reloading is a bit more time consuming than pistol. That's why I make sure I load at least a few hundred at a time. And at my current state of free time to shoot, that's only a couple times a year.

Actually there are no actual positions of "at ease" or "rest." There is no requirement to stand any particular way other than that. I do agree that this picture is not the proper position of parade rest, which requires the hands in the small of the back (at the waist area, mentioned by another poster already). I guess it depends on what branch of service you are referencing whether you are right or wrong on this. Army- Parade Rest is a modified position of attention. The ONLY difference is feet shoulder width apart and hands in small of back(right over left by the way). At Ease is most certainly a position. It is a relaxed parade rest in that, as you stated, the right foot must remain in place, you may relax your arms and you must remain standing. Rest is also a position which allows talking and even sitting as long as you remain in the same general area. Proof that these are all positions is found in the fact that to go from rest to attention you must first give the command "at ease" before you call the element to attention at which time on the preparatory command for attention they automatically assume parade rest. But I think the position is a good starting position. I have often wondered if it would be faster to turn and shoot by doing an about face. I guess that would work best on a smooth surface though. Sarge has got it right...but it should be the same for all branches of service. Drill and Ceremony was developed so all branches of uniformed services would be "uniform". Of course, after serving in the Army in advanced training with Air Force and Marine personnel, I know that enforcement by drill sargeants isn't always the same. Trying to get civilian personnel to understand the position will be as tough as a drill instructer trying to get a recruit to get it right. It's not that hard, but there's always some bonehead that can't get it right at all. I think having them start with interlocked fingers behind their back or specifying that their index fingers be interlocked behind their back would be a better "standard" to set. People would understand it much better.

So now I have ANOTHER noob question. How does he get his timer to stop when doing these drills? I'm shopping for timers/putting one on the Christmas list. Are they sensitive enough to hear the click of the hammer or the striker mechanism? And if they are, do you not drop the hammer until your last "shot" during these drills so you can get an more relevant time?

Building your own stands is cool. I utilized my school's metal shop to make my first target stands. The first one I cut everything up all from scrap and prepped it for welding. One of the students welded it up for me. The next one I welded myself and it didn't look much worse than the student's (my first welding job). I've got parts for a third ready to be welded up. I'll post some pics when I get my camera back. MGM sells their stands for $40+. I made mine for about 2 hours time for each one.....and that's spending some time listening to the shop teacher bitch and moan as he makes sure I don't break any tools. At my pay scale, I come out barely on top. It's cool that I made it and didn't have to pay for shipping and I'm using scrap. I think I'll be making some clay pigeon stands now. Thanks for the inspiration.

I was finally able to watch the videos. Youtube is blocked at my work. It appears that he gets a hammer drop on his first trigger pull and just keeps pulling the trigger for subsequent shots but doesn't get the full pull with a hammer drop or striker fall. Lots of great drills. I can't tell which is more difficult to parse through.....the written instructions or the video. The video is edited very well and moves quickly. Nice job and kudos/thanks for posting that stuff up for free.

I have the same question as Noob Jason. I think it would be good practice to rack the slide between each shot, but is that how the drills are done?

You CANNOT build up the grip in USPSA Production division. You will be out into Open division. To our Opening Poster... how about a few pictures showing your stance and grip (from various angles)? Maybe there are some suggestion we might be able to give beyond the equipment. Wife's got the camera at work for a project. I will definitely get some pics up next week. My main problems are getting my finger comfortable on the trigger and having to reach back for the mag release. Does anyone make a glock trigger that sits further up in the trigger guard? That would solve one problem but would that put me out of production class?