Hank Ellis

-At the risk of thread drift- Here's one for you. Four string stage. T1-T4 at R/H side of barricade. T1-T4 again through port. T5-T8 through another port. T9-T12 from a box. 160 pts. Did T1-T4 fine. Totally brainlocked and forgot to go to T1-T4 again through the port. Hit T5-T12. On HDH the RO stated, "You know you forgot the first port." Poopy. Zeroed this one. The discussion started. Was the second pass through T1-T4 a Failure to Engage (FTE) or a procedural? We ended up deciding that it wasn't an FTE as T1-T4 had been engaged on the first string but that there were 8 procedurals + 8 misses. 8 misses x 15=120. 8 procedurals x 10 = 80. 120 + 80 = 200. Correctly scored?

In moving stuff around my reloading area, I just happened to have new media sitting next to my old media. Major difference in color. Figured the media was worn out and decided to dump out the old and put the new stuff to use. Besides, the brass wasn't getting as clean than it used to. My tumbler was getting this black grunge in the bowl and considered cleaning it using the techniques on this thread. However, I had charged the tumbler with new media and brass and fired it up. Totally forgot to clean the bowl. Oh well, catch it when this cycle is over. When I dumped the brass into the separator, the bowl was as clean as if I had scrubed it down. Is it possible that the black grunge line in the bowl is an indication that the media should be changed? FWIW: Dillon 500 tumbler. Walnut reptile bedding for 1 hour with no additives. Corn cob for 2 hours with a capful of Dillon polish. Plenty clean for me.

To help prevent fogging of glasses of all types, go to your local scuba shop and get a bottle of mask defogger. One application will last a couple of scuba dives. All day for your glasses. There are several different brands and types out there and your dive shop will help you decide which one is suitable for your application. Or, you can use the Universal Scuba Divers Mask Defog Solution ... spit.

I recently did some testing on WST and found that the temperature of WST itself is not a significant factor in velocity performance. This link to the thread details the testing.

Another local shooter did some tests recently with the same projectile and powder combination using three different guns. He came up with 4.1 making 168 pf. Stirring brain cells together we figured that differences in individual chronos, atmospheric conditions, or dozens of other variables make going to 4.0 just too risky from a match pf standpoint. For now 4.1 it is. Dogma, I didn't run 3.9 over my screens but I can tell you that it would not make major in my gun over my chrono. At 4.0 normal there was one string that went 164.6 pf and another at 166.7. The others were in the high 169 to mid 170 range. Another reason for going to 4.1, don't need the stress of worrying whether I'll pass the test.

Here we are with the second batch of loads. The variables that changed from the first batch is the powder charge and the free air temperature. Temps were in the low 90's F. Average velocity fps 4.0 Hot 723.2 4.0 Normal 716.3 4.0 Cold 717.8 4.1 Hot 731.4 4.1 Normal 733.9 4.1 Cold 729.9 4.2 Hot 746.4 4.2 Normal 742.9 4.2 Cold 745.9 Average power factor USPSA 4.0 Hot 170.4 4.0 Normal 168.8 4.0 Cold 169.1 4.1 Hot 172.3 4.1 Normal 172.9 4.1 Cold 172.0 4.2 Hot 175.9 4.2 Normal 175.0 4.2 Cold 175.7 Comparing the two batches it appears that, ignoring other factors, the temperature of WST doesn't significantly affect chrono results. Someone could spend a lifetime pondering loads and pouring over chrono results. I have no desire to do that. All I wanted to know is WST temp sensitive and what will work in my gun at my local ranges. Now I can quit shooting my 180 PF loads, load up several 1000 of 4.0, and get to the job of getting A hits.

You have to find what 'your' MKII likes. Buy a box of everything and try it from a sandbag rest. My factory stock MKII prefers Win Super-X solid point and PMC Sidewinder ... so far. Good results with anything from CCI also. The low velocity rounds tend to give you a stovepipe every once in a while. The recoil spring is definitely set up for standard velocity ammo. You can use hyper velocity but I've found accuracy drops off a bit. Do stay away from the dirt cheap stuff. Charges will vary and every so often a failure to fire.

Just got off the phone with Dillon. Charge of less than 3.0 gr - extra small charge bar. Charge between 3.0 gr and 20 gr - small charge bar. Charge between 20 and 50 gr - large charge bar. Charge larger than 50 gr - extra large (magnum) charge bar.

Being as I'm still looking for my name on results lists starting from the bottom, my attitude on a performance such as this is "Well, I sucked less than two people." Another thought is "Well, what did I suck the most on? Let's work on that." This is after every match or practice session. My skydiving coach gave me words of wisdom just prior to going to the US Nationals. "The team that wins a skydiving competition, or any other competiton, is the one that makes the fewest mistakes." SLAP! SLAP! Snap out it man! This stuff is supposed to be fun. A bad day at the range is better than any day filling out your tax return.

I know a guy who used to race cars. He said that when they did the body work it only had to look good at 50 miles per hour. From my biker days of my wasted youth. "Chrome don't get 'ya home."

I see both sides of the 'security' coin. Theft is rampant and controls need to be in place to slow it down. On the other side it's a real pain to deal with the mental midgets who put those controls in motion. Just the other day as I was leaving the wholesale club Sams, the receipt highlighter looked over my buggy containing a whole 4 items, checked the receipt, checked the buggy again, and checked the receipt again. Handing the receipt to me she said, "I checked you twice 'cause your rich." Let's see. Blue jeans, t-shirt, tennis shoes. My only jewelry is my wedding band and a $20 Casio watch. Rich? She needed to step outside because I think the mother ship is trying to contact her. Thanks for screwing up my day.

OK it's not 30 but how about 18. It appears I didn't make myself clear on my procedures. So instead of trying to describe it in words, I put up a copy of the spreadsheet results up for y'all to look at. Sure a 5 shot string would be a more precise indicator of what the load performance is, but you don't get 5 at a USPSA chrono. You get 3. So 3 it is. Took a look at the first shot data and found that about half of the first shots were slow also. Interesting. Don't know why and really don't care. What I do care is those 3 shots being enough to make the desired power factor. Especially if I grab a box of cartridges that's been sitting in the car all morning. I'm not real happy with the SD of any of the loads. We'll see soon after the next trip to the chrono.

The chrono was a Pact MK IV. Accuracy spec? Good question. Anyone have an answer? The tests were done in the order of Normal, Cold, then Hot. The barrel wasn't cleaned at all during these tests. I was looking for 'real world' results. Meaning what would these loads do in my gun during it's normal state of semi grubbyness. Each load was fired in a 3 round string for 6 strings. I used a 3 round string as that is the procedure for chrono for USPSA matches. The Hot and Cold dropoff is puzzling. Anyone have any ideas as to why? I'll revisit this thread when I do the second batch with 4.0 through 4.2.

Here and on other boards, the issue of temperature sensitivity of certain powders has come up. Some claim wide variations and others claim very little variation. Asking locally didn't bring a good answer so I had to find out for myself. The question: Is Winchester Super Target powder sensitive to temperature? The test: Chrono a series of loads with the only variables being powder charge and temperature. Each of the loads was made on the same day from the same canister of powder, the same box of primers and the same box of projectiles. Brass: Winchester. Primer: Winchester Large Pistol. Powder: Winchester Super Target Projectile: GAT 230 gr LRN Charge: 4.1, 4.2, and 4.3 gr OAL: 1.260 Crimp Dia: .470 Gun: Springfield Armory 1911-A1 Loaded in .45ACP 5" barrel Springs: 12.5 lb ISMI recoil with one .090 Hiett shock buffer, 17 lb ISMI main Weighed 20 projectiles randomly selected (meaning I grabbed a handful from the box). The lightest weighed 234.8 gr and heaviest weighed 236.1 gr. Average weight was 235.3 gr. Loaded 100 rounds each of the three charges. Each charge was then divided into three groups. One group was placed on ice in a cooler for three hours. The second group was placed in my range bag. The third was placed in a cardboard box and set on the front seat of my car for three hours. Chrono procedures were three shots per string for six strings for each of the nine loads. Free air temperature was mid-80s F. with about equal humidity. Results are as follows. Average Velocity fps 4.1 gr Hot 731.3 4.1 gr Norm 743.4 4.1 gr Cold 737.3 4.2 gr Hot 742.3 4.2 gr Norm 750.8 4.2 gr Cold 749.2 4.3 gr Hot 759.7 4.3 gr Norm 763.0 4.3 gr Cold 759.9 Average Power Factor USPSA 4.1 gr Hot 172.1 4.1 gr Norm 174.9 4.1 gr Cold 173.5 4.2 gr Hot 174.7 4.2 gr Norm 176.7 4.2 gr Cold 176.3 4.3 gr Hot 178.8 4.3 gr Norm 179.5 4.3 gr Cold 178.8 The answer: My conclusion is that unless you are cutting the power factor real close, don't worry excessively about temperature of the cartridge affecting power. It would be prudent however to do a similar temperature test prior to going to a major match. I do find it interesting that the 'hot' and 'cold' rounds were both slower than the ambient temperature loads. Yes, I'm aware that even at 4.1 that my loads are still exceeding the USPSA power factor by a too large a margin. I want to tweak the crimp diameter a bit tighter and do another test with loads from 4.0 to 4.2. More work is in the future. Thoughts and comments invited.

The airplane I had in the late '70s was a 1939 Funk B85C. Serial Number 8. To see what one looks like, go to The Funk Aircraft Owners Association website. The VHF in it was a Radair piece of junk. Spent more time in the avionics shop than in the airplane. Which is where my smoke theory of electricity comes from. When the smoke leaks out of the wires it quits working. Anyhow, one of the few times it was working, I called Tower for clearance. 15E: Johnson County Executive Funk 2415 Echo five north east for landing. JCE: 15 Echo say aircraft type. 15E: I'm a Funk. JCE: Sir, you are aware of the prohibition of profanity over aircraft frequencies? 15E: I'm a Funk. Fox Uniform November Kilo JCE: 15E cleared to land runway 17 After landing switched to ground frequency. 15E: Johnson County Ground 15 Echo clear of the active for KC Piper JCE: 15 Echo request denied. Taxi to the base of the tower. Someone wants to meet you. When I got to the tower there was this typical FAA type standing there with a look that he wasn't pleased about something. Probably wasn't pleased that he was working for the FAA. When the prop stopped he immediately asked for my aircraft airworthiness certificate, registration, and airman certificate. Glancing over the documents he had a puzzled look on his face. "Can I take a look at the data plate?" Sure! Pointing it out. Laughing he told me that there was a bit of a ...um... misunderstanding upstairs and I was good to go. Oh, and did I mind staying around a few minutes while he went upstairs and got his camera?

A tip I picked up from the "Competition Reloading" video starring the host of this forum. Back off the crimp die a few turns. Run a fired brass through a properly adjusted decap / size die. Move that brass directly to the crimp die. Screw the crimp die down until it touches the brass. Tighten the jamnut. You're done. The intent of the crimp die is to remove the belling of the brass and return it to the original dimension of the sizing die. BEnos goes into a bit of detail on crimp theory and the errors that can be made. I did this when I set up the 550 a few weeks ago and I haven't had to adjust the sizing die since. Verified several hundred rounds with a case gauge and found virtually no rejects. Most of the rejects were due to lube spooge or a lead booger, not due to sizing or crimping.

My workplace has total block on all websites except one, www.turbinetracker.com. A real snoozer as it's only purpose is to crunch turbine engine log files into somewhat useful information. Even executable files are blocked in email. Once I had to have an OEM email me to my personal address just to get a file needed to get an aircraft back in the air. So what we did was go outside our network. Using the soft drink and candy machine funds, we built a ethernet and wireless network on DSL, bought one computer and had a couple more obsolete ones donated. One tech guru was designated as the admin. Works well for us. And it's funny, with our network up 24/7 for anyone to use at anytime, productivity and morale has gone up. People will come in, check their stocks or email (or shooting forums) and leave. 20 minutes, in and out.

I consider myself fortunate that in my area, pretty much anything goes. The indoor range where I practice most allows me 3 50' lanes to set up pretty much anything I want. The only restriction is not to go 'over the wall' to retrieve brass or anything else. They're reasoning is that if some yahoo saw me do it, they may do it ... during live fire. Reasonable enough. A number of the local USPSA and IDPA bunch practice there. Oh yeah, you can rent full auto weapons here too. Another indoor range hosts Wednesday night USPSA style match. Unsanctioned, loose rules but safe. The attitude here is if it'll fit through the door, shoot it. The only restriction here is that all brass you don't keep is to be brought to the counter, 22s included. Forces you to police your area. I wonder if I would be shooting competitively if I had to endure the restrictions that some of you do. Or put it another way. And we wonder why the shooting sports is in decline.

Our host of this forum, Brian Enos, sells an excellent shot timer / chrono, the Pact MK IV. Got one. Works great. Get a tripod from Harbor Freight for under $20 and a HP 82240A or HP 82240B printer on eBay for $40 and you're set.

My local indoor range has subguns available for firing. One guy wanted to try one out so just for hoots I ran my Pact using the 'buzz gun' mode just to see what the splits are. Splits ran from .082 to .087. Firing rate of 523 / minute of 40S&W. .07 is impressive.

www.la.com sends you to a city guide to Los Angeles, CA. Possibly a subliminal message for us who live in the state of LA to move to LA. But I already live in LA so why should I move to LA. But if I move to LA would I still be living in LA? I'm confused. Reason enough for a crawfish boil and a beer. Till later

According to 49CFR172.101 (the USA regulations on hazmat transportation), ammunition that we normally would carry as baggage would be considered as: Cartridges, small arms as hazard class ORM-D which requires no external labeling. For carriage aboard passenger aircraft / rail the maximum amount is 30 kg gross weight. If I read the reg correctly this means that there is a 30 kg max limit for the entire baggage load. According to Continental Airlines, the maximum allowed per passenger is 11 pounds which translates to 5 kg. The airline you travel with may have different limits. I'm guessing what most of the airlines are doing is assuming that on any one flight there will be 6 individuals carrying 5 kg of ammunition. 6 X 5 kg = 30 kg. Don't blame the FAA, blame the DOT. The individual airlines are doing what they can to comply with the regs and still provide service. Remember, failure to comply with hazmat shipping regs was a direct cause of the ValueJet crash a few years ago. What I would do if I had to ship more than 5 kg to a location for a match would be to ship it as ORM-D via UPS surface to a trusted third party and pick it up when I got there. Till later Hank Ellis

Private Pilot ASEL 400 hours. Inactive for quite a while. Mechanic, Airframe and Powerplant 24 years and counting with a major Part 135 Helicopter Air Taxi company supporting the offshore petroleum industry. Senior Parachute Rigger, Back, QE2 Been skydiving for 16 years, 1800 jumps. Packing a few reserves and aircrew bailout systems help supports my skydiving addiction. Besides, if I bounce I'd rather blame myself than somebody else. Till later Hank Ellis

Although not a screwup, more of making do with what's handed to you. I didn't have the facilities to reload my own so I had one of the local masters do them at his leisure. I had shot up everything I had and called the master to make sure that he was going to bring my reloads when we met at the Wednesday night match. "Yeah, they're ready and I'll bring them." Showed up and when we went to exchange cash for bullets, he couldn't find the 30 cal ammo box. Tore up the pickup looking for it and it was nowhere to be found. Since his house is an hour away, going back was not an option. Master was kind enough to let me work out of his stash. However, the gent who set up the stages set up a few that had high round counts. After the third stage I was running short and master was scrounging the bottom of his bag to keep himself in the hunt. Ended up borrowing rounds from a couple of other folks, a few from master, and maybe two or three that was found on the floor. LRN, SWC, jacketed, factory, reloads, major, minor. Didn't matter. "Shooter ready? Standby." BEEP. bang, bang, poof, BANG, poof, BANG, bang, poof. Reload, repeat. All you can do is laugh. And make sure you come to the match with enough ammo, even if you have to go to Wal-Mart for factory loads.

However..... In theory, a 1/3rd scale IPSC target at 25 ft is equal to a full scale IPSC target at 75 ft. Theory has it that the sight picture will be the same therefore you can directly compare times and scores between the two. My experience is that this isn't the case. I found that my times and scores were better with the 1/3rd target than the full scale target. One of my drills is string 1 of CM 99-1, draw and two shots at 25 yd. I used to use the 1/3rd target then recently started using full size targets. The time was a bit slower but the score was significantly lower. It was enough for me to dispose of my previous training data as invalid. If you are wanting to use inexpensive targets, try this. Get a ream of light brown heavy card stock from your local office supply store. Generate a graphics file with an outline of the A zone, 6" wide by 11" tall. Print these out, set them out to the actual distance you're training at, and you have targets with the hits that really matter. Another inexpensive target is to purchase a roll of butcher paper. About $9. Rescue a couple cardboard IPSC targets from the trash. Cut out the A zone and the C zone and throw the rest away. Use a Magic Marker to do an outline of the entire outside of the target. Use a pencil to outline the A and C zones. You now have full size IPSC practice targets. Made 100 in an hour. Email me and I'll send you my A zone graphic. I also have popper and steel graphics available.