Scratchthejeepguy

Was reloading more yesterday and the shellplate started to act up even more. I took a peek and found that the "Ring Indexer" had a crack in it. A call to Dillon and it's on its way. I also have a new "Case Insert Slide Spring" coming just to be safe.

I've had my 650XL for about 7 years now and have loaded many thousands of rounds with it. 9mm, 45, 300blk and 5.56. Today I was loading some 9mm and noticed sometimes on station 1 when the case drops onto the removable silver plate (that I think is called the "station locator") and then that black plastic "case insert slide" thing comes from behind and pushes it into the shell plate, sometimes either the case doesn't go all the way in for some reason, or it goes in all the way, but backs out just a touch. Enough so that when I pull the handle down and it raises the platform up, the brass will hit the bottom of the resizing die, and not allow the case to go inside it. I know it's kind of hard to understand so I included some pictures of what's Happening. It doesn't happen all the time, it happens about once every 50 or so rounds, and it's super easy to notice and fix. I just take my right pointer finger and push the case in Just a bit and all is good. But it's getting annoying and I'm wondering if there's something I can do to stop it from happening. Does this happen to anyone else ever? I've tried to watch carefully to actually see what is happening so I can fix the problem, but it happens so sporadic and seldom that I can never actually see it happen.

In for the responses.... Mine has a fixed front wheel and it can sometimes get hard to steer. Interested to hear what someone who has had both says too.

Found a pic. Posting to give someone ideas...

Nice cart!

I've seen two of them where they pulled the small tires off and put lawn tractor tires on them. I never got pics of them though...

Does anyone have any good pics of a 3 gun cart made from a shopping cart? Yours or not...

Thanks everybody, I guess it's really up to the stage designer, makes sense.

Setting up a 3 gun practice stage and have a quick question... Lets say the stage calls for an empty shotgun start, can the matchsaver have a shell in it?

So imagine you have 5 targets setup at the target line. Each target would be numbered 1-5. You have your buddy call out random numbers. "two!" "three, one!" "five, four, one!" "four!" "three, five, two!" "one, five!" etc... Sounds great, probably familiar as it's a common drill. But what if you were alone. Is there an app that you could input variables like: Number of targets? (5 in this case) Targets per set? (up to 3 in this case) Randomize set amount? (yes in this case) Pause between sets? (3 seconds) Hit start, set your phone down, and it would audibly call out random numbers for you. Anyone know if anything like this is available yet? Seems like it could be fairly easy to do. Wonder how easy it is to actually make an app....?

I think that the cases are too large, below the line where they get resized. If I turn the cases around the rim won't go into the case gauge backwards. It will just about go in, but not quite. But if I twist the case as I try pushing it in, it will go past the rim but still get hung up on the lower body of the case. just about the lower 1/16-1/8" of it. It still needs to be twisted to go in, but it will go in. Once it's in, if I give it a couple twists, now it's completely fine. I think that since the FLSD die doesn't go "all" the way down to the bottom of the case, that's the part that is still a little large. I've decided to not worry about it since: 1. they seem to chamber, fire, extract and eject completely fine. 2. If I were checking length like a lot of people do with just a flat piece of plastic or steel case length gauge, or a set of calipers, I'd never notice it anyways.

I know that these are all from AR15's. I know that they do chamber easily in all of my rifles. I know that all eject fine. I know the rim never goes inside the chamber. I know that the body, neck, mouth, and OAL is to spec. I know that if I twist them when trying to insert them backwards in the gauge, they fit. I know that if I take a little bit of sandpaper to the rim, they fit. I know I can't see anything physically wrong with these cases. I also know some people don't use a case gauge that you insert the cases in... like my Wilson, they just use one of those plastic card types of OAL gauges, or a set of calipers, and if they did, they would never see this problem. With that being said... would these be fine to load and shoot the way they are, since the rim is only there for extraction and ejection duties?

I have also tried to take the "small" cases that fit normally, then run them through the FL trim die to see if they get too big, but they don't, They stay the same size.

I am wet tumbling them with no pins first, for an hour, just soap to clean them off, then I run them through my "process" tool head, which has a universal decapping die in station one, a Swage-it deswager in station two, and the 1500 with the full length sizing die in station four. Then I wet tumble them with SS pins, for 2 1/2 hours, let them dry, then run them through the final loading toolhead where I prime, charge, seat, and crimp them.

I'm having a problem loading my .223 loads and I'm not sure why... For a little background, I started out with a Lee SS press about 5-6 years ago, but quickly moved on to a Dillon XL650. I've loaded maybe 50K of handgun ammo on it and probably 10K of .223 ammo on it. I use my SS press for precision rifle. I just recently decided to get a Dillon 1500 trimmer and do my .223 brass prep on a dedicated toolhead for it, then switching toolheads and doing the prime, charge, seat, and crimp process next. I bought the Dillon .223 trim/sizing die for the 1500 and believe I have it set up correctly. I first adjusted the die to do a full length size on the tumbled, lubed cases with the trimmer not installed, and checked them with my case gauge. Everything was fine. Then I added the 1500 trimmer and adjusted it to trim at the correct height. All was good and I loaded a little over 500 rounds with that setup, then life got in the way, and I had to wait about a week to start up again and finish up my large batch. Here's where I encountered the problem... For some reason, most of my cases (which have already been wet tumbled and lubed) now are not going all the way into my Wilson case gauge after resizing. Some of them go all the way in, like this: And if I turn the case around and try to fit it in backwards, it goes all the way in, like this: But most of them, only go in about this much, which is about .027 shy of all the way in: And if I turn them around, and try to insert them backwards, it's just the rim of the case that doesn't want to go in all the way, like this: These cases chamber in all my rifles fine, they extract and eject fine too. The only thing I did differently was to wait a few days to start back up again. I even tried using my old Lee FLS die that I use to use, on my SS press that is still set up on a quick release insert. When I try to FLS them with that die and press, they still don't go in all the way. I have tried cleaning and lubing the case gauge too. The headstamps are mixed, but there's no rhyme or reason as to which ones are good or not. For some reason the first batch of 500 all drop easily into the case gauge still, but most of these do not. I started out with about 1500 empty cases. They were either fired from my own rifles and may or may not have been reloaded multiple times, or they were OFB picked up from my personal range, or a range that I shoot 3 gun at last summer. I tumbled the entire batch of about 1500, then let them all dry, and lubed them. Then I took about 500 of them and loaded them with no problems. Any ideas as to why most of this brass is not going in all the way?

Yeah I'm just going to sew the one side of the buckle to the belt and leave the other side loose to be able to tighten it.

I used these Coleman ones from WalMart: http://www.walmart.com/ip/16777857?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0&adid=22222222227025374283&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=t&wl3=59232555048&wl4=&wl5=pla&wl6=84273262368&veh=sem They were only 19.00 or so for the pair. They seem to hold fine on my cart, and I've had the same pair on my ATV for at least 4 years now.

I tried it on the chest rig... Hated it. It was so much more secure with just the included belt. When I mounted it on the chest rig, it seemed to not be as tight against my chest. Still not sure why... but it was. Also don't like having to deal with shoulder straps when shouldering the shotgun or rifle. I suppose I could get used to that, but it still seems more secure with just the included strap anyways. I'm very happy with the DeTurk vest... Not so much with my quad loads. Luckily... I can load twins with this vest just as easily, but I'm still working on loading quads. If I had one thing I would change with the DeTurk vest, it would be to include one tri glide with the vest. I like being able to easily tighten the one side, but when I do, the other side sometimes comes loose. And when I un clip the buckle, the other side wants to slip out of the buckle. On the plus side... I now have a chest rig with lots of MOLLE attachment points. I can store my spoon in there when I'm done eating my Spagettios.

Thanks for the advice, I've only been to one event so far, and there was no driving between stages. If that happen will have to figure something out, I suppose just pulling the shelves out and dropping my range bag in will work... We'll see. And that hand brake was I assume for jogging downhill and you wanted to slow down. There are foot brakes on each rear wheel for parking, so parking on uneven surfacesis covered.

Here's my contribution to this thread, I have less than 30 bucks in it total and the majority of that is the long gun racks. I was thinking I might get a double gun rack set and mount that in the middle of the seats, just in case I feel the need to bring some spare long guns. Plus... It'll give me an excuse to buy another shotgun!

I decided to try 3 gun for the first time last week. I have a friend that goes to the local matches, and he asked me if I wanted to join him for one of the "mini 3 gun's" up in. Minnesota, so I thought I'd give it a shot. (pun intended) I brought all the gear I'd need up there, and so did my buddy. Luckily... He has one of those 3 gun specific carts that looks like a jogging stroller, and it holds 4 long guns as well as a bunch of gear. It was definitely a tight fit though, for all the gear for two shooters, and I decided that next time I go... I'd have my own cart. At home, on my personal range, I would use this, but thought it might be more than necessary... I did some research and found that some people like the jogging stroller type, and some people like the wagon type. I can see pro's and con's to each style, and happen to have access to this cart which would make a good donor... I decided against it, since my wife was currently using it for gardening, and I didn't like the idea of living on the street, so I thought I'd go with something else. I actually like the jogging stroller design better anyways, so I asked around hoping to find a donor stroller for 50 bucks or less. I was very happy when my brother in law called later that day, and said he had one that had some broken part on it, that I could have for free! I don't know about you... But I love free stuff, and I'm fairly handy when it comes to fixin stuff, so I thought I could probably work with it, and told him I'll take it! I was pleasantly surprised when he brought over this super clean, nearly new, double stroller: The broken part was on the folding mechanism. It still folded perfectly fine, but there was a cable and spring mechanism that would help itself "unfold", and the mount for that had a couple of screws sheared off. A little bit of tie wire and that problem was solved. I really wanted to break out the duct tape or JB Weld, but unfortunately... Didn't get the chance to... although the day is still young. Here's my quick fix: I decided that the attached safety harnesses that held in the kids, wouldn't do much for my firearms, so they had to go. Along with the hand brake, some straps, and the sunshade, so I ripped all that stuff off with a furious vengeance. Here's the bloody mess of entrails: I figured I'd put all my gear and ammo where the kids would normally sit, and get some ATV gun racks for the long guns. I also figured that since I'm not a caveman, and I like things more organized than a pile of crap thrown in there, that I'd like to have shelves of some kind... Ooh, how about adjustable shelves! Yeah. We don't live in the dark ages do we... They need to be adjustable. And since we're going for modern technologies here... I figured I'd go with Velcro. That stuff was invented by NASA wasn't it...? Who really cares.... It works great. So I needed to have some Velcro in there to adjust the height of the shelves. I was going to take the fabric off the cart, and sew on some Velcro strips, but then realized I had these entry mats that I got for free from Menards. I use them on top of my gun bench to keep from scratching guns, and I found the material also works great as the "loop" side of Velcro. I had two brand new mats left over, and sacrificed one for the greater good. This is the stuff I'm talking about: I've used this certain double sided tape before for lots of projects, and it's never let me down, so I thought I'd give it a try before I break out the sewing machine. Yes... I know how to sew. Although I will say, I learned how to sew making a padded shooting mat from 1000D Cordura... in Multicam... The needle was a railroad spike, the thread was barbed wire, and the sewing machine ran on diesel. (Part of that last sentence may have been exaggerated) So I cut up an entry mat, and taped it into the kid seats so it looked like this: http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/ag321/scratchthejeepguy1/87fda18936b0ba76b07aad0b37c25668_zpsrr1wi1as.jpg Then I needed some shelves. I wanted something lightweight, but also wanted that soft entry mat material. Having a CNC plasma cutting table, the obvious choice was sheet metal, so I went down in the laundry room, ripped the door off of the dryer, and cut out some rectangles... Don't tell the wife... I wanna see how long it takes her to notice... http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/ag321/scratchthejeepguy1/18f46f134dbee0ad3510b39d26395fa1_zpsqgxs8pbk.jpg I figured if they were still white, she'll figure it out, and I'll be sleeping out on the street again, so I painted them black, hot glued those entry mats on one side and put some Velcro straps on the other side like this: http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/ag321/scratchthejeepguy1/0d9f0eaf50c1c7fa8f78e091820f5337_zps7tz4jcts.jpg Then I put the shelves in like this. Yeah... The Velcro straps look a little hokey, but I could always cover them with duct tape to give it a little more class. http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/ag321/scratchthejeepguy1/546e07cf495b4fe7d0990304d07c7328_zpscvsijdav.jpg And here it is all loaded up with some manly stuff: http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/ag321/scratchthejeepguy1/5d23abda5d8a8e40c9d422c5403dd290_zpsauvuulv1.jpg To hold my long guns, I've had great luck with these ATV gun racks from Walmart for 19 bucks a pair. http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/ag321/scratchthejeepguy1/b4db425aa0672dff1b93466e76b4cce1_zps94bizdxo.jpg Don't worry, I made sure to dress accordingly when going into Walmart to buy them. http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/ag321/scratchthejeepguy1/d593503c03c0459a4863de716a11b28a_zpsshifmshm.jpg Here's some pics of it complete: http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/ag321/scratchthejeepguy1/5f64c999913e001290139e93ba6c8aac_zpswxepusfw.jpg http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/ag321/scratchthejeepguy1/29c35551efc1759bfb745090e0c5ca38_zpsxodzkm2x.jpg http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/ag321/scratchthejeepguy1/0137c733021d9859f0aca11fb4d3073f_zpsvu9ogbww.jpg I also decided to put the sunshade back on since it would keep "most" of the rain out: http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/ag321/scratchthejeepguy1/0d28b87bfd4ec93cd7b6d61a360a7828_zpsqyx41vzm.jpg http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/ag321/scratchthejeepguy1/2ba787f863dbd4bcd97ab3ab33fcfdae_zps9expihad.jpg I can put my cooler in the bottom: http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/ag321/scratchthejeepguy1/2c91aa44fefdb609ad878611093b1a89_zpsec6vqkeb.jpg A couple more storage areas for a sling, eye pro, etc... http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/ag321/scratchthejeepguy1/a0f115ec460e38c8a83928d0bfb0353c_zpstunxdj9l.jpg I think I'm going to make some sort of spot on the handle for water holders, keys, etc... right on the handle, possibly out of some Kydex. I still have a big piece leftover. It'll go here: http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/ag321/scratchthejeepguy1/0d4d6c199bffc03cbdb81bf87fa59170_zpsyhykiyby.jpg All in all, I'm very happy with it. I have less than 30 bucks in it total and the majority of that is the long gun racks. I was thinking I might get a double gun rack set and mount that in the middle of the seats, just in case I feel the need to bring some spare long guns. Plus... It'll give me an excuse to buy another shotgun!

Just ordered a DTV QX24, and a Condor MCR4 vest. Well see how that works for me...

I'm looking to get a DeTurk Vest by Invictus Practical. I definitely want a 24 shell vest, and want the ability to load quads or twins so I'm assuming I need to get either the DTV QX24 or the DTV 8X24, but I'm not sure which one I should go with. I understand the physical differences to be this: The 8X24 has 3 pairs of 8ight clips and the QX24 has 6 pairs of Quad clips, but I'm wondering which one I should go with. I'm not sure if I'll like the space between the 3 8ight clips that seem to be on the 8X24, but maybe that'll be nice for splitting up birdshot and slugs. I'm also thinking that if I'm going for consistency here, maybe I don't want the variation in height that the 8ight clips have, and that maybe the Quad clips are more alike in shell height since there are only two different heights. But is there plenty of room under the Quad clips to get my fingers underneath? Does the lowest Quad clip have the same finger space underneath, that the lowest 8ight clip has? I'm also planning on making or buying some sort of shoulder strap for it, or maybe a cheap MOLLE chest rig, or something. Anyone have any ideas? Would also consider used if you have one you want to sell.

I was finally able to go to my first 3 gun match a couple days ago. Well... It was really more of a practice match, but it was more organized than I've ever done, and it sure was a lot of fun! My HSGI battle belt worked great, and I saw other battle belts there too, so I didn't feel awkward at all. Everyone was very helpful and nice too. I can't wait to go to the next one! On this match the stages were split up for just rifle, just shotgun, and just pistol... So I didn't get to use all three guns on one stage, but I think that was nice for my first one. I think I'll save money and just keep using my battle belt for now, but I think I'd like to get more than 8 shotgun shells on me and I don't have any more room on the belt so I think I'll look for a chest rig and put some shell holders on there. I saw a few shooters with that and think that might be the ticket. For those that are interested, here's a video of the two stages I remembered to record:

I'd like to get some extended choke tubes for my M2 for 3 gun. I've heard that skeet and light modified are the ones used most. Is that true? I'm planning on going with Carlsons and would like to buy from Brownells since I have a credit there. Are these the ones I want? Mfg#67091 skeet Mfg#67093 light modified