Overscore
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Posts posted by Overscore
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I recently got a Standard Manufacturing SKO-12, which is a box-fed shotgun. The magazines physically fit quite nicely into a mag pouch for a standard AR-10 magazine, but I've found that when I pull the mags out of these mag pouches, I'm apt to disrupt or dislodge a shell or two because of how exposed they are at the top of the magazine. Can anyone suggest a better means of carrying shotgun magazines that would be ideal for quick reloads on the clock?
Thanks
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Every year, I have a new year's resolution to either explore the world of red wine or the world of bourbon, but each year, it never happens, because I just like beer too much to displace it. But, I did try a couple years ago, and did the Bourbon Trail (in fact, I'm wearing that t-shirt today), and I totally understood how and why people love bourbon. It's great.
It's a challenge for me, because I rarely drink at home. I'm more of a social drinker, and beer is both cheaper and safer to drink when out and about.
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On 3/15/2019 at 10:05 AM, galt11 said:
Just curious, if you aren't using a service like Ring or such,how are you able to monitor things via the internet?
I'm not entirely sure at the moment, but I have enough of an understanding of networking to figure it out once I understand how the system works. At least, I believe so. Through a combination of public DNS records and port forwarding on my router, I should be able to expose whatever access I have to the system while at home to also be accessible on the Internet. I'm kinda hoping that I won't have to do this though, but we'll see.
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This is a summary of where my mind is, as far as what my requirements are.
- I refuse to pay anyone monthly. I'd sooner spend $98,000 once, than $2/month, no matter how illogical that is on paper.
- I want to be able to have 8 channels of video
- I want a system that supports a mix of wired and wireless cameras
- I preferably want an NVR system, I think... My whole house is wired with Cat5e, so I'm looking primarily at PoE cameras
- I prefer buying an NVR and then selecting cameras one-by-one based on the wired/wireless need, the targeted location, as far as indoor/outdoor, and wife's aesthetic requirements. I don't want (necessarily) buy a kit.
- If I can monitor things remotely over the Internet, that's cool, but I don't care too much about that
So far, I think this is what I'm after. I'm just trying to find out concrete information on if/how to use wireless cameras with this. https://www.lorextechnology.com/nvr-network-video-recorder/4k-nvr-with-8-channels-and-2-terabyte-hard-drive/NR9082-1-p
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My wife wants to put cameras around the house, which I'm also into. I have an assortment of research questions and some reading to do, and I'm wondering if the security-minded gun owning type folks could recommend a good forum or other resources for such a topic.
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On 2/28/2019 at 3:28 PM, 340Weatherby said:
Could even get a foot pedal to turn it on/off. So you can keep your hands where it matters...
I use a foot pedal for this, as well as for motorized case trimming. Sometimes I have background TV (The Sopranos) on while I'm reloading or trimming, so the moments of silence in between loudness are good. If I'm listening to music, I don't bother with the foot pedal, and just turn up the music. I do recommend giving this a whirl as a partial solution.
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Here's my rant. You have feel-good people who cry about how big businesses kill the little guy, etc. In my opinion, this isn't the case at all. The little guy kills himself, because he simply does not offer the same experience as the big guy (who himself started out small and won along the way). I placed an order for a couple of gun parts on 2/20, and this was from a very popular gun manufacturer, whose guns I love very much, to the point of being a fanboy. So, I wouldn't even call this company a "little guy." I just today, 2/28, got my shipment notification. Compare that experience to something like Amazon, which is really the gold standard when it comes to eCommerce. The order would have been on my porch 6 days ago.
Sure, maybe I shouldn't expect the same experience from a smaller company as I do from Amazon. In some ways, that's true. But, I expect companies to constantly be improving, even if they still wind up always a few steps behind the best. In this era of the example of Amazon, companies need to make changes or they will be left behind. This is not a new concept. It's how life and capitalism have worked since day one. Everyone, and every company, and every living thing should be stepping up its game every single day. Never expect perfection, but never be happy being the same today as you were yesterday. Adapt or die!
For the record, the parts I ordered are things that I don't need for more than a month from now, so it's not a matter of urgency driving my own impatience.
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I like reading people's stories in this thread. Great thread.
Years ago when I decided I need to own a gun and was struggling to figure out what to get, a wise friend said, "Just go get a CZ 75B. You'll like it." He was correction. I soon after got into IDPA and shot that in ESP for a few years. Then one of the clubs I shot at switched over to USPSA, so I started shooting that. I thought about getting one of those crazy open guns, but quickly dismissed the thought, because I really find it important to shoot what I carry.
I did upgrade to a CZ 85 Combat, which is a variation of the 75B with a few little bonuses that help in competition but while still being suitable for carry. I still shoot that, but also sometimes shoot (and carry) a Remington R1 Limited, which is a double stack 1911 (2011) in .45. Best of both worlds for USPSA limited, in that I get reasonable mag capacity and major power factor, and I don't have to have 40 caliber in my life.
I shot a friend's Shadow 2 in my last match, and it was great, but I'm just not into buying competition-specific pistols.
For 3-gun, which I'm really just getting into, I'm still figuring out what I like. I have a red dot on my 85 Combat now, so that puts me in open if I shoot it. And then I compliment that with a Standard Manufacturing SKO-12 box-fed shotgun, and an off-the-shelf DPMS AR. But, next match I'm going to shoot my plain old 75B, same AR, and a CZ 712 Practical, which will put me in the factory division, or whatever it's called.
The theme of my story is that I like to have some options on the table and spread my money among guns, instead of dumping it all into one gun that serves just a single purpose. I like that I can choose my own adventure for each match, and do so with guns that mostly cost less than $1000.
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Thanks y'all.
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I recently picked up a new shotgun to get into 3-gun this year, and am trying to get my choke situation figured out. I have learned that my barrel uses the "Tru-Choke" thread pattern/size, which I was (ignorantly) under the impression was a fairly common pattern. I'm not finding this to be the case at all. For instance, I thought I'd order myself a nice set of Briley extended chokes, but they don't make any in this pattern, from what I can tell. (https://www.briley.com/c-540-tru-choke.aspx) It seems most of the places that I'm looking for both chokes and muzzle brakes don't offer this pattern. My worry is that this Tru-Choke pattern is interchangeable (the same) as some other pattern by a different name, but I don't have any way of knowing this.
I can simply order chokes from who seems to be the creator of Tru-Choke, Carlson's, but I'd love to know if there are other options I can consider but just don't realize because of ignorance. I half was beginning to think Win-Choke is the same, but I'm not sure. The world of shotguns is totally new to me after years almost nothing but USPSA shooting.
The shotgun in question is a Standard Manufacturing SKO-12, which is a branch of Connecticut Shotgun.
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Good opinions and philosophies here. Thanks.
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Perhaps I should clarify. I'm wondering what brands of tools are of the best quality in today's hard-to-find-good-stuff world. I don't care about the cost or online source for the tools, just the ones that are made the best. With that information, I can go find the best place to buy them. Thanks.
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A lesson my mechanic father taught me growing up was to buy good hand tools that will last forever instead of the junk that breaks in the middle of a job. OK, great, I can agree with this. But now it's many years later, and I don't know where to look to apply that logic to my purchase of a few gunsmithing tools. I'm not looking to get an expansive gunsmithing set, just the basic tools needed to do an AR-15 build with my daughter. So, let's say I want to get a roll pin punch set. I don't want to just get something Chinese off of Amazon, but I'm not sure of today's brands that make quality tools, or if any still exist. Any suggestions to modernize me here? Thanks.
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On 1/25/2019 at 10:36 AM, Ocrrhbow said:
The cost of an item isn't always an indication of the complexity of the device or the processes or materials required to make it. Demand, available alternatives, original development cost recovery, size of the market all play into pricing. Think about drugs. Something that cost pennies may sell for several hundred dollars a pill. Coffee from Starbucks also comes to mind. One thing is for sure. if the market is large enough for multiple suppliers competition will ultimately drive down the price to its lowest possible sustainable level.
Yes, I completely agree and understand. The economics just seemed out of alignment for MBF. But, I've also not held it in my hands, so when I get one, I'll probably see what I currently cannot.
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Isn't this always the case? Immediately after posting this, I looked more closely at the parts diagram and saw that I had the index arm bowed washer (13832) upside down. I made my primer system great again. Perhaps someone will come across this in the future and learn from my error.
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On my 650, the primer indexing arm no longer fully ratchets back to rest in the next hole in the rotary primer disk. It drags on the disk and stops just short of dropping into the next hole without a nudge. What I've done:
Ensured properly lubrication per Dillon's instructions.
Replaced indexing arm (13662), index arm spring (13965), disk detent spring (13844), and disk detent ball (13932).
Tried both sides of the rotary primer disk (13499). (I don't have a spare one of these.)
Any ideas on what else to check?
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What are you talking about?
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Delete. Incorrect information was entered.
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I am well aware that if I were to add a bullet feeder to my 650, my quality of life would be improved, and as someone who doesn't respect money enough, it's rare that I care about the cost of things when it comes to quality of life improvements. But, for some reason, I just cannot bring myself to get a AA bullet feeder. I'm fine with spending as much money as something costs, as long as that cost seems in line with what I'd expect the price of something to be. Am I crazy, or is that bullet feeder priced much higher than it should be? I can't help but compare it to Dillon's case feeder, which IIRC, I paid about $250 for. I realize it's not the same, but it's at least similar.
I don't mean this as a complaint about the price, but rather looking for someone to tell me that my feeling that the price isn't justified is simply incorrect. I want to believe it's justified so I can experience that quality of life.
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Are you looking to hand trim or spend more for a power trimmer? If the latter, here's the data that I collected as I struggle with my decision on what to get.
Name OAL or Neck Chamf+Debur Price (~) Notes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Giraud Neck Yes 500 Seems to have best reputation. Possibly the loudest one. Frankford Arsenal Platinum...Center Neck No 150 Friend has one and it seems perfectly useful RCBS Trim Pro Case Trimmer OAL No 300 Like that it's OAL without being a PITA to load and unload cases Hornady LnL Case Prep Center OAL No 500 Chuck system seems annoying. Overpriced. Gracey Power Brass Trimmer Neck Yes 350 Horizontal mount only? If selected, get carbide cutter from Giraud Dillon RT1500 N/A - do not want press mounted trimmer Little Crow Creek N/A - do not want drill-based trimmer Pacific Case Trimmer No longer exists, whatever it was? Maybe?
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Longevity is definitely a good thing.
I find lube doesn't add much time to my process at all. I just spray some lanolin lube on, mix the bowl of brass like I'm making a meatloaf, and I'm good to go.
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What's the purpose of going with carbide if you're lubing the cases? My limited understanding was the benefit of carbide dies was it negated the need for lube, at least in straight wall cases. Is there a reason to go carbide over non-carbide for rifle cases that I'll be lubing anyway?
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The sore hands for the "pencil sharpener" style trimming is something for me to consider. I've reached the point in life where my hand gets sore pretty easily by doing something as operating a paintbrush for a few minutes, something about gripping things in that fashion. The same is likely to be true for these solutions that would have me holding the cases. I'm leaning toward the RCBS for this reason.
Thanks for the feedback, y'all.
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Hi everybody,
Winter time is when I sit down and load 223 ammo for the year, about 5,000 rounds. This year, I will no longer be using a hand trimmer (retiring my L.E. Wilson). I'm trying to select a trimmer that fits my desires, and I've put together the list below. I'd appreciate any comments, be they pros, cons, gotchas, trimmers that I didn't consider, etc. The only brass I intend to trim with this is .223, which I use in 3-gun, not any super precision type of shooting.
I'm looking only at trimmers that fit these parameters:
- IS a power trimmer
- NOT integrated into my press
- NOT something that's a bit attachment for a drill
- Having additional bits for other operations is NOT a requirement, and perhaps a little bit of a deterrent, although not a deal breaker.
- Price is irrelevant, although it must at least feel priced appropriately. (I'm looking at you, overpriced Hornady.)
With that, here are the ones I'm looking at, including some ruled out ones just to make it clear that I deliberately left it off my list.
Name OAL or Neck Chamf+Debur Price (~) Notes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Giraud Neck Yes 500 Seems to have best reputation. Possibly the loudest one. Frankford Arsenal Platinum...Center Neck No 150 Friend has one and it seems perfectly useful RCBS Trim Pro Case Trimmer OAL No 300 Like that it's OAL without being a PITA to load and unload cases Hornady LnL Case Prep Center OAL No 500 Chuck system seems annoying. Overpriced. Gracey Power Brass Trimmer Neck Yes 350 Horizontal mount only? If selected, get carbide cutter from Giraud Dillon RT1500 N/A - do not want press mounted trimmer Little Crow Creek N/A - do not want drill-based trimmer Pacific Case Trimmer No longer exists, whatever it was? Maybe?
I'd appreciate any shared experiences.
Standard Manufacturing
in What I Hate
Posted
I bought a Standard Manufacturing SKO-12 semiauto shotgun last summer. The experience has been absolutely awful, and I wish I were one of those fancy YouTuber people so I could do a proper review to warn the world of things to expect if they waste their money on this thing. Conceptually, it's a great gun, but it appears to me to be poorly designed and tested.
The first problem that I had with it was that it allows for the over-insertion of magazines, which causes the bolt to lock back too far, jammed improperly, when shooting to slidelock. This is a frustrating, unpredictable behavior to experience when shooting on the clock in a 3gun match. Initially, I wasn't sure if this was a defect with my gun, or a design problem, so I sent the gun to Std Mfg to look at. I even included this video demonstrating the problem. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNRbrwCis0Q They had the gun for a couple of weeks, and then sent it back saying they cleaned it (it was brand new), test fired it, and that it was functioning properly. Then, as a P.S., wrote "Try not to over-insert the magazines." THAT WAS THE POINT. So, in my opinion, this is a total design flaw.
OK, fine, in spite of that flaw, I can live with it. I shoot long guns left handed, so just developing the habit of using the bolt release isn't the end of the world, although I sometimes need the extra oomf that comes from pulling back the charging handle when loading a fresh mag. But what else?
I ordered some additional 10 round magazines, and then later realized I'd need another. I noticed that they'd since changed the description to be a 9 round magazine. Curious, I inquired. They responded saying that there was a problem with the springs getting deformed when loading 10 rounds. So, another case of not testing things properly, and their fix was to just relabel the product and tell you load it down by 1. Lame. And they've had "25 round drums coming soon" for the past year.
Chokes. It comes with one choke, cylinder. That's a bit weak, in my opinion, especially when I look at my CZ 712 that came with a nice pack of five, not the end of the world. Of course, trying to determine what chokes I can put into this barrel was a little challenging. The information is not on their site, and no choke manufacturers offer info about this Std Mfg (probably because I'm the only person foolish enough to own one). I wrote to Std Mfg, and they responded saying their chokes are proprietary, and you can only use theirs, at $35 each, of which are there are sizes. Of course, according to their website, there's only one choke they make for this, and the size isn't indicated, and it's out of stock anyway. After another communication, they confirmed their website is inaccurate, and the chokes for their other shotguns will work. (Hopefully they've since corrected this online.) I've since ordered my single $35 choke with $10 flat fee shipping, and after spending that much on it, I decided to frame it and hang it on my wall instead of using it. (Not true, of course.)
Also, let me point out that the one choke they have listed for this gun at http://www.stdgun.com/chokes-2/, doesn't indicate the restriction. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but it seems to me that a choke diameter is a rather crucial piece of data for a choke. I might even go so far as to say IT IS THE PRIMARY PIECE OF DATA.
Now, how about shooting this thing? First of all, the failure rate for it to properly cycle is absurd. It averages about 35% failure. Shooting ordinary 7½ bird shot, I'm a little okay and understanding with it not cycling properly. But, I get a high failure rate shooting 3" magnum slugs, even. Crazy. The lowest failure rate (not 0) I get is with Winchester Super Speed bird shot.
Another thing is the safety switch. When in the fire position, it is such that your index finger is over top of it, and after a day of shooting this thing at a shotgun match, my finger was bruised for about two weeks at that spot, because it's impossible to be on the trigger without the safety switch digging into your finger. Horrible design, and I know Std Mfg isn't the only one with this problem.
For the $1000 I spent on this thing, I feel like I have a gun with absolutely no valid use case. I can't shoot it in matches without wanting to throw it in the trash at the end of the day. I certainly can't count on it for any defensive scenarios. Not that I hunt, but if I did, this could only be used if I were hunting baby seals and wanted to club them with the gun. I think the only time that I'll wind up really using this is for trap, since I don't have to worry about any the stuff above when loading single shells.
Overall, I think the gun is total crap and was rushed to market without proper design or testing. I also find that the company has no understanding of what it's like to be on the customer end of their experience. But, the one upside is that when I received my choke, inside the box was a flier for their S-333 handgun, so I got a fantastic, long laugh out of that. Or maybe I'm just a primadonna and expect too much. But I can't help but compare my overall experience to that of my CZ-712 Practical. It cycles everything, is comfortable to shoot, came with chokes and other goodies, and cost half as much. I guess I'll be learning quad loads afterall.