BitchinCamaro

Yeah, I know. It seems like flawed logic but I'm transitioning between presses and tumbling setups so I wanted to separate the crimped stuff before I ran it through the new press dedicated to 9mm. Plus, this is the first time I'm using CCI primers as I finally shot though my last case of Federal match. As for the winter lapse in reloading, that's definitely my fault too. Between testing and applying to top-ten grad schools and gut-renovating my house, I literally didn't have the extra time to do so. It's kind of depressing, but almost every hour of the past 8 months can be accounted for in terms of studying (mostly), sleeping, and sanding drywall. I also have a thousand or two in reserve, but decided to tackle the 5 gallon buckets of brass before the weekend to get my head back into the shooting game for 2015. Anyway, plenty of excuses, plenty of ammo- y'all can hold me accountable if I flub this weekend.

After a winter lull and missing the 3GN regional in Utah last week, I decided to start getting prepped for an upcoming steel match with some reloading. I have gobs and gobs of brass to process, and when I finally finished hand-priming 1200 pieces of 9mm (I use a progressive, but still hand-prime sometimes), I had a nice fat blood-blister on my strong hand middle finger, and one of those deep but semi-invisible blisters on the bottom half of the tip of my trigger finger : Here's my favorite finger drained the next day. The blister is about 75% of it's original size. I knew it was causing a hotspot at around 700 rounds but I ignored it. Towards the end I was trying to prime some reamed/de-crimped WCC brass that required ham-fisting. From now on I'm going to toss crimped brass into a separate bin and process them all at the end of the season. I'm not actualy worried about the match, as this is more of an ironic/cautionary tale. I'll probably be healed by Saturday- more of an annoyance than anything but it's a psychological stumble when I'm trying to get all "Eye of the Tiger" with my mental game this week.

I also wipe down general gun stuff with Lead-Off spray every once in a while: car steering wheel/shifter , workbench top, safe handles, etc. http://www.amazon.com/Hygenall-LeadOff-Surface-Decontamination-Cleaner/dp/B004SZ2CZY/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1403115120&sr=8-10&keywords=lead+off+spray

Lab results: 3.2 ug/dl I wear nitrile gloves while reloading, which I suspect is my major lead vector other than outdoor shooting and dry tumbling. I do pick up a lot of range brass with bare hands. I'm switching over to wet tumbling exclusively in another month or so.

Nice, dude. I try to practice with hands up for matches.

Do you have a caliper? I can go out and measure the pin diameter on a few barrels if you need.

Have you tried a different barrel?

Weird. It looks like water or something corrosive was stuck in the gas piston rings. Are you using water to rinse your parts? To remove the rust without opening up the tube, try evaporust: It's great for rust in pitted surfaces because using an abrasive pad to get down there will take out too much material. You may be able to just get in there with a qtip and WD40 too. After you get it out I would consider changing whatever you're using to lube the system. What are you using now?

These saves are amazing. That happened to me once with a welding helmet on. A full-on glowing red shard bounced around and embedded in the cornea. The next day I had to take 2 flights and the pressure changes made me feel like my orbitals were going to literally explode. I finally broke down and saw the doc, and whatever optical analgesic he put in my eye after digging it out almost made me cry from relief. Other than that I've punched out the lenses of 2 glasses with my own hands (pulling on stuck things or things I though were secured in a vice). I also pretty much doublefist-stabbed myself with a phillips heads screwdriver right into the polycarbonate lens over my left eye.

Is your gas system not chromed from the factory? I'm really, really, really bad about cleaning out my JM gas system but I've never seen any indication of rust through the chrome parts.

My upper is slickside as well. Brass seems to fly over my strongside shoulder into a nice little pile. After you have your setting dialed adjusting from closed to open, I would suggest opening the block all the way and also adjusting down towards closed: Hopefully you'll reach the same setting, but the benefit would be that you'll feel and hear what "overgassed" is for your system and get a better feel for the sweet spot of your rifle.

Clever. Utah= 100+ degreeF summer days, -20 degreeF winter nights. In addition to a suppressor and developing handloads, I'm always futzing around with the gas block.

Second that. Though I don't see immediately how system that locks back on an empty mag wouldn't also strip a round from the mag, open up the gas and rule it out first. Also, after a few months with my adjustable block I'm finding that I like to have a 1/2 to a full turn open from my minimum setting. There are too many variables in ammo to keep within the lower margins of error. What gas length are you using?

BoomFab :

It's been discussed pretty much everywhere: http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=194301&hl=%2Bvoodoo#entry2156240 Personally, I went JP. After comparing them side to side at a match last month there is simply no comparison. Don't take my word, really try to get one in each hand like I did and see if this isn't the impression that you get- JP: Most Everything Else:

With a background in BMX and skating, I'm faster in skate shoes running on gravel than I am in any boot or trail runner. Keep that COG loooow (useless in mud though)

Does the bolt face make contact with the cartridge case at all?

wow. I wish all these lightweight builds came out in the dead of last winter so I could have scrounged some ideas! I'm at 7lbs dressed out, but that thing is feathery.

Next time, use a thin oil instead of acetone when things get sticky. Acetone may de-gunk as a solvent, but it leaves the metal surfaces nice and bare for galling.

Someone...pleeeeeeeeese do it.

That thing would be the final step in turning my AR into a space-gun .

I went ace for the buffer length and because Miculeck uses one. As for comfort, I figure the entire sport is awkward so whether or not my cheek is comfy or not wasn't much of a consideration. I once had one of those blackhawk shotgun stocks and it would leave a bruise on my cheekbone. Even the "worst" AR stock is going to be better than that.

JP. Hold up a JP against ANY other BCG and the difference in quality is immediately apparent. It's not free, but it's in a class all by itself. If you're to the point that you feel you need a lightened BCG, don't go half ass! You can't further lightened a half-lightened modified blank. Just pony up for the JP up front and you'll never have to worry if you paid more for less.

If it's cheaper for you to shoot 300 then go for it. I'm generally a big proponent of "run what u brung". Frankly though, every shooter that shows up at one of the regional matches here gets pretty terrible times- I think it's more to do with ammo cost/availability than anything. It's still pretty easy to shoot though a case of .223 in practice (not necessarily cheap, but otherwise available). Doing the same in blackout is comparatively prohibitive.

I wanna start my build all over again!