Absocold

Parts don't matter so much. You can get a 2lb 1911/2011 trigger with anything as long as the starting dimensions and angles are on point. Whatever the gun came with is often good enough. However some companies make better stuff than others and I'll occasionally find parts that are out of spec and simply can't be fixed. I've had the best luck with newer EGW, Wilson stuff made in the 90's and USGI surplus parts 70ish years old. Avoid Metal Injection Molded (MIM) parts at all costs. If you're just going to drop them in and go and don't require ultimate reliability they're fine. But MIM parts are case hardened and can't be worked hard for a trigger job without re-hardening and then lightly polishing the final result. Not worth the time and effort unless there's no alternative available.

National Match pistol bullseye goes out to 50 yards. On a 9mm it's no biggie but on .45ACP, it matters.

Use a very light coat of spray silicone lube on the moving/rubbing parts of the case feeder, reapply every 2-3 hundred rounds. Use a thin film of grease on the ramp that pushes the shell plate indexing pawl out. Don't let the ram get too full of spent primers or you'll have a hell of a time getting them out. Get the Lee Auto Drum, put one on every press you own no matter the brand - you'll spend way, way more to get anything better and it'll take up more space. Either properly ground the press or buy some anti-static spray or wipe everything down with dryer sheets or whatever, just watch for static issues. There are many types of metals and plastics all rubbing against each other, don't get laughed at by the fire department because of an errant spark or damage you or your gun because of powder bridging. This goes for all presses. Use the skinny end of a small safety pin to hold the primers back in the flip tray as you're inserting it into the primer feed chute or they'll get all caddy wumpuss. Use Squirrel Daddy pins in your depriming die or keep buying Lee pins over and over and over as you bend them. Put a Lee Universal decapping die in station 1 even if you're not depriming as the large mouth will help position cases properly onto the shell plate. Put a sizing die at station 2 even if you don't need to size to keep cases properly centered during priming. Don't spend too much money getting fancy upgrades and aftermarket options. You'll need that money for the Dillon or Mark7 you'll eventually buy. Yes, a Daisy pellet gun is fine and the tin can can't tell it wasn't an Olympic match grade air rifle that shot it, but quality equipment that just plain works is a joy to use and own, eventually you'll treat yourself and buy better gear. I still have a Loadmaster, it's awesome for small batch loading. Everyone should have one if they load more than a couple calibers. Full changeover between calibers and primer sizes takes 5 minutes, a screwdriver and a crescent wrench. Want to add a caliber? No problem, it'll cost you dies, a $14 turret and a $23 shell plate. In your FACE, Dillon!

There are 3 types of sailboat captains. Those who have run aground, those that haven't yet and liars. Lead keels have antimony in them otherwise they'd bend whenever you touched bottom. And sooner or later you'll either smack something with your keel or a low tide plus waves will reduce your draft to zero and you'll be banging into the bottom or resting on it. Some lead from encapsulated keels (iron keel with lead core) and some lead ballast ingots are softer but the pure lead keels are pretty hard. Like I said before, the one I cut up (yes, a chainsaw works surprisingly well) was almost hardball spec and a quench brought it close enough.

I finally ran out of the wheel weights I got for free just by asking at mechanic shops 20 years ago. Now they all say they are contracted to scrap dealers and can't even sell them to me any more when they used to just dump them in the trash (or give them to people like me). Hardly matters, most wheel weights are steel or zinc nowadays. Tried all sorts of other places for lead, you've prolly heard of most of them, those are drying up too. So, what's the answer? SAILBOATS. Buy scrap sailboats for pennies, often they're free if you agree to remove it. The keel is solid lead on many of the small to medium sized ones. Cut the lead up with a chainsaw or you'll need a crane, check the bilges and dead spaces in the hull bottom for lead ballast ingots too, sell the anchor locally, any brass fittings go on ebay, the rest goes to the dump. Me and a buddy spent a week chopping up a small yacht but we split what the boat specs say was over 7 tons of lead. It's a little bit softer than hardball but with a water quench after casting it's almost perfect.

Bullseye is acceptably clean at higher pressure but when you try to load softer it's downright filthy. It's a very old formulation and the only reason to use it anymore is that it's cheap, easy to find, meters well enough and is very accurate for certain loadings. I used a metric assload of it back in the day for .45acp match ammo, but here in the 21st century there are better powders.

This. The only thing I'd add to Lee dies is Squirrel Daddy de-priming pins as the Lee pins are too soft. Dillon dies are fine as well. Don't care for Hornady or RCBS. If you're playing the precision rifle game then Redding competition seating dies are nice.

Another vote for Frankford. It's small, it's cheap, it's cheap looking, cheap feeling and makes you feel like a cheap person. But it works just fine. I verified it against a beam scale and it's very accurate. Unless you're wanting to measure out to hundredths of a grain for some reason, it's perfectly fine.

I reached a point where the gun was flatter on video but the shot was so violent that it took me longer to return to a steady sight picture. Backed off the power and am happier and faster.

This isn't the place to be complaining about forum mods or their work. Every forum has its own style. Some are so rabidly pro-freedom and anti-censorship they're almost anarchy's, some refuse to tolerate anything more than good-natured ribbing. The owner must be happy with the way things are here or he'd change it, so good luck complaining. If you think he doesn't know what's going on, message him about it. Griping about the forum team, in a thread about saving the forums, is not a great idea and I'm not surprised they're getting stomped on.

http://dfghosting.com/ipb-hosting/ https://www.a2hosting.com/ipb-hosting A quick search for hosts with good service and reviews turned up these two examples. Both will install the board at the new host and migrate the database (all the posts and member stuff) from old site to new site - turnkey solution with no effort on your part. Both offer automatic daily backups, automatic board upgrades, automatic bug fixes, and free support if there's a problem. Both are under $20 a month. Yearly domain and hosting cost is less than one month of hosting with your current provider. For what you're paying them, it's no wonder they bend over backwards, but they should also be coming over and mowing your lawn, washing your car and doing your taxes. It's better to try a new place and see if it works out than just give up and turn the lights off.

Aye. I'm wondering if he had a big bill for combination sales website, forums and e-commerce solution and no one ever questioned the bill after the sales site and e-commerce were turned off. Website hosting is dirt cheap but e-commerce for secure credit card processing is not.

Wait a dang second. I was just wondering why I didn't just stroke a check to you for a year's worth of hosting. So I go look at the donation bar and you need $990 per quarter for hosting? THAT'S $330 PER MONTH! W. T. F. Seriously? Most business or even enterprise-level IPB hosting is less than $20 per month. Who the hell is robbing you?

Still waiting on an answer as to what the current yearly hosting costs are. Hard to judge what's needed without that number. If the number is really low then banners are probably fine. If it's not that low then we can continue hashing that out. If it's too high then we look for a new host and then work the income problem with an easier number. As to putting the forums behind a paywall/subscription, it's a bad idea all the way around. Do a Google search for 9 major loads or uspsa open or or something similarly competition related and the top result and most first page results will point here. That's how you get new members and keep the forums (and the sport) growing. But if you click that Google link and you hit a paywall, the vast majority of people will hit the back button and look for the answer elsewhere. That route leads to an eventual death. Paywall the classifieds if you must but not the whole board.

Running a PHP board independently is a nightmare. Since it's the most common board it gets attacked and hacked A LOT. And when the email function gets hijacked and the board hosting provider notices that a bot is sending out gigabytes of shady emails they will throw a fit and shut the board off until you fix it. Keeping up with the board software updates, doing regular backups and fixing damage is a job. Ask me how I know. Never mind, don't ask me, I don't want flashbacks from my time in the forum wars. However if you can find a host who's willing to carry your board AND do all the backend admin work, then you're usually ok. Trouble is finding a good one. Most good ones don't want the headache. The other option is easier. Leave it where it is and find a new source of financial support. This board is uniquely suited to advertisements from the high-end gun industry, equipment sellers and competition suppliers. Give 'em a ringy ding and ask if they want a billboard on THE place for competitive action shooters and connoisseurs of fine firearms and gear.

Definitely different. Bottom one appears to be a better piece. More beef on the hook, better beveling to facilitate transitions and help prevent cracking, etc. Top looks like a completely machined piece, bottom looks to have been touched up by hand. Maybe it's the shadows or the beveling but the top one looks like it's taller for a bigger case. Go back to basics and check for proper tension, hook distance, back of hook shape (where it fits into case rim waist) and ease of transition as the case moves from magazine to breech face. Even Aftecs sometimes need a tweak or some stone work, but if it's a new one I'd just send it back if it's causing too many problems. Damned things are too expensive to go grinding on and risk buggering the thing when it's supposed to just work.

Makes sense, that would give a nice look without risking damaging the coating afterwards by brushing it. Polished though, has to be done last. The coating isn't mirror bright no matter how good the prep. You can get an acceptably reflective look from just prep work but if you want a showstopper that requires sunglasses you have to polish the coating. Polishing DLC also helps improve scratch resistance. The sad thing is, even polished DLC still won't be as heartstoppingly gorgeous as a polished blued piece.

Electroless is a bath, time in the bath determines thickness. It's usually done thinner than normal elctrolytic plating and applies more evenly. It's easier to have a mix of metals to adjust properties with a bath. Ease of removal of a previous finish goes something like this: paints (krylon) > shallow surface treatments (blueing) > baked ceramic paints (cerakote) > > PVD/DLC > surface metal conversions (anodizing) > deeper/harder surface conversions (Tennifer) > electroless plating > electrolytic plating With platings, it's usually much easier to simply cover it or give it another coat than to try and completely remove it.

Brushed, like polished, is something that's done after the coating is applied. Almost always by the gunsmith, not the coating company.

More gun porn. Possibly NSFW. . . CK Arms custom: DLC Duplex Stainless with Chameleon controls. STI Grandmaster: Hard Chrome with polished flats and painted roll marks. S&W 22A: Stainless with brushed slide, polished barrel, painted cutouts.

That gun was a maximum effort build by CK Arms, every single available option. Bobby of CK took that gun to Shot Show for display as an example of their work. Not sure who they sent it out to for the coatings but there are several places that will do small lots like guns. They seem to change every couple months as companies form, succeed, then get gobbled up by bigger ones so I won't recommend a specific one. Check around and pick one or ask CK if they'll do it for you. I can't find any papers or engineering specs on the Chameleon coating but since most of the items coated with it are not high wear or high stress items it's no biggie. The barrel coating showed only the very slightest wear after several thousand cycles so it's at least a bit better than hard chrome. However, if you search the internet on papers published about the measured properties of Duplex Stainless, you'll find more than a few and it's pretty nuts. Thickness is measured in nanometers so there's no problems with causing fitment issues, wear rates are much higher than anything else you've heard of, coefficient of friction is better than even any of the boron treatments, and the coating is so hard that it's been shown to help prevent stress cracks from forming in the material it's covering. I'm sure once cost comes down (it's not just one coating, it's two) we'll be seeing more and more of this stuff in the marketplace, not just on guns, watches and space age engineering.