Absocold

Stocked up on powder today, got four pounds of HS-6 and a pound of AutoComp. Finally got to put my hands on a full size Witness Elite. Wasn't a Gold Team but should feel about the same. I kinda liked it. Grip angle was very close to a 1911, which was my main concern. Budget for a gun growing every week. So my choices right now are: 1. Witness Gold $1,750 (after buying optic) 2. SPS Vista Short $2,200 (after buying optic) 3. STI Trubore $2,800 4. Wait for a nice used gun in this range. 5. CK Arms Hardcore $3,500 Leaning towards #4 right now, getting a used one that's had the kinks worked out sounds better than rolling the dice on a new gun and possibly getting a dog with fleas. But as time goes by and my budget goes up, if I hit $3,500 before finding a gun I'll probably buy the CK Arms Hardcore. Thoughts? Other options?

One of us! One of us!

Most .45's like the 230's loaded around 1.260 - 1.265 but I have a national match barrel that likes them loaded out to 1.268 and I had to throat the barrel more to feed them reliably. Taper crimp to .469 works for all the guns I've tested. Original specs call for hardball at 850fps +/- 25, but best accuracy is usually around 800-820. Best accuracy is usually found with Bullseye, W231, WST, VVN320, Titegroup and 700x but there are plenty of others that work. I've found Bullseye to be dirty at lower pressures and seem to have the best luck with W231.

It's not the soap that's a concern, Dish and car soap won't hurt brass. Just make sure there's no ammonia or bleach in it and you're fine. Drown your brass in it if it floats your boat. It's the Lemishine that's a problem. The effects of long term and/or high concentrations of the salt and acid in Lemishine aren't well documented. We know even a small amount will leach the zinc out of the brass over time (usually overnight) causing a color shift from yellow to a pinkish color. Cartridge brass is yellow because it's 70% copper and 30% zinc, once it starts shifting towards red (copper color) as dezincification occurs, it becomes very brittle. This pink brass is unsafe to use in a firearm. If a little bit of Lemishine used for a short period works perfectly, why waste money and risk damaging your brass by using more of it?

Pins are for getting the inside of the case squeaky clean, especially the primer pocket and flash hole. If you don't use pins (and/or you don't de-prime first), you may as well just use a vibratory and save yourself a lot of trouble. If you're not using pins, not sure why you'd use a rotary at all unless that's all you have. If dust is an issue you can use the lid that came with your vibratory and run the media slightly moist or throw a couple dryer sheets in there. As to running a rotary dry with no media and just letting the cases rub against each other, I don't know if there are any drawbacks (other than not cleaning the inside of the cases at all), but I wonder if all that brass crashing around in there might work harden it.

I'm pretty sure the guys from Fireclean rebutted this. We'll see if the lawsuits come but for now I'm sticking with what works. Firecleans public response basically boiled down to "those guys are jerks trying to make us look bad and our stuff is awesome" but the interesting part was they never actually said that those jerks were wrong. It's pretty hard to argue with a mass spectrometer. And as far as I know there haven't been any lawsuits, those usually come pretty quickly if they're coming at all. As to Fireclean causing more smoke to come out of a gun, I have no idea what that's supposed to be proving. I'd think it was the lube burning off faster before I'd assume it was some property causing carbon to not stick to the gun. Non-scientific tests are just that: non-scientific. Guns get hot, I'd want a lube that leaves something behind to continue lubricating after the carrier agent burned away. Some have this, like the old military-spec Break Free and the new G96. After vegetable oil burns off all that's left behind is carbon. Carbon makes a good non-stick and anti-corrosion coating (cast iron cookware proves this) but not a terribly good lubricant. If people are completely happy using Fireclean I'm not going to tell them to stop using it. If you're satisfied with it then by all means continue. But if someone asks for better gun snot, there are plenty. Hell, goose grease or bear fat would do the job in a pinch. Whale squalene and nasal sebum would work too. But there are superior alternatives.

I am getting the tacky/sluggishness on my pistols and Benelli shotgun with Froglube. no problem on rifles. however, I am very sensitive to at least some petrochemicals (such as hoppes #9 and Kroil). What are the other non-petrol choices? Other options include: TAI Lubricants - NyOil. You can find it in auto parts stores. https://www.lubekits.com/?load=nyoil Lubriplate - FMO-AW (specifically the 350-AW weight). This is a food service equipment lube, possibly the best non-petro choice. Comes in gallon jugs, smaller quantities available from http://lubrikit.com

If you don't feel passionate enough about collecting a certain type of gun but want a collection anyway, pick a group that will go up in value relatively quickly. If you get tired of looking at all the guns you aren't in love with, you at least made a profit. If I had spare change falling out of my pockets I'd buy crates of Russian Mosin Nagant rifles, especially Tula hex, M44 and sniper variants. Remember when German Mausers were cheap? Remember when SKS's were cheap? Yeah, Mosin's are next and already going up.

Something something plastic gun something duct tape something torch weld something something and just like that it's good as new!

Fireclean... you mean Crisco? Fireclean's patent application as well as independent spectrographic testing both show that it's vegetable oil. And only vegetable oils, no other additives. While plant oils do work as a decent lubricant and have a high flash point, they break down pretty quickly when exposed to oxygen and ultraviolet light. Cleaner? Maybe, but not a terribly good one. Lubricant? Yes, but there's better things for sure. Preservative? Nope, only short term protection.

Water spots won't hurt a thing. If you want truly gorgeous ammo, just throw your loaded rounds into a vibratory with clean corncob and two caps full of NuFinish for 30 minutes. Roll them around in a towel and lookit that shine!

Waaaay too much Lemishine. An empty 9mm case full is enough for a full load. Citric acid in small amounts and for a short time is good for putting a shine on brass. Too strong or too long can make it turn pink.

I couldn't find any manufacturer that makes those (there are quite a few) that listed the price on their website. All say "inquire" which sounds really expensive. Found some well-used models on Ebay, $3-6k a pop.

The brass cases are much heavier than the pins used in a rotary. If anything's going to work harden the brass it would be the brass banging against itself. If you're going to run a rotary dry, I wouldn't use pins at all. Use walnut or corncob to act as the cushion that water provides. Maybe a combo of pins and softer media. But at that point I'd have to ask, why bother? If you mostly want to run dry, get a vibratory.

You can use a rotary dry but it takes longer than a vibratory to get the same result.

In an industrial setting where speed matters, product to be deburred and polished goes into a wet system for initial cleaning and rough polishing then into a dry system for heated drying and final polishing then another rinse and dry to remove polishing agents. You can use either wet or dry for a one-step process in our application. Wet is faster and gives better results, dry is easier. This is a gross over-simplification, but if you're only going to do one step it's an accurate statement.

Small industrial version of what we're doing. The batch sizes we normally do are considered "hobbyist" but there are enough of us to make machines tailored and priced for our use. Just how much brass do you need to process? How about this machine? 7 feet tall, 82 cubic feet capacity, 30 horsepower motor. You could buy a lightly used one for about $40,000.

Those little vaults are easily found and carried away, even if they're not just pried open on the spot. Tacticalwalls.com is pretty cool but here's the cheap way: Buy this cabinet: https://www.stack-on.com/categories/security-cabinets-gun-cabinets/products/75 Paint the front of it with flat dark green spray paint before installing in the back wall of your clothes closet. Stick this to the front door of the cabinet: http://www.safetysign.com/products/p2421/warning-hazardous-voltage-label When you're home, gun is on your person or under your pillow. When you're not home, they're locked up and camouflaged. If you eventually buy too many guns to fit in the cabinet, you need to buy an actual gun safe (bare minimum $750 worth, the cost of a gun or two) and bolt it to the floor. If you don't kick this terrible addiction of ours, you'll eventually get a safe. Get the best one you can afford. The greatest addition to my gun collection wasn't another gun, it was my gun safe.

Quickly gets tacky (which not only makes your gun feel gross, it attracts dirt), gels up bad if you put more than a very thin coat on, doesn't play well with most slide greases (if you're the sort that likes to combo-lube), doesn't seem to hold up under perspiration at all. Smells great though! But if you're one of the unlucky few who are allergic to petroleum products, it's one of your only decent choices. Most of the synthetics use some sort of petro-based product as either a carrier, pour point additive, migration agent, etc. FrogLube is advertised as being free of petrochemicals.

No but I wouldn't really recommend it on any bearing surface. And a gun has a lot of those.

Getting off the gun topic but on the note of leaving things in the white, you can let something get a light coating of surface rust (or even deliberately cause it) then wet it down with Ospho. You can buy it at an automotive paint supply store or get it online. Ospho chemically converts iron oxide (rust) into iron phosphate (an inert material that is a great paint primer). I've used it quite a bit with amazing results. The rust first turns black then turns a powder white color. And that spot will never rust again. Even the iron exhaust headers on a car won't rust anymore after being Ospho'd.

OP was asking for recommendations for a CLP. Motor oil is only very good at the "L" part of CLP and then only when wet. If you really must use something from the auto parts store, ATF is better than motor oil as a firearms CLP but it contains red dye so is even worse about staining things.

When asked about using motor oil on firearms I tend to advise against it. Even the synthetic brands are designed to operate at temperatures much lower than what the outside of a gun barrel will experience. Not to mention that these oils are much less effective when dry, will stain almost everything non-metal it touches, has virtually no cleaning properties and is not designed to be a preservative. There are those that are very happy using it though. ymmv

Dunno about liquids, I was always told to use the crystals. My package says "Lemi Shine Original" on it but looks like the new packaging says "Detergent Booster". http://lemishine.com/system/lemi-shine-detergent-booster/ Citric acid and water softener is what you're after, Lemishine just combines the two in an easy package that's cheap and easy to measure out. With some experimentation you could use Kool-Aid ready mix packages for the citric acid content and make your cases smell good too. Possibly even stain them pretty colors!

I run mine for at least 90 minutes, two hours if they're completely filthy and tarnished. A couple teaspoons of soap, a 9mm case full of Lemishine (a little goes a long way), fill to three quarters full with hot water & brass and you're good. No pre-rinse required unless they're caked in mud. Sifter, $20. http://www.midsouthshooterssupply.com/item/00038502023/Double-Action-Rotary-Sifter- Makes separation and rinsing an easy one-step process. Don't let the brass sit in the tumbler for too long after tumbling, overnight the Lemishine will attack the brass and do bad things.