Absocold

The hood's function is to align the the slide recesses with the barrels upper lugs. If the hood is too long the barrel can't engage the slide and if the hood is too short it will make for a rough engagement which can lead to poor accuracy and lug peening. I won't bother getting into proper dimensions and clearances. That's a long discussion for another day. If accuracy is fine, shoot it. But keep checking the lugs for damage on a regular basis. If you never get any, great. If you start to see some...

See the flat T-shaped area with no blueing on it? Polish that without rounding any edges. A dozen or so passes on a flat Arkansas stone will clean it right up. If that area on yours is blued, knock the blueing off with an India stone and then polish it. Next: Check the disconnector for burrs. Check the disconnector hole in the top of the frame for burrs. Check the areas of the sear that touch the disconnector for burrs. Make sure the disconnector is protruding above the frame by at least .055". Look into the magazine well with a strong light and make sure the disconnector is not sticking out and bumping on an inserted magazine, I've seen a couple poorly made disconnectors that needed some radiusing around the square area to stop this. There's more but let's move on for now. Now that all that's out of the way, we can address the real problem since the disconnector is usually not the cause of a runaway gun. It's almost always either a poorly tuned sear spring and/or a bad/worn trigger job where you don't have enough engagement surface and/or engagement tension between the sear and the hammer hooks. When the gun goes into battery the sudden stop jars the gun and the hammer jumps off the sear and abracadabra the rangemaster hates you. Protip: buy yourself a set of outside pins, they are cheap and will constantly come in handy for many things such as this.

nm, new info was posted while I was typing.

You're thinking of normal government procurement practices and the all-too-often "lowest bidder" boondoggles that come of it. When it comes to gun oil, the military doesn't scrimp. The latest testing competition notice from the proving grounds makes zero mention of price or any sort of cost analysis, they simply wanted the best CLP available. They also didn't specify any minimum performance, they said they were going to conduct testing to see if there was anything that worked better than what they already had. Long story short, they didn't find anything new that was better than what they were already using. They did find a new dry film lubricant that worked well in dry, dusty desert conditions and further development on this dry film *in combination with CLP* was in progress last I heard. There was news about this a couple years ago but nothing new has been published since then.

Anyone using lube that was designed more than 25 years ago and not taking advantage of modern technology is a fool. May as well lube your junk with bear fat or goose grease. Old ways are best! Right? And anyone using the latest and greatest superlube to come down the pike is likewise doing themselves a disservice. Too many times we've later found out that the stuff is pure snake oil (*cough* fireclean froglube *cough*). If it's so awesome, why isn't the military buying it? Here's just a few of the things you want from a gun lube that I can think of off the top of my head: High lubricity. High temperature resistance. High flash point. Thermal stability. Low oxidation. Moisture barrier. High demulsibility or non-hygroscopic. Planar and non-polar. Thin film thickness. Low viscosity. High heat transfer. (greases are bad at the last three) And you want it to do all this even after it dries! And for those of you that think any sort of motor oil is a great idea, check its Material Safety Data Sheet. For example, Mobil 1's MSDS says don't get the stuff on you. Period. Full stop. Don't touch it. And if you get any inside your skin from a cut or something, seek a physician immediately for possible surgical treatment. But sure, slather it all over your gun. That you handle. With your bare hands. Brilliant. Now maybe you start to understand why I just go with whatever the military is using. They've spent millions of dollars testing gun lubes from tons of companies that have spent a lot of of money designing gun lubes and then picked out some winners. Many of the lubes they use do all of the above and also have detergents built in so you don't need a separate solvent for cleaning. Take full advantage of all that time, effort and money spent. I don't care which one you use, but I highly advise that you use one of them.

The flammable material in primers is hygroscopic - it attracts moisture. When slightly damp it works poorly, when wet it doesn't work at all. This is why it's advised to store them in a cool, dry place. In cases of long term storage you can inspect the primers for corrosion, and if none is found, then they are most likely just fine. The cup and anvil are almost always slightly different materials and long term moisture exposure will cause corrosion. Next time, throw them into a steel ammo can, put some fresh silicone on the lid o-ring, toss a desiccant pack in there, lock it down, put a tamper seal on it, store in a cool dry place. No more worries, they will last until the eventual heat death of the universe. Just don't store them in your gun safe, that's a big no-no, you just made a bomb.

Flattening doesn't bother me. But when I see cratering I switch to rifle primers.

Heavy gun, light bullet, high speed to cycle slide. This is good for actual recoil but perceived recoil it can go the other way, heavy bullet at slow speeds - but this can be hard to fine tune where it will cycle the slide in 9mm. I find newbies who don't like a standard 9mm's snappiness are perfectly happy shooting full power .45 ACP. For maximum centerfire softness you need a revolver. I've loaded 38 SPL down to 450 fps, you can easily see the bullet in flight. It still punches a hole in targets but has a lot of trouble dropping a plate rack. Kicks like a 22 LR. Side note for reloading fun, a 31 grain wooden bullet fired at 3,200 fps is not powerful enough to cycle the slide on a 1911 with an 8lb recoil spring.

As long as you're making sure not to load stepped brass, use it until you cannot use it.

I tumble lube cast bullets with a combo of 45% Johnson's Paste Wax 45% Lee Liquid Alox 10% Mineral Spirits Melt the wax in a pot, stir in the Alox, let it cool a bit, stir in the spirits, pour mix into an empty dish soap bottle to use as needed. Drop some bullets into a large flat-bottomed tupperware bowl, squirt a little lube in (a little goes a long, long way), roll the bullets around, pour bullets onto a wax sheet to dry. It's quick and easy, way cheaper than any other lube, dries without being too tacky, makes sizing a breeze without gumming up the works and gives less smoke (and/or doesn't stink) when fired than anything else I've tried.

My first question would be if you have the old style Trubor with the two hole compensator or the new three hole comp. If you have the old style, there's your first upgrade.

If it's a gun to be used as a newbie trainer, you need one with an ambi safety for the occasional lefty. From what's available with ambi and threaded, I would choose either the Ruger Mk4 22/45 (Lite or Tactical) or the S&W M&P 22 Compact (not the full size, many reported quality control issues).

Liberal Tears brand gun lube keeps my guns humming like sewing machines. Seriously though, I use whichever CLP the military is currently running. So far their gun lube testing and purchasing has not been subject to the normal politics/kickbacks/boondoggles you find in other areas of the supply process. Here's the list of approved weapon lubes (I use Break Free mostly, G96 non-bio in a pinch): ARPOLUBE 63460E BREAK FREE CLP LIQUID (REV D) G96 CLP SYNTHETIC OIL G96 SYNTHETIC BIO-CLP GUN OIL RADCOLUBE CLP ROYAL PURPLE MAX-RUN SYNTHETIC GUN LUBRICANT ROYCO-634E SENT-CLP E SENT-CLP-EE However, if you're running a gun with a stainless frame and slide or doing something silly like using a gun made of painted zinc alloys (*cough* GSG 1911-22 *cough*), a touch of grease in the rails to prevent galling isn't a terrible idea.

Apparently they feel that fixing/replacing the ones that break and eating the loss in sales is still less expensive than designing, testing and tooling up a new version. These are the drawbacks of letting accountants into the boardroom instead of keeping them chained to a calculator in the basement where they belong. I also suspect that the DVC line is a cash cow and they stopped making the Trubor in an effort to get more DVC sales. However the Trubor was an excellent way to get a new customer started on the brand and then later get followup sales on more expensive guns - brand loyalty is a thing. But, unfortunately, accountants. I could be wrong. But judging by the number of new competitors opening up shops of their own, I'd wager they are losing market share. Issues like these certainly aren't helping.

For slugging, use lead with a hardness of no more than BHN 6. Anything harder may spring back. Firing bullets through as a slugging shortcut is not recommended as the base may obdurate and the ogive may deform from bullet expansion on striking the target. Any bullet hard enough not to do this is too hard for accurate measuring. Pounding bullets through is a really bad idea. Had to re-crown a barrel for a follow who did this. To pound out the bullet, he braced the muzzle end against something and pounded hard enough to screw the pooch. Another fellow used a cleaning rod instead of a dowel to pound the bullet through and the rod went through the side of the bullet and scratched the the bore up pretty good. The gouges caused severe leading issues and I had to lap the barrel to make it quit. Also remember that unless you're using calipers that were recently and professionally calibrated, they are not as accurate as you think. Micrometers are usually pretty accurate but $25 calipers, not so much. Even some very good ones I've checked were off by .004 so either get expensive tools, pay a pro to do it or as noted above, let your gun tell you what it likes.

I'm in the market for another press and I'd be interested in a manual drive Evolution but they are not available - autodrive only. So I guess I'll be looking for a 1050.

Fine. Pull the seat die and check the part that contacts the nose of the bullet for debris or a build-up of wax/lube. Bullets being pushed down off center is the most common cause of bullet-bulged brass. Also make sure you're giving the case mouth enough flare, 45acp is bad about not wanting the bullet shoved in while the neck is too tight.

Dat rear sight doe! How high does it shoot? lol Next up, aftermarket trigger with overtravel stop and custom grip screws. Then a magwell. Then a... ok, I'm getting carried away.

Ah, missed te part that it was two different guns, sorry. Pull a couple bullets and check for over-crimping. Chrono your load and make sure you didn't get a hot batch of powder. If everything else checks out, it's the brass.

Cruise the gun shows and see if you can find anyone selling military surplus parts. Bins of that stuff show up from time to time and I clean them out when I find them. Put an ad up on Armslist that you're looking for broken/busted/gunsmith specials and bump it every couple weeks. A second gun, even broken and rusty, will have lots of spare parts. But it sounds like all you really need is a hammer. Just buy that in the shape you need and save yourself time and money. Whether you replace one part or all of them, make sure you do a full function and safety check - thumb safety, hammer follow, out of battery, disconnector, grip safety, etc.

.22 CB's out of a lever or bolt action rifles is as quiet as it gets. The hammer striking the firing pin and a slight whoosh from the projectile is all you hear. No can required. I have a Liberty Regulator for use on my 22 autos. From a pistol I use normal velocity (CCI Standard, Winchester white box) as the short barrel prevents it from reaching supersonic velocities. From the rifle I use CCI Supressor, it's much faster than CCI Quiet but still subsonic. These combos are louder than a spring piston air gun but quieter than a pump air gun.

Man buys a used Desert Eagle 50AE. Fires gun. It doesn't cycle, not even a little bit. Man brings gun to my shop and tells me his tale of woe about someone selling him a defective gun. I soothe the troubled man that I can solve his problems with my mystical skills in the gun arts - for a small fee. These guns are gas-operated and the gas port is likely clogged. An easy fix. I'll just work a drill bit in the port by hand to dislodge the carbon buildup. NOPE! It seems someone tried to do the same thing with a metal pick and broke the end of the pick off in the port. And it wasn't coming out either. Had to drill the stupid thing out and be super careful not to bugger the port while doing it. That five minute job took me over two hours. I've fixed a lot of "like new, only dropped once!" guns but this one really ticked me off. And don't let S&W shine rainbows up your skirt, I've had to fix quite a few of their brand new guns. I can't tell you how many mis-clocked revolver barrels I've seen. Quality checks my butt. At least they're not as bad as Taurus these days. "Is it vaguely gun-shaped? Ship it!"

It's a machine. Nothing lasts forever. Entropy always wins. If there are no parts and you don't have a mill in your garage... I'd be all kinds of fired up if I dropped a pile of money on a machine that, even if it was my fault, broke before there were spare parts available.

Another vote for e3. WST is next on my list, then W231.

Pull the seat/crimp die and check the part that contacts the nose of the bullet for debris or a build-up of wax/lube. Bullets being pushed down off center is the most common cause of bullet-bulged brass. Also make sure you're giving the case mouth enough flare, 45acp is bad about not wanting the bullet shoved in while the neck is too tight.