R1_Demon

I also just found this video that goes into detail about the grip on the pistol. I think it is very good and reinforces what Jerry was talking about: https://youtu.be/KJrA7wMXuuQ Everyone else just "talks" about locking the wrist and the grip. This guy, Shannon Smith, actually shows you, step by step, on the action and how exactly to lock the wrist out and such. I'm a visual person, so it helps when I can see stuff and how it is done. Now it makes sense to me and a light bulb went off in my head. LOL! So, now to add this practice to my change in stance and see where it takes me. These are going to be huge changes for me and we will see what happens. Ya, I can't hold the front of the trigger guard either. I move the firearm too much. I'd rather just practice these two changes first until I get them down as "natural" for me and then go from there.

So, I will either need to get a second single stage press with a decap only die or get a decap only die and use that on my AP press just to decap them IF I want to decap them prior to wet tumbling. Again, that is IF I want to go that route. Seems some people do decap prior to wet tumbling and others, such as sitw, do not and things work fine. So, it is crap shoot either way. LOL! It seem as if it is all what process everyone is comfortable with because it appears to work fine either way (decapped or not) while wet tumbling. It's just personal preference, or so it seems thus far. Same with using the pins. Some do, some don't. So, I'm still going to have to make the decision on which way to go. LOL But thank you everyone for your input and the info. Very cool. Always good to have lots of info when making decisions.

I also just noticed (after going through the entire video now) that he even suggests that you can try putting your finger on the front of the trigger guard. I would only say to do this if you have some practice at it or have very good control to begin with. A LOT of my students try and do this to begin with and they are all over the map/target because that finger is actually pulling the muzzle of the firearm to the right or left (mostly to the left because it is the left first finger) and they wonder why they are shooting left. They can't keep it consistent. So, that surprised me a bit when he said to do that, albeit with skateboard/grip tape. Then again, he shoots a heck of a lot better than I do. LOL! However, I was very impressed with the high speed camera footage of the locked vs. unlocked wrist at how fast the firearm comes back on target or really doesn't even leave the target area. As I said in my previous post, that makes a lot of sense and now I just have to find better shots/angles to see how exactly to lock the wrist to do this and practice the heck out of it so that it becomes natural. Like he mentioned, if you shoot 200 rounds and your left (or off hand) wrist isn't tired, then you aren't doing it correctly. Again, good stuff. I'll have to watch it again a couple of times before going to the range and make notes so I can be sure to try those different things that I'm not used to at the range and practice them.

Cool video. I hadn't seen it before. Good stuff. I'm very old school and shoot Weaver because I was taught that way forever ago. However, I have been trying to break that habit and train myself to shoot isosceles but it feels very, very weird to me. However, when I teach my classes, I do teach the isosceles stance to my students. LOL Now I just have to adapt it for myself. Plus, I'm sure it will help me in USPSA. I'm also trying to figure out what he is talking about regarding the lock over of the left wrist (I'm a right handed shooter) as well. I understand the grip (even as presented in the picture of the video), but the lockover of the wrist is what I'm having trouble with to try and keep recoil down. Of course with the Weaver stance, I'm used to the push/pull method with my arms. However, you don't have that with the isosceles stance. So, now I have to look more to my left wrist to lock down the recoil and that is where I'm having trouble trying to get it right. Maybe I can find other videos that may show it better. I'm only half way through this video though.

Join us on the dark side...we have cookies.

Ya, no kidding...anywhere in the Southwest lately and you could probably put it down on the ground in the 122* heat and have that stuff dried in about 20-30 min. LOL!

LOL...I'm almost thinking the same thing. However, when you are running that much brass, then it is fairly easy because you probably already have some that is dry and ready to be reloaded. But if you aren't running that much brass and have a lower amount where you are cleaning and reloading the same brass, then it seems like it would be a pain in the arse to have to wait for it to totally dry first before you can reload that same brass. If it is where you can just let that "set" of brass dry and then work on another "set" of brass that has already dried for days or what not (or was stored for days/weeks already dried), then that is different and I could see where it doesn't matter really how long it takes to dry.

M - Thanks for the heads up on the Walmart dehydrator. All - But if you decap before you wet tumble/clean the brass and you have a progressive press, don't you then run the risk of pushing dirty brass through your die and screwing it up? That's the only thing I'm wondering. I have a Hornady LnL AP and my first stage is my resizing/decaping die (Hornady die), so if I was going to "decap" my dirty brass before wet tumbling them, then I would have to "resize and decap" them through my press first. Well, that means I'm taking a chance of scoring the resize/decap die because dirty brass is going through it. Or do you just wet tumble first (non-decapped), then resize/decap once they are clean and then re-wet tumble again once the brass is decapped/resized? Then wehn you go to reload you just skip the resize/decapping stage because it is already done? Ya, it's a newbie question...sorry. LOL! I haven't had to process any brass yet because I bought my first set of mixed brass already processed/cleaned, so I haven't had to go this route yet, so I'm still deciding whether I want to go the wet or dry tumble route yet.

Mike - That's what I was thinking too...basically, how much better can N320 truly be to be double the price of most other powders out there. Plus, I normally clean my firearms on a regular basis anyway. So, in reality, that shouldn't be a big deal to me. I know a bunch of people talk about the "smokiness" of TiteGroup with coated bullets. I haven't had a chance to buy and coated bullets yet as the first ones I got were Hornady XTP HP's. I think those are plated, but I know for sure they aren't coated. LOL! I haven't even had to shoot those over TG either because I was waiting to load up until I could afford a chrono to test all of my loads anyway. So, I haven't really had a chance to do much of anything. Now that I finally got my chrono the other day, I can finally start doing some loads and going to the range to test them out and see what will actually work. I also know that a bunch of people said that TG runs hot too. So, again, I'm curious about that as well. So, that is why I considered the N320 because if I could get something that did run cooler, left less soot and would help reduce barrel wear, then I am all for it, even if it is a bit more expensive. But if TG really isn't that bad and won't screw up my barrel, then I don't see the point of paying double the price for N320. As for the Clays, I was going to just try that for the light loads for plinking and for the wife/kid to try the .40 again. I didn't want to try it in .40 major loads because I have read how it gets spiky and isn't advised when it gets close to max pressures and such. I don't need to be playing around with stuff like that; especially as a new reloader. But for light loads and such, then I figured it would be worth it. Steve - Thanks for the info on Powder Valley. I did see them listed in other posts and saved the link. However, unless I'm buying a bunch of powder, I'm going to try and buy local to save on shipping and especially the hazmat fee. When I bought my first round of stuff, I got hit with the hazmat fee on my powder and my primers and I just about died. I think it was $30 or $35 for the hazmat fee alone and then the shipping (but I was already paying shipping for all of my reloading stuff anyway, so that part didn't matter much). But if I'm only buying powder, then it is pointless to pay that high of a price. I think one pound of N320, even from Powder Valley would end up being almost $70. That is nuts. I'm sure it would be way cheaper locally to just go get it. LOL Plus, I don't have to wait for it to be shipped and sign for it due to hazmat.

(thumbs up) Thanks. Never hurts to have this info out there.

Zach, Actually anything in the Introduction section of the forum doesn't count towards your posting count. It throws people off initially as it normally counts on most forums, but does not here. But when you contribute in other parts of the forum, such as above, your post count will go up. However, just be advised to make your posts count and contribute. The moderators do watch and do contribute here (which is actually refreshing compared to most forums). So, if you are doing one word posts and such just to get to 50 to post in the classifieds, they will notice and will take heed of it and possibly reduce your post count and/or even remove your classified post and/or status. So, make sure the posts are meaningful and you will be good to go like the rest of the people here. It really isn't hard to do. I thought it would take me forever to get to 50 (and I didn't even have anything to sell. LOL), but in a very short while, poof, I was above 50.

Welcome from Kentucky, Zach! Glad to have you here! Enjoy the forum and improving is good, even if it is slowly. Better than going backwards, right? As they say, slow and steady. How do you like the Metro Arms? I actually have a Metro Arms American Classic II 1911 in .45. Nothing fancy for sure, but it is actually accurate as hell. I was surprised for it being a little name firearm. I really like it.

Steve - How is it different? Characteristics, I'm guessing? Good or bad? Difference between the two? I would only be doing this (using the Clays) to make bunny fart loads for the wife (and possibly the kid) to try with my .40 because she tried regular factory .40 loads a couple of years ago in my S&W 4006 (all stainless frame) and she freaked out and didn't like it what so ever. (way too heavy of a recoil) So, I figured if I could make a fairly light load to have her try .40 again to see what she thought, it might be fun. Not that she will probably ever consider a .40 as a mainstay, but it would be nice to try anyway.

Hollllly crap, you weren't kidding! I found it online at Cabela's for like $18.99 on sale (reg $20.99) and on Bass Pro it was frickin' $30.99. What the heck?! I'm sure even buying it from my local reloading shop it shouldn't be that friggin' much! LOL! Dang. I just about fell out of my chair when I saw that. LOL! But the point is, I did find it and the starting load is 3.0 gr under a 180gr Hornady XTP HP bullet that I have, so I'm sure that would be a fairly light load. It shows the OAL at 1.125, but I would try and set it up for 1.135 if I can, so that should be a pretty good bunny fart load for the wife and possibly even the kid to try. LOL!

Oh okay. I thought I was reading on here at some point that Clays was hard to find or unavailable or something? That's why I said that. Maybe it was an old thread and I didn't notice the date or something. I didn't actually look it up anywhere to see if it was available. The only thing I have thus far or have used is TiteGroup. I was going to try and see if I can find N320 locally due to people saying it runs cleaner in .40 and doesn't run as hot, but I do know it is more expensive. However, I figured if I could find some Clays to make the bunny fart loads that was suggested by Jack for the wife to try in .40 and it wasn't expensive, it might be fun to do that and make some very light .40 loads for her to shoot.

LOL! You're worse than I am. I would be thinking something similar too. LOL! But unfortunately I don't have a spare room for my reloading, so I have to move my press from my kitchen (where I store it) to another room when I actually reload and then back again. Sigh...some day I'll actually have either a garage to reload in or a basement or a spare room. One can hope. Anyway, enjoy!!!!

This was the only issue I had when I was considering starting to load when I lived in Las Vegas. I was totally paranoid (and read about issues) about the super low humidity (average is 6% to 8% daily). I'm sure there are people in the southwest that reload (Las Vegas, Phoenix, etc), but it freaked me out because people talked about static charge and all that, so I think that is what put me off of reloading when I lived there. Now that I'm in Kentucky, I definitely don't have to worry about that because the average is probably around 60% or above here on a daily basis. I just make sure I don't reload in/around the kitchen or laundry room where the furnace and water heater is due to sparks and I figure all will be fine. Plus, as darkvibe stated, I just discharge myself (man, that didn't sound good. LOL!) before I handle any type of reloading equipment (primers, powder, anything that holds those two or even the press). I'm used to that when dealing with electronics anyway.

I'm with you...sometimes it is good to resurrect older threads and actually this one isn't that old. I keep going back and forth on whether or not I want to try tumble or wet tumble my brass. I can get a Frankford Arsenal dry tumbler on Amazon for like $60 (without the media) or I can get a Frankford Arsenal wet tumbler on Amazon for like $110 (with 3.5# of stainless steel media included). So, I'm almost inclined to try the wet tumbling because it really isn't that much more and the media can keep being reused unlike the dry that has to be replaced after a certain amount of time. But then again, you have to either wait for the brass to dry outside or buy driers to dry the brass if you want to try and load right away, which you don't have to when you dry tumble. Soooo, it's a toss up either way and that would be even more equipment to buy if you are trying to tumble in the winter where you aren't going to set the brass outside here in Kentucky to try and dry. LOL! Unless you want ice brassicles. LOL!

Welcome from Kentucky.

Welcome back from Kentucky, Punkface! Glad you enjoyed your ride back. Wow, that is a heck of a stage! That would be pretty funny to see everyone borrowing and exchanging mags to cover the stage. LOL!

Welcome from Kentucky!

JC - Thank you for your service and be safe out there...both on the sand and the course. Just have fun and enjoy it...that's about all the advice I have. I've never shot a Level II, but it sounds like you are raring to go and just want to have fun with it, so why the heck not. Just go over your equipment a couple of days before (or a few days) to make sure that everything is in order, so you won't have any malfunctions.

I don't think I wrote down, thank you for your service. Sorry about that. As a discharged Army vet, I almost always write that to other service members. I must have got caught up with the baseball thing and forgot. Sorry. But truly, thank you. Yes, it definitely hurt. LOL! The swelling is still there a bit and it happened on June 2nd. Thank you, I do my best. I do shoot a lot of sporting events and quite enjoy it. Sometimes it is hard to decide between shooting sporting events and shooting firearm events. LOL! I give you credit being an umpire. Especially for higher end games such as district and state. I don't envy you there; all the people yelling at you if you make a questionable call. LOL!! That's a big responsibility, but I could see where it would be exciting and fun too. Very cool.

Welcome from Kentucky.

Understood. Was just throwing it out there as a possible solution. That's also why I put the caveat on there to let people know that it would affect all passwords and not just the one. I agree it is a pain in the arse and I leave it as a last possible solution if someone stores a lot of passwords in their browser and doesn't want to resave/reenter them.