George

If you think Red Bull gives ya' the shakes, you ain't seen nuttin' till you spend a day on one of these little 5 oz heart attacks! They make me into a paint shaker and my wife agreed 100% after also trying one on a long drive we recently made. I would rate one of these 5 hour drinks equivalent to chugging 2 Red Bulls!! They taste way worse than a Red Bull too! Seriously, I keep a Red Bull in my cooler for enuff energy to finish up my chores and make the drive home after a long day on the range, but would never compete hopped on any one of these liquid stimulants.

Nothing prevents a POV system being used by the wearer to film someone else. When you wear a POV video system, you are the camera.. Watch the second to last clip in the Erik Warren ShooterCam video link I posted above. That stage, Erik followed a friend with his helmet, er ear-muff-cam. In an ideal world, two shooters have POV type video systems and film themselves and each other. OR you have someone else film you with it at half the stages at a match and wear it on the rest. Compromise that gives the best of both worlds is probably the best here. A cam-corder system won't do the POV work so unless you already have one of those that a friend can use while you wear a POV video system, it's not worth getting a consumer cam-corder on it's own compared to the dual usage ability a POV system can provide.

I agree here too. With motorcycle racing, the Point Of View footage is a solid go-faster tool as it shows you exactly what you are seeing when you are riding and gives you the info needed to improve your laptimes. POV video analysis is a very good thing in racing. For shooting competition, there is no substitute for seeing the way you are going through the stage from a remote view point. What you will get from POV video is only part of the story about your shooting performance.

Agreed with JJ on Varget being a loser for 55gr. AA2230 and WW748 are the best choices IMHO. They are pretty much the same powder as far as case capacity and burn rate go and I find load data to be interchangeable.

The VholdR is a great system for motorcycle helmet cam but because it is a one-piece system it's weight and bulk make it even harder to use in shooting competition than the GoPro system. The one-piece systems are bulky and weigh a significant amount so mounting them on ear-muffs and hats is a total loser! The best systems for shooting sport use feature a separate camera head and DVR pack. Small and light is the ticket here. I have been providing on-board video systems to motorcycle racers for a while now and have tried just about everything out there. The remote camera head style is the hot ticket to wearable video without the benefit of a full-size motorcycle helmet to mount it on.

The real trick on any Point Of View video system is getting the camera head mounted properly The Mini DVR system has the smallest and lightest camera head out there. It weighs 10 grams and is barely larger than your thumb. I use Velcro and tape to mount it to earmuffs etc... The GoPro system is one piece and kinda bulky so it pretty much needs a helmet to mount it on. The POV.1 camera head is in the same boat and needs a head-band to attach properly or it must be velcroed onto earmuffs or a helmet. The cable on the POV.1 is also pretty heavy and needs lotsa' guidance clips to stay outa' the way.

The Archos is about the worst POV (Point Of View) video system on the market for reliability as it uses a fairly fragile hard drive mechanism :-( You want to use solid state recorders that record to CF and SD card media. Here are some cheapies: GoPro Hero Wide (170 degree FOV) $199 (or less) VholdR $399 These are both web-rez systems (640x480 at 480 lines) and not suitable for DVD or large-screen viewing Here are some better choices: The absolute best one out there is the POV.1 for $649. It is full 720x480 at 550 line broadcast rez. Here are some video clips of the POV.1 system in use on motorcycle racers. POV.1 AMA SuperSport POV.1 MotoGP style A very good 640x480 solid state DVR/Camera system is the Mini DVR system Here is some from Erik Warren using a Mini DVR System with the remote camera head mounted on his earmuffs.Here is some of me running the Mini DVR system clipped onto the receiver of my AR-15 at the 2008 BARC.Make sure to click the Watch In High Quality link at the bottom right of the video window. There are some more systems out there but I have listed the cream of the crop IMHO.

Dillon cripm die for me, set so it barely kisses the case mouth. Like JJ says, not so that it indents the bullet

Nothing whatsoever!

Cook with anything other than lard and you don't really have mexican food any more! There is a mexican restaurant down the coast from us in Morro Bay called Lolo's and they are proud to say they don't cook with lard. It was the least flavorable mexican food I ever ate. The beans were light & flat, the tortilla chips were light & flat and the entrees needed plenty of salsa to have any taste whatsoever. No go Lolo ever again! Give me lard or give me, well, you know what I mean

There is an option in the prefs for Excel, Word & PPT to make the old formats the default save formats so you don't have to remember to select 97-2004 compatible every single time. Of course they make the the new file format the outa-da-box default one

I have timed mag changes for me from the belt and with cinched mags. Time is pretty much equal either way. If I am shooting prone with a bipod, simply rotating the rifle onto one leg of the bipod and reloading from my belt is just as quick and pretty foolproof. If I am mono-podding, I sorta' roll onto my right shoulder and do the belt grab and then insert as I roll back into position and let the mag elevate the rifle to eye level again.

WW748 is a great choice for .223. 27.5 under a 55gr is a good recipe. Don't start there though, work it up carefully from 26.5 depending on your OAL.

One concern here is the longevity of the 2x4 arm holding the plate after it takes a couple high-hopers. Also, what happens when the pipe u-bolt or the pipe itself takes a direct hit? The MGM flashers we have take at least a couple hits on the cross pipe, rotating bearing housing and plate support arm at every single match and yet they keep on tickin'. To me, it looks like one good hit in any of several places has this target in failure mode and the match stopped for range equipment repair :-( I hate going downrange to fix LD flash targets, I like them bulletproof, literally!

The JARD may work for some folks just fine, but my year of 3-gun experience with one says they are not quite the quality of the JP metal. The truth is you get what you pay for and you pay for what you get with triggers. The JP costs more because the parts are solid CNC material whereas the JARD is surface hardened metal and the sear will wear faster and start to double on ya' at some point when you can least afford it :-( IMHO, the JARD is more of a plinkin' grade trigger for the AR. The JP will do ya' right over the long haul in the crucible of competition :-)

I don't bother with couplers/cinches and prefer plain ole' single mag at a time as God and Mr. Stoner intended, LOL Seriously though, I mostly just don't like the extra weight hangin' there to start with and don't find switching across a pair of cinched mags to be any faster/easier than just grabbing another from my belt. I like the KISS thing here, YMMV.

I have seen it being done numerous times. Your shoulder will not be the same for a week, but you "will" have more folks watching you when you shoot than anyone else at that match gets by far At the BARC (Bay Area Rifle Championship), we award anyone who runs a Garand with a special plaque. I totally respect anyone campaigning a real battle rifle! Go for it!!!

Nice piece of rifle, er carbine there. Seriously, that is a really nice build, now you gotta' go race it :-)

Primer seating is a feel thing, even on a progressive. If it feels good, do it LOL Seriously though, the right amount of anvil crush is an acquired feel, not a measured commodity. The shape of the bottom of the pocket can change the depth measurement to fully seated yet still provide the right crush if you go with the flow instead of requiring a constant For rifle loading, I always ream the primer pockets to insure uniformity there. The best thing this provides is a very consistent primer seating "feel" that I consider well worth the price of admission.

Get the Dillon ammo gauge if finished rounds pass the one you have but do not fit your chamber. The Dillon carbide 9mm die is the best choice IMHO. Crank it down till it just rocks the slack outa' the shellplate. I don't let it actually bottom out hard, but I do put just a tiny bit of pressure on the shell-plate. Using case lube give a better result too. Hornady One-Shot is the ticket here. Also, 9mm wants a .355 jacketed and .356 lead bullet diameter. Trying to use .356 jacketed and .357 lead will always produce a coke-bottle everytime because of the bulge at the case mouth from the bullet diameter. BTW, the crimper should never be used to fix this. Just flatten the bell, but do not indent the bullet.

If mags do not drop free, then you need to relieve and polish as needed. smooth all edges and maybe even bevel the entrance a tad. Alternatively, a full mag should snick in under a closed bolt every time without banging it on the bottom. I shave the top of the mag catch until an empty mag snicks in under a closed bolt with a tiny bit of slop on the catch and a full one just snicks in and locks easily, no bottom tapping needed or allowed! BTW, proper mag fit not only eliminates the dreaded one-shot-drop, it also means less bullet drag under the bolt and just a tad more bolt speed which is usually not a bad thing

LOL, my JP Tank Brake clears the range 5 benches either side after the first shot at a public range

Woohoo! I'm in :-)

+1 Agreed! Run what you can get, fix it later.

I didn't polish mine as much as I hogged it out so it has a much more open entrance for mags. Not a lot, but enuff 2 make a difference in mag alignment on the fly.