Griz

No switches to turn it off when the tube is full and all reviews say how great the Mr BF collator is... I could add switches and probably tweak any problems with the Hornady, but I don't really want a project, I just want a bulletfeeder...

How much work is it to get the Hornady die to work with the Mr Bulletfeeder collater? I would love to get a Mr Bulletfeeder, but I'd want to use it with all of my .35x calibers and I'm not willing to pay $150 each to switch from 9x19 to 9x23 to .357 to .38 Short Colt, etc

I just want to point out for anyone who did not notice that the title of that last episode was "Face Off".

I think that may be your problem... Everything I read from accuracy focused smiths says that breechface to hood should be .000" Kevin probably runs his a little tighter than that!

Maybe I'm too cynical, but I'm fairly sure that the producers did not pick him for his gunsmithing skills or business reputation... I just wonder how many episodes before they find an excuse for the wife and/or daughter to go swimming on camera.

I was saying that I think a standard magwell would make a perfect prone pad *after* having the angle adjusted so that it points at the target instead of the sky. That would be a simple operation with a mill or even a belt sander. I probably have more padding between me and the ground than you do, but I think the height would be fine on an Open gun with the scope on top of a shroud and stick shift. It might be too low by 1/2" or so for a Metallic gun. For that the easiest and cheapest option would be to start with a standard magwell, adjust the angle, then mount a shim of the desired height to the bottom of it. You would wind up with a prone pad with a bigger footprint than Warren's 1911 prone pad, which would be more stable and therefor better... I think?

I'm going to expose my ignorance here, but what does a prone pad do that a big magwell on a 2011 won't do? I have a Limcat on one of mine and it is plenty high and much wider than the prone pad on my 1911 AP gun. One pass with a mill to tweak the angle and get the muzzle down a little and it would be superior to the prone pad on my AP gun.

I kind of like the knife throwing type stuff since it tends to separate the great shooters with natural hand-eye coordination from the one-trick ponies who can just pull a trigger and crash outside of their comfort zone. Next season I want to see a cast net challenge. First one to fill up the bait-well wins! Or maybe a lure casting contest... Who can skip a Senko under a dock and land it right next to the rear piling? Bass Pro Shops would love it

Thats the only part of the show that I don't like... You know what you get when you mix Country and RAP, don't you? CRAP.

My favorite was launching a front pivot pin detent in the kitchen when putting together an AR lower. I heard it ricochet off the wall, hit the ceiling, but I never heard it hit the floor.... I looked around the room and the only soft landing spot was a basket of laundry... sure enough, it was on top of the laundry!

Is the focus IPSC or NRA AP? If it's AP, then a .40 would be less than ideal because they only need to make 120 power factor and a 120 pf .40 would make the mover a little more difficult

9x19 cartridges = Tapered Cylinder walls = Straight The implication of a tapered case is that when the the round is fired, the brass is pushed back against the breech face and expands. Since it is in a tapered chamber, when pressure subsides, it might not move forward away from the breech face/blast shield. So, each additional round that is fired may add more and more drag to the cylinder from case heads dragging on the blast shield, increasing the trigger pull with each shot. That's the theory anyway, I don't know how it works out in real life.

At $0.11 each, they are cheaper to buy than to print unless you have an enterprise class laser printer!

Blade Tech makes one... It is listed for a 6" 586, not a 686, but there might be an outside chance that it could be made to work

I just installed a Shumatec DIY DRO kit running open-source software with cheap chinese scales on my mini-mill. It makes things much easier and I only have about $250 in the DRO+scales. http://www.shumatech.com/ http://www.wildhorse-innovations.com/ I also have a power window motor sitting on my workbench that will turn into a power feed when I get energetic Openmike makes a good point about the Z-axis... That is something that I constantly fight on the mini-mill. I sometimes even have to drill holes using jobber length drill bits held in a collet because I run out of room for a chuck. I have a swivel base that I never use for my Kurt-clone vice because I can't afford the extra couple of inches of height, plus the higher off the table you get when milling, the slower you have to go because the lack of column rigidity starts to really become evident. I lust after a bigger mill, but the mini-mill is adequate for my needs so I'm going to work towards getting a mid-sized lathe before I upgrade my mill.

Whatever you do, please don't pry the sideplate off. Take the screws out and give the side of the grip frame a sharp wack with the handle of a screwdriver or a block of wood. The inertia of the sideplate will make it pop right off and you won't bend it or booger it up. This guy shows how to do it at around 7:30

You might want to talk to a lawyer who has experience in this area. There is no liability if you give the gun back unaltered and inform the customer that it is unsafe and you will not work on it. On the other hand, you are on the hook for destroying the customer's property if you hack on it to render it inert without permission. You would lose that one every single time in small claims court.

At the absolute bare minimum to start making chips you will need a vice and/or clamp kit, a collet, an end mill bit and maybe some parallels. The thing that will make working on rifle barrels tough on the mini-lathe is the 3/4" or less spindle bore.

I have the harbor freight mini-mill. It is capable of doing anything on a 1911, but like shooting sports, the results depend on the indian, not the arrow. I know nothing about machining and just dove in and started making chips. The first cut I ever made in steel was lightening the slide on a STI short-block kit. Talk about high pucker factor, but it turned out well. I've also made wings/shrouds for AP, drilled and tapped for scope mounts, etc. It will chatter very badly if you get too aggressive. The column is not very rigid, so when you put a high load on the bit, the column flexes and starts bouncing the bit against the work. There are a lot of things you can do to help the situation, but it's always going to be a small, light machine. The best resource I have found for the mill (including lots of the improvements you can make) is the Yahoo group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GrizHFMinimill/ Also: http://www.mini-lathe.com/Mini_mill/Main/mini-mill.htm http://www.littlemachineshop.com/ I will eventually get a bigger machine, but the mini-mill isn't a bad way to get started. As others have said, the mill isn't really the big investment, the tooling is. I paid about $400 for my mini-mill, but I bet I have over $3000 in tooling. I did initially chose the Harbor Freight version because it has an R8 spindle like most Bridgeport clones. That way all of my tooling will fit when/if I find a steal on a real mill.

You can already have that, it's called a "Lee Factory Crimp Die". The catalog cover is what brought their brand name to my attention every month for a decade until I was finally brainwashed enough to buy a press.

One of the sources of frustration in NRA AP is that "rulings" like this are not published. If you are in the right clique, you will hear about them word-of-mouth, but if you are an "outsider" who just goes by what the rule book says, you could be in for a surprise. I would suggest posting all clarifications and rulings on the NRA web site.

My prediction for the elimination challenge next week is Jaime vs George with George being sent home. Barring one of them winning immunity, it's just math. IIRC, there are 3 Marines, 1 sailor and 1 airman... I'm pretty sure George and Jaime will vote for each other and it is very doubtful that the Marines will vote for each other. Oh, the drama!

I was just throwing ideas out there that I knew probably wouldn't stick but hoped they would get others thinking about the problems.... But if they are adding a 3rd mover, and have already added a lane to the barricades, it sounds like there is no issue.

I was reading another thread talking about Mover throughput being the obstacle to shortening the Cup by a day and/or increasing the number of shooters... The obvious answer that probably is not an option is to change the Mover Event so that it can be run more quickly. At our (Bedford) State match last year we ran the Moving Target Match described in rule 10.19 (not the "normal" "Moving Target Event (Modified)" described in 10.24). This allowed us to run people through much more quickly and start the awards ceremony earlier in the day so that out-of-town shooters could hit the road earlier. Does anyone know the history behind the 24 shot Mover in 10.19 and why the "normal" one is called the "Modified" mover? The Texas Mover is not in the rule book (but I would love to see it added) would also be a great alternative. It exercises a skill that the current Bianchi Cup does not test (reloading). You could easily have a 3 minute time limit for each shooter. That would give 2 minutes for the shooter to move between stations and do a dance or ritual or whatever he needs to do. This would let you realistically run about 100 shooters a day on each mover which would give a throughput of 200 shooters a day for the current range. I have also heard that the Barricades are a bottleneck... That could easily be solved with a little dozer work and a work party to add a lane or two to the barricade range. I would hate to see the ticks on that hillside have to move though.

I never have empty moonclips in my range bag, they have loaded or empty brass unless they are being reloaded at home! I use mailing tubes to carry them around. I glue one end-cap shut since a tube full of loaded clips can push the end off if you handle it roughly. Tubes are McMaster-Carr PN 2044T49 and end caps are 2044T69