jaredr

one of my favorites. the audiobook is excellent as well if you've got a long drive. -jaredr

had never heard the term before. first thought when I saw a thread called "detroit bullet trap?" was that it was a question of some sort - my guesses for an answer were: 1) bank 2) liquor store 3) quickie mart? -jaredr

/thread drift/ Just to temper your expectations somewhat, the typical hobbyist reloader (pretty much all of us here) isn't capable of producing higher quality ammo than what ammunition manufacturers sell. We can tune loads to our guns and to particular requirements (power factor), etc, but it isn't higher in quality. Our own ammo may be a better choice for the game we're playing, but from a technical standpoint, it's still not better quality. /snip/ would respectfully disagree with this, at least when it comes to rifle ammo (and maybe to qualify that further, rifle ammo at a specific price point). i've been loading mostly .223 recently, driver was not a desire to improve on quality of factory ammo but instead to just have enough ammunition to support a practice schedule without going broke. using range pickup brass, I can reload 1,000 rounds of .223 for less than $150 vs. $400 or more for brass-cased factory ammo (acknowledge I'm not including my investment in time here). that's mixed headstamp brass, hornady or montana gold 55 gr ball, and 24.5 gr of AA2230. came into some UMC 55 gr ball and was disappointed to see quite a few more flyers on my 100 yard drills. put a 14x scope on my ar and did some shooting from the bench, discovered that remington UMC was regularly going into 3.5" or worse at 100 yards (5 round groups). For the hell of it, tried some wolf I had lying around and I got 2.5"- 3". Went back to my mixed brass reloads and found that I was getting about 1.5" (had at one point thought I was getting 1" or less, but think i probably just needed to shoot more groups for an honest figure). I wasn't disciplined enough to expand the "study" to include other brands of factory ammo, or other rifles, so maybe all this shows is that my AR doesn't like UMC or wolf. either way, it looks like (at least for this gun), the ammo from my 1050 is actually yielding better results then the more affordable factory ammo. as always, ymmv. -jaredr

that describes it pretty well for me. acknowledge that "prior performance is no guarantee of future returns" but my reloads have proven reliable enough (as I would think are those from many on this board) that I don't need to gauge every round in order to have a productive practice session with no ammo-related malfunctions. which is a fancy way of saying i'm really just too lazy to gauge all my practice ammo. on the other hand, when i'm going to a class i don't want to be the guy holding everyone up with equipment (or ammo) malfunctions, so I'll gauge every single round i'm taking with me. for rifle (.223) I've got both a dillon and wilson gauge, and (similar to other posts above) have found my wilson gauge to be tighter than any of my .223 chambers. anything that doesn't pass the wilson gauge goes into a gauge failure bucket, but almost all of those (99 out of 100) will still chamber (and extract) without problem. still, i don't want to be the guy mortaring my rifle 4 times a day to clear the oversize rounds that won't chamber (or extract), and for me it is a confidence booster to know that i've gauged everything I've taken with me. -jared

maybe goes without saying, but i'd absolutely keep all primers in their original packaging. i just keep the individual boxes/sleeves (i.e. case of 5,000) stacked on shelves in cool dry basement as others have also mentioned. if you want to break up a sleeve into individual boxes of 1,000 (10x packages of 100) and put those in an ammo can or other container, than that is up to you but I'm not sure what that buys you. my $.02 - jaredr

Good idea on the pictures! The 1050 the rep had looked like he drilled and tapped a fitting centered in the front...I am sure any of you from Va. have seen him at the gun shows. He is also a commercial reloader out of Va. Beach. If I could remember his name I would mention it...maybe I will track him down and see what he did...He has been at the reloading business a long time...C you wouldn't be referring to terry mcmanuels of Mac's reloading, would you? -jaredr

/apologies for thread drift from original S&B 1-8 subject/ was wondering when someone was going to mention meopta K-dot replacement as contender for 350-400 yards and in? sample i saw at shot looked very nice - shorter/lighter than original (current) k-dot, improved reticle (or so I felt) with elevation chevrons for 400 & 500 yards (sorry did not have camera to get a picture of the new reticle). Anyone else see it, and if so, what are your thoughts? /back to S&B thread/ -jaredr

prior to the expiration of the "assault weapons" ban, when no one was able to manufacture new high -capacity magazines (of any caliber), I can see it making sense to modify a forster frame so you can take advantage of your existing inventory of S_I magazines. Now that caspian's making their own 18 round .40 magazine, not sure that i see much of a need to make this work, but if you've got a bridgeport and some spare time then why not. at the very least, a cool fabrication project. -jaredr

rembrandt - curious to know what are the orange boxes attached to your shotgun barrels?

+1 to crimp .223 (or any rifle round) for an autoloader. for bolt gun, only need to crimp to avoid bullet pull on recoil, can't see that being a problem with any .223 loading -jaredr

read the book about a year and a half ago, went out a picked up 4000 rounds of .223 and about 150 lbs of mountain house provisions, then obsessively checked on my kids at night for another few months. no interest in seeing the movie. -jaredr

Thanks Sarge - looks like Kmart has it local for $22, can't beat that. joe4d - taek your point, this won't help me if I'm without power for an extended time (ice storm that's brought down power lines, for example). generator will cover that, though if we're off the grid for more than a few days, i'll probably have bigger problems then staying comfy while hanging out in the shop -jared

Thanks for everyone's replies! Mildot1 - rest of the house is central heat driven by natural gas heat pump. Unfortunately, workshop area is unfinished, and tying the workshop into central heat would involve tearing up sheetrock elsewhere in the house which I'd like to avoid. Sarge's suggestion sounds like it is most expedient - no venting concerns like with LPG and no venting or installation for a natural gas heater. Challenge here it looks like most of the heavier duty space heaters require a 30 amp circuit, and all I've got running in the shop are 15 and 20 amp circuits Still, i'd rather pull another line from the breakerbox than much around with gas lines). I've checked online for the big box hardware stores (lowes, home depot) and have also checked online at grainger but couldn't find anything wired for residential 110 that had more than 5,000 btu. I've already got a 5k btu ceramic space heater which we use for warming up a guest bedroom - it's ok, but doesn't generate enough heat for the shop. I'll continue to check around online for 100v electric units, if anyone has found one that they're happy with, could you please let me know? much obliged, jared

maybe my search-fu is weak, looked around but couldn't find anything that addresses this. Mods - if this is the wrong forum, pls move. My reloading shop is in our unfinished, unheated basement. Humidity's not a real problem - I run dehumidifier 24x7 mostly year round (it cuts off below 40 degrees, and we don't get temps that low until dead of winter at which point it's usually pretty dry). Heat in winter's another problem, have finally gotten tired of not really enjoying shop time Nov - March. Leaning towards natural gas (gas line is accessabile, already have easy location to vent). Concern was mostly that i'll have a large amount of powder and primers in the same room. Not a scientific well-informed concern (i.e. materials will be kept at other side of room, forced air nat gas heaters have no "exposed" flame) but still not entirely settled with the idea. Keen to understand what anyone else with similar requirements (unfinished loading room without access to central air, cold winter location) has done to make their area more hospitable. thanks in advance, Jared. Edited to add: just read through chris' very helpful post on fire safety, very timely to see it pinned after posting my inquiry on (basically) what is the safest way to heat a reloading area.

The ten demo stages go fast, i think i'll actually spend some money on this one!! -jared

another +1 for AA2230. i've run through about 20lbs or so with mixed headstamp brass, 55gr hornady or montana gold fmj's and winchester small rifle primers. don't know that it's been cleaner than any of the other powders mentioned above, but it meters well, and has always delivered sufficient accuracy for me with an eotech on a 100 yard range. -jared

that's a great article, thanks

May also want to check with Bob Cogan at Accurate Plating and Weaponry. I have never had any work done by them personally but have always heard very positive things about their plating and pistolsmithing work. -jared

i've never seen any reloading data that called for small magnum primers. that said, you'll be best served by getting a reloading manual or published (i.e. vendor published, not hearsay that you get from people like me) reloading data that covers the powder/projectile you want to use. For example, you can get accurate powder's reloading manual online here: http://www.accuratep...3%20version.pdf Hogdon/winchester/imr data can be found here:http://www.hodgdon.c...ic%20Manual.pdf .223 makes about 55,000 psi and (at least from an AR) that chamber is 4 inches or so from my face. I'd get a loading manual before i put together any test rounds... -jared

+10000.

not sure if we're talking about thesame thing - i've seen CCI primers packaged in a plain white carton marked as military spec for (I believe) the M16. my understanding is that they had a harder cup specifically to prevent against slam fires in ar rifles (or any rifle with a floating pin for that matter). Can't recall if they were marketed as 5.56 primers or the packaging referenced the M16 actually. My $.02... Jared

anything about it that you specifically like? do you feel the rifle-length gas system is more reliable then a carbine-length? have heard others say a mid-length gas system has "less" recoil, i have not had a chance to fire one myself. Is there anything about the gas system in your 17" upper that impacts felt recoil, i.e. does it behave differently then a similar upper with a carbine gas system would? thanks, jared Jared, Given like components, ie bolt carrier and buffer weight, any rifle length gas system will feel "softer" than a carbine length system. It is essentially a factor of lengthening the gas pulse to operate the bolt and carrier. That being said there is a lot of combinations involving carrier weight, buffer weight, buffer spring, and adjustable gas systems that can vary these factors. With respect to behavior my experience has been that it is a lot easier to get a gun with a rifle length gas system to be not only a little softer in recoil but also have less movement, which is very important when you want to go fast at distance. Thanks for the reply. Expect I've still got quite a bit of oppty to improve just staying with the kit i've got and drilling the basics, but i'm keen to learn what kind of advantage you <might> be able to get from different gear if all other things stayed the same. -jared

anything about it that you specifically like? do you feel the rifle-length gas system is more reliable then a carbine-length? have heard others say a mid-length gas system has "less" recoil, i have not had a chance to fire one myself. Is there anything about the gas system in your 17" upper that impacts felt recoil, i.e. does it behave differently then a similar upper with a carbine gas system would? thanks, jared

+1. easier to show the firearm disassembled, avoids any question about whether it's loaded

for what it's worth, i had a similar problem and actually took a few thousands off the bottom of the die with a belt sander. that fixed the problem, not sure if my dies were oversized or the ar i had at the time had an oversize chamber... -jared