jaredr

had numerous double-feed malfunctions with my cproducts, retired them and went with pmags about 3,500 rounds ago. no problems so far with the magpul mags -jaredr

i'm in. PM sent. -jared

heat -Jared

I load .223 on a 1050 with a dedicated brass prep toolhead. I have a 1200B in station 6 set to trim to minimum, anything long enough to stick up get's trimmed. easier then measuring and culling out any cartridges for a separate trim operation. -Jared

took a class with Kyle Lamb in NC where he spent a lot of time shooting from unusual/improvised positions. this included a lot of extreme cant: "junkyard prone" - laying the rifle flat on its side on top of cover (trunk/hood of vehicle), "brokeback mountain prone" - hard to describe but basically looks like you're kneeling in a supplicatn position with your forhead flat on the ground shooting downrange from a rollover prone position. rule of thumb was aiming "high on the magazine side", i.e. when rolling rifle left (ejection port up), then aim high right (i.e. the side the magazine is sticking out on". Most shooters found that when rolling the rifle 90 degrees, their POI would shift approx 6" - 8" down and to the side. A 2:00 or 10:00 hold worked for me. /thread drift/ after running through a number of drills, he had his adjunct instructors strip the bolt carrier out of his rifle and then take up some of these positions from behind a vehicle for cover. we went 100 yards downrange to see what the shooter profile looked like. The AI was a big guy, probably 6'3" and 215lbs. it was pretty terrifying to see how small this guy could get from some of these positions. crouching behind the wheel of an old toyata cresida shooting brokeback prone around the front tire, he was basically invisible /end thread drift/ -jared edit to add: i'm using a 50 yd zero shooting 55gr ball @ 2950 fps, changes in ammunition or zero might impact poi under cant, but i wouldn't think by much at 100 yds...

if it's out there, my search-fu is failing. Looking for a combo mag pouch that will hold a single AR mag + a single M&P 9mm mag. have checked bladetech, comp-tac, raven, haven't seen anything but seems pretty straightforward so I can't believe no one's come up with this. anybody have any recommendations? thanks for reading, Jared

gm iprod - very informative post, thanks! heavy metal - for what it's worth, i've always loaded bevel-based in all calibers for which I've loaded lead - mostly because I had a very affordable local caster and most everything they produced was bevel-based (all on magma machines, actually). It was always accurate enough for my needs, and easier to load than flat based projectiles. -jared

installed the bearing mod this afternoon, difference is awesome. Thanks for the great tip!

That looks to be a simple enough process, 1" groups at 100 yards with only an eotech sounds pretty impressive, are you magnifying it? What barrel are you running that load through? S&W VTAC, 16" carbine, 1 in 7 twist. should probably amend my post to say 1" groups @ 100yds when i do my part i've certainly got the occasional trigger spasm in there, but it's consistent enough for me to be happy with it...

that's exactly what I do for mixed headstamp and mil surp once fired brass. 24 gr AA2230 over winchester small rifle primers with MG or Hornady 55gr FMJ is enough for 1" groups @ 100yds (consistently) from prone with an eotech. that's good enough for me. -jared

dillon sells a smaller diameter powder check rod. I use the dillon powder check assembly on several other toolheads, leaving the die adjusted in each and just moving the electric buzzer assembly from one to the other. I have a couple of the rods (one for loading .45 acp, one for 9mm, and one for .223 which are the only calibers i load in volume to make this a real convenience). so far the dillon assembly works well for me. -jared

/thread drift/ interesting to hear your thoughts on the P/W system. I bought one as well - very well built, no complaints, but ultimately decided not to use it because I really didn't feel comfortable running the machine without the "feel" of actually operating it by hand. I've got my 1050 set up for .223 and use two toolheads - one for brass prep (deprime/resize/trim/neck expand) and then another toolhead for loading. * while running the autodrive for brass prep, i found that I was breaking way too many decapping pins on berdan brass - when I tightened the P/W drive clutch enough to resize tough military brass, it would break pins on the berdan cases that worked their way in. When i loosened the clutch enough to slip when encountering berdan brass, it would often stall when resizing mil brass. * could probably use it for actually loading prepped brass, but .223 runs about 50,000 PSI and the chamber is about 4" in front of my face. I just can't bring myself to crank that ammo out without actually running the handle and feeling exactly what kind of resistance i'm getting with each turn of the shellplate. Also - when just running brass prep, i can actually get about 2,000 cartridges an hour through the machine running it by hand, so it's more effective to run the machine by hand rather then use the P/W system. much higher output when you factor in the far fewer screwups that I create running the machine by hand vs. letting the autodrive system move the lever for me. my $.02, everyone else's mileage may vary... /thread drift off/ -jared

not sure how hard the necks on your .308 brass are compared to what I'm used to seeing on .223. I'm just using the expander ball that came with my dillon full length resizing die and it works fine (it is carbide, dig camera went TU so cannot post picture but it is highly polished). reason i'm performing neck expansion on a separate station is because I'm performing 2 different sizing operations - first on station one resizing the full body, and then again on station 3 to bump the neck back on any military brass that's not getting sized sufficiently the first time around. Since I'm performing a second sizing operation, I didn't want to expand the neck on station one only size it back down again in station 3. This is why pulled the expander ball from the sizing die on station 1 and just installed it in a spare die in station 8 so I could perform the neck expansion on a separate station after I've done all my sizing (and trimming on the RT1200 as well). you've got a full length RCBS sizing die, might be worth to back the die out a 1/4" (so it's not sizing) and see if you can expand the neck by running the expander ball through. My $.02 on that is I've also used RCBS .223 dies and found their expander "button" provided a much rougher trip dragging it back through the neck... regards, jared

mixed range pickup brass, winchester small rifle primers, hornday or montana gold 55gr FMJ, 24 gr AA2230, seated to cannelure. about 2900 fps from 16" S&W M&P AR, approx 1" 5 shot groups prone with eotech from prone with eotech which is good enough that i've never bothered losing my zero with the eotech to put on a magnifying optic and test it from a bench...

+1 on that. I did the same thing when setting up the brass prep toolhead for running .223 on my 1050. had to grind back a neck sizing die so I could screw it down sufficiently in order to move the shoulder back on military brass. Would first try screwing my dies all the way back as P.Pres suggests and see if that makes a difference. condition you describe (case head sticking out of gauge) is consistent with neck not being moved back far enough during full body resize, so first thing I would try is screwing the die further down. -best regards, jared

not sure what press you're running or whether you're using one toolhead to prep and another to load. here's how I've set up my 1050, and it's worked very well for about 12,000 .223 rounds toolhead one - case prep station 1 - deprime and full length resize anbd station 2 - primer swage station 3 - <nothing> - not priming during brass prep station 4 - <nothing> - no powder drop during brass prep station 5 - neck size - I use a redding neck sizing die to bump the shoulder back a few thousands (actually ground this down a few thou in order to move the shoulder back sufficiently on military brass, without grinding I could not screw the die down far enough to resize as needed) station 6 - RT1200 trim - adjusted not to size, merely to trim station 7 - <nothing> - empty station 8 - neck expand - I run a dillon expander ball through the neck to open it back up for bullet seating toolhead 2 is just used for loading, not relevant to trim or brass prep (though I do use a decapping die in station 1 just to pop out the odd piece of corncob that gets stuck in the primer flash hole after I tumble the sizing lube off). would think that this approach would solve your neck sizing problem (i.e. just running an expander through the neck after trimming) or am I missing something in your earlier post? -best regards, jared

man, do i feel foolish. "I went to the doctor and said - Doc, it hurts when i move like this, and the doc said OK so don't move like that". Ba-dump bump <cymbal noise>. Grateful for everyone's detailed replies, looks like the CED 7000 woudl probably hold up pretty well (more so with the silicon cover) and the owner's manual indicates it'll probably do everything i need. However, as Brian suggested, another option (if all I'm doing is using it for par timing to practice getting into position and developing a cadence for timed fire), is just don't wear it where while you practice so you (and it) won't get beat up. Once again, common sense and obvious simple solutions conspire to rob me of the oppty for buying new toys. i'll just put the $115 or so i've saved into powder and projectiles (and primers if I can find any). thanks again for everyone's assistance, really appreciate people taking the time to comment. best regards, jared

INTRO: have started practicing rifle a bit more diligently, and my PACT markIV is just too big to use for any position shooting (prone, kneeling, sitting, etc.). Either i'm beating myself up banging into it as I try and get into position, or other pieces of gear (typically rifle mag pouches on my belt) are banging it up. I like it as a chrono (see no need to replace it for that function), and don't want to finally break it with this sort of practice and be out a timer AND a charger. fingure i am better just buying a different timer (ideally smaller, able to hold up to getting knocked around) and save the PACT just for chrono use. ...and THE QUESTION Have read good things about the CED 7000, and like the idea that you can rotate it on it's accessory clip to read the time without taking it off your belt. Question for me is how durable is it and how will it stand up to getting knocked around a bit? i have never seen one up close, wondering if other units like the PACT club timer or the CE pocket pro (which appear to have a bit "bulkier" plastic housing) might be more durable. concern here is that I'd like to start practicing more seriously for 3 gun, and even just dry firing, a lot of the drills will involve movement that will (potentially) knock the timer around a bit more then how i used to practice for handgun (i.e. timer on belt in standing position, drawing and firing against par time). Have read up what I can on the CED 7000, it looks like it has all the features I would need (and probably quite a bit more). With the pact, I particularly liked the PAR & benchmark times. i'm practicing a couple of drills that have you start standing and then (on the clock) get into a seated, prone, etc. position and fire "X" shots within a time period (e.g. standing to prone with 10 rounds on target in 1 min or less). Find the combination of PAR time beeps and benchmark beeps on the PACT help me measure time spent getting into position and then develop a cadence for remainging shots. believe this can be achieved with the CED multiple PAR times feature (please correct if I am off base on that). thanks in advance, appreciate anyone's feedback about their experience with how well the 7000 has held up for them. all best, jared

i bought one to replace my frankengun, really like it. $1800 is a bit on the high end but I have to admit I liked everything working from the start without having to build it up myself. you may be paying a premium to have everything built for you at the factory, but between the the JP handguard (which I <really> like), sling, light, light mount, vltor stock, surefire flash hider, and JP fire controls, there's a lot of $$ already in the rifle when I opened the box. haven't taken out the calculator and brownells catalog to see what the difference is between buying this and building it up myself, but I've no regrets. this was also the first rifle I've owned with a jp trigger, amazed at how much difference it makes. -jared

24 gr of AA2230 and 55gr hornady or montana gold fmj + winchester small rifle primer gives me right around 2900 fps from a 16" S&W AR. could go higher, but i'm reloading mixed commercial and military brass and would rather have a tad more safety margin then the extra 100+ fps.

i just rec'd two cases (7,000 projectiles) 55 gr fmj from montana gold. as i guess you would expect, they work great (or at least as great as I can determine shooting an eotech from the bench to chrono groups @ 100 yds). had to adjust my OAL as the montana gold crimp is slightly lower on the projectile vs. hornady 55gr fmj's but no complaints, perfect function on top of 24 gr. aa2230 and a winchester small rifle primer.

Got it, looks simple, I might even be able to do that. Thanks Jerry i love this site. 11:00 at night and i finally get around to setting up the powder check on my 1050, one search and all my problems are solved. thanks brian, and everyone who makes this such an awesome place to get some help when you need it. -jared

i've bought about 150,000 projectiles from reese and renee teague over the last few years (maybe half for myself and the rest from group buy demand). i know some folks at my club who won't use them for bullseye matches, but i've found them plenty accurate for plinking. from a ransom rest, i've had their 200 gr lSWC's regularly group less then an inch, so that's more then sufficient for me. last I heard, reese did not have any inventory and they weren't committing to come to any of the shows in NC, but renee did not say they were out of the business for good. contact numbers for them are: (256) 748-3333 - telephone 256 748-3323 - fax will say this - they have always been very nice people to deal with, and their prices have always been <significantly> less expensive then other vendors. -Jared

CMMG has just released a ciener-type AR .22 conversion. brownells is stocking it along with very nice .22 lr magazines made by black dog machine. conversion works just like a ciener, except that they're in stock and available through brownells so none of the customer service nightmares everyone else who's apparently done business with jonathan arthur ciener has posted about. installation is just opening up the rear pin, pulling out the bolt carrier, and swapping in the .22 lr conversion. magazine's work the same, no adaptor reqd. i've seen reports of so-so accuracy but I can get about .5" or so when I take my time from the bench at 50 yards (with a 10x scope for testing purposes). that's way more then I could ever do offhand, so think the gun is more then accurate enough for plinking. my two cents. Edited to add: I do most of my AR plinking with an eotech or irons at 25-50 yards. at that distance, the .22lr conversion hits <very> close to pointof impact with winchester white box 55gr FMJ .223, so I don't bother to re-sight in when swapping. my .22lr hits about .5" - 1" left at 50 yds vs. 223 rifle ammo, but then again that's shooting unmagnified at a 50 yard target, so my results are pretty inconsistent to begin with... -Jared

JDBraddy - can I ask you where you're buying solo in 25lb kegs? The largest containers I've found any cannister powder sold in ar 8lb jugs, even from black hills shooter supply (tho they also don't stock Accurate brand powders). Largest volume Powder Valley sells Solo in is also 8lbs. I ususally load WW231 for .45, but the best price I can get is $106/8lbs, and that's if I place a 500lb order and have it delivered by commercial freight. I'm having some impulse control problems, but the shopping list hasn't gotten that bad yet. thanks in advance, jared