jaredr

I've always taper crimped .45 ACP. have had good results using the Lee FCD with both lead 230 gr round nose and 200 gr LSWC and also 230 gr FMJ.

I Don't remember seeing them in the white boxes since I started reloading and that was 10 plus years ago.

simple rule of thumb i learned was to aim "high on the magazine side". if ejection port is down (and mag is sticking out on the left) then aim high left. if ejection port is up (and mag is sticking out on the right) then aim high right.

Latina mortua est.

Very motivating. Thanks you and congrats!

Same conclusion I've come to. Spring an extra $10 or so for the padded version.

sending it back to JP, they'll advise whether the trigger requires adjustment or replacement. would much rather they take a look at it then start monkeying around with set screw adjustment (or making other uneducated guesses) on my own.

have about 20K rounds through a S&W VTAC model AR that came with a factory-installed JP trigger. have recently begun noticing distinct creep in the trigger - tore it down, cleaned everything and did some dry fire tests with the upper removed and still the same behaviour - gritty, notchy pull for about 1/4" or so before the hammer falls. tried swapping out the springs for a new set of JP yellows but still same issues. inspected the hammer and trigger and can see some burnishing (consistent with what I expect for metal on metal contact) but no damage of any sort that is visible to the naked eye. curious to see what (if any) measurable service life other folks are seeing in their JP (or similar high-quality single stage) AR triggers? Not sure whether this may need adjusting or if I've just somehow reached the end of its life as a match trigger. If I have, then I don't think I would complain - trigger was awesome for 3+ years of heavy use and well into the rifle's second barrel. I'll call JP and see what they recommend, keen to see whether others have experienced a similar failure point or deterioration of trigger performance over time. thx, Jared

need to pick up a spotting scope, can get a leupold ventana 20-60 x 80mm for a great price but keen to see if anyone has any feedback on glass quality for this product? I'll be using it for spotting .30 hits on paper out to (ideally) 300 yards and calling hits on steel out to (again, ideally) 600-800 yards. i like the idea of getting a good deal but if i'm just going to be disappointed (or will find it isn't sufficient for my intended purpose) then would prefer to just cry once, buy once, and get a better scope from day 1. appreciate any feedback folks may have on this.

re-resurrecting this thread for a necropost update. After about 500 rounds, my rube goldberg fix has worked loose. there are some good suggestions in this thread, but I think i'm going to quit while I am ahead and get this back to S&W so they can fix it before I maul it to the point where they may (rightfully) claim i've created more problems then there were to begin with... time to break out the crummy drop-in atchisson conversion while this thing is in transit

my son calls from the bus stop letting me know he'll be there in 5 minutes. no problem, normal routine is he calls when he is on his way home and then let's me know when he is 5 min out. when i get the "5 minute" call, I hop in the car and drive down to the end of the street to meet him. i get the call today letting me know we are at T minus 5 min and say no prob, will meet you there I grab my keys and head out the door to find that my wife has left her car right behind mine (she got home in a hurry so just skipped navigating it into the garage). No problem, i'll take her car. Or not. I hop into her 2011 toyota highlander, make sure it's in park, foot on the brake and press the ignition and... nothing. error message says "key not detected" which apparently is code for the japanese transliteration of "you're screwed". no problem, i can sort this, i figure the battery in my remote has run low so I go to grab her keys. sprint into the house, run back, try her keys, same thing. 8,000 miles away in hokkaido they're laughing at the skinny white guy running around like a chicken without a head, frantically pressing remote control buttons and looking like some sort of desparate cargo cult priest. i don't know how these things work or why they don't work now, but if I somehow press the remote control tiki idol fast enough the gods will look upon me with favor? Or not. No joy on either remote control and my wife's vehicle is in park - blocking me in and transmission on her car is locked in park, cannot put it into neutral (to just push it out of the way) without starting the ignition. Of course if i could get it started, I wouldn't be pushing it anywhere... grab the 10-speed off of the wall, pedal up the street and get there just as the bus pulls in... turns out the keyloss remote system is apparently very sensitive and it was in fact the batteries in the remote control (yes, both of them). was (later) able to start the car only by physically pressing the fob up against the push-button start (signal was apparently so weak it needed to be physically proximate to the sensor in the vehicle). replaced the batteries and everything was golden. my next car is going to be a 71 dodge dart.

just saw this thread. I've done exactly the same thing - it made it much easier to see exactly how much of the swage rod was protruding into the primer hole. also have to remember to adjust the primer swage backup die as you raise or lower the primer swage rod - if the backup die is not adjusted to capture the brass cartridge against the swage rod, the rod just pushes the cartridge up within the shellplate tolerance and the primer crimp will not be swaged out... edited to add - no backup die in this photo, toolhead is set up for something else, just threw the cartridge in their for reference to the swage rod.

Fwiw I've sold about two dozen aero precision matched upper and lower receiver sets (x15 model) over the last few months. Fit and finish on all of them has been excellent. only concern I would have about buying a components build rifle from an end user is if there is a problem with the barrel performance (or any other component) your options for getting it serviced may be very limited (I.e. you're on your own)

my $.02? if you can afford the significant cost difference between a 1050 and a 650 then go ahead and buy the 1050, you certainly won't be disappointed as long as you can afford the extra cost. Granted its a lot more $$ but in my opinion, priming on the downstroke and the built in swaging station are worth it.

good friend of mine is getting into reloading, his interest is in making precision/match .308 for bolt gun practice at 500-1000 yds. he's picked up a forster press and has begun to accumulate the other tools (tumbler, calipers, case gauge, bullet comparator, etc.) and had asked me about dies. his intention is to segregate brass and he will only use federal headstamp for reloading precision .308 as he has a few hundred factory gold medal match rounds that have already been once fired through his .308 bolt gun. I load all of my .308 on my 650 using a redding competition seating die and a full length resizing die that I have adjusted to resize the neck only. all my .308 brass goes through the same savage model 10 rifle and I shoot WW headstamp only. Only range readily available to me is 100 yds and this approach gives me sub-moa at 100 yards when I'm not having some seizure behind the rifle, so I am satisfied with that. I have no experience using bushing dies for resizing the neck, tho i understand tha they may provide some benefits over traditional dies (bushing die will work the neck less by simply sizing it down to a bushing-specified dimension, vs. resizing the neck down below SAMMI spec and then expanding it back to a given dimension using the expander ball). I don't want to just recommend he use a full length resizing die because that is all I am familiar with, but on the other hand I have no experience with bushing dies so only know what redding's product page says about their use and benefits. My question(s) for folks who have used bushing dies for loading precision rifle ammunition are: 1) can you use a bushing die if you are going to stick to a single headstamp but are NOT going to neck turn your brass? my understanding is that the bushing die relies (at least in part) on having a very consistent brass thickness in the cartridge neck as the busing simply sizes down to a standard outside diameter (and relies on a consistent corresponding inside diameter because the brass will be a consistent neck thickness). 2) if you are not going to neck-turn your brass, is there a meaningful benefit to using the redding type s bushing dies vs. just using a traditional full length die and adjusting it to neck size (or bump the shoulder back on occasion as needed)? 2) If you are neck sizing using a bushing die, will you also occasionally need to bump the shoulder back with a body die after a few firings? Appreciate comments and feedback.

Now that is a darn good idea and one I had not thought of at all!

Resurrecting this thread for the stunning conclusion. Short answer: used JB weld, worked fine. Longer answer with pictures: Decided to go the JB weld route versus a thread insert. Figured it might be challenging to try a “do over” on the M&P 15-22 plastic receiver if I wasn’t happy with the results, so wanted to first run some test cases and see what kind of thread strength I might be able to get trying to create new threads out of JB weld. Just saying that product name sounds like a bad omen (“no problem, we can fix this with JB Weld!”), but things actually worked out well… Another reason to try a few test cases was because I needed to choose a bolt size to use. There wouldn’t be enough clearance between the existing hole and the original ¼” bolt to for fully formed threads to develop in the adhesive. I would need to either expand the hole (not really an option as not enough material left in receiver) or choose another size fastener. I didn’t want to do my experimenting with fastener selection on the actual receiver, so this was another reason to test this approach on some scrap plastic before getting epoxy all over my M&P receiver. I had some scrap 0.75” delrin rod in the shop, figured I would use it as a test medium and try a couple of different thread pitches to see whether there was any difference in the strength of the “JB Weld threads” that would be formed around the fastener hardware. Testing approach was to try a couple of different size fasteners and for each fastener: drill a hole in a piece of delrin that would be at least 0.05” oversized from the fastener to allow the JB weld to bond to the delrin and have enough material for full threads to be formed by the fastener, Using a burr grinder, score up the interior of the oversized hole and then also grind out two deep pockets on opposite sides of the hole to help the JB Weld to bond securely to the interior of the hole in the delrin plug fill the cavity in the delrin with JB Weld, spray the fastener with cooking spray (as a mold release) and then screw the fastener into the hole full of JB Weld let the delrin plug cure overnight secure the delrin plug in a lathe chuck to hold it in place, remove the fastener (backing it out of the delrin plug) and then test thread strength by screwing the fastener back into the plug and trying to overtighten the fastener in the newly threaded JB Weld plug using a torque wrench keep increasing the torque and record how much torque was required before the threads sheared or the JB Weld insert broke free inside the plug and started rotating inside the delrin. Figured I would try this with a #12 sheet metal screw (approx. 12 tpi), a #10 x 24 bolt, and for the heck of it would try the original ¼” x 28tpi bolt. I knew I wouldn’t be able to actually use the original bolt in the expoxy repair, but figured I would try it as a test case and see whether the 28tpi threads appeared to be as strong as a deeper, coarser thread. I started with the #12 sheet metal screw – this looked to me like the best option as it had the deepest threads. I set up the test with the #12 screw and called it quits for the night, figured I would set up the other two the next day. Came back after 18 hours or so, chucked the delrin plug with the #12 screw in the lathe to secure it, back the screw out (broke loose of the epoxy very easily) and then started screwing it back in using a torque wrench. It’s an inexpensive Midway USA tool but figured it would be sufficient to just give me a relative idea of how strong the JB weld threads turned out. Once the wrench would start to slip, I would just increase it by 5 or 10 inch/lbs and start tightening again. I worked up to 60 inch/lbs and the threads were still holding fine. I was satisfied with that and didn’t see a reason to bother with the other tests as I wasn’t looking for more than 60 lnch/lbs to secure the pistol grip Went ahead applied the same approach to the M&P15-22 receiver and it worked fine. All in all, I’m pleased with how it turned out. I like the M&P15-22 and think it’s a good value for the $$ but probably not a great platform for the endless tinkering and new parts trials that you can do with an aluminum receiver.

They all had it coming...

Someone on another forum had suggested putting some JB weld in the hole, coating the bolt with wax/cooking spray/makeshift mold release and then putting the screw in while it's still wet. After full curing time, you should be able to unscrew it with a little bit of elbow grease. I think this is the optimal route for me. helicoil/thread insert or just drilling and tapping to the next size up is what I would normally turn to first but there's less than 0.10" of plastic on either side of the hole so I'm very leary of removing any more material. Even trying to thread in an insert that is close to the current ID and would accept a smaller diameter bolt would (i think) be dicey as there's just not much material there. this is so far my only complaint about the M&P 15-22 - i think it was a mistake to use the standard AR 1/4" 1/4"x28 bolt to secure the pistol grip to the plastic receiver given how little material that leaves on either side of the bolt hole. i'm going to see if I can find a #10 sized bolt with anything coarser than the standard 24tpi. would almost prefer something with the super-exaggerated threads of a sheetrock anchor but I suspect that is overdoing it... thanks for everyone's suggestions.

I thought about trying to install something like a helicoil or thread insert but there's really not a whole lot of plastic left on either side of the existing hole.

finally picked up a S&W M&P 15-22 a few weeks ago and really like it. Went to swap out the stock grip for an aftermarket part (tangodown) and as I am tightening the grip screw down, I realize it's not very tight and not getting any tighter... I back the screw out and discover that the hole in the plastic receiver is littered with small bits of black plastic from the pistol grip screw hole so I had obviously stripped the plastic threads in the receiver. Didn't think i was using much torque at all but apparently it doesn't take much. Question: what's the best way to fix this? My thought was: to coat the inside of the hole with a thick layer of marine-tek, let it dry for about 5-10 min (until it get's tacky) spray the grip screw with cooking spray (as a release agent) clamp the pistol grip in place so it is flush against the receiver (will probably use a pipe clamp) once the pistol grip is clamped into place, screw the pistol grip retaining screw all the way in and let the marine-tek cure around the screw (clamp will hold the grip in place rather then relying on the un-cured marine-tek) Not sure that this will be good for lots of swapping the pistol grip on and off but best I can think of for a secure but non-permanent way to reattach the pistol grip? Appreciate any feedback or suggestions for alternatives. thanks, jared

what are you talking about scott? i've got 6, you heard me, SIX brand new plastic magazines still in the bag (and with the little snap on feed lip thing) - and all i want is a precious life-sustaining internal organ (that matches my blood type). AND i'm throwing in a free carrier assembly if you'll supply the transplant team. moving my thread to the humour forum will just make people think i'm not serious here...

have six new in bag, black with windows AND plastic snap-on feed lip protector thingy, WTT for kidney from O+ donor with healthy, drug and disease free lifestyle (to compensate for my own shortcomings). can throw in a bolt carrier assembly if you bring your own surgeon and anesthesiologist.

thanks for the replies. 2 out of the three mags are working now (tho not sure what i've done differently). Appreciate the correction re: pulling down the tab on the back of the mag, apparently I didn't do as well as I thought with those pictograms. oddly enough, it does go bang on an empty mag (with the mags that work), but it's not as loud a report (since pressure's aren't being raised by the bb obstructing the bore). I'll go back and doublecheck my steps to see if its just (likely) using error that's hosing me with the last mag,

new to airsoft but psyched about getting some practice time indoors and doing more than just dry firing. Just picked up a Western Arms gas blowback gun from a forum member and am having some trouble getting started. Please excuse in advance if I'm asking a bonehead question here but I'm not able to get the pistol to fire and not sure what I'm doing wrong. I've never used an airsoft gas blowback gun before, but according to the pictograms in the (japanese) owner's manual it looks pretty straightforward - please advise if I am missing something here? 1) load magazine with gas (I am using propane adapter and coleman camping propane, letting magazine warm up after I fill it, will pick up some silicon to lubricate the seals and firearm internals but for now just want to function fire the pistol) 2) load magazine with airsoft bb's, 3) pull down the "tab" on the mag to free the silver gas seal button on the mag, 4) the mag, rack slide and go bang. unfortunately, when the hammer drops, all i get is a click. I get the same result with each of the three magazines that came with the airsoft pistol. Any thoughts on what I'm doing wrong? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.