jaredr

um, yeah and thanks for the perspective, but after i take a moment to contemplate and be thankful for what i've got, promise to spend more time with my kids, etc. I'm going to send a note to black hills and see if they have an ETA on those cases of 55gr ball edited to add: congrats on the good news for your friend's niece

brownells has been my favorite vendor for a long time and I really think their policies during the current craziness help set them apart.

appreciate the feedback, looks like I need to either find a different powder or possibly just different bullets. Unfortunately all i have on hand are ball powders (aa2230, SMP735) which I've read are not optimal for heavy bullets. I've got load data so I'll give it a try, otherwise may just need try some sierra's if I want a heavier weight bullet for distance.

thanks, i've read from several others that RE15 is their "go to" powder for heavier bullet loads so wasn't sure if it was a problem with my barrel twist or possible other factors. sounds like I can play around with seating depth a bit but may just have to try some other powders.

what twist rate barrel are you using for your 75gr loads?

shot out the barrel of my S&W VTAC carbine, rebarreled with an 18" ranier arms rifle-length gas system, twist is 1:8. Sierra 69gr SMK's are sub-MOA with 24 gr RE15 so the barrel has accuracy potential. Tried 75gr hornady BTHP's (RE15, various charges from 21 - 24 gr) and groups opened up to 2.5". They're not keyholing but definitely not the accuracy I'm looking for. Anyone have any experience trying these in 1:8 twist barrel - wondering if the twist rate is just not sufficient to get the most out the 75 gr bullet.

finally took the plunge on buying a first focal plane mil/mil optic. ordered from SWFA last night, saw the charge hit my credit card @ 3:00 pm today and I'm all excited about finally buying a "nicer" piece of glass, wondering whether it might get here in time for me to get it mounted and get things dialed in over next weekend, etc... Much to my dismay, I get their auto-generated email at 4:30 pm telling me they're actually out of stock on this item, no ETA on availability etc. I'm frustrated, call them to inquire about what's going on? The CSA guy advises me that their website just tells you WHAT THEY OFFER for sale, there's no indication of whether the item is actually available. Their policy is to charge the card in full to confirm the purchaser has funds, then check inventory. I'm told that since the item is unavailable, they will no refund my card (sooner or later). I'll leave it on backorder because they've got the best price I could find, but that's some disappointing stuff right there. lesson learned is check stock over the phone before making any assumptions about when they can actually ship anything... edited for spelling

disregard. a cursory google search confirms this is a bad idea.

I have two that work fine when run unsuppressed, had not had any failures in the 500+ (unsuppressed) rounds I'd put through each so far. Once I put the can on, they each did the maraca transmogrification within 100 rounds. same malfunction with each - the follower became jammed with approx 15-20 rounds left in the magazine. Round gets pulled off the top, follower does not move up to "follow" the round stack, rounds remaining in the magazine do the lucy and ricki thing shaking all about. had received a couple of new 60 rounders, decided I'd rather sell them off then try my luck. admittedly, running the rifle with a suppressor (M42000 and 762-SD) blows a lot more crap back down the magazine well (unspent rounds in the magazine look like you tumbled them in fireplace ashes). However, my Pmags run perfect suppressed or not, so not interested in having a magazine around with such tight tolerances that it can't function with the increased grime of running suppressed. end of novella...

Samson is making one now. http://www.samson-mf...ution-Stop.html I have been told, but cannot confirm, the spacing fits other popular rails in addition to the Evo. hey, that's pretty cool! I didn't know they made this, thanks for the heads up!

congrats on the new rifle. fwiw, er shaw is a well known OEM barrel manufacturer and my understanding is they supply blanks and finished barrels for many manufacturers and assemblers. i haven't used their AR barrels but have a few of their 10/22 barrels and they're all very accurate (if fed the ammo they like, which isn't uncommon for rimfire). shoot the heck out of yours and see what it likes best

it's not very difficult to swap out a non-adjustable gas block for an adjustable one (JP makes a highly regarded product, $65 or so from brownells, i've used the PRI low profile adjustable block and it's worked very well for me). if you don't get to shoot very often, then you may want to forgo a DIY approach and just get a JP upper if you can afford one. you can spend an unbelievable amount of time tinkering with things to get them right, and if you have very little range time for function testing than you may find that approach a frustrating exercise...

full of magpul-y industrial design goodness but from a gaming perspective not sure how it improves over an A2? yes, it's got a storage compartment but i've also got pockets, a backpack, glovebox in my car, and I usually bring my kid out to the range to haul around my crap

i'd like to see provision for a hand-stop that can mount directly to the handguard without needing a picattiny rail interface. Noveske has indicated they'll have something like that in an upcoming "NSR" rail - assume they're naming it for the shooting drill, not the bike

I had a SN-4 with the lund reticle (green) in a larue SPR mount. great scope but ultimately ended up selling it. loved having high quality glass that was built like a tank. it never saw any real abuse on my rifle, but i liked knowing that it could take anything i would likely ever dish out. biggest drawback for me was not having a daylight visible illuminated reticle. I shoot mostly at 100 yards or less, so the variable magnification was more of a "nice to have" for most of my range practice but the absence of a visible dot really slowed me down. Especially on steel that had already taken a few hits and was now a miserable mottled color - the black reticle really took me a moment or two to pick out, and even when shooting on paper up close, the black reticle was not as quick as an eotech or an aimpoint which is what i was used to. a budget alternative i've been looking at is the new leupold VXR 1.25 - 4 illuminated reticle. i've only had an opportunity to try one once, but the reticle was very bright - easily the closest thing i've seen to an aimpoint in a variable magnification scope. downside is they're not true 1x, so they're really not comparable to the meopta or any of the true 1x variables mentioned so far.

nothing wrong with you are seeing. the variances you report above are no different from what I've seen in almost every vendor's bullets I have used. Only place where you may see projectiles all weighing exactly what they're advertised at (or consistently within .1 gr of that weight) is $$$ precision rifle bullets. For pistol bullets, especially cast lead, i consider mself lucky if the bullet is somewhere within 5% of what it's supposed to be...

looks like a great bench but I would agree with the post above and install it without the wheels. unless you know you're going to have to move it around a bit, think you might be better off having it anchored as solidly as possible and even a little bit of motion when you're reloading is enough to introduce some aggravation.

fwiw - my standard titegroup load for 9mm is 4.3 gr of titegroup, and spot checks of my powder drop usually indicate 4.3 - 4.4 gr on my PACT digital scale. I usually see a variation of 0.1 gr at most during normal use. if I have left powder in the measure overnight, the first powder drop will typically be 4.7-4.8 (perhaps it settles?). I usually clear a few charges when resuming loading and then check weight of dispensed powder. if your target load is 3.2gr, i don't know that it would be unacceptable to have charges from 3.1 - 3.3 gr (i.e. 0.1gr +/-).

long story short, that is unfortunately not an option for this barrel as the vendor is is more or less out of the business for the time being with medical disabilities. ah well, it is what it is. do have one question regarding barrel construction - are barrel extensions typically pinned to the barrel with the locator pin once headspace is set? I've never seen one come loose but have also never installed one myself?

bummer. stripped it apart and the barrel unscrews from the extension easily - the locater pin does not extend into the barrel. Screwed it back on with plenty of red locktite, torqued it down to whatever I could get, and reinstalled the gas block which appears to line up ok. Will see how it headspaces in the morning. I'll order a replacement barrel but this is in 300 blackout and I need a pistol length gas system so selection and availability is limited. this is a hobby gun so worst that happens is it loosens up again and I just have to put it aside for a while until new barrel shows up.

taking off a suppressor from an AR and discovered that the barrel had loosened up in the barrel extension. felt some give when unscrewing the suppressor, took the bolt carrier out and inspected the chamber while attempting to unscrew the suppressor, I could watch the barrel move inside the stationary barrel extension I'll have to disassemble everything the get the barrel out, what's the best way to re-attach the barrel extension - just red locktite or is there some other standard approach?

first time a supermarket sample prompted me to buy something. Greek-style yogurt, the "tropical sweet heat" is made with pineapple, mango, and HABANERO PEPPERS absolutely awesome stuff. unfortunately, pricey as well, so I ended up buying a large (and less expensive) container of their vanilla yogurt and then spent 30 min at home playing around with dumping in cayenne and various other pepper spices. Not quite as good as theirs, so I'll go back for more (once the roof of my mouth heals up )

whew, for a minute there i thought i wasn't snotty enough to look down my nose at the OP and deride his questions along with the rest of us all due respect, i'd say the last few responses are closer to what i would expect from arfcom then here edited to add: i'll stay subscribed to this thread for the same reason I read most of this forum - there's still i might learn something...

I feel like a luddite here, but instead of a 1-10x for $ $2800 i'd rather have a 1-4X with a 2nd focal plane TRUE daylight visible red-dot (i.e. aimpoint bright) for $1400 out the door. a 1-10x is truly impressive, like training squirrel to pilot a re-entry vehicle, but I don't really have any use for it and would rather have a more practical solution (for me) at a more affordable price. man, just reading that makes me feel old. I'm gonna go outside an tell the neighborhood kids to get off my lawn...

maybe i'm missing something obvious but I came away with much the same impression. first group - reasonably tight, what I would expect from shooting prone with a support under my free-float handguard (appears that optic has been dialed in for this distance as POA = POI) second group - ok, what you would expect from monopodding off the magwell. third group - tells us nothing about the rifle, it's being fired unsupported fourth group - tells us what we all know, resting the rifle on the barrel changes where the bullets end up. feel like i'm looking for the picture of jesus in the pizza here - no hidden lessons or complicated messages I can see here