GBC Secret Santa 2010

This year, the Gunblogger Conspiracy decided to do a Secret Santa. Whitebread drew my name. He sent me two fully loaded Pmags and a box of Speer Gold Dot ammunition in 9mm.



Thank you very much Whitebread. It is most appreciated and will definitely be put to good use.

NIFTY - Annealing Brass

When I start firing necked rifle cases I'm gonna have to start doing this. By the way, those blue Maxwell house tubs make for great brass storage.  

Unexpected Surprises

Last Thursday I received one of those e-mails from UPS that a package was headed my way from SI Defense. Now, back in December Say Uncle put a post up that SI Defense had AR-15 lowers going for $50.00 each. I jumped at the chance to start a build on an EBR. I received the lower through my local FFL and thought I was done with SI Defense for the time being. With that e-mail last Thursday, I was informed that another package was headed my way. I came home to find this.



Thank you very much SI Defense. This is most appreciated and unexpected pleasant surprise. Should you find the need to send anything else my way, I of course would be happy to oblige in receiving it. Of course, now I have to rethink my whole AR build, but oh, what a problem to have.

(FTC disclaimer: whatever transpires between myself and SI Defense is none of your business.)

24 January Range Report

I have been trying to get Taupe of the Chain to get out to the range and send some copper coated lead downrange. Alas, he had other things to consider so I braved the cold to do my part to make Sarah Brady cry. FINALLY he agreed to go to the range yesterday with me. He picked up a Ruger LCP earlier in the week. I knew he was jonesin' to go shoot it.

We left the target at seven yards to get a feel of the gun. Shooting such a lightweight gun was quite snappy and he was putting holes in the paper. I shot through two magazines and was having to readjust my grip after every shot. It is not a gun that is a pleasure to shoot. The sights are extremely low profile and this made target acquisition a challenge.

For whatever reason we decided to move the target stand out to 25 yards. All I can say is, we hit something. That something being the dirt berm behind the target. Oh, there were holes in the paper, but frankly we couldn't tell whose were whose. Deciding that 25 yards was asking a bit much of a 2" plus barrel, it was wisely undertaken to move the target stand back to 15 yards.

I asked Taupe later on about his gun and he said,

It cleans up as any semi auto with a free floating barrel. The takedown pin is kind of a PITA to remove. I wish Ruger would have used a tooless design, but space constraint was probably the #1 priority.

So there you go.

Update: Taupe of the Chain sent me this:



I just recently purchased a Ruger LCP and went to the range. I would like to report on how I did.

The little pistol certainly has some recoil, darn near what my P11 had. Needless to say the LCP is not the most comfortable pistol to shoot, but with its light weight and small profile I figured it was not going to be a fun range pistol.

I primarily bought the pistol for self defense purposes so I am not interested in supreme accuracy.

Ammo:
Herters 380ACP 95gr FMJ brass case berdan primed
MFS 9mm Browning Short(380ACP) 95gr FMJ brass case boxer primed

A friend of mine and I went out to the local shooting range where it was 41F with a decent breeze.

I started out with a 7 yard target and was able to keep all my shots in the 8" target area even scoring a couple of bullseyes.

We then moved the target stand out to 25 yards just for grins. Out of 2 mags I was able to put 6 shots on paper. 25 yards is probably pretty far outside the range of this little guy.

We then tried 15 yards and I was able to put half of my shots on the paper.

I went through 2 boxes of ammo. I know the ammo is cheap stuff (since when did $17 a box of 50 become cheap?), but I only had one failure in 100 shots. YMMV, but Rugers have served me well.

I was able to score a box of 20 Magtech JHP 77gr First Defense ammo for $20 at the local gun show for defense purposes.

http://www.magtechammunition.com/sit...search=details

I was also able to score this little pocket holster for $10 at the show as well.

http://acecase.com/pocket-holster-rubberized.html

All in all I was pretty impressed with the little pistol. I will need to train with it to get better accuracy, but out to 10 yards I can hit my target fairly well.

For $300 plus $20 FFL transfer I think the LCP is one heck of a value. I recommend the little pistol for anyone wanting a CCW or BUG.

24 October Range Report

It was Dirty Harry day at the range, what with Bob's Taurus Raging Bull. He and I both have been jonesin' to shoot the thing, but at $30 a box for range ammo, that's a bit pricey. I've told him that if he buys the dies, I'd reload for the gun. So with 240 grain SWC's, 2 1/2 large pistol primers and 24 grains of H-110 I loaded 97 rounds of .44 Remington Magnum goodness. Holy Hell!!! The rounds were damn hot and left my hand stinging after every shot. The recipe is what is called for in the Hodgon's manual, but I'll be damned if I am going to try any more powder than the bare minimum. Bob, praised them as, "having a good kick." I can't wait til I load some more up.

An update to the Which holster should I get question

About a month ago, I was asked what kind of holster to purchase. And I just didn't and still don't know. I blogged about it here.

JayG at MArooned was one of several people who gave me some direction. He has now put up a primer on obtaining a holster for your gun. He has gained a lot of wisdom from so many years of carrying a gun and I listen to his advice. You should go check it out and heed his wisdom.

Reloading Part 3

Now that we've re-sized & re-primed the cases, we can move on to deburring and charging the round. Personally I own two case blocks and they hold fifty cases each. One is grey and the other red. I do this for a very simple reason. The uncharged cases go in the grey block and after I've charged the cases, they go in the red block. Red is for charged cases.




In the photo below, the deburring tool can be easily seen. One rotation around the mouth of the case should produce a shiny edge ready to accept your slug.



This photo shows the second and fourth cases having been deburred versus the first and third not. Notice the shiny brass on the neck of the deburred cases? This is how they should look.



Charging the cases with gun powder is the next step. You will be working with an explosive so no smoking or drinking is allowed. The powder measure can be adjusted to dispense or “throw” a precise amount of gun powder. You should never have more than one kind of gun powder on you work surface at any one time and never leave powder in the measure after you're done. This particular measure has a hopper with a valve that can be close and removed from the base to easily return the powder to its original container.



Also, a scale and some sort of pour is required to to accurately measure your powder.This allows you to pour through a funnel, into the case.



Below is the powder being poured through the funnel and neck opening die into the case. The through powder die opens the neck of the case up for easy seating of the slug and charging the case all at one time.



One thing that can easily happen is the double charged case. On lighter loads all you'll notice is an extremely hot round going off when you pull the trigger. On heavier loads, you can bulge the barrel and ruin it. On super heavy loads, the gun can and has blown up in the shooters face. Always wear eye protection when reloading, shooting and cleaning your guns.



In the above photograph, in the second column from the left, third case down. That is what a double charge can look like.


Next up is seating the slug in the case. See ya soon.

Update: Some of the photo's were cropped by the blogspot software. If you want to see the whole photo, you should be able to click on it and see the entire picture.

Random Wednesday thoughts

Why should I have the right to carry a gun?

Because a 2 1/2 ton Ford Crown Vic Police Interceptor is a might heavy to carry on my hip

.44 Remington Magnum is a fun caliber to reload.

9mm, after reloading .44 is a pain in the ass to reload.

The Brady Bunch can go find a tall cliff to jump off of and take their bigoted agenda with them.

Josh Sugarmann and the VPC needs to join the Brady Bunch at said cliff

Reasonable 'gun control' is me putting 16 of 16 rounds in my magazine inside the paper circle at 25 yards.

We need to hit the reset button when it comes to the Congresscritters come fall 2010.

Wirecutter at Knuckledragger posts funny stuff, NSFW, but funny stuff.

JayG better get well real soon. He was missed yesterday. I hope you feel better real soon.

There's more stuff rattling around inside my head, but it's early and I have to head to work.

Reloading Part 2

So your brass has been de-primed and polished. You are now ready to re-prime & re-size the casing. In my particular case, since I de-prime and then tumble, small bits of the polishing media can become stuck in the primer pocket. The Lee resizing die also has a depriming rod in it. This will remove the polishing media and allow your fresh primer to seat correctly in the pocket.




The first thing you want to do is to lube your cases. Carbide die sets are supposed to eliminate the need for lubrication. I have found that it is much easier on my arm when pulling the handle for the cases to be lubed. Lee makes a tube of case lube that comes with their anniversary kit. It works, but you will spend a lot of time individually lubing cases. I use One Shot as shown in the picture above. Spray some on your cases and in my case I spray the inside of the sizing die. The added benefit is that your equipment is less stressed.



Once the lube has dried and you have your primers loaded into the primer feed, it's time start feeding cases. This is as good a time as any to visually inspect your cases to look for defects that would be cause for you to reject the case. Split cases and creases at the slug end of the case are common things I've found. Reject those out of hand.





If you feel that it is difficult to seat a primer, stop. You might have encountered a case that was Berdan primed. If you see two holes instead of one as you look into the case it is Berdan primed and must be thrown away. Of course you could also have just a very tight primer pocket. Either way, closely inspect the pocket and if in doubt, chuck the offending case in your brass recycle pile.



Now that you have a supply of primed cases, you should check their length to be in tolerance. This is where your load data book will help you. The book has specific loads for specific bullets as well as critical dimensions for the particular calbier you're reloading. Since I reload 9mm the length of my cartridge should be .754 inches. It never hurts to check your diameters both at the front and back of the cartridge as well. Cartridges that are out of spec will not fit into the chamber properly.

Next time. I'll discuss deburring and charging the round.

Reloading Part 1

So you've bought a new gun and enjoy taking it out to the range. Your buddy bought one as well .In taking it out to the range, you and your buddy buy a couple of boxes of ammunition each and start pulling the trigger on those rounds. One hundred rounds or so apiece and that adds up in terms of money.

As your shooting, there is a person down the line who was here long before you and as your packing up, he's still shooting. You walk over, introduce yourself and ask him how he can afford to shoot so much. He replies that he reloads his own ammunition. Reloads you think to yourself. Then you ask him what is involved. A press of some kind, dies for the caliber you wish to reload, a scale, a powder dispenser, and of course consumables, he tells you. Of course there's also some knowledge you have to acquire before you just start priming and charging cases.



Welcome to a beginner's insight into reloading. I will attempt to explain how I reload using the knowledge I have gained since I started. If you have questions regarding your own reloading please use this as a starting point and seek experienced wisdom beyond what I can tell and show you.



Speaking of knowledge, this book should be your first purchase if you have decided to start reloading your own ammunition. Go ahead and read it, I'll wait. Now, read it again, and..... yet again. There is a lot of knowledge in this book that is going to go a long way in helping you reload. That knowledge will help you from making dumb mistakes that can cause loss of a gun, a limb, your eye sight, even a life. A note here, reloading means you're working with explosive primers and gunpowder. I cannot emphasize this enough, YOU CANNOT BE TOO CAREFUL. Ok, good, I hope I've stressed how important being cognizant of what you're working with is.

I'd suggest you buy your book from the local gun shop. Find the person who reloads there and befriend them. They want to help you. If you do like I did, and buy a book here, a die set there, etc. you will become known to them. I visit my store at least once a week.



The first after you've assembled your equipment and consumables is to deprime your cases. I accomplish this with a universal de primer die. The resizing die that comes with a Lee die set also accomplishes this, but the brass must be cleaned first. By using the universal decapping die, I also ease my burden. I don't have to individualy clean the primer pockets. The brass cleaning process does that for me.



The “tumbler” is what I use to clean my deprimed brass. In goes the tarnished blackened brass, and out comes shiny clean brass. Two popular types of polishing media are corn cob and walnut. I use corn cob as this is what was reccomended to me by my local retailer. In addition to the media a polishing compound is also going to be needed. DO NOT USE BRASSO it contains ammonia and ammonia will work to dissolve the copper that is in the brass. Your local retailer will have a suitable compound.

Next time, I'll talk about resizing and priming cases.

Great Customer Service

The week before last I had taken my CZ P-07 out to the range. It had been a couple of weeks since I had the opportunity to shoot it. I've been working on basic rifle skills with my 10/22 and set the P-07 aside. In the course of shooting the gun, there is a spring rod that holds the trigger bar in tension so that it will operate the sear trip. The rod had come unsprung and was lost in the gravel at the range.

I sent the pistol in late last week to be repaired. This was the second time the gun has had to go in. The first was for a trigger that stuck in the fired position and was a known issue to the factory after the pistol was released to the public. CZ-USA fixed this problem and promptly returned my gun. This time around I didn't even have to wait a full week and I received an e-mail back that my gun was on its way back to me. Little did I know what was in store for me.

They had replaced the entire gun. Now also, the magazines were known to stick in the magazine well and again was a known issue that they were correcting. I never made a fuss about it as this was primarily a gun I use at the range. Apparently rather than fiddle fart around with the frame, they decided to supply a brand new gun. It is really gonna pain me to have to break in a new trigger all over again. :D

So if you're sitting on the fence, offer up a solution

Seriously, the people who open carry as part of their daily lives or do it to make a statement are getting it done. If you oppose open carry as a gun owner or are undecided, offer up an alternative. Just sayin'

Update: Upon further reflection, the recent open carrying of firearms has caused the media to go into PSH. They are a dying entity that should go away soon, so they're rhetoric can be marginalized. To my knowledge, the average person on the street hasn't started calling their local representatives to draft legislation banning open carry. That means they are implicitly approving of the practice. Think about that when you start saying open carry is a bad thing.

I was asked 'that' question

No, not the one about my sexuality. I am straight. Not the one about Coke or Pepsi. Actually neither, I'm a Dr. Pepper kind of guy. I was asked the 'holster' question. What kind of holster should I buy? Damned if I know is my answer. The common wisdom says I'll end up with a box full of holsters. With that in mind, there are some questions that you need to ask yourself.

1. What will your carry piece be?

2. Will the holster be fitted to your gun or a generic holster?

3. At what cant do you want your gun to rest?

4. What side will you carry on, strong or weak?

5. Where will the holster sit? Inside the Waistband, Outside the waistband. Inside the belt, outside the belt or pocket carry? An ankle hoslter perhaps? In the small of your back. A shoulder holster rig?

6. Kydex, Leather, nylon or a combination?

I don't know how to answer any of the above questions for you. It's like asking what is the 'best' gun for (insert purpose here.) There is no magic answer. I did ask some people who were kind enough to point me at some resources so I'll list them here.

www.shop.customcarryconcepts.com

www.comp-tac.com

www.crossbreedholsters.com

www.desantisholster.com

www.donhume.com

www.fobusholster.com

All I can say is start going to your gun shops and start fitting holsters. The packaging can be opened up so you can try your gun in the holster. And if you end up with a box full of holsters, kindly refer back to this post. I'm just going to say it now, I told you so.

h/t to JayG, Unix Jedi, CJR, Sevesteen, & aepilotjim for their kind assistance.

The first rule of CCW Club

You do not talk about CCW Club

The Second rule of CCW Club, you DO NOT talk about CCW Club.

Third Rule of CCW Club, you can't throw a rock 1,000 fps, that's why you joined CCW Club, make certain you're always a member of CCW Club where appropriate.

Fourth rule of CCW Club, shoot your gun enough that when it's time to talk about CCW Club, you're breathing to do so.

Fifth rule of CCW Club, if you're not gonna follow rule four, don't follow rule three.

*ccw - Missouri's name for a conceal carry permit.

New Shooter Range

From the NRA

On Monday, September 21, the Warren County Commissioners will consider allowing a new outdoor youth shooting facility to be constructed. If approved by the Commissioners, the new range will be located in the southern part of Warren County and will provide new opportunities for youth-oriented shooting sports in the area. This range will give young, novice shooters the opportunity to learn proper firearm safety, hone their skills, and exercise their Second Amendment freedoms in a safe, controlled environment. The vote will take place at 2 p.m. at 107 W. Walton St. in Warrenton.

This is good news. Warren county currently only enjoys one public and one private club range each. Reifsnider conservation area is generally busy during the weekends and another range in the southern part of the county would take some pressure off of Reifsnider.

Daddy Cass and the nanny animal farm

Image shamelessly stolen from Wirecutter


Shame on all you hunters. Shame, because everyone knows it comes from the local piggly wiggly.

So Cass Sunstein thinks my dog should have the right to sue me. He feels that hunting is wrong and that my 2nd Amendment rights apply to the army only. To that I'll be signing up for my Missouri Hunter Safety Education Course. Now, to find a decent used 30-06. I'm really looking forward to this November.

Remember folks, some animals are more equal than others.

And we thought a .50 was a big gun to shoot

The 22nd Annual Osage River Mountain Man Rendezvous and Muzzleloader Shootis happening Sept. 18-20 below Bagnell Dam in Central MO. Bagnell dam holds back the Lake of the Ozarks and generates quite a bit of power for Missouri. French Artillery, muzzleloader shooting and... Anvil Shooting. 100 lb hunks of metal and LOTS of gunpowder. Sounds like a good time.

Circular Reasoning in regards to the range report

Buddy B: It's bitchness is sweet.

Me: Bitch!!

Buddy B: It's sweetness is bitch

Me: Sweet!

Today was my best day yet in shooting my Ruger 10/22. I even shot weak hand with my CZ Rami and I did decent with that as well. Well, at least I hit the paper target, although no where near was I printing decent groupings. I like shooting 147 gr FMJ through it and I bought some 147 gr RN to reload. I need to work up a load for it though. I just haven't the relevant reload data, as I am not satisfied with what Lyman has to offer. The slug seemed to seat too deep in the case. I'm afraid I'll overpressure the barrel. Off to clean my guns.

What is it about guns that hooks you?

That was the question asked recently. A fellow responder posted the quote. My response is as follows;

Quote:

I think that for most men it is about extension of power. I know that idea is frowned upon, perhaps even by members of this fine forum, but I think the ability to affect our surroundings beyond arms' length is very alluring.

But how do you use that power? Like Peter Parker's uncle said "With great power comes great responsibility." Anyone who holds a gun in their hands literally can have the power of life and death over another living creature. Exercising that power responsibly is to me, a part of the allure. Not giving into some base instinct to harm something needlessly. That's cruelty and makes you a monster, not a human.

Also, I enjoy the ongoing mastery of a particular piece of equipment. Each of my guns shoots just a little bit different. Becoming competent with each of them is part of the challenge. Obtaining perfection is a goal I'll strive for, but never achieve.

The scientific aspect as well. The violent chemical reaction initiated by a mechanical force that imparts energy upon a projectile is fascinating. Making it all come together consistently is the challenge.

Yes, we can measure the powder and load the slug to a certain length in the case. The rifling of our barrel stays the same, but the biggest variable is between our ears. How we respond to the external stimuli when on the firing line defines, to me, the greatest challenge of the mechanical aspect of shooting.

Complete that Right Wing Militia look

You can buy an evil gas guzzling SUV and your EBR all in one place. The St. Louis Hummer Dealer is now part gun store. I knew that there was something afoot when the boss' husband came in and told me that they were putting in a firing range at this place. I figured a pro shop as well. Went in there after work this afternoon to check it out. As you walk in the front door, a four sided glass counter holds the pistolero offerings as well as those of a bladed variety. A nice selection of Glocks, Rugers, Taurus', Sigs, H&K's, and a smattering of other manufacturers. The Sigs seemed to be priced high, with only two models south of a four digit price tag. I don't know, maybe they didn't give the Sig rep a great deal on his H2. Two entire rooms dedicated to EBR's and shotguns respectively. The EBR prices seemed fair to high in a couple of cases. The shotguns were Brownings and Benellis. I don't know about shotgun pricing so I won'teven hazard a guess. A fair selection of ammunition as well, and priced competitively with other gun stores in the area. They won't touch the Walmart across the highway though. I say good luck to them and I'll pop in from time to time. There was that Barrett sitting there......