New suppressed ammo test…WOW!

Today I got in my first new ammo shipment in almost a year. Prices and supply have been stupid as we all know thanks to Democrats and the things they’ve been doing and supporting but I’d been reading about this round and de used to give it a try if I found some at a reasonable price. Well today’s “reasonable” isn’t what it used to be but I managed to find a few boxes at about forty-five cents a round (who’d have thought we’d see the day so soon?) and in the interest of testing it out I bought them.

As it turns out, I was not disappointed 

I wanted a good suppressed round for my Uzi with the Mossad II suppressor, who h so far had not impressed me a lick even with my own 147gr reloads. It was still only arguably hearing safe with anything I’d tried and even at best it was clearly audible at quite a distance. Although it sounded more like a roof stapler than a gun. I was regretting buying the can even though I’d picked it up used for a song even after the transfer. I was used to rifle suppressors muffling shots somewhat but I’d wanted more from the pistol-caliber Uzi and I felt like I’d wasted my time and money.  But this test tonight changed everything. 

Shooting just for sound and function, I fired the first round with hearing protection in place just to be safe. The bolt slammed home on the first round and had I not seen the slightest flash at the muzzle and felt the action cycle I’d have thought it misfired. WTF?! That wasn’t possible. Was it? I took the err pro off and fired another round. Then two more. The reports were barely louder than the sound of the action cycling. Now THIS…this was what I’d always wanted from a suppressor.  I fired a few more, then pushed the selector into “hose ‘em down” mode and ran the mag out. If I’d had someone there to talk to we could have conversed over the minor noise this thing was making. Incredible. 

I’m not mad about 0.45 a round any more. Not for that sort of performance. Nice job, Winchester!

Looks like someone didn't pay their cartel tax

Mexican military and Federales have a crime scene set up just south of the fence. Seems someone decided to up and die right there. Most peculiar, that.

Organized media campaign to attack the gun and ammo industry?

Ah, that New York Daily News...scaring all of the soccer moms with pictures of nasty, mean bullets being made.

Ever wonder how a bullet is made? Utah bullet factory Barnes Bullets gives an inside look at their massive production plant that takes copper pipes and turns them into lethal ammunition.

An inside look at a Utah bullet factory

Hit the link for lots of neat pics of Barnes Bullets making .300 AAC rounds for Remington. The reporter and the editors see scary things, but I just see several people working at good-paying jobs producing lawful items that other Americans want.

This is what we're going to be up against more and more, I suspect. If Obama can't bully Congress into doing his bidding, his sock puppets in the media will do their best to frighten the public into demanding the changes that he wants to make. And if it means that the Reuters, the original source for this article beclowns itself by writing about "massive" and "incredible" .300 Blackout rounds, which are "used in the M4 carbine, a rifle popular with the armed forces", then so be it.

Note to self: Buy another case of .300 rounds. From Remington/Barnes.

And the London Daily Mail has the same story for the most part, only they say silly things like: "Made to kill: 308 caliber rounds sit in a bin at Barnes Bullets. And both talk about Obama's attempts to reduce gun violence and then claim that "if elected, Trump will reverse these measures if elected.

The Detroit News is running it too. I'm sure that there are more outlets playing at this propaganda game.

Scare, scare, scare... Joseph Goebbels would approve.

A quick and happy range trip, 7.62x51mm edition.

While straightening up my reloading workshop yesterday, I noticed that I had three things that probably should have been combined a long time ago:

1. Several hundred trimmed and primed .308 Winchester cases.
2. Several hundred .30 bullets
3. Several pounds of WC-846 smokeless powder, military "pull-down" stock.

Well damn. That's just a ton of decent ammo there, some assembly required.

So last night, I sat down and made up some test loads, both to check pressures and velocity now that I have a chronograph, and to make sure that the primers in the cases were still good. And since it was just going to be a simple chrony test, I grabbed a surplus bolt-action L2A1 Enfield that was close to the gun room door and headed off to the range.

I wasn't looking for accuracy here, just consistent velocities. That said, the old India-Pakistan war vet gave me a surprising amount of both. Every round went downrange at a bit over 2,800 fps--a tad hot--but the velocity spread was +/- 50fps with two slow and one fast exception out of forty rounds fired. (It should be about 2,700fps.) And at 50 yards--still the max at this range until this week-end, when the 100 yard range re-opens, the rounds held decent groups on the three targets I was using. Then, on a whim, I decided to fire my last ten rounds at six sporting clays that someone had left on the 50-yard berm, and damned if that old rifle didn't bust all six with a round to spare. I just had to hold about 4" under the discs and the windage was spang on. Sporting clays explode impressively when hit with .30 ball.

And every primer fired. That lot of primed brass is going to work just fine.

So now it's back to the loading bench. I'll back the powder charges down a bit and test again, but it looks like I'll have a lot fewer loose components on my shelves soon and a lot more ready-to-shoot ammo. And as for that L2A1...

LIKE!!!

I need to be spending a lot more time with this one than I have been.

And for those curious about using this pull-down powder, obtained from the disassembly of US-surplus military ammo that we mere citizens cannot buy, use load data for Hodgdon BLC(2). Start at the low end of the scale and watch for signs of overpressure, but it's a great value when you can find it...or at least it used to be. I bought this stuff years ago and only just cracked the jug yesterday so I have no idea what it sells for now.

Making 7.7 Japanese ammo from .30-06 cases

This article should be of interest to certain historical rifle shooters. It covers how to make ammunition for the World War Two Japanese rifles chambered for the 7.7x58mm round. This would be the Type 99 Arisaka rifles that are still somewhat common out there, both sporterized for hunting and stock collectibles. Here's mine. I've had it about thirty years but it's basically been a wall-hanger/safe queen for lack of ammunition since the US military pretty much put the Japanese ammo plants out of business in 1945. Today, the gunwriters tend to call the cartridge that it fires "7.7 Arisaka" or just 7.7x58mm. Back when I was growing up we always just called it "7.7 Jap" and the rifles were always "Jap rifles" regardless of the actual make or caliber. Now this may offend some of the more PC individuals out there, or possibly the Japanese, but you know what? We won that war so we'll call it whatever we like.

Anyway, if you have one, you'll know that ammo's tough to come by and expensive as hell. Only a couple of companies make it commercially now and it's spendy stuff. If you're just going hunting and only need 20, you might not mind dropping $30-$40 for a box of 20 rounds. But for target shooting or plinking? That's pricey range fodder.

So here's an alternative that many people use, me included.

Start out with a .30-06 case, commonly available pretty much anywhere.

I put mine in this low-tech but effective fixture made of nails pounded into my workbench. It holds the case with the neck over the edge of the bench, as shown.

Next, we call over Mr. Dremel and knock about half of the neck off above the bottleneck. Gauge used: Mk I eyeball.
This is what you want:
Measurement's not a big deal at that stage because you're just taking off excess metal before trimming to size using the case trimmer.
2.27 inches will do you just fine per the Lyman and other reloading guides.
Now after beveling and chamfering the case mouth, you lube that case and run it through the 7.7 resizing die. This sets the original neck back about .130 inches and expands the case mouth from .308 to .311.
Prime your case and charge it with whatever powder you fancy. This batch is getting Win 748 just because I've got a pound lying around. Then seat your bullet. Here again, you can use cheap 7.62x54mm (Russian) pull-down pullets because they, like the 7.7 Jap, and the .303 Enfields, are .311 diameter. Or if you want to tighten it up a bit, Hornady makes a killer .312 round nose soft-point. My Enfields love those.
Keep your overall length under 3.15 inches and any rifle your loading for should chamber them easily.
Finished product below: One round of 7.7 Japanese.
Here's twenty newly-minted rounds. Took me about an hour, but I enjoy time at my loading bench so it's all good. These particular rounds will actually go to another blogger that some of you follow. She also has a Type 99 Arisaka that she inherited. These are loaded light because I suspect that hers hasn't been fired since shortly before Douglas MacArthur sailed into Tokyo Bay.
And by way of comparison, one of the new rounds (left) next to the .30-06 that the case started out as. Not really much of a difference, eh? Just shorten the case, move the neck back, and expand the case mouth. Simple really. And it beats hell out of paying for store-bought.

Feds retreat on proposed M855 Ammo ban

For once, the public servants listened when the public spoke in objection to something that they wanted to do.

ATF shelves controversial bullet ban proposal

They reportedly heard from 52 senators and 238 House members and over 80,000 citizens on this issue, and even law enforcement groups said that they didn't call for, approve of or see a need for this attempt to ban a fairly large percentage of the available cheap surplus ammunition for AR-15 rifles.

Of course the Justice Department will have the final say, but I doubt that Obama wants to see that decision made so close to his own desk. We all know that he hates gun owners and wants to get even with a group of people that he believes don't support him, but he likes to swipe at the citizens who he views as his enemies from behind the facade of the bureaucracy, and in this instance, the bureaucracy isn't willing to play ball and take the blame in the face of this populace outrage.

Take a look at the list of House and Senate members who weighed in on our behalf, and if yours are among the signatories, send them a nice thank you letter. And if yours are not...remember next November

A win for everyone, except Obama and the greedy speculators who sucked every round of this stuff off the market and have been trying to flip it at a dollar a round or more.

Note to WV voters: Senator Shelley Moore Capito signed the letter, as did Representative Alex Mooney.
Senator Joe Manchin, the guy who ran as "pro-gun", did not.

M855 Arrives.

Over the last couple of weeks, the blogosphere and internet gun forms in general have been abuzz with outrage over the Obama Administration suddenly deciding that M855 62gr. 5.56mm ball ammunition is suddenly "armor-piercing" for the purpose of a ban on further production or sale of this great low-cost target-shooting round, allegedly because it has no "suitable sporting purpose".

BATFE Ammo Ban ALERT

Hey--if you can't take the guns away from the American citizens, you take their ammo, right?

Well I was immune from the panic for a bit, until I noticed that supplier after supplier of this ammo, that was cheap and plentiful until the buzz started, was disappearing faster than the words "radical Muslim" from an Obama speech. I then casually checked my own ammo locker and realized that I didn't actually have but a couple hundred rounds of this stuff as I tend to stick to either 55gr. ball for 5.56 or .30 rounds, a different animal entirely. So, not wanting to be the only kid on the block without any M855, because even I have my sheep-like "follower" moments, I snarfed up a few of the last-remaining cans being offered at "normal" prices. (Yes, Mom...if all my internet friends jumped off a bridge tomorrow--or moved to Texas and started a secession movement--I'd jump/move too.)

So here's what the UPS fairy brought me. 1260rds of green-tip Lake City on strippers.

And for those of you who would like to weigh in on this proposed ban before it's enacted, BATFE has an open comment period and citizens can write in with their thoughts on this by following the instructions in this NRA-ILA alert.

Just please, for the love of God, follow the advice of the Great Tam and do not send in some obscenity-filled, poorly-spelled rant that makes you (and the rest of us) look like some sort of retarded Ron Paul follower. That's not exactly persuasive and it doesn't help our side.

Fun with Chonographs

So out to the range I went today, with my new Competition Electronics ProChrono chronograph and my "enhanced" Ruger 96/44, to test some new loads I'm working up.

This is the first time out with the chronograph, and I was admittedly impressed with the ease of setup: put a battery in, put the skyscreen stalks in the slots, turn it on, and shoot through the "V", remembering to aim high to compensate for mechanical offset due to the optics being a few inches above the bore because a low shot that "looks right" through the scope has taken out countless chronographs over the years. Then just read the bullet velocity. Easy, peasy.

I fired five shots for this first test, as I'm working up a new .44 load with a 300gr. Hornady XTP over Titegroup. Today's test load was 8.5gr. of Titegroup, each round hand-measured.

On the plus side, I only had a deviation of 7 feet per second between the fastest and the slowest round in the group, with the slowest being 1053fps and the fastest two both clocking in at 1060fps. So consistency is definitely there.

ON the downside, I was going for subsonic loads, with the maximum velocity sought being 1050fps, and these were just a touch too fast, each one giving off a minor sonic crack that was still comfortable to shoot without ears, but also still audible enough to get the guy on the adjacent rifle range to ask me if I was shooting .22 shorts. I can do better. Next test loads will be half a grain less, and we'll see what we get from those.

The rifle: A Ruger 96/44 lever-action with an integral suppressor done by SRT Arms.

Very quiet with the right loads. And who can't appreciate a silent .44? I just have to do my part and provide ammo that doesn't break the freaking sound barrier, even by a few fps.

To my friends who shoot Garands and Springfields and Enfields (Oh, my!)

If you can stomach dealing with the profiteers at Cheaper Than Dirt, they do have a quantity of surplus Greek HXP ammo in .30-06, some in boxes and some on Garand clips, at a decent price. They also have .303 for you Enfield Shooters, both in boxes and on clips.

Click here for .30-06 and .303 Greek HXP ammo for sale.

Let the record reflect that I am NOT a fan of CTD after the last gun-ban panic and their wholesale price-gouging when more reputable outfits like Brownells were still honoring their pre-panic prices, even on back-orders. That said, for some reason, CTD has this Greek ammo and no one else does. And let's face it...genuine quality military surplus .30-06 and .303 is neigh impossible to find these days as no one has made any of either for several decades. The HXP, made by the Greek Pyrkal factory, is non-corrosive and boxer primed, which means that you can reload these cases over and over. And HXP has proven itself to be more consistent and accurate in .30 than even the US Lake City-produced surplus stuff, a fact known to many Civilian Marksmanship Program(CMP) shooters who have bought and fired both from the CMP over the years. Likewise, the .303 that I've seen before is slightly oversize, running closer to .312 than .310-.311, and consequently it works better in those wartime Enfields that tend to have slightly oversized bores. (I shoot it, then reload the cases with Hornady's 174gr .312 SPRN bullets and my Enfields love it.)

So despite my dislike of CTD, I'm passing this on to my shooter friends. CTD will make some money, but they're going to make it off someone anyway, and hopefully this way, a few of you who shoot these calibers can benefit.

Out and about today

I went out to run a few errands, and while out, I saw this sign for a political candidate.

I'd like to help the guy out, but for one thing, I don't know anything about him. And aside from that, I already pledged my vote to Mike Nesmith. Sorry Davy.

(If you don't get the joke, ask your parents, kid. And get off my lawn.)

Then I saw this in the parking lot at the drug store.

Welcome to West Virginia.

Then it was out to the range to play for a bit with an old friend, a Remington-produced Springfield 1903A3.

This one hasn't been out of the safe in years, but it shot quite well indeed at a hundred yards today--well enough to make me feel guilty for not taking it out more. I used to shoot this one in the Springfield matches at Camp Perry, and I got it from the CMP back when they had a big batch of small arms back from Greece. I bought several Springfields out of that batch, but most went away when I needed money after losing the leg. This one I kept though, and after shooting it today, I remembered why. It's got the black Greek park job but it shoots great.

Hundred yard target. Ammo used: some 16 year-old reloads made with 150gr. pull-down bullets and surplus powder. This target is only 12" wide and 18" high, and I shot it from a seated position at a bench--no rest or sandbags. The shot at the bottom left was the first shot fired, follwed by two of those low 8-ring hits, but after a couple of sight tweaks, I got it pretty much where I was happy with it--the 9-ring is six inches high by 4 inches wide and most of them went there when I did my part. The orange center is just visible to my eye at that distance. (No excuse for that 7-ring hit at 3 o'clock--I wanked that one.) And the head shot was my last round, just to do it.

I also finally found out what happens when an upside-down primer gets missed during post-reloading inspection and winds up in your pistol. I was shooting my 1911 when suddenly I heard the light "snap" sound of a squib load. I dropped the mag and cleared the pistol, expecting to find an empty case in the chamber and a bullet lodged somewhere in the barrel, but when a whole round ejected, I picked it up and saw that the primer was in the pocket backwards. The firing pin still set it off, but of course it didn't fire the powder charge. Bag of ammo loaded in 2006; that round sat around for most of a decade waiting to trip me up. And THIS is why I don't use reloads for street carry.

Still a happy day though. And confirmed with the range that the blogshoot next Saturday is still good to go, including Keads' bowling pin shoot.

A day at the bench. Loading the .300 AAC round.

Since my stress-fractured foot (the real one, not the store-bought one) is still giving me grief today, I just spent the day with an old pal down the basement, my RCBS Rockchucker press.

Take 300 5.56mm shell casings. Trim them down to roughly 1.370" and re-size in a .300 AAC die. Final trim and chamfer the case mouth and confirm case is 1.368" or thereabouts. Prime the cases and charge them with 16.5 grains of Hodgdon's H110 and seat a pulled 7.62mm 147gr. FMJ ball to an overall cartridge length of 2.10". Presto! new .300 AAC plinking rounds. I just did 300 of them this afternoon.*

Happy.

And the .300 twins here have fodder for a few more practice sessions at the range.

* Lawyerly disclaimer: This load works for me in MY rifles. It is not represented as safe for YOUR rifle. Consult current reloading manuals before attempting to duplicate.

Government set to destroy a billion dollars worth of ammunition.

And this after going on massive buying sprees repeatedly over the past few years, crazy sprees that gave reasonable people the idea that maybe they were just buying it up to keep it out of your hands and mine.

The Defense Department is planning to destroy more than $1 billion in ammunition even though some of it is still usable, Pentagon and congressional sources are reporting.

According to a Government Accountability Office report obtained by USA Today, the problem is that the Defense Department's inventory systems are not able to share data effectively, which means there is no way to know how much of the $1.2 billion in ammunition it is looking to destroy is still viable.

"There is a huge opportunity to save millions, if not billions of dollars if the [Pentagon] can make some common-sense improvements to how it manages ammunition," said Democratic Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

"Despite years of effort, the Army, Navy, and Air Force still don't have an efficient process for doing something as basic as sharing excess bullets," Carper said. "This Governmental Accountability Office (GAO) report clearly shows that our military's antiquated systems lead to millions of dollars in wasteful ammunition purchases."

Read the rest here while I prepare to write NRA Convention and flight posts.

Up in Smoke: Pentagon to Destroy $1B in Ammo

My day...

Up and out and off to the leg doc to begin the process of having a new leg made. Maybe in a couple of weeks, I'll actually be able to walk around the block again. Yay!

Then it was a stop at the gun range to test a couple of loads out. Verdict: 8.5 grains of Unique under a 255gr. cast lead Keith bullet gives me about 850fps and doesn't work the brass or beat the gun, and they hit just high of point of aim at 20 yards consistently. The only falling plate out of 24 that I missed was my fault, and the load is a keeper. Likewise, 16.5 grains of Accurate #9 throws a 210 grain jacketed soft-point .41 Magnum bullet at about 1,400fps and they hit the dueling tree spinners hard enough to bounce them right back to my side of the tree again. I like this load a lot, too.

Then it was back into the other doctor to deal with the bronchitis. Quick test: How do you know that you're in a doctor's office in West Virginia?
Why you look at the magazine rack in the lobby!

American Rifleman magazine, front and center. Murica!

I got not one, not two but THREE breathing treatments and some nifty new prescriptions, and then I went out to the parking lot and spotted this glorious testament to iberal tolerance for others:

Let's see...a Gore sticker, a Che sticker, a vegetarian sticker and at least three calling people that she disagrees with "haters". Yep, sounds like we've got a liberal here. All that's missing is a swipe at Christians, but that's probably on the front underneath the "rainbow" license plate that I didn't bother photographing.

Then it was back home for a nice rest dog-a-palooza. I walked in the door and got hit by both Shepherds at once, jumping on me and begging to go outside. So I put them out in their run and then walked into the kitchen and realized that they'd had a field day while I was gone, taking stuff off the counters (Really dogs? Sour cream?! You guys really ate the sour cream?) and ripping into an old bag of dog food in the back of the pantry. Then of course Belle made her first break out of the pen in a week by somehow moving a large log that I had blocking one of her old bolt-holes, and when I summoned her back in, she jumped on me again and hit my nice clean khaki pants with a big muddy paw-smack. Not to be out-done, Murphy ran into the kitchen like a goon-dog and upended the communal water dish all over the floor, so as of this writing, they are both out on the front deck and may just stay there until I clean up their mess and calm down, which at this rate, could be sometime next week. Ass-dogs.

"We wuv yoo!"

Yeah, you two suck.

A nice day at the range

So I got the new cylinder for my Uberti SAA over the week-end, and as I was anxious to shoot it, first thing this morning I called up Taylor's & Co., of Winchester, Virginia to see if Tom, their gunsmith could fit it today. And he was more then amenable so I grabbed the pistol and six loose factory cartridges off my desk, snagged some handloaded test ammo from my shop, and drove right down.

For twenty bucks, Tom installed it and made sure that it was timed right, and he did it while I waited, which was convenient for me and good business practice for them because I spent the time looking at all of the other wonderful Old West guns and gear in their showroom. The company actually does most of it's business through dealers nationwide, but they obligingly took care of me in their office because I'm local. That sort of customer service is worth a lot these days.

So I took the pistol right to the range and fired off a batch of 255 grain lead semi-wadcutter rounds that I put together using 9 grains of Unique. It hits about 4" high at 15 yards but it groups well. I could probably stand to drop down to 8.5 or eve 8 grains of the Unique so as not to beat the tar out of this nice pistol, as 8 grains will still push that big, heavy chunk of lead at about 825 feet per second, or approximately .45 ACP velocity. 9 grains is supposed to give me 900fps, +/- a bit.

A little shooting therapy was just what I needed today. I'm happy.

On reloading and record-keeping

How many of you, when you reload ammunition, keep records of the specific components used in each load batch? I know tat some folks do, and others don't. I typically do, unless I get lazy, and a recent discovery just hammered home why each of us who reloads should keep detailed records of each lot, right down to component lot numbers for powders and primers.

About a year and some change back, I bought a Glock 21 used off Gunbroker. I took it out to the range with a bag or two of my trusty reloads, only to have no end of problems with it, as written about here:

New Glock Fail

I had that pistol all apart. I replaced it's striker and striker spring, I detail-cleaned it, I did everything I could think of short of sending it back to Glock. It still would not fire reliably, leaving some primers dimpled but not fired. Finally I started trying other ammunition and found that it was flawless on any factory ammo I fed it and reloads from batches different from the can I'd been using. Not only was it frustrating and embarrassing but it shook my faith in this pistol for a long time.

Fast-forward to a few months ago. I had my S&W Model 58 overhauled by a S&W armorer that I work with, and when I got it back from him and started to shoot it again, I started getting misfires with it. It was hitting the primers and dimpling them, but they weren't going off. Being a year or so later and a different caliber completely, I didn't link this problem to the earlier Glock 21 trouble until I was glancing at my ammo load spreadsheet recently. And there it was: Both pistols were choking on ammo that I assembled using primers with a specific manufacturer and lot number. In the case of the S&W, I'd just switched over to shooting ammo made with those primers the first time I took it out after it came back from repair. Naturally my first instinct was to call my friend up and ask him what he'd done to my revolver. An apology has since been made.

And not only was I able to figure out what was wrong in the case of both otherwise-reliable pistols, but because I kept these records, I was able pull and dispose of the unused primers in that lot and then go back through my ammo stocks and locate other ammunition made with these same primers. There's only a couple hundred rounds of these bad rounds left, but they're now set aside as practice ammo and I can take them out knowing that many of them aren't going to shoot the first time they're struck. Fortunately most such rounds are .45 ACP and I have a 1911 that whacks them hard enough to fire them 100% reliably. I just need to keep those rounds away from the Glock.

It's never fun or easy to admit that you screwed something up. Maybe I did screw up here, or maybe the manufacturer did, or the store that I got them from didn't keep them dry. But regardless, those primers were defective when they went into my rounds and if not for meticulous documentation of which components went into each ammo batch, I'd still be scratching my head trying to figure out why certain firearms weren't working right. It's tiresome to keep such records but in this case, it paid off.

So are you tracking your ammo batches to include powder and primer lot numbers? If not, I'd recommend it.

Not the best range day. KABOOM!

And the Uzi went "Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat, POP!" The bolt rode back half way and stopped in a cloud of smoke from the ejection port as the top cover bulged and snapped loose of the rear catch, flying open.

That's not supposed to happen.

Squib load while testing a new ammo recipe. That bullet lodged in the barrel just ahead of the chamber and the next round fired into it, immediately expanding and plugging the bore. With the barrel thus obstructed, all of that pressure had to go somewhere and it did--right back into the action.

Fortunately the Uzi is over-built like a little tank so this is fixable. I may or may not be able to salvage the top cover but I have spares and those are cheap. The bullets are already out of the barrel and it doesn't appear damaged, but I have spare barrels, too. The main thing is that the receiver is unharmed; that would have been cause for tears had it been damaged. But Uzis are tough and the gun will be ready for test-firing as soon as I get around to putting it back together. Still...quite the downer on the range, especially as it was only about a dozen rounds into the first magazine.

But it also stands as a good reminder to all though about why we wear safety glasses when we shoot. A lot up unburned powder and brass fragments came back out of that ejection port and that could have been nasty had it caught someone in the face. Precautions, folks!

Ammunition

A couple of years ago, I took an inventory of my firearms and realized that I needed to maintain ammunition in 21 different calibers.

Obviously this logistical headache needed to be addressed. I told myself that I would streamline the armory to simplify my supply needs. I actually did sell a few guns and still have the sellers' remorse over it.

I re-assessed the ammo situation today, and there has been a change since that previous assessment.

I now have ammo needs across 29 different calibers. They are:

.22lr
.380 ACP
9x19mm
.38 Special
.357 Magnum
.357 Sig
.40 S&W
.41 Magnum
.45 ACP
.44 Magnum
.30 carbine
5.56x45mm
6.5x52 Carcano
6.5x55 Swede
7.5 French
7x57mm Mauser
7.62x39mm
7.62x51mm (linked and loose)
7.62x54R
7.7 Jap
.300 AAC
.30-06
.30-30
.303 British
8x57mm Mauser
12ga.
16ga.
.45-70 Government
.50-70 Government
.577-450

Sigh. But it's not really a bad problem to have, is it?

Anyone?
Tam?
Anyone?

Democrat Diana DeGette Doubles Down on Dumb

Responding to nationwide criticism and mockery of her dopey, misinformed stance on magazines, Dem Dim Bulb Diana DeGette sent one of her aides out to cover for her after she was overheard saying the following:

"I will tell you these are ammunition -- bullets -- so the people who have those now they are going to shoot them, and so if you ban -- if you ban them in the future, the number of these high capacity magazines is going to decrease dramatically over time because the bullets will have been shot and there won't be any more available," she said.

DeGette spokeswoman Juliet Johnson on Wednesday said the senior congresswoman from Denver "misspoke" and then issued another erroneous statement about guns.

"The congresswoman has been working on a high-capacity assault magazine ban for years and has been deeply involved in the issue; she simply misspoke in referring to 'magazines' when she should have referred to 'clips,' which cannot be reused because they don't have a feeding mechanism," Johnson said.

Just to make things clear for DeGette, who still clearly doesn't DeGette it, these are clips:



All of these--and many others like them--are completely and totally reusable.

Thanks to the nice folks at Northridge International for the clip pics...and for the countless clips that I've bought from them over the years.

Keep at it, Dems--just keep showing America that you know nothing about that which you seek to take away from us.

With every stupid ban, the revolution grows.

It's like Christmas in January

So I'm rooting around in my gun room closet last night, taking a detailed inventory and performing basic rust-prevention maintenance on metal stuff with a Rig rag, when I spy a pile of ammo cans way back in the corner. I read the label on the first one, a .50 cal. can. It says: "5.56mm, 62gr., 1000rds." Curious, I pop the top, and sure enough, it holds a thousand rounds SS109 ammo, still in it's factory boxes. I remember buying this many years ago, back when it was ten cents a round and I'd thought the price kinda steep. So this is where it was? Wow!

I grabbed another can. This one held 500 rounds of .303 ammo, all on strippers and in bandoleers. Looks like 300 rounds of Greek HXP, the nice reloadable stuff, and 200 rounds of South African. Oh joy, oh joy, oh joy!

The third can was 600 rounds of 8mm ammo, all reloads that I'd done about a decade ago, but still nice and shiny. Darn it, I'd just bought a bunch of 8mm from AIM Surplus before things went crazy because I had no fodder for my 8mm Mausers. Now I'm awash in the stuff, but somehow it's not a problem that I mind having.

This is kinda like putting on a freshly-laundered pair of pants and finding twenty bucks in the pocket, only way cooler! Shame on me for losing track of this stuff initially, but considering the state that we're in now, I'm kinda glad that I did.

Next time I get a couple of days off, I'm taking a good flashlight and some provisions and really exploring that closet. For all I know, Jimmy Hoffa's back in there somewhere running a reloading press while Elvis boxes the stuff up.

Reloading follies

Yesterday I took some .40 reloads out to the range, working up a new load. Now normally I'm very regimented and compartmentalized in my reloading process, doing everything in batches, one step at a time. When using the single-stage press, I process all of my brass, and then I sit down at the reloading bench and put primed brass into the loading block, charge each one with powder, inspect the entire tray to make sure that each cartridge has powder, then start seating bullets. No other loading blocks with un-charged cases are allowed anywhere near the press when I'm seating bullets.

Well yesterday, I screwed up. Somehow, fifteen test loads got assembled without a powder charge, meaning that I inadvertently skipped the charging step AND failed to inspect the block before moving over to the press. So it was a double screw up.

Well I went out to the range and started test-firing. The first two magazines or cartridges at powder charge "A" and "B" fired just fine. The third--batch "C"--the ones with no powder...well let's just say that it got kinda quiet out there on the range.

Quiet except for some curse words, that is. The primer alone exerts just enough force to drive the bullet into the barrel just firmly enough so that a dowel and a hammer is required to knock it back out. First round bad off of a batch meant that that batch got quarantined and autopsied. Sure enough, the remaining fourteen were powderless.

As we used to say in martial arts: "Owah-tana-siam". (Say it to yourself fast if you don't get it.)

In all my years of reloading, this is the first time that I've ever messed up like this. It'll be the last time, too. But it just goes to show that you've got to pay attention when doing this stuff, as even a moment's carelessness or distraction can bring about a major catastrophe. In this case, I got off light with some no-charge rounds. But many others over the years have double-charged rounds and put in twice the powder by mistake, and a lot of them wound up going to the hospital and then to the gun store to replace the pistol that they'd just destroyed.

I related this today because there are at least three people that I know who read this blog that are novice reloaders. Moral of the story is that even up old-timers can mess up if we don't pay attention, so you newbies to reloading damned sure can.
This can be avoided for the most part though by getting a routine down where you do everything the same way every time, and have several points in the process where you check your work before continuing. I could have caught this screw-up on the loading bench and should have, but I was rushing and didn't follow my own routine. It can happen you you too if you reload, but now after your having read this, it shouldn't, should it?

Go forth now, and make ammunition free of the ammo companies, government interference and the scarcities brought about by panic-buys and hoarders. Just make it good and make it safe.