usnmars

People act differently in stressful situations. I dont blame the guy at all. The fact of the matter is our justice system is completely fugged.

I have an odd tradition that I do on memorial day weekend and figured I'd pass it on to yall. SHOOT AN AMERICAN MILSURP! Be it a Garand, 1903, GI 1911 or an AR. It gives you a greater appreciation for what the troops go through. I know it is kinda goofy, but it is what I do. Today I went out and shot my GI 1911's since I go back to work on Sunday so I miss most of the weekend. Also if you see one, THANK A VET!

I recently got into reloading and am addicted as hell. I bought a bunch of stuff and figured I'd share some of the stuff that is awesome in my setup. I am using just a Lee single stage breech lock setup but so far I am in love with it. I got a Hornady lock and load powder trickler from midway powder measure This thing is absolutely AWESOME! The one thing I learned is to let it warm up. The longer warm up time you give it the better(I turn it on when I start priming cases). If you just fire it up and calibrate, it will overthrow quite a bit. If you let it warm up say maybe 1/2 hr. it will give you exact charges every time. The trickler has an auto function, so once you put the empty powder pan back on the scale it will automatically throw another charge. On a single stage this is great, by the time you seat your bullet another charge is ready for the next round. I verify the charge weights about every 10 throws with a separate digital scale and have never had any variances. Overall this thing is SWEET!!!!!! I bought a cabelas media seperator media seperator link and this thing does the job. The hinges are molded plastic that just snaps together. Once in a while, the hinges will pop out on you. Although a minor inconvenience, it is a pain in the A$$. Although it does the job nice, i would look for another one. I am already thinking on bolting some hinges to it and getting rid of the plastic ones. If I buy something, I expect it to last. I also got the Lee factory crimp dies for .45, .308, and 30-06. These were recommended to me from the guy that is teaching me precision loading. These put a nice consistent crimp on that is just awesome. They average about $10 each too so they are well worth the cost. The greatest thing of all time in my setup is a cheap magnetic bar from harbor freight. magnetic holder linkI mounted it to the front edge of my bench and put my small tools on it. It is the greatest accessory I have ever spent $5 on. I put my deburring tools, primer pocket tools and allen wrenches and even a tiny flash light on it and they are always within easy reach. I cannot recommend this enough to people. I just ordered 2 more for my garage since they are on sale right now. And for those that have a lee press with the quick change bushings. Do yourself a favor and get a couple of sets of these. Lee bushings link They are the lock ring eliminator bushings. They make setting up your dies so much faster. I keep the lock rings on my dies and just use them as a lock nut on your bushings. Your dies stay set up exactly where you set them last time. I verify every time I start and haven't even moved .001" I figured I'd share some of my likes and dislikes so far, hopefully someone gets some use from it.

I saw that too. PISSES ME OFF. If the guy had the nerve to rob the place, he faced the consequences. Justice was done to the bad guy, but the good guy got burned for it. WTF is wrong with the country!!!!!!!!

congrats! Be kinda glad he didn't go officer, he doesn't want to be hated and despised

Glad to be of some help Kenny. Dont hesitate to ask any questions you got.

Yeah, I know this is for match grade ammo. But what the heck, if the guy wants to teach I will learn all I can. And he's given me free tools to do it all too! I worked up a basic but very accurate load that all of my m1's seem to like. I verified this today shooting some VERRRRY long range with one of my D's. This reloading stuff is fun, kinda addicting. MIDWAYUSA LOVES ME, and my checking account HATES MATT!

Alright I have a friend that is a major competition Garand shooter. He is semi-retired so on his time off he travels the country shooting in competitions. He walked me through competition brass prep yesterday and sometime this week he is coming over in the evening to walk me through some "competition" reloading. If I ever wanted to learn reloading Garand specific, it is from this guy. Although I am a noob, he wants to teach me now and have me learn his way the first time rather than have to fix old habits later. I am just reloading for fun not comp, but figured i want to learn all that he wants to share. Like I said I am a complete noob, so some of this may seem like basics to you experienced guys, and like I am thinking some of it is WAAAAAAAY overkill. Here is what he walked me through yesterday with the brass prep. I may have forgotten some of the stuff he mentioned so I will add to this as it comes back to me. 1) uniformity is absolutely everything. MEASURE EVERYTHNG Clean your brass then do a full length re-size. He likes the RCBS x-dies for sizing so I may have to order a set. He said the Hornady dies I am using are excellent dies though and will work good for me. Once the brass has been re-sized dump them in the tumbler again. You want to remove absolutely all traces of case lube. First off do your best to get all of your brass uniform. This includes reaming your primer pockets on all your brass to a uniform depth. Do all your brass so that way everything is exactly the same. Then deburr the primer flash holes to get them all exact and uniform. A variation of the flash hole will effect how the primer ignites the powder. Trim your cases every time you reload them. If they dont need it, nothing will get trimmed off. This way you know the length of all your brass is uniform. Verify the lengths afterward with a caliper on all cases. Then do a debur and ream on the case necks. Then he showed me all about neck turning. He said I shouldn't even bother with this right now, but showed me anyway in case I want to get into comp in the future. Now is where I think he goes overboard. Have a bunch of brass processed and ready to go. Then get a couple of coffee cans and sort your brass by WEIGHT! he said even commercial brass varies in wall thickness depending on the lot of brass sheets supplied to the manufacturers before they make it cases. This variation of case thickness effects the volume of the case once bullet is seated. Although this volume is minute he says it does effect the powder burn coefficient. I know most of yall are laughing, going duh- I do this normally but to me a noob I learned a bit from him. I will add some notes once he comes over this week to show me how to actually load up some ammo. He actually said the brass prep is the easiest part and loading up the rounds is extremely time consuming and meticulous.

OH TRUST ME- My checking account is screaming at me right now!!!

I am addicted and really surprised it took me so long to get into it. Last time I was home the guy down the street brought me up all of his reloading stuff. All I needed was a press so that is what got my butt in gear to get goin. I am using the basic Lee single stage press which although I have nothing to compare it to, I think feels like it will work out for what I need. The greatest thing I got though is the Hornady automatic powder trickler. THIS THING IS AWESOME-- you just enter on the keypad what grain you want to load and press start, it automatically measures out your powder. Once you empty the powder pan into a case and put the empty pan on the scale, it automatically shoots out another charge of powder. This thing does everything but wipe your butt!!!!! I am a brass freak too, I went to the range yesterday to test fire some of my loads. There was a guy there shootin a garand and the first thing out of my mouth was "you want your brass?" He laughed and said take it all. YAY- My name is Eric and I am a brass ho.

OK, here is eric's freak of nature gun cleaning routines. I enjoy the heck out of cleaning milsurps, but not commercial stuff. The milsurps are fun, and really relaxing especially when you start thinking about where the gun was and what it did. Now, when I am cleaning I listen to music from the country that the rifle is from. For the German guns it is Rammstein, American is Glenn Miller, ect...... you get the point. Overall I find it a very relaxing routine if done in moderation. I did learn my lesson, dont bring 10 guns to the range at one time- Then it becomes a chore.

Once you get a vast collection of clips you can start ordering loose. Sometimes the CMP will have loose ammo waaaaaaay cheaper than on clips. I have enough clips to last me so I am about 50/50 when it comes to ordering. Sometimes in clips sometimes loose, all depends what kind of mood I'm in.

YAY thanks Matt!!!!!! I got another manual!

well thankfully I get off the rig tomorrow, but this hitch offshore I brought up 9 of them. I hooked about 20 but only 9 got on deck. I got another 2 last night and my arms are friggin killing me. Cant wait to be Jersey bound!

what really irks me is Comerade Obama's statement that he was quickly buried at sea in accordance with Islamic custom. An Islamic body has to be buried as quickly as possible. WHY DO WE CARE IF ISLAMIC CUSTOM WAS CARRIED OUT WITH THIS POS!!!!!!!! He should have been packed in a vat of LARD and brought out to Ground Zero to be displayed, not buried at sea quickly to follow Islamic custom!!!!!!!!!!

If I was home, I would be there in a heartbeat!

You have no clue Tim, no clue. I am often referred to as "mr big words". There is a special breed of people out here. I am trying to stock up on tuna for "commie cosmo weekend!"

Pulling them up 80ft up to the fishing deck is quite the choreographed undertaking. It takes at minimum 3 peole at minimum, although the more the better. I honestly don't know the reason we can't eat it out here. But we have a dedicated fish freezer and an industrial vacuum sealer. I fly home with it all the time without a problem. I am not even off shift yet today and all I can think of is going out again tonight. LOL

I had a chance to get out after shift and throw some lures around. Sure enough the tuna were everywhere. I could only handle 2 until my arm was about to fall off, but here they are an 80lb'er and a 100lb'er. We aren't allowed to eat them offshore, but they are cleaned and vacuum packed ready to come home with me. Igave 95% of the meat away to other people, but fortunately none went to waste. Sometimes work doesn't always suck......

I will go for the manual.......

One thing on mag caps. I always play it safe, 15 rds MAX. I have never questioned it, I just follow what the law says.

I wouldn't qualify. I recently learned about Jersey's trecherous waters. Had another damn boating accident.

also feel free to blame the GOVT for the oil prices. There hasn't been a new hole started in the gulf since the spill, almost a year ago. The news is reporting that "permits are getting approved" but the fact of the matter they are not for new wells. They are for re-entry on wells that were plugged when the moratorium started, or for intervention work. So they are allowing rigs to start to go back and finish the wells that they started, not start new wells. And the permits still are slow as heck, we are still waiting on a permit to do some minor work, but govt bureaucracy wins. I come to work just chip and paint.

Yeah and those people have absolutely no clue as to what they are talking about. Just like the media a couple of months ago took a mini sub down to the bottom by the spill site. They were like "oooh, look there's nothing down here, everything's dead" They were flat out making it sound like it was a coral reef before the spill. I for one can say that when I am on bottom and see some kind of life, I have to stop what I am doing and video it. It is such a rare occurance to see anything alive past 4000ft that WE HAVE TO VIDEO IT!!!! The media is a big bunch of IDIOTS when it comes to the disaster. Once you realize the media sensationalizes everything to get a good story, look up the real facts as to what really happened (if they are even released yet) What I was saying about the cell phones and such. BP is a major stickler when it comes to safety rules. When you drive to the facility on company time you have to file a journey management plan. Where you are going which routes and what time, ect. If they call you and they know you are driving, dont even bother coming to work..... you're done. Talking on a cell phone and driving at the same time is a huge NO-NO. Look up BP's 6 in 1 training (I think that's the name) It will give you a good heads up, and may impress them at the interview that you actually reviewed the training.

I like alumahyde from brownells. It comes in a rattle can and holds up pretty good from what I've seen. I did the monster mosin using the stuff and it seems to hold up really good actually. Just thoroughly degrease the thing, i mean really thoroughly, and spray away. It takes a long time to cure, but the wait is well worth it. The longer you wait before you use it the better.