compujas

This. I get these letters in the mail all the time and throw them out with the letters from my car dealer saying "We'll pay you more than you paid us for your car 2 years ago", or the free roundtrip flight for 2 when you sign up for an airline credit card that has an annual fee of $150. If this benefit were TRULY free and TRULY no strings attached, it would be an automatic part of my NRA membership that I didn't have to register for or activate. I would really like to know what the actual catch is though, but if someone verifies that there really isn't one, then I'll change my tune and sign up, but I don't typically trust something that calls and snail mails me repeatedly to get me to sign up for something "free with no strings".

Exactly what I was thinking. What would've happened if this were a plain-clothes cop that happened to walk by? If you're open carrying for protection and some random person starts yelling at you and pointing a gun at you telling you to get on the ground, are you going to wait to determine that he's not a cop? If you do wait, then you might as well leave your gun at home because it's not going to help save your life.

I stand corrected. Dillon apparently makes carbide rifle dies (that you still need to lube anyway), but it just reduces the amount of wear. But at $120 for just the sizing die, I can buy 4 full sets of Lee dies. And I'll have to try the One Shot in a coffee can. I'm usually only doing .308 about 25 at a time anyway, so my method isn't too bad for me.

I personally have a Lee Challenger Breech Lock that I use for everything since I haven't made the jump to progressive just yet. The breech lock press is nice because you don't have to re-setup the dies every time you switch, your settings are saved. I think single stage presses are simple enough that pretty much any press will work just fine. I also use Lee dies which work just fine for me and I haven't found a convincing argument to spend the extra money on other companies' dies. I've also never really read anything bad about any particular brand of dies, but if you're loading for extreme precision there may be benefits to one over another, but for regular reloading, any dies should work. As for lubing cases and carbide dies, there are no carbide rifle dies. Carbide dies are only for straight wall cases. You must lube all rifle cases (or anything going into a steel die). If you don't lube the case, you will very quickly find out why you need to. I use Frankford Arsenal case lube, lay the cases out on a paper towel, give a quick spray, flip them over, another spray, wait a minute, and start sizing. You do have to clean them off afterwards, but if you're doing low volume with a single stage press anyway, I just use a paper towel to give them a quick wipe down after sizing. I've tried Hornady One Shot and nearly got a case stuck. For full disclosure, this was when I was still new to rifle reloading, so I may not have done it properly, so I'm not saying there's anything wrong with Hornady necessarily, but I switched to Frankford Arsenal and haven't had a problem since. The Lee Case Lube also works well, but gets messy as it's a paste that you apply with your fingers.

We should all be so lucky as to be considered a "threat to burglars". http://www.guardian....ymartin.ukcrime "counsel for the [parole] board, argued that it had not acted irrationally and burglars were entitled to protection from violent homeowners and were not to be treated as "fair game". Absolutely ridiculous. Unfortunately this kind of stuff happens here too, like that guy who sued the homeowner because he fell through the skylight while breaking into a house and landed on a knife. There shouldn't be any tort coverage for someone committing a crime. Being a criminal is a gamble, like playing russian roulette; don't get upset if the chamber comes up loaded...or should I say the homeowner comes up loaded.

Propellant gasses are not the only place that heat comes from in a gun. Think about a black metal gun sitting in the desert sun for 16 hours. There's a reason they hot/cold/ambient test weapons and ammunition. As for using plastic in cartridge cases, it has been done, but I am not aware of any reasonable-pressure cartridges doing it. In 40mm grenades, the training round and most non-lethal rounds use a plastic cartridge case, but peak pressure in those rounds is only around 3000psi. I would also be very leery of the consistency of plastic cases due to the heat of the gasses likely scorching the plastic and pitting it, changing the volume of the case "randomly" each time. I'd also be surprised if you could still fit enough propellant in the case given how much thicker the wall has to be (aka the inside of the case is much smaller). If many propellant loads are pushing compressed loads with thin-walled brass, how would you ever fit that same amount of propellant in a plastic case. Just my ramblings on the topic. And PS: I am also one of those "munitions engineers", and it really is an awesome job. Ok, so I decided to actually watch the video. It seems like they're low-powered loads. Judging by the .338 Lapua Magnum and .308 Win, there's almost no recoil. The .50BMG is obviously suppressed and sub-sonic, so that explains that. The plastic has got to be some crazy concoction that's going to be really expensive. You can't just take some standard nylon and do this otherwise everyone would've done it ages ago. Anyway, there's got to be something they're not telling (for obvious reasons). It does seem like they've got something, but I doubt it will catch on. If it does and the military picks it up, the soldiers aren't going to have enough pockets to carry all the ammo they're going to want to bring. Half the weight means double the ammo, and they already cram mags in every crevice they can.

Their range fees were WAY overpriced. I went there a few times, and if I recall, it was $14.95/hr per person, regardless of how many ports. I brought guests and even though we shared a single port it cost $30-45 to shoot for an hour. Not to mention the lighting and air handling system were terrible. It was always dark and hazy in the range, and the RO sat in the little cubicle reading magazines. It sucks that a gunshop closed up, but I think the only reason they stayed in business that long is because no other shops were remotely close, and the local police depts frequented the range a lot. I never purchased anything from them though so I can't speak to their sales people, prices, or selection. As for why it closed, I heard the same story that raz told.

I have this sorter as well, and I can only echo what everyone else has said. It is great for sorting standard caliber brass (.45, .40, 9mm). I have also had a 380 slip through here and there, but they always get found when I almost fall off my chair while sizing 9mm cases and the 380 case offers no resistance in the "oversized" die. My only complaint is that it's quite loud while sorting, but that's nothing against the sorter, and I just throw on a pair of earmuffs and all is well...but I don't think my dog likes it.

I use the Lee 4 die set. It has a separate factory crimp die.

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately, for me at least, Midway only has Blade-tech holsters for certain guns (no DOH for a Beretta 92), and shooters connection shows that the tek-lok version of the doh is special order. And I'm a lefty, limiting my holster options even more. At that point I might as well order direct from Blade-tech. Hopefully one of those two companies will be more helpful for someone else's particular combination, but for me, I'm stuck.

I loaded another 90 rounds last night, targeting COL 1.120". I measured every single one and saw them range from about 1.118-1.126 (going on memory and didn't record the measurements). This is also after I cleaned out all of my dies (they really didn't appear to need a cleaning, but I did anyway). I also measure the COL before I crimp since there's no reason the crimping should move the bullet anyway. How do you determine what your COL for a load should be? Most loading manuals I've seen only show a single number, not necessarily noted as min or max, so I just target it +/-.005 and figure it's close enough.

69 magazines for 6 guns...yes, you're a mag nut (and a Glock nut apparently) I have: Glock 22: 2-15rd Beretta 92A1: 2-15rd military mags (don't work well), 3-15rd factory, 3-10rd factory The only reason I bought more Beretta mags is because I'm planning on starting USPSA with that gun in the coming months.

Don, you shouldn't be putting much force on the caliper, just enough to get the blade to make contact. If you start putting a lot of force you're going to either deform the bullet or start pushing it into the case. Just a light touch to have the blade make contact is good. Bryan, the ogive is the non-cylindrical portion at the front of the bullet, so where the body starts to taper down to a point/round/flat. I have seen the comparators and looked into them, but then how do you translate a COAL from a manual into a length measured with a comparator? I guess it sounds like I should just get the average COAL to be correct and not worry so much about the outliers. However, for example, last night I loaded 30 rounds of 9mm for load testing. My OAL was 1.090" (4.2gr Titegroup). I'd say I got probably 10 rounds between 1.088-1.093, 12 rounds between 1.094-1.099, and the last 8 between 1.100-1.110. So obviously they are extremely inconsistent (these were Hornady 115gr bullets by the way). So I wound up measuring every single one and sorting them and going back and reseating the high ones. Or would you assume that it's all variation in the bullet and leave them alone since they were seated by the ogive?

When reloading, how do you control your OAL variation and what is acceptable? Whenever I'm loading, I'll set the bullet seater and measure the rounds to see if it needs to be adjusted, but they seem to vary up to .010" or more from each other. Most tend to be within a .005" range, but I'll get some that are more than .010" above my OAL and then some that are .003" below for example. When you run into this, do you set the longer ones aside and seat them a little deeper or do you just accept them? Or do you all run progressives and not even have a clue (or care)? This question is mostly for pistol, but could apply for rifle as well since I load match-grade .308 for accuracy. In case anyone is going to ask, I have a Lee Breechlock with Lee dies.

Heh, I first learned on Autocad R13 back in the day, so I'm still kind of upset that I can't type all of my commands. That's probably why I make a crapload of mapkeys (aka keyboard macros/shortcuts). It took me a while to get used to not running ProE with the old menu system of 2000i2 and start using the icons on menubars. Harry will never let them get rid of IDEAS, and I don't think Herli ("green check it") will ever let them get rid of ProE. Btw, if you haven't already taken it, Herli teaches some decent classes on the software packages, ME430 and 441 I think.

I don't keep too up to date on the other software packages, so I don't know if they're falling behind, but I absolutely can't stand what they did with Wildfire 5 Drawing Mode. I've been using it for 9 months now and I'm still getting used to having to switch "ribbons" (I'll use the MS Office name for it) to be able to do anything. When I first started using it, I literally sat there for 15 minutes trying to figure out how to get an erased dimension back onto my drawing, and another 20 minutes figuring out how to show axes in a view. Irritating as all hell. And yes, NJIT. Did IDEAS really give that away? LOL. They're probably the only ones left on this planet that use IDEAS. Good luck with it, it's extremely painful. On the plus side, you have to do almost nothing with it, and if you're good with ProE, IDEAS is easy, just frustratingly buggy. I guess you're in the Senior Design 1 class if I remember correctly. I think that's the only one that makes you use IDEAS. I'm guessing Harry is still teaching it if you're still using IDEAS.

I use ProE on a near daily basis for work (I have used Solidworks, but not extensively). While I'll agree that Solidworks is FAR more user friendly (and pretty) for new users, I find ProE to be much more powerful and stable, especially with more advanced functions. I've set up batch scripts before to take dimensional inputs from a text file and automatically generate the model and output specific data to a text file. I also somewhat regularly use the built-in feasability studies to make it tweak certain dimensions to give me the mass properties I'm looking for. It's much easier than sitting there tweaking 5+ dimensions on 3+ parts hoping I get lucky and stumble on the correct combination. The one feature that I wish ProE had that Solidworks has is 3D extrusions. If what I'm trying to do doesn't fall under a combination of sweeps (loft to you solidworks people) and blends, I have to put so many extra datums to make the cut that I want to smash the computer. Full Disclosure: I was raised in college on ProE (also used IDEAS, don't bother with it).

The issue I have with the request form is that all of the vendors are so spread out across the state, who's to say that the best deal will be even remotely close to me. For example, I'm in far northern NJ (not even remotely close to anyone's version of central NJ), about 120 miles away from Arms & Ammo. If I used the price request form, it would have to be a huge price savings over the others for me to warrant making the trip, not only because of gas cost, but also 5+ hours of driving. I personally would prefer looking through the vendors list for local shops and contacting them directly, that way you don't have to give them any info you don't want to (even though apparently it's not required) until you're ready to commit. If you happen to be smack in the middle of the state and most of the shops are equidistant from you (or you wouldn't mind driving to the furthest one), then the price request form is probably the easiest way to shotgun them all, otherwise I'd personally pick a few and go direct. The vendors section here definitely helps people find new shops to try though. If it weren't for a coworker who suggested Hackettstown G&A and this forum showing me Mastodon, I'd still be bent over the counter at Ramsey paying retail and $75 transfers.

Oh, ok. I'm fairly ignorant of all of the "back woods" bullet manufacturers and suppliers and have been loading Hornady FMJ 9mm while learning, so I'm trying to learn about who exists and which are good shooters and a good value so I can start saving some more money (read: shoot more). It sounds like you guys like PD and MG, so I'll have to look into those as a new source.

Has anyone used Berry's? Powder Valley sells them for $68/1000 + S&H. I just ordered a case yesterday, I haven't tried any plated bullets yet so I don't know what to expect. Edit: Just realized that PD and MG are actually jacketed, not plated. That's a really good price for jacketed then, I may have to look into that instead.

That is crazy. Is it just me or is it just the definition of irony shooting that caliber rifle in front of a Mini Cooper?

I got the P-2B, the plastic one. The installation video I found, while difficult to see, looks like it has a second slot for the insert, where this obviously doesn't. I e-mailed SafetyGlassesUSA (where I bought them) with the same question and the picture, but figured I'd check here to increase my odds of a quick answer.

So I just got my ESS ICE glasses in the mail and I'm having trouble figuring out how to put the Rx insert into the nosepiece. I think they gave me the wrong nosepiece with the insert. The one on the left came with the Rx insert and the one on the right came with the ICE eyeshields. I've watched the video from SafetyGlassesUSA on how to install it, and it looks like there's supposed to be a second slot, but clearly there isn't one. Am I missing something or do I have the wrong piece?

When I was there two weeks ago, the last line change was at about 3:30, so that's probably why they closed the gate by then. Now that the days are getting longer again they should start staying open later.

I think you mean semantics....I'm sorry, I had to. Anyway, I posted as well, not that it will really make a lick of difference. Politicians these days only listen to those speaking their language (the language of politics or the side they agree with, take your pick).