Toy Store Score!

Dear Wife had errands for me to run today. I took advantage of the trip downtown to check Walmart and one of my pushers for available options.

Walmart turned up Remington UMC .223 55gr FMJ for $9.47; five boxes came home with me.

Pusher turned up PMC Bronze .223 55gr FMJ for $8.49 - another five boxes came with me. It would have been more, but he also had primers and powder ... so I grabbed two boxes of large pistol primers, a pound of Ramshot TAC, and a pound of Ramshot True Blue. I haven't loaded with these powders, but they have been getting excellent reviews. And they were available. I left a couple trays of large pistol primers on the shelf, along with about five boxes worth of large rifle primers. (I have about 500 of those on hand, and the only large rifle I load is .270 - I don't foresee needing more than a couple hundred in the course of my lifetime. Just don't shoot it much.) He had no small pistol or small rifle primers... but I promised I'd be calling every week or two to check.

Almost picked up a set of RCBS .223 dies - but held off because (A) they were pricey, and (B) I have a set of Lee dies on order with Midway - and without primers, dies are pointless.

When I have a workshop (goes with a house), I'll start exploring casting my own boolits. I already shoot quite a bit of lead in my pistols.





Edit: I read the "15-minute AR trigger job" found elsewhere online. I didn't particularly care for the idea of clipping spring legs. I don't mind polishing. I had picked up some rouge at Home Depot earlier. Put that on a felt wheel for my Dremel and had at the sear surfaces... light oil, reassembled, function checked ... a hair lighter, a little smoother, but still not as crisp as I wanted.

Disassembled again, and this time used my Lansky 600-grit stone on the sear surfaces. Only a few strokes on the hammer and the trigger - I don't want to make the trigger unsafe, only clean it up. Light oil, reassemble, dry fire ... it's not quite the proverbial "glass rod", but it's a hell of a lot cleaner than it was yesterday. For a $50 lower parts kit of unknown heritage (I don't know where M-A gets their stuff), I'll take it. An upgrade may happen down the line, but not anytime in the immediate future.