Zone

My reloading setup is simple. A small table, tucked into a corner of a cluttered room; the catch-all of "where should this go?" items. Bookshelves and cabinets line the far wall, an eloquently mute commentary on who lives here. The top shelf holds the drinks; remnants of college days dusty in the back row - testament to consumption on a budget - standing sentry over the more refined liquors in the front.

On the far end lies the whiskey, my one luxury vice. A dozen or more different bottles, labeled with distilleries and ages. Some were acquired on a whim, others for a reason. The oldest up there were secreted away in oak before I was born; others in the short time since I walked away from the brick and ivy world of education to seek my fortunes. Some hold memories good and bad; a shared drink with a close friend to celebrate or commiserate life's joys and tribulations.

Below the liquors lie the books, row on row, hardcover and dog-eared paperbacks. Roughly grouped by author but with little semblance of order, there are titles to appeal to most folks. Shakespeare. Grimm. Heinlein. Clancy. Tolkien. Jordan. Supica/Nahas. Rand. Orwell. Textbooks and manuals, references and resources. A slightly tattered copy of Webster's Collegiate pairs with Roget's Thesaurus - a high school graduation gift in the finest tradition. Hornady and Nosler have their place as well, side-by-side with a few photography books. In a corner lies a slightly battered copy of the Holy Bible.

A row of cabinets lie beneath the shelves. The shelves within sagged when we arrived, and only sag more with the load they now support. Carefully sorted into separate cabinets are boxes of barely contained fury. A thin shell of brass around a bit of powder and a lump of lead. Each one is a flash, a bit of noise, and a moment in time. Each one is a hole; a hole in the air, a hole in paper, a hole in dinner. A few grams to an ounce or two, but each one is sound and fury and focus, concentrated in my palm.

The last cabinet holds the reloading supplies. A few plastic jars of powder, boxes and bags of bullets, trays of primers. I can lose myself in what that cabinet holds.

The window open next to me, the radio soft in the background, the time I spend at my reloading table is my own. Adjusting powder weights, a quarter-turn at a time until the scale shows me the number I expect. Pouring a handful of cast lead into my hand, always surprisingly heavy for the small pieces I hold.

I lose myself in the rhythm of reloading; the steady and repeated motions.

Brass from the bag to the press.
*kachunk* and the primer pops out.
A quick flick to dispense a primer.
A steady press and the primer is seated.
Pull the brass and set it aside.
Over and over, a hundred at a time.

Primed brass into the press.
Swing the lever and bell the mouth.
Flip the powder measure.
Pour the powder into the case.
Swing the lever down, with that extra thump to shake out any bridged powder.
Pull the brass and set it in the tray.
Fifty at a time.

Pour out a handful of bullets and set them on the cases, one by one.
Put the topped case into the press.
Swing the lever, down then up.
Pull the cartridge and check the seating, check the length.
Toss in a bin.
A pile at a time ... fifty, a hundred, three hundred...

Put the seated cartridge in the press.
Run the ram up and back down.
Nice tight roll crimp.
Pull the cartridge and toss it in an ammo can, or set it in a box.

Thinly held fury, from the zen of the press...

Reloading

I'm in the process of replenishing my stock of loaded ammo. After we moved last summer, I didn't do much loading at all - my bench and equipment were buried. I knocked out a few hundred rounds in early spring, but that's about gone.

With the Blogshoot coming up at the end of the month, I decided it was time to knock out some more .38. I opened the cabinets to see what I had ready to go.

Brass? A few hundred rounds of tumbled brass, lots of un-tumbled.
Primers? A couple thousand small pistol primers.
Powder? Half a jar of IMR Trail Boss.
Bullets? ... a bag and a handful of 158gr LRN. Hm.

I settled in with the sizing/decapping die and started prepping brass...

Three hundred and some pieces later, I'd emptied my bag of clean brass. I tossed 500 more in the tumbler for a few hours and then sorted them out of the media. That done, I finished the tray of primers so I had 400 primed cases ready to go. (Actually, 399, since a .357 case got mixed in with the .38s and set aside after priming.)

I pulled out my bags of bullets and jar of powder and started in with dropping powder and seating. Expander die, drop *mumblemumble* grains of Trail Boss, set in tray. Fifty at a time, put a bullet on top of each one. A hundred at a time, run them through the seating die and toss in a tub for crimping later.

I knocked out 200 like this over the past few days. It's easy to do in stages - a couple hundred brass prepped one day, then a hundred or two hundred powdered and seated the next, then I'll do one final big push and run several hundred through a crimp die.

Problem is, I was running out of bullets. I've got maybe 50-75 of the cast bullets left, and I'm not using my "good" bullets* for plinking loads.

I zipped online and did some quick checking. I've heard very good things about Oregon Trail but right now, $101.50/1000 is a touch on the high side for me.

I popped over to GrandMaster Bullets, which is where my last batch of .38s came from. Their site isn't so great, but bullet quality is impeccable, and the weights have been VERY consistent - within tenths of a grain of each other any time I've spot-checked a handful. $62/1000 for 158gr LRN - perfect! I ordered 2000 around 6am on the 2nd.

That evening, I got an email from the owner - he only had 1500 in stock, and was going out of town for the holiday weekend. If I was in a rush, he'd ship me the 1500 and work something out for the other 500, or if I could wait he'd have the full 2000 ready to ship on Wednesday the 7th, so I'd see them around the 9th or 10th.

I wrote back and let him know that was no problem at all.

It's a small shop, and I appreciate the personal touch. If you're in need of cast bullets, I'd *highly* recommend GrandMaster. (Jay, that's where yours came from as well.)

My mailman might not be so appreciative. Bullets are dense and fit nicely into USPS flat-rate boxes. It'll cost him $10 to ship about 50lb of bullets cross-country. (A flat-rate box is good for up to 70lb, which is almost exactly what two thousand 230gr bullets weighs.)

* "good" bullets: Hornady 158gr XTPs, or my single box of Venom Ballistics 137gr .358 cast-lead hollowpoints. They were a one-off test run, and I happened to get what may have been the last box (of 300). Flying ashtrays have nothing on these babies!

Reloading

Some folks will tell you that reloading your own ammo will save you money.

These people are lying through their teeth.

What reloading WILL do is allow you to shoot more for the same amount of money, and a time investment. It will also allow you to tune loads for specific guns, if you so desire.

Reloading isn't for everyone. It requires 100% concentration, and close attention to detail. Steps should be done the same way every time. It can be dangerous. Think about it: you're putting together components that will generate 25,000-60,000psi about four inches from your eyes. Do you REALLY want to do this when you're not all there?

It requires a capital investment. Not a tremendous one, but enough to buy a case of good ammo.

It requires patience and a willingness to learn. Plan on lots of reading and note-taking.

It requires a little bit of space to work. Not a lot (my reloading table is 2'x2') but something sturdy that can be dedicated just to reloading. And a little space to store parts and pieces.

What do you need? A reloading press, a set of dies, a scale or balance, a manual, powder, primers, bullets, and brass. There are lots of other things out there that will make reloading more precise or easier, but these are the bare minimum. The capital items can be collected for well under $200. Plan on another $20 for a pound of powder and $30-40 for a thousand primers. Brass may be range pickups or once-fired from your own gun, but you should be able to find it cheap or free. Bullets vary tremendously in price, but for cast lead (my preference for reloading pistols), plan on $40-75/1000. All told, you should be able to load 1,000 rounds of a pistol caliber for about $120. (The cheapest manufactured ammo I know of is from Georgia Arms, who is currently listing 1,000 rounds of .38Spl 158gr LSWC for $210 in previously-enjoyed brass.)

One of these days I keep telling myself I'll make a nice little YouTube how-to for reloading - but that would require effort that I would much rather put into actually reloading. Maybe a few pictures as I work on the next batch. I've knocked out about 500 rounds in the past couple mornings, mostly of .38Spl, and a bit of .45ACP.

My secret? Do things in stages whenever possible. I'll clean and sort brass one day, then size/deprime/prime the next day, then charge/seat the following, then crimp all at one go on the last day. A standard batch for me to size and prime is 300-500 pieces of brass, then I may powder and seat bullets on 100-200 at a time, and do one big batch crimp after I've run out of primed brass to fill.

I will size/prime, or crimp, when I'm tired - at slight risk to my fingers. I pinched one rather badly the other morning, between the mouth of a .38 case and the die. No blood, but it did hurt like heck. Sizing and priming doesn't tend to be a super detail-oriented process, just monotonous labor. I will not work with powder when I'm tired, or distracted, or have had a drink. I'm sure some folks do, but I have to set SOME standards for myself. No TV - but I'll put the radio on in the background.

So why reload? It's just one more step in the shooting process for me. Instead of spending two hours in front of the TV at night, I'll spend an hour or two reloading and making sure I've got plenty of ammo for the range and the IDPA season. MrsZ can often be found in the same area of the house, working on her own projects, whether that's gardening or sewing or classwork. It's inexpensive quality time doing something I enjoy... can't beat that.

Range Report

Having had a distinct lack of boomy recently, and having missed the AD Dinner/Blogshoot, I finally made it to the range this morning, new shootin' iron in tow.

My range only allows cast lead and .22s on the indoor range (something about not-quite-strong-enough plate in the traps), which I only had a partial box of. Even so, I got to wring out the 67 and refresh myself on the 642.

I hung my target, loaded the 67, paced off about seven yards, and lined up the sights. Decided to challenge myself and shoot double-action. Squeezed through the traditional S&W trigger, *bang* ... lowered the gun, and blinked ... and looked again. One quarter of an inch low and dead-f'ing-center. I shot through the rest of the cylinder, checked my target, and only found five holes... closer examination revealed one of them to be a hair wider than it should be.

I backed off to 16 yards (we've a 50-foot range) and shot another five rounds double-action (one empty chamber to check for flinch). Another beautiful group, a little high-left with one flyer. Reloaded with six and shot those single-action... and the group more than doubled in size. Obviously, this is a DA gun!



Then I brought out the 642 for a quick check. Nine rounds (5, 4) at 7 yards, as quick as I could bring sights back on target. Then five rounds at 16 yards with a bit more care in aiming. The nine rounds in the center square were the quick-fire at close range. The five scattered along the right outside the orange were the longer shots.





A snubby is NOT an easy gun to shoot well, but this certainly qualifies as "minute of bad guy".

Also of note - these are my own mouse-fart target loads, 3.5gr of Trail Boss behind a 158gr LRN. They are not tuned for any particular gun, but seem to shoot reasonably well in everything. I'd recommend the load to anyone looking for a nice easy target load, or for new shooters trying centerfire for the first time.

Minor update

Life continues apace. Two weeks ago MrsZ and I spent a late morning enjoying trigger time and general camaraderie with a fellow Appleseeder. I tried out my new handload for .45s and was pleased - 6.0gr T/B/230grLRN. Zeroed my Winchester 94; it's now handily minute-of-deer at 100yd and would be fine to 150. Toyed with the .17 rifle and pistol - can't get the pistol to hold a consistent zero and think that may be a sights issue. I have a pistol scope for it, now I need to get a rail and rings. I also got to enjoy his Marlin .45-70 levergun, which was an absolute hoot to shoot and has bumped up my desire list a bit.

Last weekend we made brief appearances at the local Appleseed, and actually managed to fit in some shooting - it helped to have a surplus of instructors for once. My Savage MkII is having feeding issues, and a thorough scrubbing is in order soon - and possibly some new magazines. I'll be coughing up for the stainless magazines next time around, as the ones I have are well-coated with rust freckles. MrsZ's 10/22 is having ejection issues, and beyond a thorough scrubbing it may require some parts replacement - particularly the extractor/ejector.

On the home front, we acquired a new grill last weekend, and I put it together Tuesday. It is ... large. Very large. Half-gas, half-charcoal, side burner, and there is an optional side-smoker that I will likely get at some point. Almost three hours to put together at an admittedly leisurely pace. Hamburgers and grilled veggies on the gas side came out beautifully, although proper grill implements are in order so I don't drop *quite* so many bits through the grate. Today I did a rack and a half of pork ribs on the charcoal side, and tried the "water smoker" method. I'm not displeased, although there is some tweaking to do. We rubbed the ribs with Dinosaur BBQ's "Foreplay" dry rub and some brown sugar last night and stuck 'em back in the fridge overnight.

I got up at 10 this morning and started the grill, put a shallow pan of beer on one side and the coals on the other, and the ribs over the beer. Closed off the dampers and started smokin' ... An hour later I remembered that I had pruned the apple trees a few weeks ago, and decided to improve on the smoke. I poked through the brush pile and found a promising apple branch, cut out a nice-size chunk, peeled it, cut it into chunks, and added it to the coals when I added more charcoal. Around 12:30 I basted one side of the ribs with Dino's Sensuous Slatherin' Sauce, cooked another 15 minutes, flipped, basted that side, cooked another 15, then pulled the ribs and covered them up...

I just finished my rack of ribs. Not too bad at all. The temperature was a little high (pushed 300 or 350 a couple times) so the edges dried out some, but the flavor was good. The side-smoker is a definite must-have to keep the temperature down some.

We got a love note from our homeowner's insurance company Monday - they are canceling our policy in 30 days because of "unacceptable risk". I called the agent for details and they told me it was because of the un-sided garage. Nevermind that the garage has been bare for over a year... and that they told us when they wrote the policy that it wasn't an issue. We did some calling around and cursing, and I placed an order for lumber yesterday - nearly 1500 board-feet of rough white pine, in order to do board and batten siding. That should be delivered Tuesday or Wednesday, at which point I'll start getting siding up as quickly as possible. Most of the lumber will be pretty green, so it'll weather and dry over the winter and then we'll seal/stain it in the springtime.

Somehow, shooting has taken a back seat to home ownership. This is ... frustrating.

Side note: Shotgun ammo prices have started to decline slightly. I went through Walmart the other day and the 100-round value packs of Remington trap loads were marked down from 24-something to 21-ish. Small, but noteworthy. ... Of course, I can't tell you the last time I shot trap. I should find the nearest range with open trap and go shoot some; it's a good way to relax on a Sunday morning.

New boomers tried

Spent a couple hours this morning on trigger time with a nearby gunny and fellow Appleseeder. Tossed several guns in the truck and a bag of ammo and headed off.

We spent some time getting my S&W 647 zeroed at 25m (got it close, not great)... then tried and zeroed my new-to-me Win94. It's shooting minute-of-deer at 100yd which is all I need from it. Trigger still sucks - I'm hoping some shooting or dry-firing will smooth that out. Might need to get some snap caps.

Re-zeroed my Savage MkII... it had been adjusted for 100yd shooting, and I brought it back to 25m.

Brought out the Savage 93 and worked the kinks out. Had it happily zeroed at 25m and then it fell from its position leaning in the corner and the zero went bye-bye. I was unpleased. Re-zeroed. It is now 1/2" low at 25m and dead-on at 100yd - just about perfect for squirrels and other small game.

MrsZ re-zeroed her 10/22 to 25m as well.

Played with the MkIII 22/45, the 1911, the Bersa ... tried a Springfield XD9 ... and spiffiest of all, a Marlin .45-70. It didn't kick like I thought it would. Stiff, but really not any worse than a 12ga with a slug. Definitely worth consideration.

Side note, I tried my latest batch of handloads for the 1911. Trying a new powder, RamShot TrueBlue. Not bad. I'll be loading up a couple boxes of that for competition.

Gun Nuttery

... or, How To Make Sarah Brady Cry.

JayG recently wrote a post about "you might be a gun nut if..."

High on my list is this:
- if it's gun related and makes you giggle or Sarah Brady cry, you're probably a gun nut.

MrsZ and I have been packing and moving to our new house recently, and today I cleaned out the ammo closet and cabinets and shelf and loaded it into the truck.

Things like this:



Make Sarah Brady cry.

Admittedly, I have a smaller truck, and it's not filling up the WHOLE bed... but in those crates and ammo cans, neatly labelled, are Winchester 9mm, Wolf 9mm, 12ga galore of various flavors, and a fair pile of 20ga as well. And some .270Win. And more than a few bricks of .22LR.

In the front seat is a crate o' reloading stuff - brass, powder, and bullets. Primers (a large box full) have already been relocated.

In the back seat are three shotguns, a rifle, a muzzleloader, and an evil-looking assault bow (Oneida Black Eagle, also known as the Uncle Ted Special).

Oh, and a magic blue briefcase of joy on the front seat (a S&W box - currently empty, but I have things to put in it).

And a gun vault full of .45 goodness.

Rolling doom, baby, rolling dooooooom!


Side note: ran through the Mart of Wal last night for some home sundries. Stopped by the ammo counter on a whim. They had, no kidding, WWB .45, .40, 9mm, and bricks of Winchester HV .22. MrsZ said I had to leave it all there.

IDPA July 09

Match results won't be up for another day or two. Shot the match this morning after a poor night's sleep and felt wonky the whole time. Rhythm was off, etc. First stage I got dinged by splash from a plate, leaving a nice crease on my left forearm. By the fifth stage my gun was refusing to go into battery consistently; I'm inclined to blame the wax on the cast bullets I'm using. It seems to gum up the action pretty quickly. Next batch from someone else...

Ran a couple cylinders through the 647... tack driver. Almost zero recoil. Just a pleasant gun to shoot.

Murphy laughs...

I have sold (traded) the Mini-14. A fellow on a forum I frequent offered me a pre-lock post-64 Winchester 1894 in decent condition, along with some ammo and cash ... I snagged it. The ammo went to a buyer in Texas.

In any case, we made this trade face-to-face at a gun range roughly midway between us. Conveniently, it was near the shop where I am buying my 647. Unfortunately, the coupon I need to pick up the 647 hadn't arrived at the sheriff's office yesterday so I could combine trips.

True to form, I'd barely met the fellow I was trading with and my cell rang. I answered, and it was the sheriff's office calling to let me know my coupon was available. I'm on a first-name basis with the pistol permit clerk over there, so I gave her an appropriate ration of teasing and told her I'd be in later to pick up the coupon.

Completed the trade, talked guns and work with the guy I traded with, and headed over to the nearby Gander Mtn to look for anything interesting. They had plenty of 209 primers, but the real catch was some Federal Gold Medal Match Small Pistol Magnum primers. I took 1,000 ($40) and left a couple thousand more for some other luck soul. Now to tweak some loads for those in the 28-2... they may also prove more useful in Dad's .25-20 as well, although I'm loading that with creampuff plinking loads and feel OK using small pistol primers.

If I find some free time tomorrow I'll grab some pictures of the new levergun.

Search term round-up

Aside from a brief Tamalanche early after installing Sitemeter, a normal day here has been ... slow. That's likely due to not updating daily. I do get a fairly regular stream of hits from google searches, though, and a la the Munchkin Wrangler, I'll post a few highlights.


small rifle primers

The little round thing in the back of a centerfire cartridge that's struck by the firing pin and ignites your gunpowder. There are at least eight different sizes - small and large rifle and pistol, and magnum/non-magnum variants of each. Small rifle primers are used, in particular, in .223Rem/5.56NATO, which is pretty rare these days. If you have primers, count yourself lucky. PowderValley claims they have backorders for 50,000,000 primers, and they're not the only ones.


kns hooded front sight match approved

I'd suggest checking the rules of the particular match you are entering, as NRA Highpower has different rules from Benchrest and Smallbore and so on.


a2 rear sight jpg 0-2

I don't have pictures of them, but try the Google image search. Or look at an AR - the flip-up rear aperture with the larger hole (0.200" diameter) is the 0-2, and is conveniently labeled as such. It's not a precision aperture, but is designed for limited visibility and moving targets. It also has a different zero from the small aperture.


wolf 223 stuck

A frequent issue, particularly with tight chambers. Older Wolf ammo, along with some of the various "Bear" ammo, is lacquer-coated. At higher rates of fire, the chamber gets hot enough to melt this lacquer and effectively glue a round in place. Clear your rifle, remove the bolt if possible, and CAREFULLY tap the round out with a brass rod from the muzzle end. Use acetone to clean your chamber and dissolve the lacquer, then a chamber brush and normal cleaning procedures... and then stop shooting crap ammo in a good rifle. Save the Wolf for the Mini14 and .223 AKs.


hooded cross hair front sight for 22 rifle

Swap your crap Ruger factory sights for a set of Tech-Sights, and the front sight tower accepts all standard AR front posts, including the KNS hooded crosshair.


walmart pistol primers

Walmart doesn't have store-branded gun anything. Not ammo, not primers, not nothing. Some Walmarts apparently do sell reloading components, but I've never seen it.


kns with rra 2 stage trigger

Well, KNS doesn't make lowers. If you mean KNS anti-rotational pins with a RRA trigger, it should work fine. The pins are standard diameter, as are the triggers. The pins just look fancy and mean you need one more tool in order to disassemble your rifle if something breaks.


5.56 a2 rifle insert notes lesson 6

I see you're in the UK. Naughty, naughty! I'm not sure where you're inserting that A2, or why you need notes, but apparently you've made it to lesson 6, and that takes some dedication. Keep practicing and you'll get there!


And that concludes the highlights of this set of search terms...

Toy Store Score, Part II

Some inquiries with other reloaders found me a potential source for small rifle primers. Said source is willing to trade their small rifle primers for either large rifle or large pistol primers.

I called my pusher last night and had him set aside a couple boxes of large rifle primers. Went down this morning and picked those up. While I was there, I noticed that he still had a set of RCBS .223Rem dies on the shelf ... so those came home with me. Midway pushed back the backorder date on the dies I had ordered, so I'll cancel those. I also found a second reloading tray so I can work on 100 rounds at a whack instead of 50. And, last but not least ... he had bulk packs of CCI Blazer .22. $20/per, but "a little more expensive" beats the hell out of Walmart's "empty shelf". Three of those came home with me.

Dear Wife and I shoot Appleseed several times per year - we're currently scheduled to instruct two more (this month and next), plus Dear Wife is doing an all-women Appleseed in Iowa at the end of this month. I expect we'll add more as the year goes on and our time-off schedule is sorted out. In any case, instructing at an Appleseed means having an extra brick or two of .22 for the shooters who run out (for sale, not donation), and shooting an Appleseed weekend means just shy of three bricks for the two of us.

I also managed to score yesterday - one of several places I'd been keeping an eye on for ammo had cases of Federal XM193 for $399. I grabbed one. It sold out between my order and six hours later. No shock.

Confirmed that my pusher has ready availability of the powder I will be loading .223 with. I have brass. I have about 600 bullets. Have one pound of powder for working up loads and will buy a keg when that's running low. I need to order some heavier bullets if I can find them in stock - 55gr is a fine plinking round, but out beyond 300m or so it's not going to shoot so well. Midway had stock on Barnes TripleShock 72gr, which will be fine for nuisance deer hunting, but I'd really like to find some 62gr BTHP at a reasonable price. I may grab a box or two of the 75gr and 80gr match bullets to see how far I can really stretch this AR...

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.