With a tactical Valentine
Well, I was living in the future, then it was the past, but will be again in… oh hell with it.
Anywho, I loaded up 60 rounds of 10mm this weekend and was having an issue with the Hornady Lock ‘N Load. The ejector wire kept binding up on some rounds and instead of just knocking them off into the bin would fling them into another time zone. This action would shake the press, sending powder out of the charged case and into every nook and cranny it could find. This would mean I’d have to dump that case, take it out of rotation, rotate two stations so I could put it back where it could get recharged, and then have holes in the process.
This slows a reloader down.
Because I’m not one to just sit there and take it, I did a simple search for ‘Hornady ejector wire’. Lo and behold, the future hit me square in the face with the Interweb tubes being filled with others experiencing the same issue. Several resolutions were offered with everything from pulling out the Dremel and grinding down the trailing surfaces of the shell plate to simply moving the wire a bit up or down.
Information that would have been neigh impossible to hunt down, even in a library, is now available for anyone who has a few bucks for the monthly fee.
Can’t wait to get home and try it out.
It is so ugly when you display it like that.
Again, the anti’s are proven to be irrelevant based on nothing more than an air compressor and a soda bottle.
Not a very long stretch to move from plastic bb’s (which looks like they did a number on that target) to steel, then use a sturdier container with higher pressure. I wouldn’t want to be shot with even this model.
.45 ACP cases should be put in the vibrating cleaner alone. Never with 10mm, .40 Cal and .357 Magnum cases. Otherwise you get situations that would confuse the architect of the TARDIS.
Took this the other day and use it as my desktop wallpaper at home (along with a bunch of non-nudie, Oleg Volk work). Feel free to use it for whatever you want.
Click to biggify
One of the interesting things about my 10mm hand loads is that I use a lighter, 155 grain bullet rather than the more common 165, 180, or 200 grain. The lighter bullet gives a bit less recoil and I can really, really, really get that BB a movin’. Using 6.7 grain of Titegroup, I’ve gotten 1300 fps yielding 581.52 ft-lbf of energy. Using some Blue Dot, 1400 fps (674.43 ft·lbf) isn’t out of the question. The larger bullets can’t be moved as fast, and thus do not have as much energy.
Am I being short sighted by using that as the deciding measurement?
The next issue is ‘cross platform’. I shoot the .40 in competition, however 155 grain requires ~1100 fps to get major, which is bordering on ‘hot’. 180 grain would work a bit better here (and require less powder), so it might make more sense.
I’d love to just order by the 1,000 and get a single bullet, but my brain is telling me that I should get two separate bullets – 155 hollow points for the 10mm (and a few for the .40 for SD) and then 180’s in some sort of flat nose for competition.
Thoughts? Any leads on where to get the best rates on bulk bb’s?
Unless you’re someone whose sole job is to apply the law, then you’re in the clear
Ignorance of the law helped clear Sheriff Jerry Demings' political lobbyist of wrongdoing for handing out gun owners' restricted driver's license photos last year in Tallahassee to lobby against an open-carry law, Orange County sheriff's records show. Capt. Mike Fewless set off a statewide controversy in a April by distributing eight photos from a secret intelligence file that he claimed were outlaw bikers with valid state Carry Concealed Weapon permits.
Ignorance of the law helped clear Sheriff Jerry Demings' political lobbyist of wrongdoing for handing out gun owners' restricted driver's license photos last year in Tallahassee to lobby against an open-carry law, Orange County sheriff's records show.
Capt. Mike Fewless set off a statewide controversy in a April by distributing eight photos from a secret intelligence file that he claimed were outlaw bikers with valid state Carry Concealed Weapon permits.
Totally against the law. Had you or I done this, we’d be sitting behind some pretty grey bars for an extended stay. But when you’re a member of a higher caste of citizen sworn to uphold the law, you are not bound by them.
Two sets of rules folks. One for us peons, the other for our ‘masters’.
Now, I actually do not believe the ‘ignorance is no excuse’ shtick. It’s nothing more than a phrase uttered by petty tyrants to keep people in line. The concept of mens rea has all but been forgotten here in the states. A person who finds a cat pelt in their attic who sells it at a garage sale is not a danger to society, but can be convicted of a felony nonetheless. When we separate intent from action, we get a ‘justice’ system that focuses more on putting people in jail than putting the right ones in.
Still, the irony here is sickening and the double standard even more so.
As promised, here are the videos of the February 2012 USPSA shoot and the long winded, whiney complaining about how poorly I did.
Video shot with the Epic HD POV cam from OpticsPlanet.net
First, go here and watch the first stage of the video from last competition. Notice the big difference in my shooting? I was slow and deliberate because I’m new at this. Let’s look at what I said regarding that outing.
And what happened when I didn’t remember all that? Yup, I barfed a LOT of shots. This was my first outing with the Apex FSS trigger and I instantly realized how fast the trigger was, subsequently losing any ability to ‘slow the $#&* down’. Now, I had intended to move just slightly faster than I did last month, but I kind of went a bit crazy.
Watch stage 1. I had 5 misses. FIVE. Watching the video, I can how I popped off the shots clearly over the head of the targets. Now, one of my issues is that Todd Jarrett told us “If you’re going to miss, you’re going to miss low” which in my brain turned into “SHOOT EM WHERE THEIR HAIR PARTS!!!” rather than the 3/4 high that he instructed us. Still, because of my speed, I didn’t have time to pay attention to where the sight was when the shot went off and thus missed so many targets that Greenpeace sent me a thank you letter for conserving target pasties.
Stage 2 – Time was good, accuracy… not so good. 1 miss, and you can see with the steel how I was ‘pushing’ my shots. I’d take a shot and move before I assured myself that I made a hit. Sadly, even though my time was ‘good’, it wasn’t great. A few more seconds to boost my points would have been much more effective.
Stage 3 – Oh look, another miss, and that one was from 5 feet away. I did well enough on the stage minus the miss. My decision to attack the right side targets, reload while moving to the left and then taking a knee to hit the steel from underneath worked really well. But I had a miss and not as many A hits as I should have.
Stage 4 – Moved too fast, missed the steel too much. This is where you can really see the issue I’m having of taking a shot and moving on before I confirm that yes, I did hit my intended target
Stage 5 – While the video shows the stages in order, I shot them 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, and then 4. So this was my first run. As you can see, I missed the first, inside target on the right and had to step backwards to shoot it. I ain’t breaking that 180 again! I had one miss and a lot of Charlies. Watching the video, I’m irked at how fast I decided to go through this. Yes, the trigger is quick, yes it’s easier to pop off a round, but no, I shouldn’t have hurried so much. Even worse, I saw what happened and didn’t correct it.
Stage 6 – This is the clamshell stage that I wrote about earlier. Watching it, outside of the first two misses (again with the shoot & move before confirm), I did really well. The paper had 2 Alpha and 1 Charlie just out of the A zone. I felt right shooting this, especially since watching the video I can tell that I adjusted to my misses perfectly, not letting them get to me and switching to a different plan right away. Maybe this stage set the tone for the rest of the day where I thought I could do better than I really was doing, I don’t know.
I joke about beating myself up over this because I realize I’m not an A Class shooter. I’m new here and honestly, I think I’m doing pretty damned good. Maybe it’s hubris, but I see a lot of potential for me. I just need to learn how to marry a bit more speed with shooting accurately, and time will provide that. Watching the videos, my grip is spot on – I’m not adjusting between shots, thumbs are forward, control is good. Reloads, while not lightning fast, don’t seem to be giving me trouble.
Slow & steady for now. Speed will come in time.
And I’m enjoying every minute of this!
Resuscitating the theme of “Help, I’ve been shot!”, oddball and WizardPC are taking a trauma course, something I need to search for and do myself.