Category: Gun Care & Gunsmithing

I just received another three five ounce bottles of Gunzilla. It took me a while to go through the 1.9 ounce bottle I got at the NRA convention, just to try out. My original review of their product was here. The stuff works so well I ordered myself what will probably be a two year supply. One of the 5 ounce bottles will be for Bitter, to go with her new present which is on its way here thanks to Traction Control.

I can’t say enough good things about this cleaner. It works just as well as petroleum based cleaners, has virtually no odor, and isn’t a hazardous material.

One thing all this reloading is going to start producing eventually is a lot of scrap brass.  Does anyone have any suggestions on how to sell your old, worn out brass, to be recycled?  Is there a place you can take it?

This could have ended badly:

[liveleak b9c_1201440552]

Sorry for the light posting today. Too much having to earn a living going on this week, and tonight is my weekly silhouette match. I thought, though, I’d give an update on some things I’ve learned with respect to reloading:

1. You do yourself no favors with a cheap digital scale. They don’t hold zero well enough, and tend to measure underweight if you trickle powder into one. Stick with a quality beam balance or spend the money for a decent digital scale.
2. Case tumblers can really shine your brass up nice, to the point they look better once fired than new cases look. At first I thought a high sheen on the brass was merely aesthetic, but it actually makes your brass remarkably easy to spot and recover.
3. Powder dispensers don’t seem to measure all that consistently if you’re thinking about loading up to the maximum recommended powder load. I’ve had best results setting the dispenser to throw a bit under and then trickling up to weight.
4. A powder trickle is well worth the money.
5. My Alpha Chrony is very finicky on a low light range, and often can’t see small bullets like .223 and even 6.8 SPC sometimes. It never seems to have trouble seeing .30-06.

The main thing I’ll be looking to improve is my reloading speed. It can take me a few evenings to reload as much ammo as I can shoot in an hour at the range. Nonetheless, it’s a very fun winter time distraction, much the same way brewing beer is, except reloading isn’t quite as detrimental to health, well, except for the lead exposure risk.

Primers are important components of ammunition.  But what are they made of?  How do they work?  Basically, a primer is some shock sensitive explosive mixed with other fuels, oxidizers, abrasives and binders.

The most common compound used to initiate the explosion is lead styphnate. Needless to say, it’s pretty toxic, which is why people say to wash your hands after shooting or handling ammunition.  Primers made from this compound are considered to be non-corrosive.

The original compound used for priming was mercury fulminate.  Its main disadvantage is that it produces elemental mercury, which readily forms an amalgam with brass, substantially weaken brass casings.  In more modern corrosive ammunition, it was combined with potassium chlorate, which when ignited would coat parts of the firearm in potassium salts, which attract moisture and promote corrosion very rapidly if not removed.

Pics here.   Looks like it blew the grip panels off.  Anyone with experience out there… double charge?  Case issue?  OOB?  I don’t own a 1911, and don’t have much experience with them.

The Bench of Evil got quite a workout tonight, now that I have all the things I need to go to town.  I reloaded 40 rounds of 6.8 Rem. SPC and loaded 50 rounds of .223.

 

Started off loading some .223 rounds.  This is starting with fresh Winchester brass.  I’m using CCI small rifle primers.  Sierra 55gr Spitzer boat tail bullets, and 20 grains of IMR-4198 powder.  Going is slow at first as I get used to everything.  I spilled some of the powder all over the table, and had to do cleanup.  Put one primer in seated backwards, and thought better of trying to decap a live primer from the business end.

I managed to do the 40 rounds of 6.8 Remington SPC a good bit faster than the .223, but that’s not counting the decapping, resizing and cleaning I did prior to tonight.  I’m using Sierra OTM 115gr bullets, and 22 grains of the same powder.

The real reward will be firing them out of the rifle without anything blowing up.  I’m a little disappointed it took me all night to reload probably 30 minutes worth of ammo at the range, but I figure I’ll get faster.  My next purchase will be a reasonable electronic scale.

Ahab is building a PDW based on the 10/22 platform.  I like the .17HM2, personally.  I had some silhouette shooters tell me they like the high-velocity rimfires because they are flatter shooting than .22LR.

I finally got a place set up for reloading, so I can once again shoot more without going broke.  How else is am I supposed to practice firing from a hip at 600 rounds a minute without going broke?

 

It’s your basic Lee Anniversary Kit.  I’m not sure about where I had to mount the press, because there’s a bar in the way in the front, and I was worried the lever would tip the table over.

I’ve already ordered the dies and various other things from Ko-Tonics and MidwayUSA.  Hopefully this weekend I’ll make it up to Cabela’s this weekend to get some powder and primers.  I’m anxious to get started.

I just noticed there’s a hazmat fee for shipping powder and primers, that amounts to 40 dollars for them to be each shipped separate from Midway.  I can drive to Cabela’s for cheaper than 40 dollars!