Luke E.

  This will be my first go round with a 650. All of my Dillon experience has been with a 550 and I really like that model. I like the idea of auto indexing but I hate the idea of auto indexing, I have pros and cons for each but what I really wanted was case feeder ability which they both have so I almost went with a 550 and then I realized that the case feeder setup for it is only capable of running pistol cases where the 650 is capable of rifle and pistol. That was to biggest factor in my choice. I'm looking forward to getting it all set up and running for sure.

   Well i'd be happy to help you out with it and you could be loading yourself some ammo in the process. Just let me know when you get to the point of wanting to learn, needing 300 ammo or both and we'll figure on a time.

   We're already loading Blackout as well as casting for it so when you get it together and want to get into the loading for it or just need ammo you can come on down and learn and load you some up.

   Sounds like you have the full "true" Florida experience going on down there, you're making me jealous! What part of Florida are you in? Man i've been itching to get down there to shoot some hogs and a few deer but you've bumped that up a notch lol

 Today I got my Christmas present from my wonderful wife and it has shown up in the form of a Dillon 650. I've got a turret press and am happy with it for small batches or more precise ammo but I shoot a fairly large amount of ammo and it just doesn't work for that. A friend who is also a member here has a Dillon that all my bulk ammo is loaded on. We have a lot of casting and other projects that we'd like to work on so not having to load every time i'm over there will allow some time for all that.   I've put the word out amongst the family that Outpost gift certificates would be great so I plan to use that towards conversion kits and so on. Here's my problem, my bench is pretty full so until I get the shop finished I may be stuck running the trusty turret. 

 I want to find it hard to believe that adults would choose to act this way but unfortunately it isn't.. Pretty sad and I can only hope that when some of these idiots get home and see videos like this they will think to themselves "WOW I was really acting like that" but i'm not counting on it.

 I would rather have my head nailed to a stump (you decide which one) than be among the fools. My wifes family lives in Franklin and that is where we spend Thanksgiving each year. On our way back to Murfreesboro I was replying to some emails on my phone and didn't catch my wife until she had gotten off at the exit with WalMart, the mall, Target etc.... Luckily the roads weren't to bad because all of the idiots were already standing in astoundingly long lines to get in. At this time two things happened,1st my wife blurts out "you couldnt pay me to go stand in line with all those @ss clowns" 2nd I remembered how thankful I am to have her and thought that was suiting, it being Thanksgiving and all.

   Yep.. I think back and remember things that I was most looking forward to in any given year and one is deer hunting and camp with my Dad's side of the family and dove hunting and fishing in the farm ponds with my Mom's side. Those were the two things that I most looked forward to.. well that and any dirt bike or fourwheeler I could get my hands on! We couldn't afford anything like that when I was growing up so I had to wait until I could work for one of my own. As far as the Thanksgiving tradition goes there is one thing that my Dad forgot to mention and that is WHY it became "tradition". Deer camp was rarely near home so the men would leave a month before season to get blinds and stands put out and food plots planted and they wouldn't usually go home until season had ended and all the blinds and stands were put away.. So you see, if the women wanted to see the men folk they would have to go to camp and thats kinda how that day grew into what it was.  I hope that something like that will become something that your kids look forward to each year!

   Figured it was insanely expensive but it's even higher than I imagined..Back to the real world I go.. I drive things that don't cost anywhere close to that.... even if you add them all up.

Well there ya go.. that's a good looking setup. Whats it cost? Didn't see it at the link but might have just missed it.

 Here's a link to one, http://www.tactical-life.com/magazines/special-weapons/savage-model-110-ba-338-lapua-mag/

   Savage offers the model 10-ba ? I think thats the model number. It's a chassis and actually is a pretty good shooter and comes in under half his budget which leaves the other half for glass. 

$3,000 will buy you a fair bit of bolt gun. Are you looking for a somewhat traditional stock or more of a chassis like the Barrets and AI offer?\

   That was the initial draw but i've been looking to take some training classes and noticed that they offer what appear to be good ones. Can you pretty much get in and shoot whenever you want? I noticed when looking through some of the classes that if they are having say a precision rifle class that might require the rifle range, regular shooters not enrolled in the class might not be able to shoot during that time.

 Know your target. Who knows what was going through the mind of the homeowner or if there had been problems in the area leading up to this time that caused him to be a bit quick. Maybe none of this was the case but i'd sure like to hear everything 1st. No matter what happens legally, justified or not, this guy will likely be haunted from now on knowing that he pulled the trigger on an elderly man that meant no harm. I feel for all involved and the dead gentleman's family.

Praying all goes well with the surgery tomorrow as well as that it will net the wanted results. 

   Glad you finally found all the left handed parts you were after! I bet it's a pure pain trying to find parts for a lefty.

   Well I have found on average the coldest time of day is in the morning when the sky starts getting gray. If weather were my driving for in making the decision I would only hunt in the evening. A couple of years back I went out the door and the thermometer said 10 degrees. I got out there and climbing a tree and sat until I was hurting to bad to stay any longer which was about 8:30. My knees were so frozen up and inflamed that it took me 25 minutes to stand, turn around and climb my stand back down the tree. I realized that day just how bad of shape my knees were in and they've gotten no better since then. Guess I should have been easier on myself or at least had the surgeries that were suggested. Dr. said I am by far the youngest (32) patient he has had that is over due for knee replacement. I'm going to put them of as long as I possibly can.

   I have taken many deer both times but I have found that mornings are better in the woods and isolated food plots but the fields and other exposed areas are better in the evening. I don't reckon there is any science behind any of that but i'd say I've shot 70+ deer in my life and more often than not it has worked out this way for me. I guess it really depends on where you're at, mine have been a mixture of TN, GA and FL.  I like the morning because like others have mentioned, you get to watch everything come alive as well as if you kill something you have daylight to get it out and clean it. I like evening because it seems more relaxing to me and you have plenty of time to get into the stand or shoothouse without worrying about light.  Not sure if I like one more than the other though.     EDIT, I'm finding myself more eager to hunt evenings since the arthritis in my knees and back have gotten so bad and it's typically not as cold.

 I came along towards the end of all the good stuff but took every chance I had to be in the middle of it. I hope to be in a position to provide those same memories for my children and grandchildren. Something about leaving home for a week or more and hunting every morning and every evening and sitting in camp the rest of the time. Where camp was located during my time was in south Georgia near Forsyth. My Dad's side of the family all read Louis L'amour so I think between us all we probably own everything he's written 4 times over but anytime there weren't stories being told his books were being read or naps were being taken. I'm afraid that my grandfathers generation of the family have taken something with them that may be hard to reestablish though. Hunting then was a way of life which was necessary to eat, my generation of the Edwards have gone on to be Drs. and lawyers and most have never NEEDED to hunt and never spent the time to learn what that means as I did. I hope to pass everything along and maybe get it all back in play! 

Cool. I may give it a try next go around. Thanks for the explanation.

 I had goats when I was growing up (10 +/- at any time) and the farmer next door have many times that as well as chickens cows and hogs. I learned from him (like others have mentioned) If a dog kills livestock you figure out who the owner is and give them a chance to pay for damages and to get about the task of securing their dog but there will be no more warnings after this point. What I did learn is that the warning was merely to cover your A$$ because once a dog gets that taste for blood, it WILL be back for more. After I put down 3-4 dogs on my place I decided to sell the goats because they weren't worth the trouble. I never got an ounce of joy out of killing a dog no matter that it had killed something of mine but I understood that it was what was necessary. It was this understanding that got really hard when my own dog joined the dark side and killed one of the neighbors goats. I put my own dog down because it was the right thing to do and also is what would have been done had it been someone elses. I love my dogs more than one should probably  extend to an animal so it was tough. I guess what I'm getting at is, you have the right to protect your property but if this is going to be an ongoing thing then getting shed of the chickens may be what keeps you from being the blacksheep. It shouldn't be this way but it is. Lots of things to weigh out. Good luck.

 This morning my father made a post on Thanksgiving about what Thanksgiving used to be like for our family. As My grandfather, his brothers and the rest of their generation started getting old enough that the cold was keeping them at camp rather than in the woods the deer became less of a priority to them. They were the ones of retirement age that had time to secure leases, plant food plots, clean trails and put up stands and when they decided they couldn't do it any more that was the end of camp. I have many great memories of our camp in Georgia partially because of the hunting but largely due to the time spent with my father, grandfather and great uncles (3 of them). My grandfather and 1 of his brothers passed away 2 days apart and another a couple years later so there's only one of that generation left. I'm thankful for hunting we did but even more thankful for the time spent with family.    Anyways here is what my Dad posted this morning,   Growing up, the extended Edwards family celebrated Thanksgiving Day at the hunting camp. It wasn't unusual for there to be 40 or more of us there. The men/boy folk would get up early, load the dogs and head to the hunting woods. The women/girl folk would be at home finishing up the tremendous amount of absolutely delicious Southern style dishes. My favorite was the dressing full of boiled eggs and onions covered in giblet gravey. Uncle Carl's was the pecan pie (for which he would pay later that night). Coming in from the woods and finding everyone there with a table outside (it was in Florida after all) full of enough food to feed a small village was always a delight. We would all remove our hats and Uncle Jack would ask God's blessings on the food. Then the eating would commence. We were all pretty good at it. The family would all visit, kid around, play a prank or two and some would lay on the hoods of their trucks in the sunshine and take a nap (did I mention we were rednecks?). Sometimes we would head back into the woods to get in a couple of hours more of hunting. The womenfolk always complained about that. We didn't kill many deer, we burned up a lot of gas and spent more time hunting dogs than the deer we claimed to be hunting. But hunting was just an excuse for our family to spend time together. Hunting was kind of like white rice, it was what went along with it that actually provided the flavor. So to Uncle Johnny (the only member of that generation left) and to my brothers, cousins and other extended family, I leave you with Uncle Carl's famous words. "I may not live to hunt again next year, so I may just shoot a doe today."   I wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving!

 Nice rifle OP! If you're loading your own ammo the Hornady Amax and Vmax have been very accurate bullets and very reasonably priced IMO. There are many bullets that are great such as the Nosler ballistic tips and Sierras Match Kings. As far an accurate factory round goes, the BlackHills 77gr load is really nice shooting and is loaded with a Sierra Match King bullet. The Outpost Armory is close by me and they have a pile of different .223 factory ammo choices ranging from small varmit to match target loads to hunting etc... 

   I think you're going to really enjoy the BCM then. A good friend who is also a member has the Badger Latches on two of his AR's  that I have used and I have much more confidence in the BCM than I ever would the Badger Latch. Not saying that the Badger Latch is bad but rather that the BCM is that good. I've got the large latches and that's what I ordered this time. I guess maybe if you were fully decked out and ready to storm a building the latch could possibly snag something but I have yet to run into that problem. I can grab the latch with a finger and yank it back full bore and not be the slightest bit concerned with breaking anything.