Jonnin

Cause of accident: "I didn't see him".

I fully support the movement.

watch the soft in the AR .. some types don't do well in some guns, making it a single shot no matter what you have... sounds like you found one that works, if so, go with it.  

Sharpen it but don't grind it to match if its a working tool.  Just sharpen it as it is and over time and use, it should even up.  Grinding down the rest of the blade just to get it all straight is too destructive unless its a showpiece or something.

couple of rainbow trajectory rounds when fired from a rifle... I would double check the ballistics of those out of a short barrel if you wanted it for anything besides making noise (I don't even know, just guessing it makes a hefty arc out of a pistol).   For making noise, it does not matter which one you get.   If you wanted it for some sort of hunting or long range or ???  usage, what would it be?   I shot one once, in some 400 caliber that I forget the name of.   It was too big and heavy to hold up for long.  By once, I mean one shot ... not enough to say anything at all about it except "boom".

If it had a target trigger Id have bought one long ago.  Its a nice gun but given the amounts of .22 mag on the shelves, and the rough trigger, I can't quite bring myself to buy one.  

not worth it.  Time + fees and only a 50-50 chance of getting a break, tank of gas, missed work/vacation, ... just pay it.   

disassemble and mix in dirt.   Gunpowder is good fertilizer.   oils can kill primers, dunno what trans fluid will do, never used it on ammo, but if it gets inside the powder or primer, it probably won't be "good" for it.   you can tumble loaded ammo gently.   Almost no chemistry that will get it clean is going to be good for the ammo if it gets inside the case.   if its brass, it will usually clean up and shoot.  If its steel or paper or something odd, it may not. 

  Extra turrets for mine were like 10 or so dollars each -- I can swap calibers in about 3 seconds.   Changing powder is another 30 seconds to swap the disk.  My gear is sort of set up towards that in mind -- it makes ammo fast, and is easy to set up, but its not the highest quality setup out there (lee turret, lee disk powder thingy).   Without the extra turrets, it would be awful, agreed, and a more precise powder device might be harder to set up also.   Them's the tradeoffs, I guess.

Nod, that makes sense Patton but its really projectiles.   Powder will do many, many calibers in a broad range per type.   Primers, the same.   4 types of powders and 4 types of primers probably covers over 75% of the entire range of everything ever made, though perhaps not the "best" for every case.    You do sometimes get a deal buying many calibers from 1 source at once -- midway for example often has deals that tap the total purchase value instead of buying all the same thing.   Just have to watch for a different type of deal to score on that.    Most of my pistol I can get from the same place as hardcast lead and its more or less priced by the pound, not the shape it arrives in.    Even so, I eat more losses on the projectiles than anything else, esp some of the less popular rifles.  

I Know we put tabasco in ours but not how much exactly.

jpeg does something a lot more sophisticated but similar to this:   imagine an RGB image (3 bytes / pixel, one for red, one for green, and one for blue, your typical 16 million color image).   Say you take each byte and make the least significant bit zero always, this loses data, but its a tiny change, human's cant even see this.  That gets you about 7/8 % compression when you use something like LZW / zip / etc on it.  Now zero out the 2 least significant bits, and its 6/8 % compression, etc.   The more you throw away, the better the compression, and the worse the result, down to keeping 1/8 of the data (zero everything and its near 100% compression and no image data lol).     Jpeg does something similar to that after a complex math transform (discrete cosine wavelet)  so it can throw away the data more cleanly, but this is a rough example of what is going on.     Whatever site presents the image may also be compressing, resizing and messing with it.   The above 2 images look nearly the same to me and the more damage one is perfectly fine for a quick "check out the view from my roof" type social media posting.   The full quality one is not required to see that its a great view.  Also, the sky looks off..  solid color, and solid colors don't mix well with jpg.

a lot of "foreign" companies make them here.  Guns are tricky to import, so they just set up shop here.   Not all, but a lot.   yes, all pocket guns are, by definition, small and typically fail for very large hands.   Terminology is muddled on the sizes of autos (revolvers have this down cleanly) but the next thing up from a pocket pistol is a "subcompact" like the cz rami,  or your larger 380s like walther and bersa etc.  Most pocket guns offer an extended magazine that increases the grip size but that still only really supports medium sized hands.  Worse, most of them slide-bite you with big hands (slide hits your hand and cuts you every shot).   That said you can get a pretty large gun in your pockets if you wear certain types of clothing with larger pockets.  I pocket carried a Makarov (its like a large single stack 380 in size and shape)  for over a decade.   It won't fit in all clothing, but it worked for me with the pants I wear.   People pocket carry the kel tec pf/p-11 type guns too for a couple more size comparisons.    I like pocket carry because I sit down more than I stand up, and waist carry bothers me sitting.     Yes, glocks require you to have massively strong hands and wrists or they do not work.  Some exercise and practice can overcome this for healthy shooters, while handicapped people can swap in a weaker spring to make it work.   You can limp-wrist jam any semi-auto but its easier to do on lightweight, high recoil, heavy spring guns and glock is all 3 of those.  

About those hot powders mentioned... it might save you money but you get better consistency / accuracy etc with the bulky powders too, usually.   If 1/2 a grain is the difference between too weak and too strong,  you need an expensive scale to use it and even there the small errors in the device make your ammo inconsistent.   If the difference between not working and too hot is 3+ grains, a $20 scale will do it safely and you can be off by 1/2 a gain and still put all the shots in a single touching hole @ 15-25 yards.     My emergency end of the world powders are the hot ones -- 10 pounds is a lifetime supply.  The stuff I use is not the most bulky available but its about 3/4 of the way in that direction.    So now you have 2 reasons to lean toward bulk ... safer, and more consistent results. 

The answer is that it depends lol.    I can get 1000 projectiles that I use for 70 bucks.  (cheap hard cast lead) I can get the brass for 9mm free off the range floor. A pound of powder loads many, many boxes of these for what, 35, 40 bucks now?  If the 9mm load takes 7 grains 1 pound makes 1000.  Lets just call that good enough to talk about. 1000 primers costs like 40 bucks.    So 1000 rounds totals out to be, for 9mm made by a cheapskate like me about $150.   1000 rounds is 20 boxes of 50.   That is $7.50 / box.   The rock bottom steel cased junk ammo is like 11/box, maybe 12 with taxes.   So in comparison:   I saved roughly 5 dollars a box to get brass cased, consistent and accurate ammo vs steel cased inconsistent ammo.  It takes me 15 min or less to make 50 on my turret press.   If I bought top shelf copper jacketed projectiles, bought brass, and bought top shelf primers, etc, my savings would go down of course.   The above is for 9mm which is one of the least expensive ammos in the world.  I save over 10 bucks a box on 380s. I save over 20 bucks a box on 44 mags or 45 LC.   I save tons on rifle ammo (not 223, its like 9mm and more work to make it). Etc.   9 isn't really the big savings.  But the difference in quality (accuracy) from my own made vs the cheapest I can buy is HUGE. 

  Quality ... yea it varies, but its hard to talk about... loose fit guns can run / feed better, be more forgiving, than tight ones so a little slop isn't all bad,  plastic isn't bad,  MIM parts get a bad rep because 1 in every 10 billion has an air pocket or something,  but all in all... most guns you can buy will work without incident with a few exceptions and anything that has been in production for a decade or so is usually a good bet that it works.   Stuff that does not work does not continue to be made generally.  And if it has a manufacturing defect, companies make it right for the most part.  Actually many smaller brands tend to be really solid on this -- they need every customer.   Unless its the exact same model x 2, you won't share parts in common, nor much in the way of "tools".   My "tools" consist of a cleaning kit and a few screwdrivers and punches ... some hand made from bought ones (if you didn't know most gun screws are flat, and most screwdrivers are tapered, which leads to damage to the screws ... you can buy rectangular screwdrivers or you can grind a normal one down), and allen wrenches etc.   Not much really.. I am not a gunsmith, and most modern guns come apart with basic tools.      recoil etc.   Its physics.   9mm in small, light guns is brutal.  So is a 380, and a 25, in the smallest packages.  380s in mid sized guns (bersa, walther) is gentle.  9mm in larger guns (ruger p series, for example) is gentle.   Its a package..  recoil felt is determined by the gun's grip width, slide weight, springs, caliber, gun weight, bore axis, and other such things.    Also, caliber does not equal bang :)  it is the diameter in mm or inches.    40 and 10mm are the same size, but the 40 is a glorified 9mm and the 10 is more potent than a 357 revolver.  45 is bigger than 44, but the 44 packs at least double the felt recoil.   Reloading materials... the same powder works in a wide variety of bullets.  The same projectiles can too, 9 and 380 specifically can be shared, I use the same projectile in both cause im cheap and the lightweight 380 bullets cost less so I use them in my 9mm.  Primers are the same.  Brass, I loot off the range so its free for both.   You will need 2 sets of dies for it, might as well get 2 full sets.   I also use the same materials in my 38s for my revolver play.   This is an excellent diameter for keeping your materials common.   But don't let that hold you back,  most bullet bulk buys the cost is shipping, and buying more of any type helps spread the shipping out even if not same caliber.   The small savings between buying 1000 projectiles and 5000 is usually not worth talking about apart from the rare awesome deal you find every so often.   380 is more than capable.   Look at james bond, he knocks people thru walls with it.   Seriously, its fine.   The Russians used effectively the same thing for their pistol sidearm in their military for half a centaury and the cops over in Europe still use it.   If it didn't work, they would not -- even anti gun police states understand that their cops need working calibers to keep the rabble in line, right?   I am always willing to let someone try my gun out.   Like, 5 shots, no biggie.  If you want to shoot out a box in it, provide the ammo yourself.  Not everyone is this willing, but all they can do is say "no" .   Most gun people are open to trying each others toys out.     My wife owns nearly as many guns as I do.  And we share some.   This is a good thing, a hobby we can do together etc.   Encourage her  and enjoy the sport together.   Far too many guys exclude/discourage the women in their life (wife, daughters, friends, whoever) from guns, which is a shame really.

nice!   Guitars are like guns really, at least acostics : many an expensive one is all eye candy and no sound.   Unlike guns you can play with them and get your money back if you change your mind.   I inherited 2 of dads... a martin that we sold for over 3x what he had paid for it,  and we kept a Gallagher that is much easier to play (easier to mash the strings down).  Its very plain and no frills, but it sounds way better than the ultra pricey and fancy martin did.   Even so, speaking of excesses ... none of us including him were good enough to justify these instruments (seriously we know the basic chords, major, minor and can strum like campfire kum by ya or something), but its easy to get excited and dump cash into hobbies, as we all know!    I am very interested in how your DIY works out on improving the sound, keep us posted.   It sounds like a very interesting project... 

if you are new to hand guns, let me point out that the trigger matters.    For example the sig p238 has a light, short trigger that is very easy to use while a lot of the other small 380s are kel tec clones and that design involves pulling a 10 pound spring over the better part of an inch every single shot.  Some of the walther and bersa etc guns are Da/sa which has a long hard to do first shot and easy follow up shots, not quite a hybrid of the first two ideas.    I love my sig p238 (and carry the 9mm version that came out later).   Heavy triggers are more difficult to shoot quickly and accurately,  so be aware.  Lighter triggers require a manual safety, and if you hate that,  its another issue.   The Da/SA tend to have a safety and you can choose to use it or not.   Its all preference (I like the easy triggers, clearly)  but be aware of it ... trigger pull is one of the more overlooked things by new buyers and its critical when choosing a small carry gun.   You are doing the right things, getting opinions and trying stuff out.  Take your time.   Selling a slightly used gun that didn't work out for you is a loss of 10-20% of your money every time.   We've all been there, and we will all probably do it again,  but it helps when you can minimize this expense.

You can't put a price tag on something you are attached to.    If you are attached, restore it and keep it.   Its over 25 years old, an antique (sorta, lol) and its value will eventually increase, making it an investment now.     If you are not attached, get what you can out of it and move on.

Yea, ammo.   Made, its almost exactly the same for me... same bullet (using a cheap lead 380 bullet in both) and that leaves just the small powder charge difference (a few grains... 7000 grains is 30 bucks or whatever, a couple of grains is negligible).  But bought, as noted above, its $5 bucks more / box on the average.  Making 9mm about "buy 3 get 1 free" relative to 380 price.   For a round that uses less lead, brass, and powder, mind you -- its pure gouging by the ammo companies.  

  snobbery aside, he said he didn't have a lot of extra gun money right now.   380 costs more than 9s unless you make it, and it adds up.

He has a point.   You get results when you web search hi point .22 but if you look on their site, they don't make one for sure.  

a friend of mine has a phoenix with 2 barrels, we used the long one.   It is quite fun to shoot, decently accurate and reliable.   That said they are not high round count guns and are prone to wearing out at an accelerated rate due to the construction.     I won a hi point 45 and its also great for what it is.   The trigger is good, the recoil is mild, it goes bang 100% of the time and the rounds land where you aim them.  Not tried their 22 but their guns work.   If I recall they have a solid service / warranty too.   I would prefer it over the phoenix.   That said, the same money for a new cheapo will net you a decent used one at a show usually.   I would seek out a S&W 22a model for a cheap target .22 practice gun.   I had one and loved it, and you can find them for pretty low prices used.  The difference between a new hi point and a used 22a is probably 50 bucks, if you can swing it.

  I was kind of amazed we didn't see a big push for this after the boston marathon.     Gangs might get into reloading at some point.   Which might be fun to watch.   "An armed teen blew his hand off today when he fired his homemade "whitey killer specials" at a police officer ... His mother said he was always a good boy and that these dangerous explosives are at fault, its too easy to buy explosives in this country....

Nice.   There is a (sport?)bra holster out there (maybe several by now), if you think that might work better long run, but if what you have is working no need to dump money into it.