Jonnin

You should be able to use an AR type scope on a bolt action gun and mount it *anywhere* in a circle around the barrel up to 2, maybe 3 inches away from the barrel. It is common for the scope on such guns to be very HIGH off the barrel, but typically not left or right. However, it does not matter: the barrel is round, and having a scope at 90 degrees off to the left is exactly the same as having it off the top of the barrel. In fact, it would be exactly like taking a gun that is sighted in and shooting it when the gun is on its side: it will work. Clearly the left/right up/down are all wrong now, but that is fixed with the scope's adjustments: resight it in. It may be a little strange to sight in if you put it at 45 degress or something, as left right now have an up/down component, but a little patience should still get the gun zeroed once you figure out what is happening. So, where I am going is, just mount the scope offset so you can use the other eye, and use an AR type scope which is designed to be farther from the barrel, rather than a standard rifle scope which is designed to sit right on the barrel with a small offset. It may be difficult to find or make the offset scope mounts, but it is not rocket science either, if you can't get it anywhere else a machine shop can do it (a smart gunsmith ought to be able).

It is too bad TVA is public/government controlled. I swear if I were in charge of a large, important company like TVA or microsoft, and someone tried to mess with me, I would throw in the towel for a year. If at TVA and forced to do EPA stuff to the coal fired plants, for example, I would nod, smile, agree, and turn those plants off to install the upgrades. Which would then unforseeably enounter difficulties and take over a year to bring back online. I would then raise the rates by at least a power of 10, to pay for said upgrades. I would then allow chaos to ensue and sit there nodding and smiling while everyone had a crap fit, get on the news and apologise and put the blame right back on government and the EPA, saying it was out of my hands, if people want cheaper energy, gotta not regulate so much, if they want clean energy, gotta pay for it, make a decision.... Or in microsoft's case, just stop selling windows in the countries that sued me, tell them that I we are going to "make room" for healthy competition, no more products or support will be sold in your country, enjoy the opencrap. I want just one big company to have the guts to do this just once. Once would be enough, the lesson would not have to be repeated.

Interesting.... france is allowing them in movie theaters, and india in prisons, and other countries are looking at who might be able to use one. They are looking at a version that has an emergency bypass, somehow, still being researched --- for us that would mean 911 works but nothing else does. In the USA, it is legal to build a building (or room walls, etc) that blocks the signals, but you cannot do active jamming without serious approval from the FCC.

The 22 will bounce, esp out of a short barrel. As I understand it, any handgun less than about 200 grains will bounce off bone under some conditions, at least on semi-rare occasions. Now, it depends on what one means by bounce... generally, we are talking a few degrees (less than 10) of deflection instead of a straight line hole. This guy still sounds like a moron, but its not a total fail.

This is because they have a variety of products that vary in quality. Their steel presses are great. The aluminum line has a questionable reputation. Some of their accessories are made of plastic and have to be treated gently or it can break --- I love my disk powder device for example but it only works with fine/ball powders and the on/off twist cannot be used (it nearly broke the one time I tried it!). Their dies are excellent and come with basic load data, hard to beat that. Depends on the product in question, really, but they have an excellent service/warranty, good prices, and even sell refurbished gear at a very low price. I will stand behind their steel press. I even used mine to brute force reshape 30-06 brass, and my first reloading bench broke under the strain but the press is fine...

They do work, at least the ones you can get for certain applications do (hospitals, high security areas, and a few others are allowed to use them). Can't comment on any consumer grade ones, but as I understand it, they are illegal to use off your own property (?) and possibly on your property (?) unless you have either done some paperwork or something (?). I have been around them but not owned one, so I cannot comment on anything except that some of them at least work, and work very well...

I shoot lead in my makarov, but they are hard cast lead designed to work with the poly barrel. So you *can* cast for at least some calibers (certainly pistols!) if you know how to change the hardness and control that in your casting. Seems like a lot of trouble --- as I said, I buy mine that way and let someone else do all the work. Really, poly guns were designed for jacketed bullets, and any use of lead is going to take some care on your part and is probably not worth it.

You cannot be too careful with explosives, really. Slow is the perfect way to start, and to be honest, being "too comfortable" with explosives is probably bad (same as with guns, getting lax leads to problems!). Not sure what else to say.... you could try sorting out 10 of the same brand of brass, see if that is the issue? Can't hurt.

it takes a *great deal* of force to get it loose, but yes, you just unscrew it, reseat it, and screw it back together. It takes me 2 wrenches and most of my body weight to get them loose and to get them tight again (If not just as tight as before, it will slip again!). The cause is likely a foreign case --- they have 2 primer holes off center instead of 1 in the center, so the die deprimer pin just hits solid brass when you try to deprime those cases and gets pushed back. It takes *excessive* force to do this. You should never have to push hard to size and deprime a 9mm, and if it feels like you are trying too hard, stop and look at the case to see that it actually does have a primer hole where it should such that the tool will work. Discard the offending case if you find some --- its possible to use them but way too much trouble.

Ah, that is very different from mine, I can see that. Mine is just a flat shell holder & the bottom of the case sits flat on it, and i see no way the brass could really have any effect.

Oh, ok. Well then your load sounds reasonably mild and safe to me. If you are concerned, you can still lower it: I would bet that 4 grains will punch paper out to 25 yards without any issues, at the worst might shoot a touch low, but you can always work it up a bit if you do not like the light loads. Lots of room to play with revolvers, since light loads do not jam them!

^^^^ That is a great summary. I am going to disagree with you on the recoil though. No amount of stance or technique is going to allow someone who does not have the mass and power to hold the gun steady through a shot to do so. There are ways to make the problem worse (agreed!), but at some point, there is nothing that will make it better. I will be a willing observer of whatever stance: the shooter will be performing double taps with the hottest 10mm ammo we can find in the smallest, lightest gun that will fire it to prove the point and a an elderly female shooter will use the points from the demonstration to perform the same feat using the trained stance (and remember that young, strong, trained fbi females could not handle the 10mm) ..... Bottom line is, not everyone can handle every weapon, no matter how good their technique. It just scales. I am a wuss, I guess, but a 9 in a lightweight frame is too much for me to control for rapid fire excersises like these sports.

I am not getting the geometry thing. The bottom of all my 9mm cases are flat. They sit directly on the shell holder, flat. I measure them with the calipers across that same surface: still flat. What gemoetry other than flat are you seeing? The extractor ring varies, a bit, but that does not change the OAL or how my shell holder grasps it. I really do not understand what you are saying, but if that is the case, sure, different brass that sat in the holder differently, some with a gap and some flush, could do it, but ????? how does that happen??

#7 is the actual recommended magnum powder for 357 & 44, if I remember it right, and #5 is middle of the road (it works in them, but is designed for 9mm/.40). Not sure which would be the best for a 38 but both probably work fine in it. The accurate load data page says a 148 grain wadcutter needs 3.6 grains of #5. A 125 grain frangible takes 5.3 grains. But your wadcutter is pushed in deeper. I would start with less just to be sure, you might drop down to 4 grains and work up from there to be safe if you cannot find data to match your choices. I have not loaded a wadcutter but logically, if the whole round is pushed into the case, it is seated deeper, and if it is that deep, it needs less powder.... so I would start with 3.5 or 4 and see what happens. You will not get a squib --- I would bet that 1 grain of #5 would at least pop the round out of the barrel. It does not take that much to get it to fall out the end of a barrel; a primer will get 1/3 of the way or more without any powder at all. Refer to http://www.accuratepowder.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/accurate_load_data_3.5.pdf

I do not see how brass brand would change it (???). The distance from the bottom of the case to the top of the seating die should still be constant, making the OAL constant, right? Belling or crimping might have an effect --- maybe the crimp die could stretch it or push the round in our out a little, or the belling could be too deep and cause it to slip in a bit more, or something.... ???? I would say not to worry about it, but, I would be a hippocrite. I spent months fighting the OAL of my 223.

I do not clean the flash holes. I did for a while, then I tried it without, there is no real difference that I can tell. That is on a turret press, and it is counter productive to clean them: the point of the turret is to put a piece of brass on it, pull the handle a few times, and put the live round of ammo into your box, next... To clean the primer pocket, I would have to put the brass on the press, size it, take it off the press, clean it, put it back on the press..... that is called a single stage. Im sure someone has a valid reason to clean the holes, but my ammo goes bang just fine without it.

I would think this is caused by some sort of variation in the press itself. Typically the distance from the shell holder/base of the round to the top of the seating die is a constant. If there is no give in the press, every round should be the same OAL: longer slugs get pushed in more, shorter ones pushed in less, but they stop at that same distance for the same OAL. That makes me think that your press allows you to slip past the hard stop a tiny bit sometimes, or inertial of really pushing the round in there fast, or something causes it? Or some other slight give in the press, a loose die or flexible C press frame? I am not sure, but those are my gut feelings.

If you are only going to be shooting it at 100 yards, you can try a very wide variety of loads --- you can easily go from 50% of the starter load data all the way up to the max. You may find that a reduced load shoots better in your gun at the shorter ranges, or not, it can vary. I have had really good luck with reduced loads on boat tails in my 308. Another issue is the human factor and setup. If you have perfect ammo, what sort of group can YOU make with that gun and setup realistically? The setup matters too: 1/2 inch group at 100 is impressive if you have iron sights or a 4 power scope. Mine has a 24 power scope and at 100 yards a dime to me looks bigger than it does in my hand (ok, maybe not, but you get the point). What I am saying is that it is very possible that your ammo is already capable of putting all the shots in one hole, but your optics or ability is not, or other factors such as a hot barrel come into play. I do not know a thing about you so I can armchair quarterback here.... all I am saying though is that before you spend the next 4 years of your life trying to perfect the ammo, make sure the ammo is actually the problem at hand. I am passing good with a bench rested rifle. Not great, but decent. I doubt I could put all the shots in one hole with only 3 shots on a regular basis. I could probably DO it, so long as I do not have to show you the 5 or 6 other targets where they were NOT all in the same hole, see? The internet is great that way... I do not have to show you my fail targets. Even with my stupidly overpowerful scope, it is a difficult goal.

As usual I am the odd man out, but I find the press priming tool to be great. A lot of folks seem to like the hand tool so they can prime a bunch of cases while watching TV or something (and that is worth noting: the hand primer is portable), but apart from that both work equally well for me and I prefer the press tool. The trays that most commercial 9mm is sold in are fine, I save all of them I can find (the 9mm trays work for 223, 9mm, 9x18, 380, and a bunch of other calibers, 45s work for 44s and a bunch of rifle cases, etc). I think there are really only about 5 sizes of them to fit 99% of the cartridges in the world. All it has to do is prevent the case from scooting around or falling over, you do not need anything special here. You can get a cartridge specific reloading data booklet for like $5 or use the data found online at good sources (typically, the manufacturer of your powder will have data and 9mm is easy to find data for). You may not want or need to spend $$$ on a manual. I find the manuals to be rather expensive considering that 95% of the info in them is available from the web. But I am fairly cheap and tend to only buy something if I cannot function without it. And in the opposite direction: I cannot recommend enough a turret press like the lee classic. The amount of time saved to produce a box of ammo is worth the extra costs. I can make simple pistol ammo like 9mm about 3 times faster on the turret, and its a one time expense. I would take the money you were going to spend on a manual and put it here...

Yes. And a couple of the shooters I know have fixed the triggers as well, to remove the takeup or reduce it. They are popular in the sport, for sure. Lack of a safety helps as well, many shooters find the safety adds a delay to their score, and, oddly enough, many shooting sports force use of any safety if the gun has one (even 10 pound pull DA/SA designs), making some models start with a disadvantage. Ammo that makes power factor (is not weak handloads, in other words) will rock a 17 no matter what spring you put into it. The bigger models are absolutely better about that issue, and clean up nicely if you want to customize one for competition shooting. Again, if you like them, shoot them, but the OP did ask us to try to convince him to pick something else! Since he asked, I outlined the things that bother me about them that may, or may not, bother him or anyone else.

I have just missed them 2 or 3 times according to the guns stores. Sigh. they are starting to show up but are sold right off, and are only coming to stores in 1s and 2s apparently, and weeks between each one....

here is your anti glock post: The 17 esp, but all glocks in general, have 3 issues that may or may not matter to you in idpa: lightweight --- the light plastic frame means more felt recoil grip angle --- at least for me, it adds recoil by pounding the wrists linearly rather than rotationally. It varies for different shooters. recoil springs --- the +p eating springs of glocks are rather stout/stiff, and while they can handle more powerful loads, they also translate more of the recoil into the shooter before those stiff springs start to collapse and absorb. All that combines into a gun that kicks fairly hard for a 9mm. Lots of folks have no problems with it, but I find that the 17 kicks so hard that, for IDPA type shooting (rapid double taps), the followup shots are often way off target due to the recoil/jerk of the pistol. It is also easy for a shooter to jam the gun by moving rapidly from target to target (this is a type of limp wrist jam, same thing but different cause). In short, unless you are quite strong, these pistols make the sport more difficult for the shooter, when compared to a 1911-9mm, a beretta 92, a cz 75, ruger p89, or similar sized heavy guns. Of those, the 92 is the lightest, the cut down slide and light frame being an issue. the 75 comes in many flavors, but you can get a heavy steel one. So really what I am saying is if you want to play a sport that requires rapid shooting and is scored off your time & accuracy, a heavy recoil pistol is not the #1 choice IMHO. I would recommend any of the big, heavy, gentle guns over the glock for this type of shooting for anyone who is not strong enough to hold a glock still. If you DO like the glock that much and want one, get one of the bigger frames, the 17 is still not ideal for the sport (but the 17 is an excellent carry gun). If you do not care about your score and want a 17, get a 17, of course. Its all about what you want out of the gun and sport, really.

Second that, the .40 is a terrible caliber for custom loads as there are only a few bullet weights and the max/min loads are not really that far apart. Err on the side of caution: I would cut the powder in HALF to use a rifle primer. Is there still a shortage? I see them on the shelves enough of the time that I have bought several thousand that I did not need just because they were there and had been modestly hard to find. Last gun show I went to you could have bought 100k of the things and still not taken all that were for sale, that was maybe 2 months ago?

its not you. The chart is a mess --- it supposedly is saying that china has held most of the world's money or resources since the dawn of time. But if you look at it, say 1950, then you can see that 100% of the world's resources is like 300% of whatever scale this is. 1950: Usa: 40% china: 90% india: 80% and so on. Its a heck of a lot more than 100%. I think maybe it is summed, so whoever has the fattest band is winning, but then why bother with %s at all, its nonsense. If that is how it is done, it is saying that in 2008 we have 1/3, china had 1/3, and all the other peons shared the other 1/3.

You might try these: http://www.xdtalk.com/forums/non-xd-handguns/33218-ha-ha-ghetto-glock-sights.html