Jonnin

fail terror tactics gone wrong.  +1 for the good guys, one down, 3 to go.   Hopefully shooting the guy in the back won't bite him.

gun? what gun?

  This.  The BBB seems to have become the bad businesses bribes or something --- I swear some of the worst companies have great ratings while great companies have low ratings.   Thankfully the web has replaced it... just do a search on the business and if you find tons of hits about bad practices, you have your answer.   You have to take the web with a grain of salt, but when hundreds of people say the same things about a business, consider it to at least have a kernel of truth.

actually the person saying it would be part of the mainstream media which means it would be a gun-grabber, with about a 95% chance if on TV.  Not sure why you would think otherwise.   The AR is self-defeating.   It *looks* military, which is offensive to gun-grabbers.  It holds more than 1 round, which makes it offensive to gun-grabbers.   That it has been used in 10 or so crimes since 1985 makes it ultra important to ban in their minds.   Throw in all the yahoos toting them out to wal-mart etc to make their case against gun control.  Throw in all the videos of people doing stupid stuff with em -- simulated full auto fire, for example -- as any good gun grabber knows, pulling the trigger really fast is the same as a mini-gun in firepower and super accurate, able to auto-target each victim in turn leaving the shooter free to focus on trigger jockeying.   Did I mention that it LOOKS SCARY? 

the lee disk device is not precision gear but several things to know about it:   - small ball powder is best.  It controls the air gaps between flakes better, which is good for *ANY* volume based system.  Big flakes fill the same volume but airspace is randomized so the weights are widely different.   - its not precision competition load gear, but it makes ammo as good as most commercial cheap stuff.  Its going to have a bit of error, but if its more than 5%, something is up.  Usually, as already said, its the powder type.  5% of a rifle round can be multiple grains, while for small pistol like 9mm, it should be less than 1 grain variation.    - their chart is way off, but the hole diameters are quite consistent, so its linear.  That is, if .3 hole gives 5 grains, you can use that as a ratio to figure out the nearest hole to 6 or 7 or whatever grains (OF THE SAME POWDER).   - the device tends to leak a little, not bad, but a little.  If it leaks a lot, its defective.   - your scale has errors too.  Unless its super good (not sure about yours) its likely .25 to .5 grains of error (this seems typical for inexpensive scales).

it depends on what the "target grade ammo" really is and the current value/availability of that type.  True match grade ammo can run more than self defense ammo (more than a buck a pop!) in some calibers but who makes/shoots 38 sp for accuracy??   Guessing here that its just labeled target and is just "above average consistency" ammo, the stuff that is like $5 or so more per box?    Regardless, web search out the price of both and figure out the ratio roughly, then make your offer.

  The ocean is really, really big and they have no clue where the plane was, really.  They got it down to like the size of the state of texas (ok, mild sarcasm, but the area is still quite large) by locating a weak black box signal (maybe?) but its very deep and a lot of real estate to cover.  As for washing up, someday something will.  But that is useless; the entire set of  bodies could wash up next month and it would not help find the plane wreckage.   They might be able to guess which quadrant of which ocean to look in, from where it washed up...   I dunno about those signals but I do know that most signals can do screwy things at times and triangulation is not always possible nor easy. 

  Yes and no.  I think both sides have very valid points.   Scaring people is bad, and making businesses (like the recent chipotle incident) close their doors to guns is bad.  However I also think the occasional, well organized and carefully orchestrated visual "in your face"  "protest" or "rally" is a good thing too.  The trouble is, people go all dumbass on these, and fail to do the background and legwork required to "get it right".    You want to do an AR/AK visual "protest/rally" thingy?  Some ideas... - how about making sure the "host" knows about it and is willing to allow it...! - how about making sure the general public knows about it as well, at least a little in advance, so those who want can stay away and the curious can have a listen? - how about informing local LEOs of the "event", allowing them to help out or just be "present" -- work with them. - keep it calm and informative as to our stance.    and those are just the most basic starters, there are probably 10 or 20 more things that need doing/enforcing to have a smooth, peaceful, informative demonstration.  Yea, sure, someone will still be offended, but if the public was warned in advance, the police are there, and so on, there will be LESS panic and confusion amongst the sheep.  No one wants to stagger out of bed, head over to the XYZ to buy something, and encounter 50 people dressed in camo and armed with rifles without any warning.  Even *I* don't want to run into something like that.   If I knew it was gonna be there, though, I could join in or avoid it as I see fit. 

It sounded like there were additional recruits (a few hundred?  Yours said 4, another I read said over 2, no one seems to know details) after the inital group, some of those may still be alive (unclear?).   Regardless, whoever thunk this up deserves a medal; it was a *great* idea.   I am glad he was able to live a long, full life and that he was allowed to discuss his role and write his book to get the history down.    Sounded like a dangerous job, more than I would have guessed until reading deeper.   Few enough of that era left, and soon none... talk to any you know while you still can. 

Sounds depressing.  Be sure to meet up with some ppl to try out anything you can't do over there.   Get some trigger time on a pistol or modern rifle, perhaps, if you are interested.   TN is a decent state and most things can be found to play with if you ask around.   Ive had a lot of fun with the VW folks,  showing them a few from my collection. 

  Maybe inside job, maybe not.  I have been in countless small stores where I could see where the safe(s) are located, including gun shops and jewelery shops.  Which safe to pick sounds like an inside job, perhaps.  Or they cut into one, and had it been wrong, would have cut into the other after taking a look.  Small camera on a wire can look around after only drilling a hole...  and it sounds like they had something like that.    Be interesting to see if they get greedy/stupid with their loot.   Stealing it, apparently not so hard.  Selling it without anyone noticing and hoping none of the gems are marked/numbered/etc ...  

  Not anymore.  They used to have a smaller gun (was it the rogue??) but I think they now only make 7+ inch monsters. 

well, if they work fast we could talk...  

He said he has a massive backlog and may not be able to do it, anyone else?

the 180 rule is silly to me: bullets do not go out the muzzle and hang a left.  I have before and will again stand less than 180 from a live shooter if there is a good reason to do so (example, to get a cool muzzle flash pic, with an experienced and trusted shooter who knows I am there and what I am doing).  But this scenario was nothing like the 180 rule.  IMHO the target changer is 100% safe so long as the shooter does not have any freak accidents (drop-discharge type stuff, or hot-brass-down-the-shirt-dance, etc) and the shooter keeps on putting the rounds on his target.   FINE.  But freak accidents and stupidity DO happen, and that makes the scenario totally unsafe and unacceptable to me.   Worse, its unclear but the shooter seems unaware of the other guy.    Shooting is like driving.  There are things you can do that are safe.  There are things you can do that are unsafe.  There are things that are safe with pros but not noobs ("don't try this at home").  There are things that are usually safe but have risks.  And just like driving, you can't trust the other people around you outside of very specific circumstances, usually in a private setting, and not always even then...   so my final answer is: dangerous and unacceptable situation.

kk ty, I will send a pm that way.

  Without going into a bunch of technical jargon, "yes".   If you want to know more, look up "critical mass nuclear".    In a nutshell, if too much material is piled up, it *could* react, and that *could* be a devastating explosion.  Or not.  It depends on what material and circumstances.   But  the "public domain bomb knowledge" will tell you that shoving 2 blocks of uranium etc together "rapidly" into a bigger chunk will... level japan.

I want something like this   http://www.brownells.com/userdocs/skus/p_017245001_1.jpg   for a colt woodsman.    I can't seem to find a trustworthy machine shop (I sure don't want to be sending a firearm to most places, I can't easily to the CNC file for it myself, and even sending just the grip & some images & measurements seems risky).    Anyone have a suggestion on where I might get something like this made for a reasonable price?  I have considered trying to adapt one of their existing ones to fit but that would be very crude, if it worked at all -- its similar but not close enough to a mark / buckmark / etc frame.   Or other ideas... the point is to put a red dot on it without drilling in.  We have a machine shop where I work but its beyond our capability -- most I have made there was a trigger transfer bar or other more simple shapes.

  absolutely there ARE laws that prohibit it.  I am pretty sure you need all sorts of legal hoops to have ANYTHING beyond trace amounts of seriously radioactive material.  The stuff is highly regulated.  The equipment to refine it is also highly regulated.   You can't even get medical quality radioactive material, let alone bomb grade.   messing with it would get you a visit from all sorts of folks "in the name of national security" etc.  Thanks W for that "patriot" act! 

  Steel ammo --- its not that its made of steel.  Its that its the cheapest stuff going and that means inconsistent powder charges -- a round on the weak side might not cycle the action, esp a new gun with stiff springs.   And "factory reloads" vary from excellent to rubbish -- we have no way of knowing.  Give the gun a chance with some quality ammo.  Also pay attention to failures: if it fails on the first round or two consistently,  load the mag 1/2 full and try again.  If that works 100%, your mag springs may be too new and need some exercise, or the mag may have other issues.    Also, bersa deserves the chance to make it right -- give their fix a try.  A gun that needed work often gets tested better than usual before sending it back; so the odds are it worked for them in the repair center (probably not using the lowest quality ammo on the shelf though... )   If you want something that will shoot the worst steel ammo made every time, trade it for an old 9x18 Makarov.  Those were designed to run on nothing else.

  Yea but not talking about making top shelf here, just survival mode.   You can even buy a 9mm / 357 revolver, just swap the cylinders.   Its not optimal, but you can make functional ammo for either type from the other one, in the given scenario of SHTF and using what you found of one type or the other.   Ideally, you would have had a supply of ammo and not have to resort to this sort of thing, but ideally the S wouldnt HTF.

ammo is non issue --- you can pop either one apart to make the other, if you had cases and a preference. 

right, right, I just meant the basics have not changed in 100+ years and my main point was that the "outdated" fbi/cia/etc studies are still going to be "mostly valid".       Certainly we can make better expansion JHP rounds.  And certainly we can make more aerodynamic rounds.  Its like building a better mousetrap though.   A round ball out of a civil war revolver at self defense range is just as good --- at the end of the day, if you poke a goodly sized hole in vital machinery first, you win.  It does not take modern rocket science to accomplish *that* :P   Am I recommending using antique tech?  Not at all.  I am just saying don't over think it.

ended up with sig 938 which is 9mm in the mustang frame.  But for a while the defender was in the top 3 as I agonized over it.

  Up to date?  Nothing has "really" changed in over 100 years.  Mass and velocity.  Deformation/expansion/tumbling.  We knew all that stuff in WWI or earlier.  Browning knew that in 1900, and his .45 acp has proven the theory time and time again.  Since then we have tried all kinds of stuff, and still the 45 is as good as anything modern science has produced (not gonna caliber war here but its at least equal to anything standard autos use).   Same is really true for rifles --- my 1909 mauser fires a round that was made for an 1890s model.  Decades of science, research, and just fooling with it later, the military uses a virtually identical round --- the .308.   Nothin's changed a bit.