GUN STUFF

[fastwin]

Need to look for a gun safe to lock away my acquisitions.
What can you recommend or advise against?
Pros and cons on mechanical or electronic locks.
Thanks in advance

Always a fan of the Browning/Pro Steel safes... previously they were just Pro Steel safes out of Utah until Browning bought the company years ago. I also like to use Golden Rod dehumidifiers.

http://www.goldenroddehumidifiers.com/

[WarrenJ]

That Rockchucker is the beginning of a slippery slope!  My reloading room, after almost 35 years of reloading has a singe station press, a turret press, two progressive presses, 3 bullet swaging presses and 6 shotgun presses.  Its a sickness - You've been warned!

[zooom]

That Rockchucker is the beginning of a slippery slope!  My reloading room, after almost 35 years of reloading has a singe station press, a turret press, two progressive presses, 3 bullet swaging presses and 6 shotgun presses.  Its a sickness - You've been warned!

does this mean you spend more time loading and reloading than actually shooting?

[ducpainter]

RCBS rock chucker supreme is following me home tonight. Let the games begin!

It's what I'm running right now.

It's a great press...rugged as hell.

The only thing I don't like about the rockchucker is the spent primer catcher. You'll be chasing some around. 

[Monsterlover]

What's the difference between the turret style and progressive?

[ducpainter]

What's the difference between the turret style and progressive?

A turret you can manually, or automatically on some models, advance the turret and you get one round every 4 pulls of the handle...or however many dies you have on your turret.

A full progressive you get one round per pull of the handle and it advances by itself.

[DW]

Yeah, slippery slope indeed. I've got a good mentor to show me the ropes. He exhibits all the symptoms you just described.

It's like a big boy chemistry set!

[WarrenJ]

If I didn't reload, I wouldn't be able to afford to shoot as much as I do.  When my wife and I were shooting hard competitively, we were burning between 30 and 40K rounds a year. No way I could have afforded to do that on factory ammo.  The other issue is that there isn't a lot of factory ammunition that will do some of things I want to accomplish, so loading custom ammo is the only way.  

I also make special low drag jacketed rifle bullets, so reloading is the only way they will work unless I want to throw them.  I started making low drags when the only long range match bullets were the Sierra Matchkings and some rare Lapua bullets.  Now there are a number of excellent low drag bullets on the market, so I don't make many of them except for my own use.  Plus the current prices for bullet jackets is about $0.40 each so I'd have to charge more than I'd be willing to pay.  

[ducpainter]

Warren...how do the Nosler match bullets compare to the Sierra in .223...52/53gr ?

[cokey]

How come 6 shotgun presses?   And wats the average savings you see with reloading it?

[WarrenJ]

I don't have any first hand experience with the lighter Nosler bullets, but if the 69 grain Match Noslers are any indication, they should be excellent.  I have had nothing but great results with the Nosler match bullets.  They are priced right ( if you can still find them) and they shoot every bit as good as anything out there.  I really wish CZ would come out with their 223's with a 1 in 9 twist bbl so we could use heavier bullets.  Its the only drawback to those rifles.  I have one and its a great light bullet gun.  I did swage a batch of short, blunt bullets for it once, IIRC they were 73 grains.  They shot great and hit real hard but I haven't gotten back to making any more - its on the list of to-do's.  Stilll only a 300 yard bullet or so with its blunt shape, but it added a fair amount of thump over the 55's.  I'd like to try it on coyotes to compare it to the lighter bullets.

As far as shotgun presses - I have a manual 12 ga press, another one set up for reloading slugs and other specialty ammo, a semi progressive 12 ga, a fully progressive 12 ga, a manual press for 28 ga and my wife's press - a progressive 20 ga.   I just have one on the bench at a time and the rest on a shelf so I can swap them out when needed.  With the current price of shot, I'm not sure of the savings.  I do think that my reloads perform better than the cheaper shells out there, so if you compare them to ammunition of similar performance, I think I still come out ahead.  I haven't been doing a lot of shotgunning lately so my usage is down a bit.  I certainly save loading 28 ga as they are a bit rarer and more expensive, while loading costs for them aren't affected.

We used to load our 00 buck for Bowling Pin competition and other combat matches, and some slugs which saved quite a bit.  My wife used to burn up 1000 rnds of Winchester 00 Buck and 500 rounds of slugs at the Second Chance Match alone, so reloading made quite a bit of difference.  Now I just load shotshells primarily for skeet, sporting clays and a bit of hunting.

[ollie]

CZ 527 varmint has a 1:9 twist

[ducpainter]

CZ 527 varmint has a 1:9 twist

Was just going to post that.

http://cz-usa.com/products/view/cz-527-varmint/

[ducatiz]

Anyone have a Ruger M77?

http://www.ruger.com/products/gunsiteScoutRifle/index.html

I like this Scout version, never handled the M77 action

[The Architect]

Anyone have a Ruger M77?

http://www.ruger.com/products/gunsiteScoutRifle/index.html

I like this Scout version, never handled the M77 action

Never shot it. But it sure does feel solid.

I am a big fan of Ruger and Sig. I just picked up a Ruger LCR 357. It will be a gift for my father-in-law after I try it out     Yes it's for my father-in-law; he's been very good to me, he's a retired detective, he's family, he deserves it, etc.

One day I'll own a 10/22.

While picking up the revolver,  I noticed a hardly used sr9c. That morning I was talking to a friend who wanted a glock 19 but didn't like the feel of the 19. Called him, he said the moment he picked up the sr he was sold. And the 17 round mags make the gun a full size frame.