Darrell

"There are proven strategies for reducing gun violence in urban communities without turning to incarceration. " So we sure don't want to put gangsters in jail, but those of us who've never committed a crime should have our property taxed or be forced to sell it to the government! I suppose I could have quoted darned near the entire article with things I find outrageous. There was one paragraph that I agree with, though. The suggestion that LE be notified any time someone fails a background check. Those who are prohibited from firearms possession and who lie on the 4470 should be prosecuted and punished. SCOTUS will certainly be important in all of this, and with Roberts' record we cannot count on him. Therefore, the senate races in Georgia become extremely important to any of us who value our natural right of self-defense. I'm going to donate a little money to the republican candidates there. I sure can't compete with the Hollywood elites who are pouring money into those races, but maybe a little bit will help. Thanks Randall53, for linking this information!

Yeah, you know, I've had people dump trash on my property. I won't be doing that to anyone else.

You know what, Dave... I'm going to copy that photo and show it to my wife tomorrow as if it came off the camera. She'll never cross the porch again!

I KNEW it!!! I've had a couple of face-to-face encounters with cougars, but that would wake me up!

I've been busily digging up stumps and am beginning to accumulate quite a pile of them. Is there a place near Crossville where I can take a trailer-load for disposal? I know I can burn them, but no burn permits right now and I'd prefer to just take the quick route. Thanks!

I bought a couple boxes of bullets on eBay just a couple weeks ago, but it looks like they are now allow NO reloading components at all. I think I preferred them as they began, with a whole lot of used items for sale. It seems that now they amount to a giant retail conglomerate. Very convenient, it's easy to find almost anything there, but they're all but impossible to communicate with. My biggest new complaint is that everything is now subject to sales tax. I know that's the law so I shouldn't complain, but avoiding the sales tax was one of the most attractive features of buying from them.

Coon huh? It's not like I haven't seen a lot of racoons. I guess it's going to take a while before I get to where I recognize stuff on these cameras. Thanks, Hozzie!

Here's another animal that I can't identify. The picture isn't too hot, this camera goes to B&W at night. I had to look at this photo compared to another one several times before I was even able to see the critter. It's looking right at the camera, left side of the tree that's on the right of the frame. Smaller than the fox, I think. There are a couple of other pics that show it just as a slightly darker spot on the ground.

There are a couple of ads on TN Armslist this morning that list primers well north of $200 per k.

Deep South mentioned dryer sheets, which work very well with your dry media tumblers. And you need not use new sheets, just use one that's already been through the dryer.

I have both dry media and a wet tumbler. That dry media tumbler is almost never used. I HIGHLY recommend the Frankfort Arsenal wet tumbler. No need to buy SS pins, just add a tiny bit of Dawn and 1/4 teaspoon of "Lemi-shine" to your brass and it'll come out so bright it blinds you. The media (water) never goes bad and no need to add any renewal agents. But remember, if you're just venturing in to reloading you don't need to clean your brass at all. It's mostly a cosmetic function. I loaded a lot of "dirty" brass for a long time before I ever bought a dry media tumbler with no problems at all. If you're going to reload stuff you pick up from the ground at the range, though, a tumbler will work well. If you only plan to do very small batches, look at the Harbor Freight rock tumblers. You can do 50 pieces of handgun brass at a time with those, though you're better off, in my opinion, with the FA tumbler.

OK, so you disagree that the current shortages of ammo and components and consequent high prices are caused by people hording. To what, then, do you attribute them? And you don't think that selling a box of .22 ammo for $200 or a brick of primers for $130 is profiteering? Capitalism works through adding value. A manufacturer buys raw material, works it into something more useful, and sells it at a profit. That's capitalism and free market. But the guys who recently drove through KY and TN buying up hand-sanitizer at every Dollar Store they could find, then selling it at outrageous prices were NOT engaging in a free-market economy. They were adding no value at all, simply taking advantage of a shortage by gouging folks who needed a commodity.

I take your point, but apparently you missed mine. I hate it when some anti-whatever person tells me I don't "need" a 20-round mag, or a 200 hp motorcycle. It has nothing at all to do with "need". But the point I was trying to make is that the entire component and ammunition shortage that we're experiencing is caused by hording. Ammo and primer manufacturers say they're operating at full capacity. Every primer being manufactured is going straight to the ammo factories, and ammo won't stay on the shelves. So if Joe Blow bought 10,000 primers a couple years ago, but he only loads 500 rounds a year, then he bought, by my definition, more than he needed. Now old Joe sees that those primers he paid $30 a k for are selling for four times that, and he decides to put them on the market. I don't see that as capitalism, but as profiteering. Joe contributed to the current mess by helping to screw up the supply and demand signal, which is essential to capitalism, and then when he sees the opportunity he takes undue advantage of a situation he helped to create. I try to keep ahead of my needs of components, too. I sure get that. But I'm pretty resentful of those people who are now selling primers for over $100 a brick or 22 ammo at the prices mentioned by the OP.

I have molds for most of my calibers, too, but cast bullets are limited when you start shooting higher velocity rounds. I don't see myself casting for 6mm CM or 270 Wby M. I do cast for 30 cal with pretty good results, and for most of my handguns, too.

Or maybe their management has a business model that allows for reasonable profit, and their marketing folks value customers that have done business with them in the past, and hope those same customers will do business again in the future.

There's capitalism, and then there's profiteering. I see nothing at all wrong with a guy making a buck on something that's in short supply, but as Biden says, C'mon man! I'm seeing guys selling primers for over $100 a case. The thing that bugs me about that is that the guy who has primers to sell right now is among those responsible for the shortage; one who went out and horded way more than he (apparently) ever needed. Full disclosure, I've always bought primers by the case and powder in 8 pound jugs. But I shoot it up. I think there are probably guys who bought 5000 rounds of .22 when they only shoot 100 rounds a year. Kind of like buying two Costco packs of TP when you already have plenty at home. We live in strange times, and I think they're going to get stranger. Perhaps, like the great TP shortage, eventually people will figure they have enough ammo and shelves will begin to fill again and the primer manufacturers will be able to sell to us peons again. And maybe I'll be one who buys more primers than I figure I really "need". But I won't be selling it later at four times what it should be worth. OK, rant over.

I think I must be on his regular route. I may put a dish of cat food out there and see if I can get some closer pics. My property shares a boundary with the Catoosa wildlife area, so I expect to see plenty of critters in the future.

That's a good sized fox. This pic is of a fairly large coyote, I've seen him in the daytime, in the same spot for perspective.

Thanks guys! Fox didn't even occur to me. I appreciate the input from the experts! Once in the early morning (back in WA) I saw a litter of red fox kits playing in a field. I stopped my motorcycle and whistled at them, and to my surprise the came toward me! I realized that I'd made a mistake, fox shouldn't think people are their friends, so I waved my arms and yelled as scared them away. That was a very cool experience!

The other photo

My game cam captured this critter walking beside my driveway a couple of nights ago. I've seen bobcat here, and at first glance I figured this was a bobcat, but look at the tail! I've seen several cougar in the wild, and it appears that this guy has that distinctive black muzzle of a cougar, but look at that tail! Is it a mutant bobcat with a giant tail? Possible a second cat behind the first? A second (much poorer) photo only shows one animal, and I'd take that for a racoon. But the first pic sure doesn't look like a coon to me. Thanks!

Well, the problem with the internet..... that crimp already looks excessive to me. I've always figured the lightest crimp that keeps the bullet from moving during recoil is the right crimp. There's no picture of the unloaded bullet, but it looks to me like the bullet that's seated deepest has the crimp around the body of the bullet. That DOES mean that more pressure is going to build in the chamber before the bullet begins to move. Just as an experiment, seat one or two bullets at each depth in unloaded cases, then use an inertial puller to knock those bullets out. I'm guessing that the deeper-set bullet is going to take considerably more effort to pull than the shallower set bullet. The deeper you seat the bullet, the higher the pressure will be due to reduced case volume. But so long as you're not compressing the powder AND your cases aren't showing signs of overpressure then you're okay. But crimping that much is going to wear your cases out much more quickly than light crimps. Remember that brass hardens as it's worked. Every time you fire the gun the brass expands to fill and seal the chamber. The more it moves, the sooner the case mouth splits. Some powders are dirtier than others. If the smoke and residue are a problem then Red and Dirt are right that you may want to try another powder. Or maybe even a different brand primer.

I think I enjoy reloading more than shooting. And it can be economical, too, particularly if you're shooting certain big-bore cartridges. Not too long ago guys were telling me that they wouldn't even consider reloading 9mm because it was so inexpensive, so I happily picked up their brass and tossed it in my tumbler. The brass is the expensive part (at least before people started to think that primers are worth $100 a 1000) and if you can pick it up once-fired from a friend or acquaintance that saves big. Most of the brass you find laying on a range is once-fired, as reloaders take their brass home with them. And there are on-line sources that specialize in once-fired brass. I guess the one expense that's hardest to quantify is your time. I find it enjoyable and relaxing to spend a couple hours at the bench, but if you'd rather be doing something else or find it a chore, then maybe it's not for you. You don't need to spend a fortune on equipment, either. I still use an ancient CH single-stage press for a lot of my reloading. That was the first press I ever bought and even though I now have a setup that will load MUCH more quickly, I still enjoy the single-step process for low-volume loading. I just used it to load 40 rounds of 6mm CM a couple days ago. I think Lee still sells an expensive "starter" setup that has everything you need to get going. Right now would be a tough time to get started as it's tough to find primers, and projectiles are getting harder to find, too. But it's my opinion that it's absolutely positively worth doing.

I've been an NRA Life Member for 40 years or so, but in the past few years I've really come to question the organization. As other here have stated, it's long past time for WLP to go. The thing that bothers me most, I think, is that the NRA magazine hasn't addressed the controversy except in a purely defensive way. The new president wrote a puff piece about how great LaPierre is, and how evil the NYC AG is, but not a word to address the real issue of spending huge money on trips, clothes, and "interns". I like the NRA, and want it to be hugely successful, but the salary and perqs that go to WLP are entirely out of hand.

6.5mm = .264, right? I have an old .22 scope with no bell at all that would snug right down to that barrel. I'd be willing to swap straight across for that scope you have that doesn't fit.