OldIronFan

Primers and powder are out there. I bough 1000 CCI small pistol yesterday and 1000 CCI large pistol locally today for normal retail. They also had small pistol magnum but no rifle in this delivery. A local shop owner said they are getting powder and primers at least monthly they just sell out quickly due to hoarders and reselling profiteers. I bought what I could load and use in the next few months. It came at the right time since I was running low on pistol primers. Now if I can just find a box of bench rest/match small rifle I will be golden for the spring and summer.

That storm kicked my butt. I will be dealing with it for a few more months too. The first Satruday I managed to fall. I hit hard enough to render myself unconsious and scare my wife bad enough she called 911. I did not take them up on their generous offer to take me to the hospital but I spent the next few days inside. Then the following saturday when the thaw began some ice damed gutters caused water to run down the inside of an exterior wall until hit hit something horizontal. That horizontal suface was my subfloor so it ran along my subfloor under my oak hardwood floors. I never saw a drop of water and did not know there was a problem until the hardwood started cupping and lifting. Now I get to deal with having the floor replaced, sanded, stained, and sealed while the dog, wife and I spend a week in a hotel somewhere. So far 2021 is sucking worse than 2020

They are also very popular with 22 rimfire shooters. They more or less owned the 10/22 barrel market for a long time. The company I work for uses Green Mountain Blanks for a number of products. They are not on the same level as our Proof or Krieger barrel blanks but they are solid. I would not put one on a gun I wanted to shoot sub MOA at 1000 yards but If I was building a <150 yard bursh gun or short range hunting gun I would not hesitate to use them.

I have a 450 Bushmaster, .458 SOCOM, and 50 BMG in the collection. I got to shoot a 20mm once, that was a blast (no pun intended), but I would hate to feed it on a regular basis. Really would like to pick up a 45-70 lever gun at some point but not with todays prices. I will probably get a .338 Lapua or .338 Norma Mag platform for longer range shooting one of these days.

A number of years ago I took evening welding classes at McGavock High School through a Nashville Continuing Education program. It was cheap, like $50 for a 5 or 6 week program, plus a book if I recall. I can't find anything similar now. Most of the TCAT campuses offer Welding Technology programs but that may be more involved than you are looking for. I think it is a 12 month program. I am just a home fabricator and tinkerer. I would like to get into doing some GTAW (TIG) welding in the near future but for now I just run SMAW and GMAW/FCAW on Lincoln equipment. Most recent purchase was a cheap plasma cutter and boy do I love that thing.