seez52

Neck sized only and the gun was tight to lock up. I've always thought the 7tcu was a great cartridge. One of these days I'd like to go hog hunting with it.

I never was a big fan of cleaning brass, so it's just dirty from powder residue. You can sort of see how much of the neck was sized. I guess it sort of petered out around here. I think they still do it in other places. I don't recall any factory ammo in TCU. I'd like to try one out on a yote sometime, open sights might be a challenge.

Now if you could just yank out the plug, that would be slick! ---- and I could see how ATF would frown on that, but if you've still got to mill that out and drill the holes... I'm sure they had some inkling in the back of their mind this was going to be a pushing the envelope issue when they started. This type stuff has been going on forever with home builds and modifications on guns.

We were shooting silhouette matches at Gallatin and Owl Hollow every month and usually had a decent turnout. I enjoyed it. Also shot a Dan Wesson .44 w/ an 8" bbl for a little while but had issues with it. Then the TCU came out. Open sights on both the 14 and 10. At the time the rules only allowed open sights, later the rules changed I think but by that time I had moved on to IPSC. Mine is a Contender frame and I've collected up a couple of other barrels for it. The .223 is a 14" and I have a 6x Burris on it. It's a tack driver. I've taken pigeons at 150 yds. with it. And I've got a .22mag 10" octagon with a low power Bushnell. It's good for head shots on squirrels.   It's fun to go on a varmint hunt and show up with a pistol. You get some strange looks. Was invited by a client to his farm in rural Va. some years ago to come and stay a night and we'd hunt some groundhogs on his place. So I show up with the the 14" .223 contender. He doesn't say anything when I pull it out of my briefcase and put it together, but I can tell by the expression on his face that he's skeptical and probably laughing inside. He lets me take the first shot on a hog at about 125yds. I nailed him, he drops in his tracks. Put a hole in him the size of half dollar (Sierra blitz bullets). My host then comes clean with his thoughts on using a pistol for varmint hunting and what he thought when I pulled it out. It was funny. We had a good time. Was the only hog we saw the rest of the day.

I never did any hunting with them, always thought it would make a good one though. I never had anything on them other than the iron sights, a low power scope would be nice for hunting. I've got both a 10 and 14 as there were different classes for each. Best I ever shot was one match with 38 out of 40, choked on the last two rams-- still irritates me that I did that. We also shot the chicken targets which were set up at 50 meters usually, as shoot off targets at 200. That was a bit of a challenge-- nothing but iron sights. Went down and found my old ammo box and here are a couple of photos. I'm thinking I only neck sized when reloading so putting the cartridge in the same way each time would have been important since there's not a lot of mechanical advantage when closing the action up. The primers don't look all that flattened. I maybe thinking about the .223 contender as I use benchrest primers in it and I know those were loaded fairly hot.

what made their 80% lowers any different from the others out there that caused them the trouble? Wonder if AK flats will be next?

I'm pretty sure the tcu barrels I have are some of the first TC produced. Silhouette shooting was going hot and heavy at the time and seems like I was on a waiting list for the barrels when they introduced them. I remember the first barrels I got had to go back to TC (don't recall if it was both the 10 and 14 or not) because they were very pitted right from the factory. They sent a replacement which ran great. I also recall, and I haven't shot either the 10 or 14 in probably 20 years, that there was a small issue with the chamber in one of them. I always inserted the the cartridges the same way in the bbl each time, and I'm thinking I did it for a reason.   Seems like I was using IMR4198, but don't really remember. I could probably dig out my data from back then. I know I've got several loaded rounds from the time and spent brass as well. I remember fire forming cases with bullseye, grits and a cap of wax using military brass.   The caliber always seemed to have good punch. I recall shooting some mild steel plates and the 120s went through like a drill. I'm sure the my loads were fairly hot with flattened primers.

I"ve not used either of mine for hunting, but they can be loaded all over. I used mine for silhouettes way back and was partial to 120 gr. and 145 gr. bullets. Both were super accurate and had lots of punch. Seems like you didn't get many reloads out of a case, maybe 3 before a neck split.   I've always thought it would make a great hunting gun for most anything.

was one of the best shows on TV. Could never be on TV today. Archie just tells it like it is.

Rather than starting fluid use wd-40. Spray directly into the carb while cranking. You should be able to get it running on WD if everything else is good. This will tell you if its the carb. Doesn't take much to get it going

Go to Autozone and get yourself a gallon paint bucket of Berrymanns carb cleaner. Not the gunk brand. It has a metal basket inside. Disassemble the carb and let it soak overnight. After soaking run it under hot tap water to wash off the Berrymans and carefully blow it out with compressed air. Reassemble with new diaphragm. The gallon can will cost $25-30 but seems to last forever. Use rubber gloves when handling the Berrymanns or you'll be wearing that cologne for days. This routine will ungum most carbs. Although some of the small weedeater ones are lost causes.

Interesting how Noctiluminar says their blue is as bright and lasts as long as the green, but Glow inc. does not claim that. I'd like to use a combo of colors but dont want one to fade quickly or be significantly more dim.

Make sure you're familiar with what type of printing process is going to be used on the shirt before doing something other than just spot colors.

I figured the gold coin find was going to end up with the government involved in a big way. You just need to keep your mouth shut and go about your business.

FALs are great!!

Welcome aboard, get a shoulder pad!!

I believe he did Chuckey Cheese Hell, which was a classic.

wonder what the difference is?

the metal powder cans can rust on the inside. I've only had one do it

I too inquired about having them re-lamped and it was about 50 bucks. But just thought it might be an interesting DIY project.

Anybody ever tried to replace the vials in a trijicon night site set on a glock? The rear has hole that might be used for pushing them out. Front does not.

something old is new again. I had a box fan, I mean a real box fan about 14" cube with a tray designed to hold a block of ice. The fan blew over the ice with the same results as this. It was probably made in the 50s. Only bad thing is fans back then were dang noisy.

interesting how the rifle torques to the right as each bullet is fired. No doubt from the rifling, never really thought about that happening.

I've used Nu finish car polish, has anyone tried Brasso brand brass polish in their tumber? Actually mine is a vibrator style. I've got some tarnished cases and while the car polish does clean them up they are still tarnished. Course I've been shootin' tarnished reloads for years, just wondered if the Brasso might clean them up.  

I've got a 14 in both .223 and 7mmTCU and they are tack drivers. The 7mm would be a great deer caliber. I've taken varmints out to 150 yards with the .223 and it could easily stretch on out there. The split bolts I believe were the second generation but I think both the solid bolt and split bolt work on the same frame.