Dolomite_supafly

Lapua brass is great brass but you will pay a lot more than the cost of a fixing cheap brass with a $15 tool.

I hate, with a capital H, BDC reticles. The reason is they rarely match YOUR setup. Yes, they might get you close but you can get close with a much better reticle. I prefer mildot over any BDC reticle. I also prefer turrets that make "on the fly" changes easy to compensate for weather conditions.   Unless the target is inside of 100 yards, and you do need to make adjustments anyways, you have time to make adjustments on your turret. I normally make up a cheat sheet with my drop and stick it under the scope cap or tape it to the side of the gun for quick reference. I have also taken adhesive labels and put them on the turrets then mark my distances on it for a true BDC turret.   You zero at your chosen zero range. I prefer 25 yards because it gives you more on the top end without affecting close range, I do this is regardless of caliber. Then go to the range and figure out your hold over on the knobs. The alternative is to know your bullet, know your velocity and zero condition so you can use a ballistic calculator. I prefer Ballistic AE but it only works on Apple products. You can also use the mildot reticle as a BDC reticle. The best part of using a mildot is you can accurately range your target, something you cannot do with a BDC reticle, without a calculator and do it all in your head.   To figure out distance to a target using mils do this. Start with a known measurement, 18" for the width of an average American male's shoulders. To make things easier we will call it .5 yards. Multiply that by 1000. That gives us 500 yards. Next you use the mildot reticle to see how many mils the width of the shoulder it, I will use 2. So you divide the 500 by 2 giving you 250 yards.   Another example. A typical door in the United States is exactly two meters high. So we will divide 2 times 1,000. Next hold the mildot reticle over the door to see how many mils it takes to cover the door. Lets say 2.5 mils. Divide 2,000 by three and the distance to the door is 800 meters. A door is the most reliable method of measuring distance as doors are made to a standard height here.   The best part about using mils is whatever measurement you start with that is the measurement you end with. So if you wanted to use mils to measure feet it works exactly the same.   As far as a scope there are not too many mildot scopes in the 1-6 range.

  The flash holes in the brass are punched out. And just like the 2000 election anytime you punch anything sometimes there is a little "chaff" left behind. And even if the chaff is not left behind the flash hole is often not ideal. So we use a tool to uniform the flash hole as well as chamfer it.

We are ONLY interested in lights.

I prefer solar as it does not require storage of fuel.   I think I have an easily doable plan that can be done on the cheap as well. Or at least the lighting setup will be cheap with a capital "C".    After I get over my surgery I will start working on things like this and start posting pictures.

But I still have the wiring issue unless I run separate lines again. Now that I know it can't be done the way I wanted I will change how I plan to do it. Rather than run wires I think it might be easier to use batteries and the LED panel at the same location. Maybe make some lamps and use the LED panels, original switch and batteries. They will not be just left in so the batteries should last a while. I know the world would change drastically for this to happen but I want to keep done sort of normalcy if it happens. A long term power outage is one of those things most people are not prepared for. I bet the average person cannot produce light a week after they loose power. I am considering buying a solar powered freezer set it up so it is self sufficient. Just something that can store food.

Something unexpected that I found out that works well as an area light are those decorative yard lights. We have done that are still working great after 2-3 years in all kinds of weather. Don't remove the battery safety and they should store for a long time.

You guys have convinced me. I will make a separate setup for solar.

Making sure the flash hole is uniform and chamfering the flash hole resulted in the single biggest improvement in groups sizes. It also helped my SD numbers get into single digits.   It was a culmination of a bunch of things but factory ammunition would hover around 3/4" and my worked over hand loads consistently shot .3's with enough .2's to know they were not a fluke either. But the biggest jump came from me working on the flash holes.   And here is the thing about doing flash holes. Yes they add some time but you never have to do them again. Do it at the beginning and you never have to touch them again.   If your flash hole has a burr and it forces the spark above the powder charge you will inconsistent ignition and velocity. When you chamfer them the spark will be the same every time you pull the trigger. Or if the flash holes are different sizes it can do the same thing. This results in random velocity changes as well as when the bullets exits the barrel during its whip.   I would sort bullets first by weight then I would sort them by bearing surface length. Bearing surface length can have a significant impact on velocity. The longer the bearing surface the more pressure and the higher the velocity. The shorter bearing surface will have reduced velocity. That causes vertical stringing. I would buy bullets in 500 round lots and would end up with 4-5 different lots. I would shoot up one lot then rework the load data with a new lot until it shot well.

Maybe a battery like this: http://www.batterysharks.com/12-Volt-5-Amp-Security-Alarm-Battery-p/12v-5ah-alarm_b12-5.htm?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Bing_Shopping&utm_term=1100400548674&utm_content=Wheelchair%20Batteries I am a dummy when it comes to electrical crap but 5 Amps at 12 volts does not seem anywhere near strong enough to burn up a 10 or 12 gauge wiring.   Again, all I am wanting is light. Nothing more.

I have got all the equipment sorted out, if I want to go with that setup.   As far as a SHTF situation I will have the windows covered long before I turn on any lights. I am also in a remote area that people would not normally come to. It is not seen by any other roadway other than right in front of my house.   I was just talking about the feasibility of using the existing wiring as the go between rather than run wires.   BTW, the LED panels I am going to use are as bright as any 60W incandescent bulb I have ever seen. A single 9V battery will run one of those LED panels for at least 18 hours. I cut it off after that because at that point it did not look any dimmer. Because of that I know it doesn't take much to run them.  I have bought them before on a whim and they are bright enough to easily read ANYWHERE in a room with a single one facing the ceiling.   Maybe I just need to run a small, very low amperage battery and recharge it as it runs out. Not an automotive battery but something a lot smaller that has ZERO chance of shorting out the household wiring. And if that is the case I have plenty of panels to charge something like that.   The ONLY thing that will be run inside the house will be the 12V LED light panels.   These are the panels I am talking about. http://www.ebay.com/itm/281667478397?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

So here is what I am wanting. I will have 2-4 12V deep cycle batteries and the related equipment to charge those. What I plan on doing if the power goes off on a semi permanent basis is this. Cut the power at the main breaker as well as all the individual breakers. I will unplug everything in the house and remove all 110V light bulbs. Then I will wire in the 12V LED light panels into the existing light fixtures. After that I will plug the battery bank into an outlet then flip the breakers needed to connect the parts of the house where I want lights to 11V power. For lights I will use 12V automotive LED light panels. They are cheap and provide plenty of light and seem like they will run forever. Basically I want to ensure I am never without light again. I will not be running 110V devices, just lights in the form of 12V automotive lights. And the lights are very, very low draw. I tested the LED panel by connecting it to a standard 9V battery. After 18 hours the LED lights was still bright so I know the draw is small. I will put a 5 or 10 amp fuze between the battery and household wiring to safeguard anything. What the reseller is telling me is 12V is dangerous with 110V wiring in my house. My house uses 12 and 10 gauge wiring. I get that the amps on a 12v battery is more than a typical home but if it has a fuze well below what the wiring can handle them what is dangerous? I will also use the system to charge flashlights, small batteries, laptops and cell phones but they will be charged directly off the battery using an inverter. In order for the amps to be high enough to cause a problem it must have a device on the circuit that needs a lot of amps and those little LED panels just won't do that.

I am talking with someone who is a reseller and what he is telling me doesn't make any sense. So who here is familiar with solar setups? I might even pay you to setup what I am wanting.

Hunting rounds require a lot more attention to detail than target ammunition. It is such an awesome responsibility to take an animal quickly and humanely. So hunting ammunition must not only be accurate but it must also be reliable.

I used to chase groups but I was spending more time doing prep than actually shooting. I guess I had an epiphany and just have up on it. But there are still a few things I do to all my brass regardless of its intended use. Debur and uniform the flash holes is something I will always do to my rifle brass.

Something I have personally noticed between a lot of 5.56 guns. The faster the twist for a given bullet length the bigger the groups. Quality ammunition helps but you get more gains by matching your twist to the bullet.   It is not hard to see evidence either. Look at benchrest shooters. A lot of them are using 30 caliber bullets in their guns. Most are running lightweight bullets, like 110 or 125 grain. And with those bullets they are running twists that are 15, 16, 17 or even 18 and are shooting very, very tiny groups. If twist was not important they would be running a 10 or 11 twist.   So I pick a bullet weight for a given gun then I match the gun's barrel to the bullet's length.

Twist have nothing to do with barrel length.   I hear people say a bullet must make one revolution in the barrel but that is complete an utter BS. If that was the case then no pistol would ever stabilize a bullet.

Funny, my 12 twist barrel is the most accurate barrel I have ever shot and it shoots 62 grain bullets the best. 12 twist will shoot everything from 62 grain on down and do it better than any of the other twists. Last time I had it out I was shooting 62 grain bullets and they were hovering right around an inch at 100 yards. If I shot 10 then 6 of them would be inside of an inch and the rest would bring the group to 1.5".   If accuracy concerns you then you want the slowest twist you can get that will stabilize the bullet you are most likely to shoot. For me the bullets I will shoot the most are 55 and 62 grain so for me a 12 twist is perfect. If SHTF today and I felt I needed to carry an AR it would be my 12 twist gun.   It is more accurate than my 9 or 7 twist barrels but you can see one side of the bullet hole isn't as sharp as the other side. All this means is the second they hit an organic target the bullets will tumble and hopefully fragment. My 12 twist shoots MOA using handloads using 62g M855 bullets while the others do not shoot as well. My SHTF AR has a 20" barrel so velocity is high enough that the bullets should fragment inside of 200 yards but even if they don't the bullet will still tumble causing damage.   An 8 twist barrel will shoot EVERYTHING that will feed from a magazine. 9 twist will shoot everything up to about 77 grains but all barrels are slightly different so verify before shooting through a silencer. With a 7 twist you are limiting yourself to ~50 grain, or heavier, bullets. Yes, you can shoot lighter bullets but some will sling the jackets right off the bullet with the faster twists. And there really is no need to use a 7 twist unless you are shooting 80+ grain bullets but once you get to about 80 they rounds can no longer be fed from a magazine and must be loaded one at a time.   8 twist is the best compromise between them all. The best way to figure out what twist you need is figure out which bullet you are most likely to be shooting and use the slowest twist that will stabilize it. In this case a 12 twist will be the best with 55 grain bullets but because you might also be shooting some heavier stuff or at longer distances I would go with a 9 twist. A 9 twist will let you shoot the most common stuff as well as the heavier stuff without the bullet being too stable. And this will ensure the bullets will tumble when hitting an "organic pop up target".   The wounding mechanism for FMJ bullets is tumbling and then fragmenting. First the bullet must tumble then, if the velocity is high enough, the bullet will fragment. Now if you have a twist that is too fast for the bullet then the bullet will not tumble, at least not inside the target, and in turn the bullet will not fragment. But if the twist is slow enough the bullet will first tumble inside the target and then the bullet will fragment providing the velocity is at least 2,500 fps. But it might require more or less velocity depending on the thickness of the jacket. Now even if the bullet is not going fast enough to fragment it should still tumble. If you shoot 55 grain bullets out of a 7 twist it is possible for the bullet to not tumble and pass through the target without doing a lot of damage like a 22 lr. This is why we are hearing all the reports of the 5.56 being ineffective against the thin middle eastern men. The way to fix that is to either go with a slower twist or a heavier bullet.   And the problem is not with the caliber as long as you realize it is a short range cartridge. It worked great until the bean counters decided having a 7 twist would be better for shooting tracers. Then after that the government decided to try to make this short range cartridge into a long range cartridge which, as we have heard, did not do so well. If they really wanted to fix the problems with a 5.56 they would accept the fact it is a short range caliber and either use a much heavier bullet or a much slower twist. As it stands right now the military is using the worst of all worlds, a twist that is too fast, a barrel that is too short and a bullet that is too light for the twist.   In the end if I had to choose one twist for everything I might do it would be a 9 twist barrel. It is still slow enough that most bullets will readily tumble yet fast enough to stabilize most of the heavier bullets you might find.   Here is a pretty good read on what is going on overseas with the M855 and the faster twist barrels. http://stevespages.com/pdf/5_56mm_military_info.pdf

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I am in Knoxville.   I assumed you had the barrel pulled already. I cannot accept a complete firearm because I do not have an FFL but I can do barrels only.

I am looking for a progressive and I think this will be my first choice. http://www.amazon.com/Hornady-Lock-Auto-Progressive-Reloading-Press/dp/B000PD01NS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1461725117&sr=8-1&keywords=progressive+press&refinements=p_72%3A2661618011%2Cp_n_condition-type%3A6461716011%2Cp_89%3AHornady%7CRCBS   If you have one what do you not like? I just want to make sure there isn't something I can't live with.   If you thin there is a better choice by all means let me know.   I know Dillon is the best but it is also the most expensive. I have also read Dillon can be difficult to use. So Dillon is out of the question for me.   Thanks

Now if you were a benefactor I would say mail it to me an I will thread it.

SD tactical makes a tube that accepts Liberty or Gemtech LID. It is their "B" tube and it is the perfect size for 9mm, 45 and work great on my 22. It is a titanium tube that is thicker than most pistol cans.

Century will send it to your home but they will not give you ANY tracking information. I asked for a tracking number and they said I would not get it because the shipment can get rerouted.

I need to tear mine apart and take some good pictures. Mine is a silencer inside a bigger tube. The blast chamber of the inner silencer vents into the space between the two. It seems to work and is as quiet as anything I have personally heard.