Dolomite_supafly

The problem is not the 5.56 cartridge itself, it is what the military has tried to do to "improve" it that has ruined it. The 5.56 needs barrel length to be as effective as it can possibly be. The next problem is barrel twist, too much twist and the bullet overstabilizes which leads to even more problems. An over stabilized bullet that doesn't have enough velocity to come apart upon impact will not tumble and will only punch a neat little hole through the target. Even if it does tumble it will likely be through most of our enemies in the middle east by the time it does. Most males over there are concentration camp thin. An Afghan male that weighs more than 130 pounds is a big Afghan and most come in under 110 pounds. They are very, very thin and as such we need a round that will tumble or fragment within the first few inches in order to eb effective on these targets. The military ruined the cartridge by increasing the twist and using heavier bullets. The heavier bullets require the velocity to be reduced this reduces the chance the bullet will disrupt on impact and the increased twist decreases the likelyhood of the bullet tumbling upon impact. Believe it or not but by taking the 5.56 and reducing the velocity to less than 2000 fps it will increase its penetration because the bullet no longer tumbles or disrupts on impact. This is the reason we are hearing of all the problems with it overseas. The military is trying to take a short to medium range caliber and turn it into a long range caliber. Here are some interesting reads on the effectiveness of the 5.56: Do not hot link this but copy and paste it into a new browser to open it: http://stevespages.com/pdf/5_56mm_military_info.pdf This is the penetration based on velocity: http://stevespages.com/jpg/bestbullet.jpg Again DO NOT HOTLINK. Open a fresh browser and copy the above URLS. The host has had issues with people hacking his erver so he has disabled a lot of differnt stuff including hot links. The original design had it nearly perfect with a 12 twist barrel shooting 55 grain bullets. The twist was slow enough that it would tumble upon impact and the velocity was fast enough with the light bullets that is would disrupt upon impact as well. If the military would start using longer barrels with a slower twist and lighter bullets in the AR platforms there would be and increase in effectiveness on soft targets. The Marines have it right by using longer barrels and this is probably why you don't hear as many problems coming from their side of the house regarding the effectiveness of the 5.56 because ever FPS counts. The military needs to quit trying to make the 5.56 into something it will never be, a long range caliber. The 5.56 is a wonderful caliber but is not a magical caliber that the military wants it to be. As long as you stay within is limitations and original design it performs very well. The 5.56x45 and the 7.62x51 are in two seperate classes. The 5.56 is not what I would consider a long range caliber while the 7.62x51 is. 7.62x51 is always going to be better than the 5.56 in actual performance but with everything else in life there is a trade off. For most the 5.56 is plenty. The 7.62x51 is more of a long range caliber or hard target caliber or at least more so than the 5.56. If I were going to be using a short barreled gun I would not choose the 5.56. I would use any of the others you mentioned or even the 7.62x39. With a 10" barrel there even isn't enough velocity at the muzzle for the 62 grain bullets to tumble or fragment. If you must then I would definitely use a bullet that is designed to disrupt like any of the polymer tipped bullets like the TAP rounds. Dolomite

Contradicting yourself? I said rust blue looked brown yet you seem to say it isn't yet a few sentences down you say you do it yourself and they come out brown. What gives. Dolomite

The thumb safety locks the sear against the hammer preventing the sear from moving and the hammer from falling if the gun is dropped. The grip safety only prevents the trigger from being pulled and because it doesn't interact with the sear at all the sear may be bumped off the hammer even if the grip safety isn't depressed. If carrying cocked the thumb safety is the safest way to carry. Dolomite

No kidding, even today I see dealers trying to sell their AR's for a lot more than they should go for. When asked why the high price I always get "that is what I paid for it". Same with ammo as well, every show has dealers selling $10 boxes of Walmart ammo for $20. Even the $5 boxes of Tula 223 you find at WM are being sold at the shows for $10+. I have even found some unscrupulous dealers dipping cheap ammo into green paint and selling them as "green tip". I guess they are green tip but they were not the steel core ammo. It was so shoddily done that my wife even commented on how they looked fake. Nice mark up from the $300 per thousand to the $750 per thousand they were SELLING for. The price increase was caused by people's fears and it was a combination of those same people and dealers that caused the prices to go north. Most people would buy more than they normally would but it was the dealers, with the extra buying power, who were really driving the costs up by buying up most of it then putting higher prices on it. Think about it if it was individuals buying everything up and just hanging on to it there would not have been an increase in the prices like we seen because WM and other retailers didn't raise prices immediately after the election. It was the home town dealers that were buying up everything the retailers and distributors were selling and then marking up the prices substantially to make a profit on people's fears. I spoke to a few manufacturers as well as distributors and they said that their prices hadn't increased during the whole shortage. They went on to say that they were making and selling more than they ever had before and that someone was hanging onto the product to create a false shortage and thus increasing prices. During the shortage hey days I was speaking to an employee at Bass Pro about the shortage. He said there were a group of guys that would only come in on the mornings of the shipments and that they were probably getting a call from someone who worked there letting them know of the shipments. He went on to say that one guy would sweep ammo and components into a cart while the other two guys blocked the isle entrances. He said the blockers would scream and yell that they had been asaulted if anyone touched them trying to get by. I asked if the manager knew and the worker said yes but that the manager was happy because the stock was being sold quickly and not sitting on the shelves. The worker later found out the guys were a group of local dealers and that they would divide the cart up amongst themselves before checking out. I was in the Morristown Walmart before their 6 box limit. I watched a guy who said he owned a local shop buy every box of .22 they had. At the time they were selling for around $15 and he was bragging he was selling them for $25 a box in his store. After he bought them all a person asked if they could buy a box and his response was yes but it would be more than what he paid. Money does strange things to people. People you would normally trust will sell sell you out if the price is right. Dolomite

The only time I have seen anything even remote to this is those qualifying for their armed guard license. For those you are only allowed to carry what caliber you have been qualified on. When I got my armed guard license I also got my HCP at the same time. All told it cost me over $400 to shoot with a pistol and shotgun using my ammo. I recently let mine expire because I will never use it and the discounts I got didn't make up for the cost of keeping it up. As far as doing it for a HCP it sounds like they are fear mongering to make money. I will make sure I never have any dealings with them ever because of it. I hate those who use fear to profit off of those who don't know better. I see it at every show I go to and it drives me crazy. Dolomite

Along with the Ed Brown extractor I posted before I also installed this Ed Brown FP stop: ED BROWN : Firing Pin Stop, Series 70, SS (087-000-036) - World's Largest Supplier of Firearm Accessories, Gun Parts and Gunsmithing Tools I have zero clocking issues when I used both. The FP stop is a snug fit in the slide and the extractor is a snug fit in the FP stop. I easily have 400 rounds through the gun since the extractor install and probably 150 since the FP stop install. I didn't need to replace the FP stop but I did as part of making sure all parts are not MIM parts. Dolomite

It may have what they call rust blue on the gun. Older guns used this and it looked brown rahter than blue or black. If you blue it you will loose any value it has even if it does look better afterwards. Dolomite

ED BROWN : Match Extractor, Series 70, .45 ACP (087-130-100) - World's Largest Supplier of Firearm Accessories, Gun Parts and Gunsmithing Tools This is the one I use and it is great. It is a very tight fit but that allows the extractor to clock correctly. A loose fitting extractor will turn and cause problems as well. Dolomite

I use Ed Brown extractors with great success. They require very little if any work to tweak them. Dolomite

Getting taken for the Christmas presents is pretty cheap considering how much more it would have cost you in time, money and emotion had you decided to remarry her. I would seriously look at having some tests done to make sure she didn't leave you with any presents. The biggest victim in this whole situation is the child. He is left wondering which one of the guys she is dating is his father or left doubting if he even has a father. Sounds to me like the women is more concerned with pleasing herself than putting her child first. Her behavior isn't teaching the child how he should be towards women either. Hopefully by living with you he will not be as badly affected by all of this. Dolomite

Something I do that is cheap and just as effective is use a bicyclr inner tube. One lasts a long time if you buy the largest circumference inner tube you can. Walmart sells a universal tube that is for various diameter tires. They may not be quite as sticky as a Hogue but they do work well and for the price you can't go wrong. I paid less than $4 and could easily make 15 grips. Dolomite

Look around, Frontier is far from being the cheapest place to shop for firearms. South Clinton Pawn Shop in Clinton is a reasonably priced shop. They also have a decent selection. As far as selection goes check into Mike's Gun shop in Tazewell. They are a small shop but have an amazing selection of guns with great prices. Dolomite

There are a few. I have a range at home that is 25 yards. We can fire from a covered porch. Dolomite

Bud's pricing does not include a few fees they charge. One is a 3% Credit Card fee and another is $5 for shipping insurance. You might not have to pay for insurance and just refuse the gun if it is damaged during shipment. Also, without a beavertail you will have the hammer bite you on a regular basis. I would do as Lumber Jack said an look for something with a beavertail. If you are on a budget a RIA Tactical or a Metro Arms are going to fall into the same budget and for a first 1911 they are great guns. Bud's sells both. I have had a lot of 1911's over the years and love my newly purchased Metro Arms. It is a very accurate, quality feeling gun. Not sure how close you are to Knoxville but if you are ever in the area you are more than welcome to shoot mine. As with any 1911, purchasing one is going to lead to a maddening addiction once you get it and see how easy it is to change it to your individual tastes. As far as quality parts go everyone has their preference. Mine is Ed Brown parts. I have used other names as well but I like the Ed Brown stuff for a few reasons. Mainly the cost and second is they seem to need very little fitting. They do need to be fitted but they seem to go in quicker than others I have tried. Make sure to clean the gun well and apply some high quality grease before shooting the gun. And before doing anything to the trigger shoot a few hundred rounds through it because the trigger might get better as it breaks in. Standard 1911 parts should fit without issue but nearly all internal parts on a 1911 are going to need to be fitted to the gun or other parts (unless you are extremely lucky). This requires someone who knows what they are doing. The trigger may not need to be fitted but to get a decent trigger pull it takes more than just a trigger swap. For a decent trigger the factory sear must be tweaked or a new one installed and fitted, either way it requires some experience to make it safe. Tweaking the 3 fingered spring is also needed to get the most out of a trigger. Get that wrong and the hammer will follow the slide and cause a slam fire. And from my experience most times when replacing the sear you need to fit the thumb safety or replace it because it was fitted to the old sear. Also, when replacing just the trigger you might have to fit or replace the grip safety depending on how the grip safety leg interacts with the trigger bow. There is a lot that goes into a quality 1911 but once you have a gun setup how you like it there is nothing more enjoyable. Every time I pull the trigger on my recently worked over 1911 I smile because it is a joy to shoot. I have a few things I ALWAYS do when tweaking the triggers on my 1911's and a few of these can be done without any fitting of parts. One is install a 20 pound mainspring. It is lighter than the factory spring and results in a lighter trigger. I polish the sides and rear of the trigger bow to a mirror like finish. I polish the bottom of the disconnect where it rides on the trigger bow. Polishing doesn't really lighten anything but makes it seem lighter because it feels so smooth. And finally I use molybendum disulfide grease on all the wear surfaces including the hammer and sear. Just using the grease improves the feel of the trigger. It also helps things stay in place while you insert the pins during reassembly. I also use the grease on the slide/frame surfaces. Dolomite

Lets all aggravate Ruger and contact them asking about a release date. Dolomite

I have had close personal experiences with most types of addicts while in LE. I have also had some closer experiences with family as well. Here is what I have noticed. Crackheads generally tolerate withdrawls better than most others. The reason is cocaine is not so much a physical addiction as it is a mental addiction. Most crackheads would lay down and sleep for a day or two as they withdrawl. After the withdrawl most seemed much more normal. But when they would come in their movements would be exagerated as well as their thought processes, they rarely made sense if they were using heavily. We had some that were violent but no where near as much as meth or oxy users or alcoholics. Meth heads tend to be more violent than cocaine users. Add in a heavy dose of paranoia from the meth and you have the makings for a very violent person. The meth users are wanting the drug so bad that I have seen users who have been in jail buy the urine from new arrestees so they can drink it. The meth is still strong enough in the urine to give people who aren't using a high. To me that says a lot about the addictive properties for it to make someone drink the urine of a, often complete, stranger. Pill/opiate/oxy users are more violent than most others because of one reason. The withdrawls are physically very, very painful. I am not talking about small pains but excruciating pain throughout the body. I have had users tell me it is like their bones are slowly being broken. They get awful muscle cramps as well as really bad stomach cramps caused by the severe diarrhea during the withdrawl process. The pain is so severe that they often can't sleep causing even more physical problems. Most users get to a point that the drugs do not make them high anymore but they continue to use to ward off the awful effects of the withdrawl. Pain is a powerful motivator that can push most people over the edge. As far as alcoholics go they seem to be in two categories, mellow and violent. The mellow ones tend to remain mellow when they are intoxicated. The violent ones tend to be violent when they drink. Even if the violent ones don't seem like they are mad they tend to be set of rather easily. I can not tell you how many times I have had a drunk try to fight me after being arrested and luckily alcohol affects the coordination enough that it ended quickly. As far as being violent I would say opiate (oxy) users are at the top followed by meth users followed by alcoholics then cocaine users. If a user combines any two of these they are going to be much more violent and unpredictable. Most substance abusers do combine drugs. I have rarely seen an abuser that didn't abuse another substance at the same time as their drug of choice. My brother, at his worst, was using alcohol, crack, meth, oxy and marijuana daily. This made him a very dangerous and unpredictable person. He has tried to kill my family and I twice now. When we were still on speaking terms he said after he had been using meth for a few days he hid in the bushes with an SKS waiting for LE to show up so he could kill them. I asked why and he said he thought they were trying to get him. While using he has assaulted our mother by pushing her as well as smearing infected body fluids on her but I think that was when he was on the verge of withdrawls from opiates more so than meth. To this day he is still very paranoid and often thinks people are after him. Most recent reports is he is caring a pistol to defend himself from strangers who might be after him. He is supposed to be on medication to settle his paranoia down but he sells those to fund his drug habit. Dolomite

You need to come back out so we can sling a few more rounds down range. I have another AR I recently put together that gets a lot of use. Dolomite

Here are the targets I have at home. They are made from 1/4" AR500 steel which is plenty for any pistol caliber. It is kind of hard to see from the snow so I circled them in red. The single target to the right is a full size at 30" high and 18" wide. The 5 smaller once are 18" high and 12" wide. They are all 25 yards from my covered porch and 15 yards from the barricades. I may have my son put another post in the ground to make the single full size target 25 yards from the barricades. Without my son and a few friends doing most of the work the barricades and the targets never would have happened. I can't do a lot and they did a great job. Dolomite

Considering it will only go up in value I say go for it. Any Colt, especially a NIB unfired one, is worth more than any Saiga. You are definitely getting a deal. Dolomite

To determine what it is do this. Remove the mag release. To remove it push it in about 1/2 way then turn the screw countermclockwise. You may have to push it in a little or let it out a little. The screw will remain captured and not screw out but turn about 1/4 turn. Once the mag catch is out insert the mag flush with the slide locked back. If it doesn't drop free then it is the trigger bow. If it does then it is the magazine catch. To fix the magazine catch file the nose of the part that catches the mag with a few strokes of a flie then reinstall and try to release the mag. Continue to do this a few strokes of a file at a time. To fix the bow the gun must be disassembled pretty much completely but once you have the trigger out tweaking the bow is straight forward. Not sure how often you are in Knoxville but if you are I'll be glad to help you fix your pistol. Dolomite

To secure your windows plant some "painful" plants in front of them. This would deter anyone who might want to use a window for access. Holly bushes and cactus are a few low maintenance but take a few years to get big enough to deter. I am looking at cameras as well. The best way is to use IP cameras with POE (Power Over Ethernet). They use the network cable to power the camera as well as send the signal. It would require the use of a POE capable router but those are the same price as a standard router. You can make custom length cables or use off the shelf cabling and the generally accepted max is roughly 100 yards for a POE setup. The ethernet camears tend to have a better picture and all you need is some software to run them. The images can be stored directly on a computer without the need for a converter like lome of the analog cameras. Most software allow you to remote view and control your cameras over the internet as well. The expensive part is the POE cameras which run $75 and up depending on options. POE routers can be had for $100. The best security system in the world is a dog. You don't need to arm or disarm it. You don't need to go find the hidden intruder as the dog will do it for you. Most criminals are going to pass on a house if they think they have to tangle with a dog, even a small dog. Dolomite

I do not have 2k-3k through my rifle yet but I do have enough of the steel cased Tula ammo though it to feel comfortable with it. A friend bought some and they worked fine for him so I gave them a try. I bought a few boxes and they worked fine for me as well. Since then I have fired them through every mag I own to make sure they cycle. I think all of the steel cased problems people are talking about come from Wolf when it first started showing up here. It was dirty, underpowered ammo that did cause a lot of problems. Now there are people who are getting thousands of rounds of Wolf through there guns without even cleaning. If steel cased ammo was so bad the AK's would be having some serious issues and they don't. Yes they were designed to use steel cased from the begining but if steel ammo was so bad it would eventually show up in AK's. I have seen real AK's with dates from the 50's that were well used and obviously had a lot more rounds through them than we will probably ever put through our guns. Those still fired just fine and were still reasonably accurate out to 350 yards. I have had problems out of brass cased ammo as well, the worst being the Servian M193 that was being sold a few years ago. It would stick cases a lot in our guns and required the use of a rod and hammer to dislodge it. It was so bad our company said to get rid of it. The biggest problem with steel cased ammo is the coatings used on the cases. They can melt when your gun gets really hot leaving deposits in the chamber. I never got my AR really hot so that may be my reason for me not having any problems. I suspect this is what was happening when people were saying steel cased ammo was messing up their chambers. Zinc melts at a little over 400 degrees, if a round were to be chambered and the zinc melted then the gun was allowed to cool it would probably stick itself pretty good. For training I would not have a problem using steel cased ammo, you can get more rounds fired per dollar and practice is more important to me. Even if they do have some reliability issues in your gun all that does is make you practice malfuntion drills. I might try to induce a problem using Tula ammo. If I can it will be the first problem I have ever had with my rifle. It was built by me about 6 years ago and has had a lot of rounds fired out of it. I have used a Ciener conversion for around 15K rimfire rounds during training. I probably have 2K-3K of .223/5.56 through it now without a single hiccup. The only things I have replaced so far is the trigger and disconnect. I replace various springs on a regular interval before they fail but the most common I have seen cause problems for others is the extractor spring. It becomes weak over time because of the heat cycles it goes through. Dolomite

I have shot a lot of the Tula steel cased ammo from WM without a single hiccup. It chronos at about 2850 out of a 16" gun. The steel cases are boxer primers so reloading them is possible. They feed and cycle well and are accurate enough for what I would use it for, plinking ammo. I have reloaded steel cases before. I did it because I was told by several "experts" that after the second or third loading the steel would work harden and fail, blowing my gun up. What they said didn't make sense so I had to try it. I quit after loading each steel case 8 times with no ill effects. I will say that steel cases do not grow like brass cases do. After resizing and trimming the cases they never needed another trim and were easier, effort wise, to FL size than brass cases. The steel is as soft as brass as well. When I did trim them the steel cases produced shavings that were identical to the brass except they were steel. This tells me that the steel is similar in softness to brass. With that being said would I choose steel over brass, NO. The brass doesn't corrode like the steel does. Even though the steel seems as good as brass I still like brass. In a pinch I might use steel but that would have to be after I have worn out the 2K-3K pieces of brass I have now. Considering I can easily get 5 loadings each at a minimum and closer to 10 each I probably will never need to use steel. If you reload you can build match grade ammunition for the cost of most commercial plinking ammo. My 69 grain SMK loadings cost me .28 each and provide accuracy in the .4"-.5" range at 100 yards. I have yet to try some factory ammo that can match its performance, even the go to ammo match ammo. Dolomite

Kel-Tec seems to be the only manufacturer that is thinking outside of the box these days. In the last few years it seems like they are making a lot of neat and innovative firearms. Dolomite

I think he was saying he tumbled the loaded ammo with fired brass then took the loaded stuff after realizing they had been tumbled and they still fired. He made it sound like tumbling fixed a dead primer.