Warm with NO WIND, which means it should definitely not be mistaken for Spring. Spring comes with knock-you-on-your-geriatric-ass wind, standard. Still, mid-sixties in early March is not to be wasted. March is the month that breaks your heart. So I’m spending as much time outdoors as makes any sense at all. If I fray the end of my stump it can heal when the weather goes to hell again, which it inevitably will.
Yesterday I even took the ebike to town, for no practical reason other than Joel’s Sick of Winter.
This morning I spent some time in the reloading shack after a long morning walkie.
Broke into my last big box of cast bullets…
…which I bought last year just before everything dried up. Not familiar with this brand, and if I ever have a choice I won’t be buying it again. Some of these things look like they were hammered with a branch from the ugly tree.
But they’re just for plinking and practicing, it’s not like they’ll embarrass me at Fort Benning.
And speaking of embarrassment…
Oops. Should have seen that while cleaning primer pockets. Last time around for that case is one too many.
I found my first project for when Spring finally does come…
I did not go deep enough with that front pier on my ground mount rack. It has come completely loose from the crummy dirt/sand/ash where I had to put the rack. Need to order some 8″ sonotube – I can usually get concrete locally and at present I have lots of rebar. This rack doesn’t get the kind of wind gusts Landlady’s does so it probably won’t end up the way hers did – but it still came loose and needs to be fixed. Maybe I can just bury this one deeper, in a wider hole with rebar hammered deep, pour concrete in the hole, then connect it to the rack with a longer 4X4.
Yeah, I inspect my cases at every step while reloading. Takes some extra time, but I find a bad one every now and then. Fewer since I tossed all of my old, unknown history cases a couple of years ago after a few side splits and started over with new ones.
I think there was a damn good reason for that ride into town, Joel. I love just going on rides on my bicycle, hours at a time. 25, 30 miles, just for the peace and quiet.
In my particular life, peace and quiet are not hard to find. I just wanted to shake off some cabin fever.
You should check out Extreme Bullets for a choice of copper plated or hard cast lead bullets of a very high quality.
I shoot their copper plated bullets as I choose not to deal with lead deposits in the barrel.
Or you could go with a coated bullet.
There are powder coated bullets and there are bullets using the HI-TEC coating.
Both coatings prevent leading and the bullets don’t need to be lubed.
Bayou Bullets for the HI-TEC coating.
James Bullets for powder coated bullets.
From what I have seen the powder coated bullets have a much nicer finish than the HI-TEC ones.
There are many suppliers of coated bullets, not too many suppliers of copper plated bullets.
But Google is your friend.
Good shooting…
Consider screw anchors and hold-down cables for your rack.
Joel, about your ground mount rack: put crosslinks from the rear to the front, right above where the posts connect to the cement piers. This makes a triangle out of the shape, which cannot deform, and will completely eliminate your problem.
Don’t bother to replace the leaning pier. Just pull it vertical again with the Jeep (pull horizontal, no upward vector!), add the cross-ties, and you’re done.
I had exactly this problem, and as an engineer it made me smack my forehead DUH…I should have known better.
ThI’m glad that you are enjoying the weather. For us up here North of Disorder, this week the weathertainers are saying it will hit 50 by Wednesday. I’ll believe it when I see it.
About your reloads, have you ever considered casting your bullets? Hard cast lead bullets may be in short supply but lead, antimony and tin aren’t.
I bought some Czech surplus ammo for my Cz-52 long ago, and more than a few cases have splits like that on them. I weeded them out, maybe a dozen out of a paper & string wrapped pack of 72(? Some odd Warsaw Pact number). Still haven’t tested the rest out, never feel like packing up everything I want to shoot to the range and back, since I’m in “the city.”