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Tsquare
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I shoot about 9k in pistol and 1-1.5k in rifle per year, somtimes more. Almost all of it is my hand load ammo except for the 22lr I shoot in rifle. I shoot about 500 rounds of 22 LR out of a iron sight bolt rifle per year and about 1k of a mix of 6.8spc and .223Win. I try to keep a good inventory and only buy powder, primers, and bullets when they are on sale. I also buy in bulk with a couple of other reloaders to get the best pricing possible. I am only spending about $1000-1100 per year on ammo and it is $18 for a 2 year membership at my range.

If I was to purchase factory ammo I would shoot about a third as much or less. There are many brands of ammo I will not buy and they are usually the more economical brands. The ammo I am pressing out has been optimized for my guns so I am shooting match grade for cheaper than the cost bargain basement ammo.

Last edited on Thu Feb 8th, 2018 11:39 am by Tsquare

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Posted: Thu Feb 8th, 2018 12:34 pm

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TheArcticWolf1911
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Ah, that explains it. I wish something like that made sense for me.

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Posted: Sat Feb 10th, 2018 12:50 pm

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Undrstm8ed
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Tsquare wrote: I am split between 55gr and 62 gr .223 bullets. My Bushmaster likes the 62gr a bit better. I also have a Mini-14 and it will eat almost anything but it does have problems with lacquered steel cased ammo loading up with lacquer in the chamber. It has gotten nothing but brass for the past 20 or so years. I leave the commie block ammo to commie block guns.

Whats the barrel twist on your AR?

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Posted: Sat Feb 10th, 2018 04:20 pm

279^th Post

Tsquare
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Bushmaster is the 1:9 pencil barrel and it should like the lighter bullets better but it holds a tighter group with the 62gr over the same shaped 55gr. I would have preferred a 1:8

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Posted: Sat Feb 10th, 2018 06:40 pm

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Undrstm8ed
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Tsquare wrote: Bushmaster is the 1:9 pencil barrel and it should like the lighter bullets better but it holds a tighter group with the 62gr over the same shaped 55gr. I would have preferred a 1:8
Same, the 1:8 also seems to be best of both worlds for both ends of the spectrum on a wider note vs whats appeased by the 1:7 or 1:9 twists. Plus these 4 80% lowers (was 5, shat one into a cool paperweight) are all built for under 225 yards. If I need to get out farther I have better options and still improving on those (and other options mostly in multiples). And anything less, well.. I'm only a trail camper.., I'll seek my target(s) like a room clearing task if necessary.

I'm still learning about the grains and relative to things from proper MOA, penetration at effective ranges, and the future endeavor to do reloads properly. I've done shotgun reloads for a few years, never rifle or hand guns tho. One day...

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Posted: Sat Feb 10th, 2018 10:53 pm

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Tsquare
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Undrstm8ed wrote: Tsquare wrote: Bushmaster is the 1:9 pencil barrel and it should like the lighter bullets better but it holds a tighter group with the 62gr over the same shaped 55gr. I would have preferred a 1:8
Same, the 1:8 also seems to be best of both worlds for both ends of the spectrum on a wider note vs whats appeased by the 1:7 or 1:9 twists. Plus these 4 80% lowers (was 5, shat one into a cool paperweight) are all built for under 225 yards. If I need to get out farther I have better options and still improving on those (and other options mostly in multiples). And anything less, well.. I'm only a trail camper.., I'll seek my target(s) like a room clearing task if necessary.

I'm still learning about the grains and relative to things from proper MOA, penetration at effective ranges, and the future endeavor to do reloads properly. I've done shotgun reloads for a few years, never rifle or hand guns tho. One day...

I have an aftermarket 1:8 bull stainless barrel on my stainless Mini-14. The original 1:10 only worked well for the 52Gr and everything else was crap.

The .223 is good for targets out to 600 yards but the effective range is about 300 yards. I played with an AR-10 but there was not a 1000 yard range within 3 hours so it was rare that I got to shoot at the limits.

There are 4 ranges that are up to 600 yard within a 90 minute drive. That is why I went with a 6.8SPC a few years back. I have a six8 carbine that is effective out to 550-600 yards and can make the 1000 yard target shot. There are other calibers that can do this better (6.5 Creadmore) but the 6.8SPC won out when I built this gun 5 years ago.

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Posted: Sat Feb 10th, 2018 11:56 pm

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TheArcticWolf1911
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I was watching Tim over on MAC (an older video of his) shoot some ARs out to long range. 5.56 ARs.

Something he said caught my ear, and it does not sound right at all. He said he was shooting 178 (or 158, I don't remember which) grain projectiles. Black Hills I believe is the brand he mentioned.

He said that number a couple of times, and I want to say he's mistaken, but I honestly don't know. 158 (or 178 for that matter) sounds horrendously heavy for an AR in 5.56, at least compared to 55 and 62 grain that's the norm. The heaviest I was able to find (read cursory glance) a little bit back was somewhere in the 70-80 grain ballpark.

158/178 sounds more into the 300 blackout, .308, or 30-06 area than a 5.56.

Last edited on Sat Feb 10th, 2018 11:57 pm by TheArcticWolf1911

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Posted: Sun Feb 11th, 2018 03:56 am

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Undrstm8ed
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I wouldnt mind investing in a 6.5 Creedmore but I still havent settled the argument of penetration a the distances people claim to reach. People claiming 1.75 mile (slight exaggeration) plinking but again, you could possibly catch it in your hand at that point with the penetration capability and I think If I had to make a shot like that. I'd go all out on 300 Win or spend the $6k on a base BMG .50 cal and build up from there and somewhere between a slight fantasy world.

@artic;
Most things north of 80 grain have to be manually fed one at a time in a AR 5.56 platform... so maybe 3.08 or 300 Blackout?

did you see the rifle in the video?

Last edited on Sun Feb 11th, 2018 03:57 am by Undrstm8ed

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Posted: Mon Feb 12th, 2018 01:48 am

284^th Post

TheArcticWolf1911
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It must have been a 300 blackout or something. Granted I wasn't looking real hard at it, but usually the extended magwell catches my eyes pretty good.

In other news, I got the Wilson Combat trigger installed and it is smooth as silk. It could be just a hair further back, but I like it as it is.

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Posted: Tue Feb 13th, 2018 02:03 am

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TheArcticWolf1911
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My upper is finally moving. It's supposed to be here on the 14th.

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Posted: Tue Feb 13th, 2018 07:18 pm

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Tsquare
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I took my JC Higgins 22LR to the range today along with my 1911. I go through my guns in the safe doing a full opcheck on at least one or two per month. Last month I found a little surface rust on the rear peep sight of the 22LR.

I took the sight apart and polished it with steel wool and oil. I got the rust off and most of the bluing. I ended up doing a cold blue on it and it looks new. I needed to take to the range and sight it back in.

It is now zeroed at 25 yards. I am very pleased on how well this old gun shoots.

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Posted: Wed Feb 14th, 2018 12:51 am

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TheArcticWolf1911
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In the future, I plan on buying myself a beautiful S&W 686 in stainless with a 6" barrel.

Now I just got done watching a video by TYM where he compared new vs old revolvers, pros and cons to each.

In that video, the eye candy was a gorgeous blued S&W revolver. A 19-3, I believe in 357.

I have to admit, as much as I love the black rifle and other military guns, I have a soft spot for a blued gun too.

Now this video kind of makes me wonder. Do I want to buy a brand new 686, or should I buy an older 686? I have to admit, I really do not like the lock on the side of the newer ones, but I can ignore it and live with it.

If it bugged me too much I suppose I could always take it apart, remove that junk, tap in a stainless taper pin do a little blending to basically permanently remove it.

But, is that the only difference between the two? Were the old ones made significantly better than the new ones?

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Posted: Wed Feb 14th, 2018 03:48 pm

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TheArcticWolf1911
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My upper came in today! The bottom side of the upper where the forward assist pin is driven through is a little boogered up, and there's some places on the back of the upper where the anodizing flat out isn't there. That steams me a bit, but I'm not going to bother getting a different one, because damnit I'm happy that I have one at all.

That and I guess getting the forward assist and ejection port cover basically for free is a nice touch. That means I have those parts left over, but that's OK because I'll just use 'em on my next AR build. That one will be a while out in the future, but oh well. If there are any photos I left out, feel free to ask for one.

PS: I did thread the barrel nut on hand tight and it went on without a problem. Shouldn't be any issue come assembly time.

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Posted: Mon Mar 26th, 2018 12:03 am

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TheArcticWolf1911
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Project Vietnam is complete and as of yesterday I'm the proud owner of a Henry 22 lever action rifle as well.

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Posted: Mon Mar 26th, 2018 09:12 pm

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Sweet, cool retro gun and the Henry will serve you well!!

I'm trying to see if it's the octagonal barrel version? I have that very one, it's a crack shot :)

Just weighs a ton!

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Posted: Mon Mar 26th, 2018 10:00 pm

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Posted: Mon Mar 26th, 2018 10:24 pm

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Tsquare
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1qaz wrote:

That is about right.

My dad had an 8 gauge rabbit eared, double barrel with a single trigger. If it was cocked and you pulled the trigger the cocked barrel went off. Most of the ammo we had was full brass slugs - this was an elephant gun. I shot it with a buckshot load once when I was 16 and only shot 1 barrel - I never shot it again. Immense Pain. When I was 11 or 12 I saw the huge guy cock both barrels - he reacted like the guy in the video but dislocated his shoulder. This gun needed to be mounted on a platform, not shoulder fired.

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Posted: Tue Mar 27th, 2018 09:09 am

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squirrelhunter
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From what I hear,10 gauge is quite a handful,I think I'll stick with the 12 gauge. ;)

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Posted: Tue Mar 27th, 2018 03:04 pm

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TheArcticWolf1911
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Yes, mine is the octagon version. I almost bought the 18.5 barrel version with the hooded front sight, but I didn't like the front sight. Looked goofy to me, so I went with the 20" octagon with the brass bead.

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Posted: Tue Mar 27th, 2018 04:33 pm

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Good choice, as I said, it's incredibly heavy for what it is, we're talking Garand weight, but I love the way it shoots.

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Posted: Tue Mar 27th, 2018 07:42 pm

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TheArcticWolf1911
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Mine is the 22lr. Same as yours? I find it to be lightest rifle I own, lighter than even Project Vietnam, unloaded.

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Posted: Tue Mar 27th, 2018 09:08 pm

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Yup, .22LR, isn't it about 9 lbs?

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Posted: Wed Mar 28th, 2018 03:00 pm

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TheArcticWolf1911
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I weighed both Project Vietnam and the Henry, unloaded.

Proj. Viet.: 7.18lbs (unloaded)

Henry Frontier 22LR: 6.13lbs (unloaded)

I don't have an M1 Garand or even an M14 (M1A) to weigh, but I've held half a dozen or so, and they've all been significantly heavier than my AR15A4, which is heavier than the A1 by probably a pound.

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Posted: Wed Mar 28th, 2018 03:03 pm

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Now you're making me want to weigh my Henry.

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Posted: Wed Mar 28th, 2018 03:37 pm

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TheArcticWolf1911
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I'd be curious to see what yours comes out to.

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