Ideal rate of twist (MLP firearms and shooting thread)

[sonar1]

We called them birth control glasses...

Yeah, “You’ll never get a date wearing these!”

 

[SteveC]

I wear glasses for every day use. I have distance problems and also astigmatism. My every day glasses are less than optimal for shooting. Since precision matters in many of my competitions, I bought a special pair of prescription glasses for shooting. They allow for better focus at "iron sight" distances. I don't use them when shooting with a RD or a scope, however.

 

[CB91710]

We called them birth control glasses.
They sure were fugly.

Were those the standard issue "Radar" glasses?
The guys on the straight razor forums dig them.

 

[sonar1]

Were those the standard issue "Radar" glasses?
The guys on the straight razor forums dig them.

Straight razor forums?
My father taught me on a straight razor.
Used two of his through High School and the Navy.

 

[Marshall & Moonshine]

Were those the standard issue "Radar" glasses?
The guys on the straight razor forums dig them.

I’ve actually seen some hipsters wearing them. I kinda cracked up. They were like lumberjacks with dapped up hair, shiny beards, tight bright flannels and clean boots.
I think it was a thing for a while, might still be.
San Luis Obispo is always good for a laugh at someone’s expense.

 

[CB91710]

Straight razor forums?
My father taught me on a straight razor.
Used two of his through High School and the Navy.

Badger and Blade
Decent forum... I've got a few B&B limited edition items, including a Brian Brown straight razor.

Ya... got into "wet shaving" because I was tired of spending $40 on cartridges.
GAS exists everywhere... what I've spent on shaving gear could buy a Custom Shop Les Paul

My "#1" is the Wacker Gadsden

I’ve actually seen some hipsters wearing them. I kinda cracked up. They were like lumberjacks with dapped up hair, shiny beards, tight bright flannels and clean boots.
I think it was a thing for a while, might still be.
San Luis Obispo is always good for a laugh at someone’s expense.

My wife and daughter keep buying me "grooming supplies" that are geared toward that.
I don't have, and can't grow a full lumberjack beard... wouldn't want one if I could.
I've got the goat.
I don't need oil, wax, or special shampoo.

What really cracks me up is hispters wearing glasses without lenses.
Come on... if you want the look, just get some photochromic sunglasses... at least you won't look like a dork.

Probably started when somebody noticed that glasses worn by actors and models frequently have no lenses to control flare and reflections in the shot.

 

[sonar1]

Badger and Blade
Decent forum... I've got a few B&B limited edition items, including a Brian Brown straight razor.

Ya... got into "wet shaving" because I was tired of spending $40 on cartridges.
GAS exists everywhere... what I've spent on shaving gear could buy a Custom Shop Les Paul

My "#1" is the Wacker Gadsden

View attachment 510965




My wife and daughter keep buying me "grooming supplies" that are geared toward that.
I don't have, and can't grow a full lumberjack beard... wouldn't want one if I could.
I've got the goat.
I don't need oil, wax, or special shampoo.

What really cracks me up is hispters wearing glasses without lenses.
Come on... if you want the look, just get some photochromic sunglasses... at least you won't look like a dork.

Probably started when somebody noticed that glasses worn by actors and models frequently have no lenses to control flare and reflections in the shot.

Cool.
I don‘t shave anymore, and my father‘s old Excelsior is long gone. I thought I passed it on to my youngest, but he says no

 

[CB91710]

Cool.
I don‘t shave anymore, and my father‘s old Excelsior is long gone. I thought I passed it on to my youngest, but he says no

Ya... it's a lot of fun when you tell SWMBO that you're saving money on cartridges... then the UPS man delivers a $500 custom blade.

 

[Marshall & Moonshine]

They just wear the frames??
Lol
Kids.

 

[sonar1]

Ya... it's a lot of fun when you tell SWMBO that you're saving money on cartridges... then the UPS man delivers a $500 custom blade.

I thought about reprising the straight edge thing a couple years ago, but like everything else the “good stuff” has gotten pricey. Plus I don’t really want to shave anymore. I had to be clean shaven for 30 years.

 

[CB91710]

I thought about reprising the straight edge thing a couple years ago, but like everything else the “good stuff” has gotten pricey. Plus I don’t really want to shave anymore. I had to be clean shaven for 30 years.

Took some shots of the Brian Brown 2014 limited edition.
Scales are ram's horn.

 

[Soul Tramp]

So far, so good. The red dye is looking nice. Two coats of Tru-oil so far. Many more to go as the grain needs quite a bit of filling.

 

[ehb]

Love the red! Gonna be gorgeous!

Reminds me of what became the Schecter Lukather Strat decades back... built for a show back when they were bodies/necks... Figured and deeeeeep red trans....

 

[Soul Tramp]

The dye is TransTint cut with alcohol. I've used this color on padauk for custom head cabs. It's a pretty color.

 

[Bownse]

We called them birth control glasses.
They sure were fugly.

That's it. I couldn't remember it (another thing that started in 2nd grade and kicked into high gear after 64).

I’ve actually seen some hipsters wearing them. I kinda cracked up. They were like lumberjacks with dapped up hair, shiny beards, tight bright flannels and clean boots.
I think it was a thing for a while, might still be.
San Luis Obispo is always good for a laugh at someone’s expense.

You just THINK you want a moustache. You can't afford a moustache. - Million Ways to Die in the West

 

[THDNUT]

Once again Cheaper Than Dirt almost made me spray coffee all over my computer monitor.

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I like the phrase "Our low price"
Bwahahaha!

 

[Marshall & Moonshine]

That’s more than I used to buy 7mm mag for. Might still be.

 

[scott1970]

An acquaintance of mine just paid $1000 for 1000 rounds of .223 and $350 for 300 rounds of .45 acp.

 

[Who]

I should sell mine. I just plink. I could finance a whole new hobby, maybe.

Funny sidenote. My autocorrect doesn't know the word "Plink", but it knows 'plunk' and 'plonk'.

 

[Roberteaux]

Once again Cheaper Than Dirt almost made me spray coffee all over my computer monitor.

American Quality .380 ACP Ammunition 100 Rounds FMJ 95 Grain Loaded in Winchester Brass W38095VP100 | Cheaper Than Dirt

Shop American Quality .380 ACP Ammunition 100 Rounds FMJ 95 Grain Loaded in Winchester Brass W38095VP100 and more from Cheaper Than Dirt!

www.cheaperthandirt.com

I like the phrase "Our low price"
Bwahahaha!

Here's something that had me shaking my head yesterday:

I went to a nearby reloading supply store in Orange City, and was not surprised to find that the man was out of almost everything.

He did have a box of one hundred .277" 130-grain soft point spitzers... I was shocked that he even had those, until he explained to me that the only reason he had them was because of me... and at that, he got them as part of a trade he made with somebody else, figuring that sooner or later I would come along and he'd offer them to me.

It was a surprise to me. He's never carried .277" bullets or brass for .270 Winchester, in all the years I've done business with the man. I was immensely flattered that he actually had me in mind when he acquired those spitzers.

Turns out that I'm the *only* person he knows who hand loads for .270 Winchester. I was surprised to hear that at first until I reflected that I only know one other guy who uses .270 Winchester as a deer cartridge hereabouts... I think the type is probably more popular out west than it is in Florida. Hell, it's hard to get even a 50-yard shot on a deer out in the palmetto and oak scrub they tend to inhabit out there in the wetlands... lots more longer-range shooting among hunters after deer in the Western states...

But around here? If the guys hunting deer aren't carrying a shotgun and buckshot and instead have a rifle, one often finds them favoring the really good brush guns, chambered for stuff like .444 Marlin and .45-70 Government. Lots of guys hunting deer with shotgun slugs as well.

Anyway: while in the shop, I saw something else I've never seen before in there...

The brothers who own the place are both avid reloaders themselves. So I went walking in there and found a small tub of shiny 9mmP for sale, by the cartridge. That is: he didn't have boxes of 50 set up and instead just had this tub of 9mm sitting on the counter... and the most he'd sell in a lot was 20. But you could buy only 1, if for some reason that's all you wanted.

There was a second tub sitting there... it was all 5.56 x 45mm, loaded up to NATO specs with the 62-grain bullet, using H335 powder and blah-blah. These were 5.56mm NATO clones, in other words-- not M193's...

They, too, were for sale as individual cartridges-- and again: he'd only sell 20 to a single customer.

I noted that the cartridges were all mixed head stamps... and saw the tell-tale 3-bite tool marks left on a cartridge case by the Lee Factory Crimping Die on the 5.56mm stuff...

So, these were reloads, not factory ammo. And if you wanted to just buy one, he'd be more than happy to sell you just one!

I laughed a little. Greg and I like to bust on one another sometimes, and I guess it was my turn. I snickered and said, "Dude, you're like some guy on the street selling cigarettes as loosies!"

He laughed and winked, telling me, "Trust me: it strikes me as a slightly ignoble way of doing business myself... but these are hard times, and you'd be amazed at how well this ammunition is selling."

About two minutes after he said that, some guy came walking in there and bought 20 of each!

So that was all fun. I still can't believe that he's selling ammo by the round, but hey: he says the shit is selling about as quickly as he can squeeze it all together.

Meanwhile, I'm still gathering brass for .300 Win Mag, with said brass having been manufactured by Prvi Partisan, in Serbia.

In case any of you are actually interested in this, what I found when it came to PP brass was that it's pretty much about the same as Winchester brass in terms of thickness of the case walls, and in terms of stiffness and malleability. It's not like Nosler or Norma brass, which is fairly soft stuff that tends to stretch a bit more quickly than Winchester brass does... but which also doesn't succumb to work-hardening quite so readily.

And strangely: the Prvi Partisan brass hasn't changed when it comes to price. It's still 31 bucks for 50 of them, while you're paying more like $70 for 50 cases by Nosler or Norma (when you can find them).

But then: when you know how to anneal your cartridge case necks, you can get past the business of Winchester and Prvi Partisan brass work-hardening more readily for having started out as a stiffer alloy.

***************​

Tomorrow I will be heading for my other favorite reloading shop, which is in Port Orange, on the coast. This guy doesn't have brass for .300 Win Mag, but he's still got lots of the .308" projectiles used with that cartridge type.

So I'll be picking up a bunch of .30 caliber BTHP bullets of 178 and 208 grains in weight, as I've noted that my particular rifle tends to like those two particular bullet weights, while being a bit flaky (accuracy-wise) with lighter bullets.

It shoots well enough for government work with the big 220-grain BTHP spitzers as well... but guys who are a lot more experienced with this cartridge type than I am have assured me that if you stay with 208-grain spitzers as your heaviest bullet-- and your powder charges aren't insanely large-- you can squeeze maybe another 300-500 rounds out of your rifle barrel before it's pretty much fried. If you go balls to the wall when it comes to powder and bullet weights, you get the legendary performance of the .300 Win Mag... but it also burns your barrel out, double-time.

Like the .270 Winchester, the .300 Winchester Magnum is a notorious barrel eater. But it's not because the cartridge type is "overbore", which is what makes the .270 Win fry barrels rather quickly. Instead, it's simply the combination of very large powder charges with bullets on the top end of weight-for-type that cause the .300 Win Mag to burn barrels out relatively quickly as well. It's all the same with most of the other 30-caliber magnum cartridge types out there.

So, I'm thinking of acquiring a second barrel and headspace gauges for the .300 Win Mag right now, rather than to wait until it actually needs the barrel.

--R