Hello everyone! What a great week this has been… New Wilson brass gauges, Athalon Midas TAC APRS3 scope review, and tons of progress on my upcoming single stage side-by-side video! Here’s my weekly update:
Congrats Abby Crandall: Last Week’s Winner
Last week the challenge was to share what you’re doing to preserve 2A rights, and what you’re doing “For the sport”, for a chance to win a set of Hornady Pistol Dies, and an iGaging Smart Wireless digital caliper set. And the winner is Abby Crandall!
Abby Crandall (right) with her room mates
Here’s Abby’s story:
I love this week’s challenge. We need to come together as a community and stop these crazy “fully semi-automatic” lies being spread around. Any way… I digress.
I love the 2nd amendment and try really hard to defend it down here in California. It’s really difficult to have guns and live here, that is why I am a member of the NRA and support the Firearms Policy Coalition, and am a member of my local gun club. My favorite way to advance the 2nd is through education. I am a teacher by trade so it come naturally to me.
I have always had the belief that if someone was going to live with me and be around my firearms, they needed to know the basics of safety and handling. When I moved in with two new roommates who had never shot before, I had to change that quick. I took them to the range and we made a day out of it. I always start people off with my Ruger 10/22 so they can get comfortable pulling a trigger without the “big bangs” (as my roommate called it) once they’re comfortable I move them up through the calibers. It was a ton of fun and now we make it one of our regular fun nights out.
I also had the opportunity to help educate some of my family. We are a big pro 2nd family and most are serving in various military branches.
My great aunt however didn’t have a lot of experience. She went out and bought herself a gun for protection and asked me to help her. I took her to the range as well and taught her some of the basics (grip, stance, loading/unloading) I also got to go to her house after and show her how to properly clean and store her firearm. We both feel much better and she knows the ins and outs of her gun.
I am new to reloading and am just starting to set up my bench. I am the only reloader in my family so I am excited to teach that to everyone and pass on the joy that I have found through my little experience so far.
Thank you for putting out great content and going through things so thoroughly and meticulously. It really helps a new reloader like me.
Sincerely, Abby Crandall
Great Job Abby, and I’m sure you’ll look forward to receiving your prizes!
This Week’s Challenge: Share a Reloading Tip or Process
I know all of you have learned a LOT of great tips, conventions, tricks, and processes related to reloading. Now’s the time to share some of your knowledge, and you can win an Inline Fabrication Ultramount! Just click on the post below, or email me your submission.
I hope everyone is having a great week!
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Thanks,
Gavin
Gavin,
My reloading tip deals with the pesky task of deburring and chamfering brass. When I purchased my new batch of Starline .243Win brass I had difficulty getting any of my half dozen or so different tools to make a clean cut. I put on my thinking cap and decided there had to be better product available than what I had found in the reloading world and began to research. What I came up with was a deburring tool from the auto industry for brake and fuel lines from Eastwood. This product is the end of my search, it does a much better job that any other tool I have ever used. Designed to handle steel, it’s very high quality and makes very clean cuts requiring much less effort. Here’s the link to the product https://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-tubing-deburring-tool.html. It’s a little spendy but worth every penny.
Reloading is a family process in our household. My wife and I both have our own reloading stations tumblers etc etc. The first thing we do is to deprime the brass with using a full length sizing/depriming die. Then we check dimensions and trim as required or discard if damaged. If it’s damaged 5.56 round and it’s above the cut off point for a 300 blackout, we cut it off for 300 blackout and trim, deburr and chamfer including the primer pocket accordingly. Next we place the cases and the vibrater polisher with crushed walnut shells, Car-nu Auto polish and dryer sheet strips mix. The Car-nu really makes the brass shine and the dryer strips pick up all the carbon, dirt and dust out of the crushed Walnut Hull shells. This allows you to reuse it over and over many times. We then re-inspect the shells and put them in an ultrasonic cleaner. These may sound like some extra steps, but the finished product we get to reload is in so much better shape and we get much better reloads. Accuracy is equal or better than factory in most cases. This reloading process serves a dual purpose in our house, not only can we shoot cheaper but it becomes a family affair with my wife and I which makes it that much more enjoyable.
This is a win-win process that makes our household a much safer and enjoyable place to live.
I found that when I invited my wife to join me in my firearms room that she enjoyed us being together and ended up becoming a reloader and a shooter as well … especially since she wanted to see how something she made turned out. Try it as your wife may just like it as mine did.