Thursday, January 22, 2009

On a slightly calmer note,

Security Staff is doing much better today. I think she either ate something that REALLY disagreed with her, or caught some kind of bug. Happily, giving her the two meds isn't too bad; they pill's easy, the difficult one is the potassium supplement: it's a gel and apparently tastes awful, I have to get it on a spoon and into her mouth so she pretty much has to swallow it. The special food, however, she has no problem with. And I left some of her regular dry this morning, and she ate it, too. Moving much better, so I think she'll be ok.

In other news, I’d been looking around for 7.62x54r brass for a while. About six or eight months ago I’d bought 100 rounds of Wolf Gold(good ammo) both to try it out, and because that would give me some reloadable cases; at that time all I could find was Norma or Lapua which is, let’s say ‘pricey’. Later on I found that Graf & Sons carries Prvi brass, but they’ve been out of stock for at least the last two months, and the only other place I found that had affordable brass(Winchester) was also out of stock.

Yesterday I went to Grafs to check, clicked on ‘7.62x54r’, and the little note said “In stock”. I think I actually jumped a bit. Yes, I ordered some, right then; no telling how long it’ll last.

I think Prvi makes the brass- maybe the ammo- for Wolf Gold; they look identical and have the same headstamp; somebody told me they may also make the stuff sold under the Hotshot label. It’s good stuff, but does seem a bit stiff in the neck; it’s definitely good quality, but I’m wondering if, after one or two uses, it might be a good idea to anneal the case necks? I’ve read a couple of reports of cracks or splits in the necks after a couple of reloadings, which makes me think it might be a good idea. Especially since, with cast-bullet loads, you have to bell the case mouth a bit.

Speaking of cast, I think a while back I wrote that the mold I got for .303 and 7.62x54r throws a 160-grain bullet; it’s actually listed as a 185-grain, but the sized, gas-checked and lubed bullets weigh just a fraction over 180 according to my scale. If I do decide to try a heavier bullet for the M1, I may just use this bullet sized to .310 or .311 and a suitable powder.

I have to say, having used several Lee molds, I like them. They do tend to be a bit more temperature-sensitive, as in cooling off faster due to the aluminum bodies; they also cost anywhere from $30-50 less than all the cast-iron, steel or bronze molds I’ve seen. I’ve got some Lyman molds, and I’ve got no problem with them, they are very well-made and throw good bullets; but if I can find the same bullet, or very close, in Lee I’m likely to try it first, since saving forty bucks isn’t something to sneeze at.

Further speaking of cast, I’ve got a friend who used to do a bunch of jewelry work. If he can get his centrifuge and oven set up, we’re going to see about making some silver bullets. No, I don’t expect to have a werecritter or vampire show up, but considering some of the things in DC right now… and I can always use them for gifts: “Here, you now have a box of REAL silvertips.” There was a thread on this at High Road a while back, discussing what accuracy would be like since silver is so much lighter than lead. I’d use very damn few to test; I haven’t looked lately, but if gold is any indication the price of silver has probably jumped considerably.

Ok, I just looked(don't you love the internet?), it's currently trading at $11.32 per ounce. Not too bad.

I didn't post on it the other day, but President What did I sign? Obama's good friend Bill Ayers was turned back at the Canadian border. While I'm glad Canada had the good sense and standard to prevent his entry... what, you couldn't let him in and arrange an accident with a moose or something?

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