Now for that delayed range report

Lee makes a mold for a 405-grain hollow-base round-nose bullet. It’s got wide, deep lube grooves. It’s a bit picky about casting; you have to have the temperature right, and the amount of drop from the melter to the mold right. But when you get it right, it makes a quite nice bullet. I haven’t tried it much with black powder(those I have gave so-so results), but with Accurate 5744 it works very well. As in consistent groups like this at 100 yards

And, compared to, say, a full-power load with a 500-grain bullet, recoil isn’t bad. I really want to try this one at longer range next time I get a chance.

On the 500-grain, I’ve been using those with a wad between powder and bullet whether using black or 5744 or Blackhorn 209, but I wanted to see how it’d do without the wad. Not bad at all

With .030 wad

Yeah, that's three in one big hole.  Vertical spread like that is me, just about every time, which makes this a real impressive group.  I need to shoot both of these again just to make sure.

One other load tried is the Lyman 330-grain* hollowpoint.  That's one I haven't tried with black at all, just A5744.  Prior to this I used a wad under the bullet and paper-patched(patched because "Why not?"), figuring the wad would protect the bullet base.  This time tried it sized .459, no patch, and no wad

Considering my previous about 'vertical spread is usually my fault', I'll definitely have to try this again.

The other try was the Lee 405-grain round-nose flat-point bullet, much like the original.  These were cast of mongrel alloy over the base load of 26.0 of A5744

I've shot these before, sized .452 and a two-wrap paper patch, and had the same or a little better results.  I need to mess around with this one a bit more, see if I can get a bit better groups.


*It comes out right at 340 from my mold

Ah, Netherlands, are you hoping

the croc will eat you last?


Trust these bastards?  About anything?  Why should we?


Assuming I can get some other things out of the way, I'll write something about the range trip later.  In the meantime,

There was a range day,

and it was good.

However, after getting home, and unloading, and throwing brass in the tumbler, friend called needing help with something; there went taking pictures before dark.  So a report will come tomorrow.

I hope.

Meanwhile, in the run-by-Democrats-for-decades wonderland of Chicago,

For the second time this month, more than 60 people were shot over the course of a weekend in Chicago. At least eight of the 61 people struck by bullets this weekend have died, Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson confirmed during a Monday morning press conference. 

That includes two missing teenage boys found dead in a field late Sunday night, reports CBS Chicago.
All the usual suspect who're still screaming about Florida appear to be silent on this.  Again.  For some reason.

Union thugs; I'm surprised anyone would expect better of them

Hunter Pollack, who lost his sister Meadow, has begun to vent his frustration at the Broward County teachers' union. He was in an online exchange with a few of the members on Monday regarding a baseball coach and security monitor who had been accused of sexual harassment, when one of them, Valter Meranda, started to mock his appearance.
Wonderful people, aren't they?

No, being for/against one thing doesn't automatically mean

you're for/against another, at least as far as wanting State power to control it.  Borrowed from Mark Mac Young on Bookface:
How can I be for gay marriage and against "bake the cake"?
How can I be for the legalization of drugs and against public intoxication?
How can I be for rule of law and against so many laws?
How can I be for equality and against special treatment?
How can I be for sexual freedom and against pedophilia?
How can I be for the police and against over enforcement?

Basically three reasons (often in combination)...
1- A bridge too far.
2- The weaponization/abuse by individuals.
3- The profiteering and power grabs by the enforcers.

If life has taught me anything, it's that there's always some who will try to take things further than what everyone else can live with. They are insatiable in this regard. It used to be religion was their weapon of choice. Yet, in the current manifestation, they cloak their madness and destructive behavior under noble causes and 'freedom from oppression' – even as they infringe on others. Like religious fanatics of the past, they abuse functional beliefs and standards by subtly (or not so subtly) twisting the ideas to their own ends.

Kevin of Smallest Minority is in some difficulty

If you've got a few bucks to spare, here's a good place for them.

General pic clearing

How safe is your area?

Some interesting pics and observations from different places.
The degree to which buildings are hardened against entry are one indicator. Another is just how many or few women are out after dusk. In Strasbourg and Paris, they suddenly became very uncommon after nightfall, while men were out in great numbers. I have a faint suspicion that the amount of crime and the lack of legal personal defense tools had something to do with this as well.
Which makes me recall all the anti-gun politicians and activists(Watts, for instance, and her controller Bloomberg) who live in gated or otherwise access-restricted places, often with armed guards to keep their precious ass safe.  All the while insisting that wanting a firearm of your own is horrible and unsafe and shouldn't be allowed.

About that crimping experiment,

we had a chance to shoot it today.  Results as follows:
Load used is the 120-grain RCBS bullet over 7.5 grains 2400.  What I've been doing is resizing the first 1/3 of the case, then expanding the case mouth just enough for the bullet heel to enter.  That holds the bullet tightly enough that it won't fall out in transport, or if I pick the cartridge up by the bullet.  Here's an average group at 30 yards

Five rounds, one actually did slightly enlarge a previous hole.

Took five rounds just like this and crimped them.

Big difference.  (That '1.130" ' number is the length of the case)

Last is five rounds where I didn't resize, just seated the bullet into the case(they'll damn near fall in), then crimped

BIG difference with the crimp.

I'm going to have to shoot them again to see if the unsized cases shoot not quite as tightly or if that was me spreading them slightly.  Either way, significant improvement in group size.

'Punching up' my ass;

it's "Trash anybody we're mad at, and call anyone who objects a racist/misogynist/whatever club may work best."
Every time she viciously insulted an author or a fellow community member, she framed it as bravely speaking out against racism and other injustices. No matter what anyone said, Winterfox found a way to twist it into them being a racist pig and herself being the only one standing up for what’s right. If she could not immediately find anything in a person’s comments to twist and misconstrue, she would simply accuse them of being white. If they responded that they were not white, she would accuse them of being mixed race or no longer living in the country of their ancestors. Only she was an authentic person of color, and only she could judge what was racist and what was not…. 
And the moderators?  Chickenshits all.
The mods … were worried that by telling Winterfox she couldn’t do this stuff anymore, they would be silencing a person of color who had a right to be angry about injustice. They eventually put up an “Insults Policy” post explaining that you couldn’t insult community members for no reason, but that it was okay to “snarkily” call them out for being racist, sexist, etc.
Translation: "She's a nasty, hateful bitch, but if we say that they'll attack US!  Let's let her get away with this crap, it's easier on us that way, and we get to pretend we care about people."

By the way, about her victims who're such nasty racists/bigots/white people:
Mixon also went out of her way to stress that Requires Hate’s claims of “punching up” were belied by her tendency to go after “women, people of color, and other marginalized or vulnerable people” (emphasis in the original). The post even featured pie charts showing that of the definitively identified victims of her cyberbullying, nearly three quarters were women, about 40 percent were “POCs,” and a substantial proportion were “Queer/LGBTQI.” When one commenter expressed annoyance at the suggestion that white, straight, cisgender males were “Acceptable Targets,” Mixon replied, “I do think a case can be made for marginalized people’s right to punch up.”
Chickenshit again.  "Hey, white people, especially straight males, are still legitimate targets.  Because punching up."

Overall: "Racism and bigotry is fine, as long as we're the ones doing it to people we don't like."

It's been a long past few days,

the last three being especially busy.  Despite all that, I have managed to dig around and get some new information in.  Have at it.