RIFLEMAN'S JOURNAL - MARCH 2005
Will sign up with at least one more temp service tomorrow.
Portland gas now $1.95, and up.
Hughes' Sundrinker is all tree- and bunny-huggy, but I'm more than half through it, might as well finish. Aside from the odd life forms it's kinda formula, prophesied Hero rescuing the oppressed, Smiting the Wicked, reclaiming ancestral homeland for a race in exile, and of course getting the girl in the end.
Today I saw a "Hillary 2008" bumper sticker. Can't choose between angry, depressed, or terrified. What the heck, all three.
773 - Thursday, 3 March 2005: Zzzz....
Zzzz....
Zzsnrk %#@*.
Sleuthed temp services in phone book and on web, printed from Mapquest, went out for photocopies of resumés, trimmed beard, will put on nice shirt and phone & drive around tomorrow.
Sundrinker is all Gaia-worshiping, anti-technology, tear down the cities, "All life is a oneness," phooey. The slave-revolt thing was barely enough to get me through it. Now starting The Forty-Minute War, by Janet & Chris Morris - wherein Muslim terrorists hijack a Royal Saudi airliner and fly it, with a Libyan nuke, into the White House. ...In 1984 (Baen Books). Acknowledgments page thanks Jim Baen (who looked smug posing with Gingrich on the back cover of 1945), David Drake (who was also acknowledged in 1945), and Dean Ing (of the gun-toting, don't-rely-on-government-to-save-you Rackham Files) for various technical and creative input. Ooookay....
774 - Friday, 4 March 2005: After some phone calls, drove out to a westside temp service, not far from the cable-making job which closed a week ago, and signed up. Full application/interview process, plus drive time, took much of the day, knocking off for frozen pizza and DVDs, but at least I did something. Interviewer seemed almost excited that I could read, write & speak American and had any knowledge at all of electronic components and what to do with them. Possibility that the big Japanese medical-widget place in Canby might be hiring again, apparently I was first in a large herd of layoffs there. If Plumber is drunk again Monday, will sign up with another service too, near the I-5 bridge, or another in Clackamas, to the south of my eastside hovel, or another in Gresham further east.
Meanwhile, Veteran neighbor, in financial straits approximately as dire as my own, has caved in his ‘90 Camry wagon's (the one with the Severe Oil Leak, which was also briefly stolen from our very driveway by "undocumented workers") front end in traffic, and now anticipates insurance and repair expenses that he cannot foreseeably meet. (Furthermore, while my rent only went up $20, his had been fixed since, like, Reagan's first term and went up, like, $70.) Chilton repair manual on hold at library, accumulated tools in the back of my car, I'll help him get it street-legal again at least. This guy does wood carvings and oil paintings, Pretty Good - bird carvings, ducks, eagles, etc., wilderness and train paintings (also a model railroader), trying some aviation art. Again encouraged him to make money that way.
775 - Saturday, 5 March 2005: Zzzz....
No shooting this weekend, conserving gas, gas money (Portland ARCO now $1.99), and ammunition. Watching DVDs from library.
Also have Ed McGivern's Fast and Fancy Revolver Shooting, 1975 reprint, thumbing through - goodness, must buy copy. He was The Master.
776 - Sunday, 6 March 2005: Zzzz....
The Forty-Minute War not exactly gripping, but it'll do.
Phoned Plumber for work tomorrow, no answer, left message.
777 - Monday, 7 March 2005: Snrk - out of bed days earlier than desired, phone Plumber, no work until further notice, phooey. Phone both temp services, nothing. Manfully overcoming lethargy and lack of motivation, put on nice shirt, drove out and signed up with a third - full interview to follow. And whatever happened to showing up for a job interview looking nice? The slackers these days with the baggy pants and offensive t-shirts and ratty sneakers and torn jeans, ugh!
Shockingly unseasonable weather, downright summery.
Radio news suggests gas prices may rise another 25˘. Swell.
778 - Tuesday, 8 March 2005: Finally third temp service calls back, interview this afternoon - all signed up.
Portland ARCO now $2.03. Used one reserve can.
779 - Wednesday, 9 March 2005: Phone three temp services - nothing.
Sold one Mosin carbine to Cruffler for $50. While up there, tortured myself with visits to Brightwater Ventures, where I won the Hornady Mauser dies in '04's Foul Weather Match #2, and L-L Guns, where I got the scruffy Mossberg M500 for $59.00. At Brightwater, saw EAA Witness .45, full size, Wonder finish, under $300. Sigh. Well, it's probably too big for my hand anyway. At L-L, saw Marlin 1894 in .357, with rawhide wrapped around handle to cushion fingers (common Cowboy Action trick), $330 - I can get a brand-new one for somewhat less at Big 5 and add my own rawhide.
Vancouver ARCO $1.95, got half a tank. Portland $2.05. One 5-liter reserve can left.
Paid storage rent.
Mt. St. Helens showing a little activity, sister says I can stay with her if Portland gets buried with ash. :)
Meanwhile... I'm now the moderator of the Yahoo CheapShooting list; and I've been asked in email to scout ranges for a possible Rifleman's Road Trip by Fred in the northwest this summer, and the new activities director at Clark Rifles has expressed interest therein. Now, if only I had gas money and ammo money and a chronograph and projectiles and such.... Furthermore I'm getting more information on Garand matches (including the availability of loaner Garands at clubs) and CMP requirements to get my own Garand (which is only, like, a month's rent, or maybe five weeks working for Plumber...).
780 - Saturday, 12 March 2005: Zzzz....
Tortured myself with a visit to the Barberton show. Lots of used single-shot and repeating .22 rifles to subvert with, also a Herters (German) .22LR revolver in Colt SAA style for $100, with target sights (a year ago I'd've $napped that up - now I don't have gas money. What happened?) - the most eye-catching item for me was a reproduction Remington Navy .36 percussion revolver for $150, followed by a Norinco M1911A1 (commie Chinese, but the commies already got their money out of it by that point and it's a clone so non-commie parts will fit - in fact the Norinco frames are highly thought of by some gunsmiths) with GI holster and three magazines for $375 (later went for $350). Also a Navy Arms repro Zouave .58 rifle-musket, very pretty, for a couple hundred less than Dixie Gun Works wants, sigh. (I still have no muzzleloading long guns, and am picky about what kind to get - traditional styling, for one, no anachronistic sights; flintlock for the Minuteman angle, convertible to percussion would be ideal. A WBtS-era .58 of some kind might be quite acceptable, depending on the sights - a ~$800 repro .45 Whitworth British-target/Confederate-sniper would be lovely....)
Yakked with Cruffler, got much surplus sausage. He says Plumber, and the hardwood floor guy, are both hurting for work, and he's also seen a downturn in his own customers in the lien business. Eek. Arranged to sell the other Mosin carbine, and the scruffy M500, tomorrow. :( But that will cover the car insurance, and maybe a quarter-tank of gas and a couple days' groceries. Must stay motorized. If I get a job I can probably talk my way out of being a little late with the rent.
Meanwhile Cruffler has been conscripted as President of ACSW. I asked him which email address and phone number to put on the site - he said he'd email me as soon as he looked up Disney's. :)
Also whipped out a business card, with URL and info line #, for ACSW - Cruffler has photocopier at office, will copy from master printout and slice 'em up wholesale. Computer-generated business cards are a good activism tool - remember that most modern word processors will do it, with clip-art even, and Southworth brand business card paper comes with instructions therefor.
Later, helped Veteran neighbor pull parts at U-Pull-It, saving hundreds over a body shop - will replace some parts, bend and/or hammer others and spray-paint as necessary.
[thought=not.so.random] So the United Nations has stolen zillions, raped and looted its way across whole continents, and has about as much credibility left as Dan Rather. And one proposed solution is - to make Bill Clinton the next Secretary-General.
Yeah, that's a gooood idea. >:-[
781 - Sunday, 13 March 2005: Hocked the Mossberg and Mosin, topped off fuel including reserve (Vancouver now $1.97, Portland still $2.05), bought one (1) frozen pizza.
Starting Crichton's State of Fear. A little tweaking and it could be rewritten as a pro-RKBA, anti-leftist-indoctrination piece. Author has been on the conservative talk shows undermining the Church of Global Warming - from the Author's Message in the back:
782 - Monday, 14 March 2005: Temp service calls me! (The third one I had a good feeling about. Former co-worker Troublemaker may get a bonus for referring me.) Forklift, $10/hour, much like at the shampoo warehouse, but higher volume. Similar kind of lift even. Back to temp service office for more testing and information - start tomorrow.
Have Job. Although, it's a warehouse, sigh. Well, can't be choosy at this point, and I can get by on ten bucks an hour. -Steel-toed boots required and the only pair I have is a little small, ow.
Deposited pitiful wad of cash, paid car insurance. First paycheck the 25th, next the 1st - I should be able to squeeze rent out of that, but I'm worried about consumables in the meantime, and I'm out of stuff I'm willing to part with.
And then sister sends Even More Money. Ack- my heart-
783 - Wednesday, 16 March 2005: I have a job and it doesn't suck.
Too much.
Yet.
At least everyone there speaks American, more or less. It's a warehouse, receiving and distributing boxes of articles of clothing, mostly made in communist China naturally, for one of the big clothing retail chains. I was hired to drive forklifts but often find myself heaving boxes. This makes me worry about my previously-slightly-injured back of course, but the boxes of commie-made garments aren't too heavy. (Have back belt, in need of some needle-and-thread.) But now, they want me to change my start time from 8am to 6am. Ack. OTOH there won't be anybody on the freeway at 5:45 in the bloody A.M. Sigh. So far they say they like me and I'm doing a good job, and they want to change my shift so I can get full hours, as they often run out of things to do in the early afternoon and send people home early, who then complain about not getting a full paycheck. Now my putative quitting time will be 2:30, so I can beat most of the traffic. The place is in north Portland, near the big freight terminals at the intersection of the Columbia and Willamette Rivers, and I can get there or back on surface streets if I have to.
President Bush swimming with piranhas this morning (press conference), on car radio and break-room TV - gawd, every time he gets up there I want to shove him off the podium and take over. And give a few media creatures a few coronaries with a few Straight Answers. Just once I'd like to hear our so-called conservative leader say, "Get this seditious hack out of my sight!"
No paycheck ‘til the 25th, but sis has been embarrassingly generous again. (I'm keeping a running total....) With manna-from-sister, after catching up on bills, got badly-needed new front/drive tires for the car, just in time for the first rain in a couple weeks - Les Schwab guy says something about a tie rod or CV joint approaching critical mass, will look at it this weekend (or the next sunny afternoon) and try to repair via U-Pull-It, since I'm probably driving Veteran down there again anyway. Appointment for coolant flush Saturday, with coupon from snail-spam. At least it's not leaking anything.
Plate match coming up on the 27th, hope to swing by Sportsman's Warehouse for some 147gr 9mm bullets tomorrow and load test batches. (Will probably get unplated to economize. Will also consider another box of ~125gr .358 lead - should be only 100 left in the plated West Coast Bullet box. I remember unplated was, like, a third cheaper, but they were out of stock last time.) Meanwhile Michigan suggests magnum pistol primers to address the ignition problems in my .357 subversion loads, I hadn't thought of that, will get a tray or two of WSPM.
(And why does my FM Argentine P35, built under FN license, have extraction problems with Winchester factory JHP but works perfectly with my RNL reloads in Remington (UMC) brass? Hope to burn up last 200 124RNL loads, and maybe a box of that Win/USA 115JHP from the OAC show, this weekend to confirm that statement.)
Sierra offers four weights in .311, for the Mosin, but the only boattail is the hollowpoint 174gr MatchKing, "Not recommended for hunting applications" - I want multipurpose loads, for competing, hunting, and fighting (and to hell with Hague). I'll go with the 150gr (to approach the 147gr Albanian surplus that works so well) flat-base Pro Hunter soft-point Spitzer, but maybe not ‘til I get an actual paycheck. Likewise 175gr .323 for the VZ, for which I have no non-surplus ammunition at present. (Feature article on Sierra in latest American Rifleman, touting accuracy - G. David Tubb, the Dale Earnhardt of highpower rifle, endorses Sierra, is on the cover of their latest big fat reloading manual.)
Portland ARCO $2.07 yesterday, everybody else higher.
Oh yeah - steel-toed boots not required after all, which means I can still walk, a little, at the end of the day.
784 - Thursday, 17 March 2005: Mornings, bleah.
And a slow day at work, left at 2pm, and no work tomorrow. On the one hand, zzzz, and on the other, a disturbing trend after only three days.
Made it to SW. The only 147gr 9mm was West Coast copper-plated, $30.99/500 - but I've been wanting to do plate matches for a long time. Also got Meister unplated 125gr .358 RN/FP, $18.99/500; and 200 Winchester Small Pistol Magnum primers, $1.79/100 (up ten cents since last I shopped there). Will need subversion loads - I'm committed to going up around Everett to return the family's visit on 2-3 April.
Man, I'm wasted, ‘cause I got up way too early and there was some actual Work today, like teetering on a cherry-picker-type forklift ten meters up dismantling excess pallet-rack units. Vegging now, maybe loading some 147s and 125s later, sleeping in before examining car's steering tomorrow, coolant service Saturday, shooting Sunday maybe. Did not buy rifle projectiles, or severely-tempting $69.99 chronograph.
Hours later, decompressed, priming 50 pieces older Winchester nickel-plated .357 brass, and 50 more with S&W headstamp, also nickel, offered by non-reloader at last session (complete with original S&W box so I've a reasonable expectation they're once-fired - flap says 158gr SWC) - all with WSPM. Will load the last West Coast plated 125gr tomorrow in batches of 25, with the last-tried amounts of Bullseye (3.2gr), Unique (5.0), Universal Clays (4.8), and W231 (3.6). This should give me a feel for whether magnum primers will solve the ignition problems in my excessive-case-capacity subversion loads, or whether I should buy a pound of TiteGroup. The Meister 125gr .358" RN/FP look very ordinary and vaguely Cowboyish - it strikes me that Cowboy Action data should work nicely for subversion loads. (A reader says he's using a repro Colt Open-Top cartridge revolver in .38 Special for subversion.)
The West Coast 147gr .355" are Longer Than Normal, but otherwise conventional flat-base round-nose. Hm, diminished case capacity with these, considering the magazine's cartridge-overall-length restriction, but you use less powder with 147s anyway. Winchester data says 3.3 to 3.5gr W231, for 865 to 905fps at 29,000 to 32,100psi - will load, oh, three batches of, oh, 25, in .1gr increments. Have to see what 9x19mm brass I have ready - ah, a pile of Winchester twice-fired all primed and everything.
785 - Friday, 18 March 2005: Zzzz....
Up late finishing State of Fear. I think Crichton was ticked when he wrote it. Many of the arguments the characters use to deconstruct the myth of global warming can be very easily adapted to our own cause (the reactions of the opposing characters were eerily familiar - I kept thinking of John Lott, and how his objective research is received) - toward which, judging by the story, the author is not unfriendly. Anyway, I recommend. Another character blasted colleges and universities in much the same way David Horowitz does - described the PLM, Politico-Legal-Media complex, replacing the military-industrial as the greatest threat to freedom and progress (as opposed to Progress) in the post-Cold-War era. And another character, a thinly-disguised Martin Sheen, meets a bad end. Crichton appears to be coming out of the republitarian closet! They won't make a movie out of this one, unless of course they turn it completely inside-out like Clancy's The Sum of All Fears - and I'm betting Crichton is keeping a firm grip on his film rights, unlike the unfortunate deal Clancy signed with Paramount before he had any idea how successful he would become.
After something resembling breakfast, off to a freight-liquidation place for extremely-cheap commie-made jack stands - and they're out. Frustrated, splurged on some shrimp rings at the grocery outlet store (from Thailand, as opposed to China), then back to the hovel to pull off the front wheels and examine the steering (and the Haynes manual) - but then the ex-con neighbors and their street-people friends are having a convention of some kind in the driveway and I'd rather not be out there with them. Sigh.
Staring at tax forms. Last year I grossed $16,842.00 - with a touch over $3,000 in Federal, State and Medicare taxes (like I'm ever going to see that - some "undocumented worker" with an official Mexican government comic book instructing him how to steal my tax money will live off it instead). Last tax day I also had to pay $170-something in County income tax - and this year I will again write "WASTE, GREED, EXTORTION and THEFT" on the check, and wrap it in a printout of this picture:
While shopping, learned that, due to their use in methamphetamine production, products containing pseudoephedrine, i.e. nasal decongestants for my sinus trouble, now require photo ID to purchase - typical government reaction, ignore the individuals causing the problem and persecute the innocent citizens who simply have a stuffy nose. Furthermore, effective 1 March, the Oregon Gun Tax, the "background check processing fee" for every firearm purchased through a Federally-licensed dealer, has gone up from $9 to $10. Where's that court ruling... ah, here:
A fee levied for the exercise of a Constitutional right "...restrains in advance those Constitutional liberties... and inevitably leads to suppress their exercise."
U.S. Supreme Court, 319 US 105, Murdock vs. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Decided 3 May 1943
That was a First Amendment case, but an obvious precedent for any rational interpretation of the rest of the Bill of Rights. See also this.
Four batches of 25 .357 subversion test loads, with magnum primers, done.
Portland ARCO now $2.09. Cruffler reports the Vancouver gap is closing.
Closer examination of the Lee 9mm dies I got a couple Barbertons ago shows they are an older model which will not work with the optional bullet-feed attachment for the Pro1000 (which I don't have anyway). But they'll still work with the Auto-Disk powder measure, and the sizer/decapper is carbide so I still don't have to lube the cases. And they were only ten bucks.
786 - Saturday, 19 March 2005: Big Expo show on now - ~$16 just to get in, parking & admission, and crowds, and blueshirts, phooey. Medium-sized Vancouver show 30 April.
Raining. On Tuesday the forecast was sunny for a week - and some people claim to be able to predict the weather a hundred years from now. Global Warming is a Massive Fraud! And interspersed with the entertaining fiction, Crichton lays out the real facts.
Coolant flush - done, but the Goodyear guy gave the same steering warning as the Les Schwab guy. This time I got to take a look at it while it was up on the rack, so I know where to start. Everything's wet and cold and icky now, though. Haynes manual - I think I can do that, but want jack stands for it. Furthermore, book cautions to have steering professionally aligned. Well, I can take a look at it anyway, maybe something's just worked loose.
New Shotgun News, with feature articles on .22 conversions for the Browning Hi-Power (only ~$300); the new Argentine clones of the Browning Hi-Power; the many failings of the M60 machinegun (some of which are recounted in Ross' Unintended Consequences); Hints for Handloaders column.
787 - Tuesday, 22 March 2005: Work sucks now. That didn't take long. I need something solitary and autonomous, like a courier driver maybe (no, not pizza - and damn sure not Pizza Hut). Not comfortable with the big-rig idea.
Got replacement tie rod from U-Pull-It, not hard to remove, but will definitely need jack stands, not ramps, to install. Probably the shops just want to sell service and are overstating the problem. Asked at Les Schwab - ~$140 to ~$240 depending. Of course they won't use the $15 pulled spare, for liability. Some (summer) weekend I'll slap it in there and tweak things ‘til it seems right.
Forecast very Pacific Northwestern for the weekend - plate match might be rained out, if the range is even open on Easter. Practice Saturday, and will ask about the match - then, depending, crash reloading session with the powder level that seems adequate. Hmm, better prep more brass during the week.
788 - Wednesday, 23 March 2005: Bleah, work. Not quite as bad today.
Maybe a couple hundred 9mm cases, Remington this time, processed & primed. That should be enough for the match, if it's on. Theory: slightly thicker rim on Remington brass vs. Winchester has something to do with observed extraction problems. Hope to find out Saturday.
789 - Friday, 25 March 2005: Short day yesterday, shorter today - and this afternoon the temp service calls and the warehouse is done with me. Sigh.
Forecast now calls for an actual storm over the weekend. Sigh.
Slacking on email.
Paycheck - that plus the next one (one week lag) plus leftover sister-manna will cover food/gas/lodging.
Fiddling with Pro 1000 and Lee dies, including powder-through-expander. Disassembling previously-made dummy rounds with kinetic puller to salvage FMJ bullets to adjust dies by remaking dummy rounds. Haven't started on primer-feed yet - will use separate measure and loading block to charge cases the old way, and single-stage press to seat bullets in presently-prepared cases with RCBS die. If Sunday's plate match is even on. (The club's newly-elected newsletter director apparently isn't directing, and the website is rarely updated.)
790 - Saturday, 26 March 2005: Zzzz.
Rain, but not what I'd call "stormy". GP100 with magnum-primed subversion test loads; FM with 124gr RNL and 147gr test loads, all in Winchester brass. Arrive about 11:30. Handgun line half full, but plates are open, right to it.
GP, 3.2gr Bullseye - still some weak rounds. More powder I guess. 3.6gr W231 - a couple squibs. 4.8gr Universal Clays, better, but still not confident. 5.0gr Unique, ditto.
Some bonus brass. Starting to collect other calibers on principle - and I do want a .45 someday.
Now FM, with 124gr - two magazines, perfect function. Then 3.3gr W231 under the plated 147gr - weak, some stovepipes, one failure to extract. 3.4gr - still weak. 3.5gr, published maximum, still weak. 3.6gr, exceeding published data - that might do, but I'll put the next batch in Remington brass.
Range closed Sunday, no plate match this month. Fine, more time to practice and develop a load.
Used up half the remaining 124gr lead (100 left now, in Winchester brass) - a few extraction problems, but more plate practice. Need to do some paper work to check the point of impact vs. point of aim. Left about 12:45.
Vancouver ARCO $2.13, Portland $2.15 - or is it $2.17 now?
791 - Sunday, 27 March 2005: Easter, by the way, rubbing it in for the anti-Christian bigots who happen to be demographically the same as the anti-gun bigots. (I reiterate that personally I am agnostic.)
Still raining, range closed, unemployed again. Studying Everett-area ranges on the web, planning for my trip up there next weekend to visit my too-generous sister, et.al.
Fiddling with stuff. The 30-round S&W magazines I got for the Marlin are convertible to the Browning! A few minutes staring and jiggling, a scratch with an X-Acto knife for location, and some attention with a Dremel, and it fits! Drop-free even. Feeds dummy cartridges. Plastic followers incorrectly formed, building up with binary epoxy and plastic cut from a Sierra bullet box, then will whittle back down again to get proper slide-stop engagement. Obviously the reverse could be done, to convert P35 magazines to function in the Marlin - once properly built-up the followers should activate the slide/bolt lock in either, it's just the magazine catch slot I have to cut. So I can finally get some use from those 15-round Argentine units the pistol came with. OTOH, the Marlin has not displayed acceptable accuracy thus far.
Still slacking on email.
Later - no, the epoxied plastic is too fragile, it'll pop right off under the stress of firing, or even loading. (Some kinds of plastic don't like some kinds of adhesive.) But, the plastic followers of these magazines are solid, I can drill a small hole and insert a small screw from the Good Hardware Store down the street, after some staring and measuring. ...First one done, it works. -Slightly premature bolt lock in the Marlin though (with one round remaining), hmm, and just barely enough engagement in the pistol. Might seek spare bolt-lock-thingie for the Marlin (never change original parts) and Dremel it down. Well, before I put the screw in it wouldn't have locked at all, either in the Marlin or in the S&W 59xx pistol the magazine was supposedly made for, there's a big empty space in the plastic follower where the bump for engaging the slide lock is supposed to be. Oh yeah, the 20-round that came with the Marlin can be converted for the pistol too. -Needs slight tweaking of slide-stop, another small set-screw, vertically this time as opposed to horizontally like the 30s - and definitely adjustment to the Marlin to make them fully interchangeable.
So there's something I'm good at. Speaking of which, both sisters agree I should become a firearms instructor. But I don't like people! Many friends and acquaintances have suggested I become a gunsmith, but there's way too much government intrusiveness for that. Maybe a hundred years ago (or better, a hundred years from now on a (rebellious...?) colony planet...). Born in the wrong century, eh?
Hm, these 30s are actually 32s. So much the better.
Pictures of all this later maybe.
792 - Monday, 28 March 2005: Phone three temp services - nothing. Possibility from one of returning to the Japanese medical-widget place in Canby, but I've heard that before.
Bumping .357 subversion test loads up 0.2gr each, thus 3.4 Bullseye, 3.8 W231, 5.0 Universal Clays, 5.2 Unique - 25 rounds each, with standard primers 'cause that's what's already in the processed cases. Also making 100 of 147gr 9mm over 3.6gr W231, in Remington cases. ...How'm I gonna test this before the trip? Clark Rifles isn't open Wednesdays until later. Up in the hills maybe.
Rain, a little wind, one (1) sunbreak, the same expected through the week.
Oh, P35's front sight staying put since the heated Loctite treatment, BTW.
Meister .358 125gr RN/FP lead seats pretty, has a groove just right for an ordinary revolver-style roll crimp. .357 seating/crimping die is set just right in the old RCBS JR2 for the Meister in once-fired Winchester .357 Magnum brass. 400 .358 left, 300 147gr 9mm. Now if I can just find reliable loads for them....
Need one part, a bell-shaped end piece for the ball chain, to get the Auto-Disk working - hardware store should have it. The two dispenser disks donated with it, according to the chart in the instruction sheet, are entirely adequate for 9x19mm and .357 Magnum handgun loads, and the various loading manuals suggest they'll cover .45ACP too, though I'd need other disks (available cheap from, for example, Midway) for heavy stuff like .44 Magnum or full-power .45 Colt. Priming system might be more trouble than it's worth - donor's detailed email instructions show how to get around it, using a separate priming tool like the Auto Prime between running the cases through twice, but still saving huge amount of time over single-stage.
Plumber calls - some work tomorrow. Eh, a few bucks.
793 - Tuesday, 29 March 2005: Five hours with the plumber, fetching and carrying. Eh. No word from temp services, will pester them tomorrow.
Weather supposed to clear tomorrow - good, I want to hit the hills and test my recent handgun loads so I can make big batches before my trip north.
Good Hardware Store, got the ball-chain end thingie for the Auto-Disk - test with disposable oddball 9mm cases - that looks all right.... So, the method will be, use the Pro 1000's case-feeder and the sizing/decapping die alone, process all the fired brass, tumble, prime separately i.e. with Auto-Prime hand tool, then run the primed cases through the case-feeder again with another turret, with the other two dies, the expander with powder measure attached and the seater, placing bullets in case mouths by hand - once it's all tweaked it will be hugely faster than the old single-stage. (Will seek more three-place Lee turrets at shows (donation included three), and Lee .38/.357 dies to carry the powder measure. Also, I note that the Lee 9mm sizing die is less picky than RCBS about the exact alignment of cases as they enter the die - therefore fewer stops to jiggle the turret.) Furthermore priming the cases separately gives me more time and opportunity to inspect the cases for wear or damage and discard them as necessary.
Next on the list, verifying powder charge weights thrown by Auto-Disk - later. I went to the laundromat today, shudder. Pizza time.
794 - Wednesday, 30 March 2005: Back to the hovel later than is usual when working with Plumber - covered in sawdust from drilling holes in joists, not unusual.
Phone temp services - nothing. One of them seemed to hang up on me. Hey, do I look like Rodney Dangerfield?
Range bag packed - charge off to the hills, argh. Arrived without incident (Infamous Estacada Speed Trap), but still want stern guns for tailgaters. Sighted one (1) blacktail deer, zero (0) sasquatch.
Increased subversion loads seem functional (no squibs), but recoil starting to increase as well. Unburnt flakes with 5.0gr Universal Clays, and to a lesser extent with 3.8gr W231. 5.2gr Unique seems all right but recoil starting to defeat the subversion purpose. 3.4gr Bullseye might be good - I'll make 200 of those before I leave. Meister bullets smoky from the lube - will go back to plated when I can afford it.
And the P35 still isn't there. The 32-round magazines don't feed well after all (but they're theoretically still usable for the Marlin, which is what I bought them for) - generally the cartridge noses up, and a tug on the slide lets it pop the rest of the way out of the magazine and slip into the chamber. Possibly tweaking the feed lips would help, there's something appealing (and politically incorrect) about a pistol with a really high-capacity magazine. Extraction problems again, with Remington brass which I theorized worked better than Winchester - will seek replacement extractor and/or extractor spring as recommended by R/O/Gunsmith at Clark Rifles a few trips ago. Still weak cycling, too, at .1gr past Winchester's published maximum (3.6gr W231) - many have told me Winchester's data is systemically weak. Will seek other data - Michigan sent me some for 147gr, I'll dig it up. Debating whether to take the P35 along on the trip - might splurge on a UMC MegaPack before leaving, if that doesn't work what will?
Portland ARCO $2.19, most everywhere else higher - except for one 76 station in Damascus, presently $2.13, in a locally-famous price war with the Safeway across the street, $2.15.
Portland Mayor and former police chief Tom Potter seeking to unilaterally withdraw from the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force unless he's given Top Secret clearance so he can know what's going on. This is the same former police chief who rode with Critical Mass, a bicyclist-protest group which deliberately disobeys traffic laws (they got on the freeways during the big protests upon the invasion of Iraq). This is the same city which hosted the Portland Seven, Muslim would-be terrorists who sought to go to Afghanistan to kill American troops. This is the same city whose last mayor actually had one of those Seven on her payroll at City Hall. This is the state where those Seven tried to run an Islamic terrorist training camp near the town of Bly. This is the city where Earth First, a domestic terrorist organization, staged a protest downtown this very afternoon. ...I think we know whose side Potter is on. Oh, they're talking luxury tax, too - cosmetic surgery, fur coats, etc., and apparently anything over $40k besides.
[face in hands, shuddering]
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