Free Lead

Just made another 49 rounds of .45 ammunition. Why 49? Because I ran out of lead.

Sort of.

As I said yesterday, it looks like Oregon Trail includes extra rounds in their big boxes of bullets. I shot 50 rounds, I ruined a few more, and then I made a total of 449 rounds. They must have given me a dozen or so more than I paid for. But I still ruined so many I was not able to come up with 500 good ones.

I came in here to check Alliant’s site for reload data on my Hornady jacketed hollow points, figuring I’d crank out one more round and put it in the box. Unbelievably, I forgot about the 500 Laser-Casts in the second box. Ha.

Still, I have a problem. I have a Speer manual, which is biased toward their bullets. It has load data for a jacketed 230-grain hollow point, but how am I supposed to know the OAL? For all I know, the Hornady bullets are longer or shorter than the Speer bullets. Sooner or later, I’ll have to get the figures I need.

Maybe there’s some info in the mini-manual Hornady gave me with the press.

I may as well go ahead and buy whatever pistol primers are available locally. Everyone tells me the size of the primer, not the brand, is what matters. Hope that’s correct.

Which End Does the Bullets Come Out of?

My copy of America’s First Freedom came this week. I was just flipping through the article on the Heller case. This is the second amendment case the Supreme Court is considering, regarding the draconian and totalitarian D.C. gun ban.

I saw something interesting in there. Justice Breyer tried to make the facially absurd argument that the second amendment only applies to militias. Mr. Gura, the attorney representing Mr. Heller, countered with facts, noting that research has shown that men familiar with firearms in their private lives make better soldiers.

The other day, I talked to my dad about his military service. He laughed about the tough Detroit street kids he served with. He said they turned out to be pretty disappointing. He mentioned one who cried when they cut off his greasy gangster haircut.

My dad grew up in Eastern Kentucky, where guns were–and are–a part of life. Like toasters and clocks and so on. For people like him, dealing with guns was not a challenge or a safety problem. But the Detroit boys were incompetent and dangerous. He said they had a bad habit of turning around at the range, with rifles in their hands, pointing them at instructors and other soldiers. You have to wonder what percentage of them got good enough to hit the enemy. Probably a very small fraction.

My father won some sort of marksmanship prize. I doubt he was competing against city kids.

He said he liked the M1 rifle, but that he couldn’t hit anything with the .45 pistol he was issued. Apparently, a lot of people had issues with them. Maybe they made them loose so they wouldn’t jam up.

I was thinking I would like to get him an M1, but then I checked the prices. Wow. A thousand dollars, for a beat-up milsurp. I love my dad and all, but geez. I have to think about that.

Part of our military strength comes from the private use and development of arms. Consider that when you vote against the second amendment.

Kim du Toit has written a bit about the importance of Supreme Court justices. I wish he had mentioned the lower courts, which have much more power. It amazes me that talking heads and second amendment pundits almost never bring this up. Federal district and appellate judges run your life, very directly. Much more directly than the Supreme Court or Congress. And the President appoints them, and they can’t be fired. They stay in office for life. They’re like the Pope, except they have power.

If you vote for a Democrat President, you’re voting for dozens of judges who will implement his policies. You’re voting for gun bans, late-term abortions, open borders, the disarmament of our intelligence operations, the end of privacy, freedom for criminals, and the end of states’ rights. You are voting for totalitarianism and the eventual abolition of state governments. If you can’t get that through your head, you don’t deserve to be free. You probably don’t want to be free, whether you realize it or not.

I keep thinking about the mess the GOP is in. People say it’s because of the war. They say it’s because of the economy. The most unfortunate thing they say, in my opinion, is that it’s because we don’t have a “big tent.” As a Christian, I think they have it precisely backward. The GOP used to be a party that was more closely aligned with Christian beliefs. Now we’re all about sexual immorality and abortion and coddling Israel’s enemies and every other non-Christian notion presented to us. And we’re getting the reward people always get when they get away from God. Failure. It may come soon, it may come later, but it always comes. In the Eighties, we were much bolder about our religious underpinnings, and our President utterly crushed the opposition. This was at a time when the country was more liberal than it is now. Now we cower and kowtow before the rudderless swing voters, and we are getting thrashed. I have come to believe that we were given success because we tried to do the right thing. Part of faith in God is believing that if you do what’s right, you’ll get good leadership.

I am so sick of “socially liberal but fiscally conservative.” Doesn’t that mean “sinful but selfish”? Wouldn’t the exact opposite be less offensive to God? I’m socially conservative. Maybe if we please God with our behavior and our faith, we’ll be so prosperous it won’t matter if we’re fiscally liberal.

I’m not getting a bunch of convict tattoos. I’m not going to shave my head and grow a chin beard. I’m not going to smoke dope. I’m not going to sleep around. I will not grow a ponytail. I will not join the cult of self-esteem. I’m not going to imitate the lost. If I ever advocated buddying up to “hip conservatives,” I apologize, because I was insane. It was a mistake. I am not hip, and I never will be. I refuse. I just want to become a better Christian and be better to other human beings. When you die, you can’t take “hip” with you.

Man, do I need to get out of Miami.

I’m Ready for my Close-Up

I am finally getting my routine down. I am now able to anticipate a lot of the things that will go wrong when I make ammunition, so things are going much better.

I bit the bullet, so to speak, and dismantled my 40-plus questionable rounds and reassembled them. And I polished a new batch of cases while I was doing that. I thought I was done, but there I was with primers in the tube and brass ready to go, so I decided to crank out a few more bullets.

I looked at the kitchen clock and went to the garage. The clock read 8:38. I ran off 50 rounds and went back inside. The clock said 8:47. That press is really good, once you figure it out and you learn how to cater to its weaknesses. If it continues to work this well, I should be able to finish off my 500 remaining Laser-Cast bullets tomorrow. I have to remember to clean out the punch once in a while, and I have to watch the indexing on the decapping die; other than that, it seems pretty reliable.

Whoops. I don’t think I have 500 cases. But I probably have 300; that will put a severe dent in the Laser-Cast supply.

I am not sure about this, but I strongly suspect that Oregon Trails includes a few extra bullets. I have shot 50 rounds, and I have 400 in fresh ammunition in the garage, and I ruined a few. And it sure looks like I have 50 or so left in my first box of 500. I wish primer manufacturers did that.

Reader Mike W. was really onto something when he recommended these bullets. My gun’s barrel cleaned up fast, and I suspect that they were the most accurate .45 rounds I’ve used. The Unique powder may be a little grimy; it’s hard to know how much of the crud is powder and how much is lube. Other people say it’s dirty. I was somewhat worried that the gun would get gunked up and quit chambering rounds. But while it looked a bit nasty when I got home, it worked okay, and clean-up wasn’t particularly bad. As noted before, I used Hornady’s wonderful but expensive One Shot cleaner. I think the key to using this stuff is to fire very short bursts. It will get the gun clean without spewing too much of the pricey cleaner out of the nozzle. I still say the economical alternative is Hoppes #9 followed by Liquid Wrench dry spray lubricant.

I have the Lyman tumbler figured out. When you’re emptying the media through the little hole in front, and it gets slow, you have to pop the top and toss the cases around to get the cobs out of them, while the machine is running. Then you have to tilt it forward to get the media to the hole. If you do all that, it will empty fast, and you won’t have a lot of problems with cases full of corn cob.

I have started throwing out nickel cases. Reader Jdunmyer says they don’t hold up well, and I’ve noticed they seem harder to work and more likely to jam the gun. I have like 95 nickel .38 Super cases; I won’t be throwing those out. But the few nickel .45s I have are going in the trash. Brass for the .45 is free, and the supply is inexhaustible.

I was talking to George Moneo the other day, trying to find out when he was going to man up, buy a .45, and start hitting the range. He informed me that I was going to make his ammunition for him. I gave him some helpful information too, i.e., he was insane. But now that it’s getting to the point where I can crank out ten rounds every minute, I suppose I might help him out. Up until now, every batch has been a living hell, but things are changing in a hurry.

Oh, he’s buying his own components. You can be sure of that.

I figure I am now able to make .45 ammunition for about $8 per box. That’s not the figure that was quoted to me in the past, but it beats Cheaper Than Dirt’s lowest current price, which is $13.20. At a savings of five bucks a box, I’ll pay for all the equipment I bought in a scant 32 years.

It really does shoot better. That’s worth something too. And it’s a big relief. Some people were telling me it wouldn’t.

Here’s something useful. You can now buy adjustable low-profile sights. My SW1911 came with Novak carry sights. Now Novak makes sights the same size and shape, with adjustment screws. The .38 Super has sights which appear to be fixed (maybe you can move them with a tool; not sure), and I really don’t care, because it’s a pimp gun. But I might want to upgrade the .45.

I don’t know much about Novak sights, but they look great, and they appear to be designed to clear holsters and clothing with ease.

I’m going to get extra Glock magazines. I’m tired of unloading my expensive Cor-Bons before every range trip. I’m also tired of spending five minutes at the end of the day, trying to cram .40 S&W rounds into a 9mm clip. I think I’ve done that twice now, standing in the parking lot swearing. My practice has always been to keep two magazines loaded with extra-nasty ammunition, and Glocks only come with two magazines. I figure if I can’t kill you with 21 or 31 shots, there is not much point in continuing to try. I would like to have magazines for the range so I could keep my pricey ammunition where it belongs.

Useful information: you always hear that leaving magazines loaded will ruin the springs. Some guy at Glock–can’t recall where–says this doesn’t really happen. Other brands? I dunno.

Reloading is working out. Not sure what I’ll whine about now.

Gorgeous

I now have 300 nice .45 rounds, sitting in pretty Federal boxes, waiting to be shot. Nice.

I solved my spent-primer problem AFTER wasting money on extra tubing at Home Depot. I put a binder clamp on the end of the tube. It will probably hold 400 primers, so it won’t have to be changed much. A better solution would be a 5/16″ metal screw in the end of the tube.

Blindshooter wants to know if I received a little bottle with my press, to catch primers. Not that I’m aware of.

I’m finding new ways to mess up bullets. For example, getting loopy and putting the fresh bullet in a case that’s on its way to the decapping die. I scratched one bullet doing that, but I’m going to shoot the damn thing anyway.

I emptied about 20 rounds that ended up without primers. That happened while I was experiencing frustration with the primer feed. Geez, what a drag. And I still have over 40 new bullets I’m going to take apart simply because I don’t trust them. I’m getting really sick of the bullet puller.

I came up with a new invention today. Self-cleaning cases. It works like this. While you’re putting cleaned cases in the press, you notice something that looks like powder in some of them, and you dump it in the container you’re using to catch excess powder. Then you dump that in the powder measure, and you realize the particles were really corn cob.

Yes, I did that. Only a few particles made it into the measure.

I figured out the big drawback to getting your .45 loads working. Once everything is going good, you have to keep doing .45s until you run out of components. Otherwise, you’ll have to set the whole thing up again, which will be even worse. And I still have around 600 lead bullets to go. I don’t have enough boxes. I guess they’ll have to go in a bag somewhere.

I’m going to go ahead and use my components. This load worked great at the range; there’s no point in messing it up much. I’m at around 5.1 grains of Unique.

Next up: .38 Super.

I wish I had something more exciting than the Glock to shoot 9mm from. It’s an incredible gun; any attacker within 50 yards is guaranteed dead meat. But it’s, you know…a Glock.

Interesting possibilities: Hi Power, Beretta, Tanfoglio Witness, CZ, and Baby Eagle. The Beretta is super elegant, but every time I mention it, gun nuts squeal in agony. I guess they’ll never forgive it for replacing the 1911.

I’d love to get an Israeli Hi Power. I think it’s called a Kareen.

I have to get back to work. I want to have enough bullets for a nice newspaper photo, when the cops come to get my “home arsenal.”

I Want a Revolver With Wheels

Is this a beautiful day or what? Trust me. It is. Granted, the dryness of May is wearing off, and the horrific heat of summer is starting, but it’s sunny and bright, and I’m healthy, and Marv and Maynard are fine, and my new tomato plants look good, and I have a lot of useful things to do today.

Lately it seems like every day is beautiful. Life has gotten progressively better for me since I entered law school, but over the last year, as my relationship with God has gotten closer, things have improved even more. I can’t remember the last time I went to bed without thanking God for the beautiful day I just had, or the last time I woke up and didn’t give thanks for a beautiful day, in advance. And the feeling doesn’t seem all that closely related to whether I did or expect to do anything pleasant on the day in question. I feel the same way on days that, objectively, seem pretty bad. That is possibly the strangest benefit of Christianity. You tend to feel happy and at peace regardless of the circumstances.

I can’t explain it.

I learned all sorts of good things yesterday. I found out that Messianic Jews believe Satan is a rebellious, evil spirit, just as Christians do. That’s not what the Orthodox believe. I also read about Corrie ten Boom’s experiences dealing with spiritual enemies. This is one of the more confusing topics in Christianity, because the Bible is vague about it. Some people run around verbally exercising authority over spirits all day. Others think it’s crazy or wrong. And then there is the problem of wondering whether you’re talking to yourself. You generally can’t see supernatural beings. There must be occasions when we assume they’re around, but they’re not.

She said she spoke at a church in Poland, and that there was an oppressive atmosphere there, and she got sick of it and commanded the spirit responsible to leave. And the atmosphere changed. I am inclined to believe anything this lady says. Her track record seems too sound to doubt.

A lot of Christians think it’s fine to believe in God, but wrong to believe in Satan and demons. You have to wonder what Bible they read. I have no interest in arguing about whether spirits exist. I saw one a long time ago, while I was wide awake, on a very ordinary day. Conceited intellectual arguments can’t change that; don’t waste your time. Other people have seen them too.

Foul spirits seem to be associated with particular locations or people or animals or objects. The impression I get from reading and from personal experience is that they often work on a particular home or building. And it seems like they have a thing about doors and entrances. Maybe I’m wrong. Both times I drew closer to God, I felt an urge to clean up around doorways. I sort of think they like corners, too.

I don’t know. I wish I knew more about it.

I used to keep this stuff to myself, but lately I have ceased to care. We’re all going to be dead soon. What will it matter if wrong, lost people thought I was a kook? Also, many people thought I was a kook long before I mentioned any of this.

Talk about kooks…what about Jesus? He saw demons. He talked to demons. He said he was the Son of God. What about Moses? He claimed he saw God’s presence in a flaming bush. He said God handed him two tablets of stone. He said God spoke to him face to face. These days, that kind of talk gets you a straitjacket, a handful of happy pills, and a prime seat in front of the TV in the day room. It’s a little crazy for a Christian to call someone a kook, just because that person has had experiences consistent with those our revered predecessors have had.

I’m sure there are folks out there who have seen much more than I have.

I’m getting more reloading tips. I’m too lazy to look, but I apparently said I was putting sizing lube on primers. If I did, I was wrong. I meant to say I was putting it on cases. I gave Chris Byrne the impression that I was squirting primers right out of the brass tube on the press, but by “tube” I actually meant the clear tube attached to the brass one. The clear tube goes up and down and tends to come out of whatever container it’s in, spraying primers all over the place. Not sure what the best answer is; maybe I should get a tube six feet long and just not worry about it. Og says running a primed case through a decapper will set the primer off. I am happy to take his word on that, since the alternative is to put his statement to the test.

A commenter says target sights will do more for my shooting than match-grade dies. I ought to go to a gun shop and look at a gun with target sights. But if, as I suspect, they’re exactly like the sights on my .357, it would be a waste of time.

I’ve been told I should get plastic ammunition boxes for my reloads. But I don’t know if that’s a good idea. Every time I go to the range, I reach into the nearest trash can and pull out some empty ammunition boxes, and they seem to work fine. I already have a few plastic boxes; some of my .50 AE ammunition was packaged in them from the factory.

Speaking of that caliber, I’d love to reload for it. I can’t believe I can’t beat a dollar a round. My problem, however, is that I haven’t found cheap lead yet. The cheap stuff is heavy. I want 300 grain bullets. Oregon Trails (Laser-Cast) has .370-grain bullets. Not sure if they’ll work in a pistol.

Ay, caramba! It looks like the price of .50 AE ammo has doubled. Cheaper Than Dirt wants almost forty a box. Hmm…Midway says they are eventually going to have Hornady ammunition for about $25/20. I didn’t know Hornady made loaded ammunition. I’m not sure, because I’m not positive what diameter I need, but checking around, I think I can get decent bullets (jacketed!) for about 20 cents each. So–checking powder and primer prices–I should be about to make ammunition for about 33 cents per round.

For crying out loud. I have to do that. After a hundred rounds, the dies would be paid off. I’m disgusted that the margin is so high on .50 AE ammunition. Did I make a mathematical error? Three cents for the primer. Ten cents for around 30 grains of powder. Twenty for the bullet. I already have brass. Let’s see…new brass is 29 cents per round. I guess that explains why new ammunition would cost a dollar a round, but two dollars still seems high.

Geez. I can shoot .50 AE for less than the price of new .45 ACP.

I don’t understand why there is so much data for the S&W .500 and so little for the .50 AE. Both are excessively large, but the .500 takes you right to the “stupid” level. The .50 is arguably useful for hunting or for bear protection. Or whaling. The .500 appears to be too big and heavy and clumsy to be of any use for anything. I love silly, oversized guns, but even I don’t want this one. I guess the “mine is bigger” factor has proven irresistible to a lot of reloaders.

That’s the morning drivel. Use it as you see fit.

New Ammunition, in More Ways Than One

Today I felt like my head just would not hold any more religion, so I took a break and made 50 rounds of .45 ACP. Things went pretty well, although I am getting severely annoyed with Hornady’s spent-primer tube. This thing hangs off the press, and dead primers go into it. Sounds, great, but the tube goes up and down as you work the press, so it’s not easy to find a container that will catch the primers. Short containers don’t work because the primers bounce out or the tube drifts out. Tall ones fall over. I taped a Baggie to it, but one side of the mouth fell down, and the primers started spewing out on the floor.

I was thinking I might weight the bottom of an old 2-liter soda bottle.

I tried to put a little Imperial sizing wax in my brass, but I don’t think I accomplished much. I’m not sure how to do it. Maybe I should get a dedicated cloth bag and wipe wax on the inside of it and then toss the primers around in it. I know I don’t have to use it, but it seems to make things go more smoothly.

I still have 40 rounds I don’t trust, so I have been taking them apart. I thought I could spread out the agony, substituting one of these for every tenth casing while making rounds. But that doesn’t work, because you have to push the lever all the way down to charge the shell ahead of the one in the decapping die, and you can’t depress the lever completely when a primed case is under that die. Either you deprime a primed case and lose a good primer, or you fail to charge the case ahead of it.

Wish I could shoot on Mondays instead of Fridays, but they don’t ask my advice when they set the range schedule.

Can anyone give me advice on target sights? I’m not sure, but I think the single biggest problem I have right now is figuring out what the gun is aimed at. The front sights on my guns are too small; they don’t fill the gaps in the rear sights, so it’s easy to end up with the front sight off to one side or another. Also, the front sights are just too damn big. I can tell I’m shooting at the center ring, but that’s about it. Of course, once the middle of the bullseye is gone, you have to guess, anyway.

I know a lot of 1911s have target sights, and I wanted to get one. But then it occurred to me that “target sights” probably means the same thing I have on my revolver. A giant front sight coupled with an adjustable rear sight. I don’t think that would be any more precise than what I have now.

Someone suggested a peep sight. I’m not sure what a pistol peep sight is like. I’ve seen giant weird sights on race guns, but I don’t know if they’re suited for precision shooting, or just for hitting the same object over and over, quickly.

I’ll figure it out.

The Complete Jewish Bible and the related New Testament commentary are wonderful. They make me realize how lucky Gentiles are to know about Jesus, who is, after all, the Jewish Messiah. You can see from the commentary how much easier it would have been for Jews to understand and worship Him. Christians do their best, but we have had to guess a lot, and we’ve made mistakes.

As Bible translations go, I find this one easiest to read, except for one thing. You have to get used to the Hebrew names. A name will pop up, and you’ll have no idea who it is, and then it will turn out to be someone you’re very familiar with.

One fun thing about it: about half the men have names ending in “yahu.”

Another small quibble: the Christian tradition of printing Bibles in two columns, broken into verses, with annotations in the middle is very helpful, and you probably won’t understand how helpful until you see a Bible where the text goes clear across the page, with two or three annotations at the bottom.

I love The Spirit-Filled Bible, and these two volumes will take their places beside it now.

I am Master of the Press

Here’s a great tip for people who want to get used casings really clean before reloading them. Put them in a tumbler in the afternoon, turn it on, and then FORGET ABOUT IT UNTIL RIGHT BEFORE YOU GO TO BED.

Man, those casings look good.

I read a lot of Corrie ten Boom’s Tramp for the Lord today. Highly recommended, if you’re trying to get used to the idea of obeying God and living by faith.

I managed to grind out 53 more rounds of .45 ammunition. It took me an hour and a half longer than it should have, because I was learning all about new things that can go wrong with a Hornady Lock-N-Load progressive press. I should go ahead and exhaust my supply of components while I have the press set up. I ran out of clean cases, so I stopped. But I guess I don’t really need to clean them.

I’ll give a short list of the problems I had. These were not things that reflect badly on the product. Well, maybe a little. But mostly, I caused them myself.

First, it turns out flying powder gums up the primer feed in at least two ways. It obstructs the movement of the slide. It will also go down inside the punch after a while. I had to use spray dry lubricant to blast it out.

Second, the bent rod that guides the slide likes to adjust itself, so you really have to tighten the hex screw well, when you get the rod where you want it.

Third, never ever try to install a tube full of primers when the ram is in the up position. Because it will come down, and the primers will go everywhere. I left the primers in the tube while I was fixing something, and I paid the price.

The crimp problem that made my ammunition too big to like going into the chamber proved a little harder to fix than I thought. I figured the crimper wasn’t going down far enough onto the case, but it turned out the belling was too extreme. If you bell a case too much and then crimp it a little, you’ll get a swollen band at the mouth of the case, and it will be worse than not crimping at all. So I had to bell less and crimp a little more. Naturally, I figured this out after adjusting everything the wrong way.

Here’s a design problem Hornady needs to fix. The press is anchored to my bench by two bolts at the rear. The front can bounce up and down a lot. That can make powder fly around. Hornady needs to work it out so you can attach two more bolts somewhere.

I tried Hornady’s One Shot cleaner/lube on my SW1911 today. It’s expensive as hell, but I give them credit. It works like a dream, and it leaves your weapon lubricated with a dry film which seems to be perfect for firearms. Frankly, I think it’s smarter to use Hoppe’s No. 9 and then spray with dry lube. There is no way I’ll pay the insanely high price for One Shot again, if I can help it. Best cleaner/lube I’ve seen, but not worth the money.

My RCBS primer tray stopped working. I can’t figure that out. It worked great the first time I used it. Now it turns over about 85% of the primers.

I moved an old stereo to the garage. That really helps. I dug out my Mahalia Jackson CD’s. Suddenly I have a much better understanding of why Christians hated rock and roll in the Fifties. The similarities between her music and American-Graffiti-era rock are so obvious you can’t miss them.

When I run out of .45 stuff, it will be time to conquer the mighty .38 Super.

Skip to the Parts That Interest You

I have a lot of housekeeping to do today. I have been neglecting emails for maybe a week, and if I don’t catch up, no one will ever email me again, except spammers.

Speaking of spam, I got a really dumb one the other day. The subject line advertised “Oprah’s fat burner.”

Would YOU buy that?

“Yul Brynner’s hair restorer.” “Steve H.’s tips for picking up hot chicks.”

I was not tempted.

I complained that I can’t use my .38-caliber dies to make three different calibers, unless I am willing to adjust the dies every time I go from one caliber to another. People suggested using spacers. Thanks for the help, but I don’t see it working. If you put a spacer under the rim on the bushing, the bushing won’t seat. If you put a spacer on top of the bushing, the locking collar won’t work. At least I don’t think it will. Then there is the problem of finding something suitable and then figuring out how to grind it to within a thousandth of an inch of the thickness I need.

If only I had been a total man and made myself a belt sander. I think a belt sander with a disk on the side would do it.

Og says the sizing die doesn’t need to be adjusted for height. I thought that sounded crazy, but I guess it’s right, since the measurement on that die is from the bottom of the case. But that leaves me with two dies that have to be changed, and I don’t think I can buy them without picking up a sizing die in the same package.

I’m wondering if I should get a couple of match-grade dies. I don’t know how much difference it makes. I didn’t know they existed until I already had my plain old “custom grade” dies. I’m inclined to think that tiny imperfections in the bullets make more difference than dies. I shot one bullet yesterday that was a little dinged up, and I suspect it was the reason I got a wicked flyer.

When Mike was a kid, he used to hack up bullets and then shoot them to see what they did. He says they made wonderful sounds. Mike and I did a lot of fantastic, stupid things together. This is not one of them. Although he was there when I took a largemouth bass with a .30-30.

I’ve been reading about casting bullets. There are two reasons I didn’t start out that way. First, I’m not sure I want to screw with alloying lead to make it hard enough for 1400-fps rounds. Second, it looks like a huge pain. In The ABCs of Reloading, they talk about it. Apparently you have to get tiny molds that only hold a few bullets, and casting each batch requires pouring, cooling, and so on. It must take half a day to do 50 rounds. On the up side, this would make shooting nearly free. The brass and lead are most of the cost. And I don’t pay for brass, except eventually (when I run out) .38 Super.

So far, Laser-Cast has made a lead believer out of me. I don’t know if it was the Unique or the bullets, but the rounds I shot made me very, very happy. I am sorry to confess that I haven’t cleaned the gun yet, but I would be amazed if ~700 fps rounds left anything in the barrel.

I’ve been told that Hodgdon makes a powder that is interchangeable with Unique, yet which produces less crap. If I could confirm that, I’d go ahead and buy a large jug. I’d hate to put 5.1 grains of Hodgdon in a round and then find out it’s twice as powerful as Unique.

I’m sorely tempted to buy a 1911 with target sights. If I could narrow my groups by an inch, I’d be Boss of the Range. At least in my own mind, which is all that matters. I don’t know if better sights would get me there. I am not sure why I got carry sights on the SW1911. I wanted to be able to carry the .38 Super on pimp occasions, but generally, carrying a huge 1911 seems like a bad idea. Unconcealed, sure. Concealed? Less than ideal.

I know I’m boring 75% of my readers to death with guns. So here is some food stuff.

I bought a $6/pound rib roast at Winn-Dixie last week, simply because there was no way I could pass it up, and it has been aging since Sunday. I have decided I want to fix prime rib for me and my father, instead of cutting it into steaks. According to Bobby Flay, it’s a simple matter of roasting at 350 until it hits 135 inside. Does anyone know if this will work?

I plan to do 130. If it were just me, 120. But my dad goes nearly medium-well. I plan to cover it with kosher salt and mashed garlic. Wish I knew how to make horseradish sauce. Maybe I can find out.

I completely lose my mind over prime rib, but I’ve never made it. The rib steak is the main thing that justifies the existence of a cow. Everything else is second-rate. Well, except for ice cream. If I pull this off, in the future, it will be tough for me to choose between steaking and cooking whole roasts.

Let’s see. Religion. I’m all excited about my new books (Aaron: don’t look!). First, I bought The Complete Jewish Bible. The leather version isn’t all that much more than the paperback, and it should last longer, so that’s what I got. I also got The Complete Jewish New Testament Commentary. These books were written by and for Messianic Jews. I started reading in earnest last night. It’s fantastic. I can’t recommend the OT/Hebrew Bible part so much, because it has no commentary book to go with it. But I’ve been reading Matthew (Mattityahu) with the commentary on the side, and it’s wonderful.

I’m inadvertently learning a lot about Hebrew. Before I got these books, it had occurred to me that Jews described Hebrew as if it were basically a giant collection of puns. And so far, these books bear out that suspicion, in spades. It’s no wonder the Jews go crazy interpreting the Bible. The layers of meaning in Hebrew scripture are worse than The Matrix.

I keep getting little bursts of illumination. For example, I figured out that the birth name of the singer Matisyahu is probably Matthew. The name Matthew is “Mattityahu” in the Bible I bought, and Jews in Israel tend to use “T” where American Jews use “S” (shabbos/shabbat), so Matisyahu is probably the same as Mattityahu. Am I right?

It’s very slow going. It took me about an hour to get through three or four chapters of Matthew.

Sometimes it’s annoying, because the guy who edited the Bible and commentary (Daniel H. Stern)corrects beliefs Christians accept without question. But that’s what I bought the book for, so I shouldn’t complain. Christians often have an unhealthy pride about their relationship with God, as if we were chosen to know all the answers, because we’re so much nicer than the Jews. But the reality is, Messianic Jews have a much better background for understanding the New Testament. We need to accept that and realize that when Christianity drifted away from its Jewish roots, we lost things only Jews can restore to us.

As Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein–not Messianic–likes to point out, prophecy says a time will come when ten gentiles will grab the hem of a Jew’s garment and ask to be taught about the Torah. Looks like that’s happening.

It’s amazing how often Stern confirms things I already suspected. For example, I think “the Kingdom of God” often refers to God’s dominion inside us. I assume God has been helping me along, providing me with insight.

For about 20 years, I’ve suspected that Zerubbabel, in the book of Zechariah, was a type of the Holy Spirit. I wish I knew what Stern thinks about him. And sometimes I wonder if the Third Temple will be a physical building. It’s clear that Jesus expected his followers to be a living temple. And Paul used the word “temple” to describe the human body. I think that when Jesus drove the money-changers out of the Second Temple, it symbolized the Holy Spirit driving counterproductive earthly motivations out of believers.

I also got a copy of Corrie ten Boom’s Tramp for the Lord. It takes up where The Hiding Place left off. She was supposed to be killed in a concentration camp, but the Germans released her by mistake, and she went on to become a traveling evangelist. A “missionary to America.” Is that a humbling phrase, or what?

Wonderful book. Too short.

The more good stuff you expose yourself to, the easier it is to be a Christian, and the more peace you have. Something to think about the next time you buy a book or turn on the TV or listen to music. This lesson has been helpful to me.

Let me know what you think.

Die Revelation

I just realized something horrible.

I thought I was getting a deal when I ordered my .38 caliber Hornady dies. Because they can be used for .357, 9mm, and .38 Super. But today while I was considering cranking out some .38 rounds, I realized: every caliber is going to have a different length. So I can’t fix the dies up and then remove them from the press and have them ready in a box the next time I reload. I’ll have to adjust them every time I change caliber.

OR

I’ll have to buy two new sets.

Damn it.

Accurate!

What a spectacular day at the range.

First, I shot the Glock 26, which rewarded me handsomely. There were flyers, but the little core hole in the center of the target seems to be getting smaller.

Here is the second batch of 25 shots.

The big challenge to my concentration today was an attack by horseflies nearly as big as roaches. Before I started shooting, I saw something dark on my shoulder, and when I looked, it turned out to be a huge black horsefly, sucking away. When I flicked it off, a bloodstain appeared on my shirt. For several minutes, I was freaked out, trying to figure out where the flies were coming from. These things are amazing. They fly off and hide behind things, and then they come back. And they seem to know you can only see them when they’re on the front of your body. I managed to swat one with my hand, and then I enjoyed the luxury of smearing it slowly across the concrete floor. Next time: bug repellant.

After 50 shots with the Glock, I nervously got out the SW1911 and 50 of my homemade rounds. I put on a face shield. I had decided looking stupid was better than looking like a plate of Spaghett-O’s. And the first 25 rounds worked quite well.

This ammunition shoots beautifully. I don’t know if it’s because it’s so low in power or what, but even with the flies on my mind, I shot very well. The recoil was very low. I guess 5.1 grains of Unique is a small charge.

I had one problem. Some rounds didn’t like to chamber all the way, so I had to push the slide a little. I attribute this to my hesitance to crimp the rounds too much. They still have a slight bell to them, and I think it makes them reluctant to go all the way into the chamber. So I’ll fix that. It’s not a problem. One round was totally uncooperative, so I brought it home. Here are the 24 remaining shots:

Two people brought me .45 brass! Aren’t conservatives the greatest people? It’s too bad liberals think we’re all skinheads and people who failed the Klan entrance exam. They’re missing out on a lot. I gave some Shoot-N-C’s to one guy. The other seemed to have his needs covered.

There was a guy next to me, shooting reloads out of what looked like a race gun. I didn’t want him to think I was horking his brass, so I left a few of my empties in his area. I probably brought home 300 cases, and frankly, I preferred the nice new ones to my twice-fired ones. I also plundered the range for 9mm brass.

I had a primer fall out after I shot the round. Not sure what that’s all about.

I hate to say it, but it looks like reloading is for me. Cheaper than factory ammunition, and I think I’m getting substantially better accuracy. The gun looks pretty greasy; I guess it’s the lube from the bullets. And the powder seems fairly dirty.

I’m thinking I may go up to 6 grains and stop. I also need to find a recipe for my Hornady 230-grain hollowpoints. I probably have one here somewhere. I’m tempted to shoot tomorrow.

Seems like nickel cases gave me more trouble today. Is that normal? Maybe they’re harder than the brass ones.

Great day. And I didn’t even blow my face off.

Connect the Imaginary Dots

I did something unbelievably stupid at Home Depot the other day. I was buying various chemicals and poisons, and I saw something called “Miracle-Gro Singles,” and without really reading the label, I bought a bag. I thought it was some sort of premeasured fertilizer stick that fell apart and dissolved in water, sparing you the aggravation of using a spoon to measure. But when I got this stuff home, it turned out to be Miracle-Gro in tiny foil packets, which you have to cut open and empty. I’m sure it costs three times as much per pound as regular Miracle-Gro, and it’s a pain to use. Dumb buy.

My newest crop of tomatoes is disease-free, and I think I’ve decimated the bugs around here to the point where they have a hard time crawling to a nice place to die, let alone attacking my plants. Next week I have to start moving them to the bed and the pots I plan to put indoors. I am still mad that Mike grows tomatoes indoors in New Hampshire without a light, while I can’t grow them outdoors in Florida.

The difference in flavor and texture, between the best store tomatoes and ordinary home tomatoes, breaks my heart. I had forgotten until recently. In Kentucky, I was spoiled with a lot of great tomatoes my aunt and my grandmother grew. But years of unripe orange baseballs had dimmed the memories.

In other news, Osama bin Laden continues to be dissatisfied with our actions and those of Israel. How can this be? We took tasty, nutritious, relatively inexpensive pork off the menus at a whole bunch of our public schools, violating (by liberal standards) the principle of separation of church and state, so tiny delicate Muslim children would not have to be in the same room with it. I figured that would mollify him. What more does he want?

Bin Laden says our actions prove we stand with the civilized, morally superior Israelis and against the mouth-foaming cultist loons. My response? I call on all right-thinking Americans to condemn bin Laden’s blatant racist attack on Barack Obama. Do we have to take this from a clown so unimportant his last name doesn’t even start with a capital letter?

Okay, fun with bin Laden is over. Let’s get back to trying to kill him.

Sometimes I’m go glad this blog has “Hog” in the name. And I have to admit, just for fun, I really do put pork fat on my ammunition sometimes. Do I expect to be attacked by terrorists? No, but a lot of career criminals are Muslims. Islam is very big in the joint.

I was far too lazy didn’t find time in my busy schedule to load .38 Super rounds yesterday, so I’m going to go to the range with a box of .45 reloads and some cheap 9mm factory rounds. I have decided the face shield is a good idea, regardless of how stupid it looks. Until I really get a handle on consistency, I think it’s a good idea to take measures to insure that I continue to have a face. Such as it is. In fact, I have started to wonder: what exactly was wrong with all those guys who melted their chins with bad .38 Super rounds? Here’s my wild, irrational conjecture: after two or three of your buddies have cases disintegrate a foot from their faces, you should probably think about protective measures to make sure you don’t end up like them.

No, no. Too wacky. Like George Bush’s insane idea about putting money in the stock market, where it increases and funds the economy, instead of giving it to the government, which spends the money–and more–before it arrives.

That was crazy, wasn’t it? Clearly, the tiny, vanishingly small risk of losing your entire investment in the stock market outweighs the total certainty of having the government lose it immediately. I do love liberal logic.

Hey, if anyone cares, Natchez Shooter’s Supply has good prices on 9mm right now. Good by today’s standards, anyway. Also, R&R Arms is selling Golden Bear 115 grain for $8.47. I don’t know if this stuff is any good. It’s Russian, I believe. Wolf 9mm is Russian, and I found it extremely accurate.

I love 9mm, .40 S&W, and .45 ACP, because I know I will never have to pay for brass, regardless of how long I live. This stuff litters the floor of every range in America. And .357 isn’t too awful hard to find. So far, I’ve found a grand total of one .38 Super case which didn’t come from my gun. And when I convert to 9mm x 23 or 9 x 23mm or whatever it’s called, I may as well give up trying. I’ve never even seen one of those.

It’s late. Time to get in the car and go exercise my second amendment rights while I still have them. I’ll do some shooting, and then later in the day, I’ll shop in stores with a loaded gun in one pocket and a razor-sharp switchblade in the other. If you’re in a blue state (good phrase to describe your situation), I apologize for rubbing your face in it.

Too Tactical for Words

I’m getting unbelievably cocky. I’m considering running into the garage, slapping the .38 caliber dies on the press, and making some .38 Super ammunition for tomorrow.

Am I insane? Don’t answer.

I had some idiotic and truly ludicrous personal business to take care of this week, and it has been dragging me away from blogging and my hobbies, but I’m back, and tomorrow is RANGE DAY.

I’m thinking I may wear a face shield for the first 50 rounds of each caliber. I already look stupid with my giant tactical rolling toolbox, so a face shield will not make things worse.

On other news, my messianic-Jewish Bible and New Testament commentary arrived. I had to order it. There is some stuff in the Bible–okay, a lot–which only Jews get. I can’t wait to sit down with it.

I’ve been so preoccupied, I’ve let emails slide, and I even forgot to change the cloth on the beef I’m aging. I guess one day won’t hurt it. It’s a rib roast. I think I’m going to make prime rib instead of steaks. I need to ask Mike how he prepares it.

Life is sweet. Have I mentioned that? Well, it is. If I manage to move out of Miami, it will be TOO sweet.

Too tired to type. Even Marv lacks the energy to blog.

Sorry About That

I am so mad. I drove all the way to the gun range, and it looks like they’ve changed their rules again. Their sign now says they’re closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. I’m completely positive it was Tuesdays and Wednesdays a month ago. It seems like they do this all the time. And checking their website is pointless, since they don’t update it.

I got an interesting comment RE prophecy:

With respect to prophets, pardon me for not having a cite, but in the gospels Jesus said that John the Baptist was the last of the prophets. The next true prophets will be the two old testament saints that return to Jerusalem during the first 3.5 years of the tribulation. Anyone who claims to be a prophet during this current church age is at best misguided. That’s not to say that God can’t or doesn’t use dreams to speak to people, but my view is that it would be more for personal revelation and not true revelation of future events.

Naturally, I mentioned the New Testament prophecies. Response:

You’re correct Steve, you definitely have to account for the prophetic revelations of John of Patmos. Perhaps the distinction is between the definition of a “prophet” vs. someone whom the Holy Spirit reveals prophetic information to.

I don’t think “prophecy” is something Christians have defined all that well. I always thought a prophet was someone who could function pretty much like a P.A. system or a ventriloquist’s dummy. The prophet’s mouth moves, but God says the words. But having read the book of Numbers and the bulk of the New Testament, I’m inclined to think that “prophet” is a term that can apply to a wide spectrum of people, from Moses, who spoke to God face to face, to Stephen, who died after seeing into heaven. My best guess is, anyone to whom the Holy Spirit gives the ability to perceive things ordinary people can’t perceive is a prophet. And if that’s true, then there are super-prophets like Moses, above-average prophets like Jeremiah and Zechariah, and so-so prophets who occasionally get a revelation which may or may not be of great importance. So I guess that if you have a few bona fide inspired dreams or visions, you’re a prophet. Not the best prophet around, but still, a prophet.

I am among the Christians who believe that the Holy Spirit is being meted out much more generously than it used to be, and that we are supposed to connect to it and be changed and empowered by it. I believe this is what prayer in tongues is all about. I think modern Christians who refuse to admit that this is happening are like divers who want to go down with knots in their air hoses. Doing God’s will and fighting on His behalf have always been extremely hard. I don’t believe we were ever expected to succeed on our own. If anything, God has made a point of proving we can’t do it. The Holy Spirit is the power supply mankind has been lacking.

God is strange. He plants a seed, but doesn’t reap the harvest for thousands of years. He established the Jews and allowed them to ruin Israel and be cast out, and He let them turn Israel into a wasteland inhabited by inept, barbaric squatters. He established a powerful Christian church and let it give up on the Holy Spirit and become worldly and weak. And apparently, He plans to bring it all together toward the end of time. Israel restored, the Church reconnected to the power of the Holy Spirit, and so on. You have to wonder. Why not just make us do it right the first time around? Why let Satan get away with so much for so long?

Regrettably, I was not involved in the decision. I don’t know why God never asks my advice.

God is always letting us screw up and then giving us the power to fix things. It’s a constant pattern.

I sometimes think the story of Samson presages the history of the church. Samson started out strong, because the Spirit of God was in him, and then he was seduced by worldiness and lost his power, and then he was blinded, and in the end he regained his power and destroyed the temple of his enemies, killing them in the process. The church started out full of the power of God, but it became corrupt and full of idolatry and pantheism, and it lost its power and its ability to perceive God’s will. And it ended up serving the enemy. And maybe now the power is coming back.

There are other hints, like the bit about releasing foxes to burn the grain of Samson’s enemies. Jesus compared people to grain. I suspect the foxes symbolized evangelists, destroying the harvest of the enemy.

I dunno. I always see the world in terms of symbols. For that reason, the Bible has always driven me crazy.

One thing I believe very strongly is that Christians need to get over feeling superior to Jews. I believe Jews missed the boat, with regard to the Messiah. But Christians threw away and even reviled the Holy Spirit, which is probably worse. It’s the power to change the world. What we did was like losing the Ark of the Covenant, and the result was pretty much the same. We lost battles we should have won. And a lot of people who feel superior to Jews would have been clamoring for the Crucifixion as loudly as anyone, had they been around to do it.

I can tell you as an eyewitness that the Holy Spirit is still here, and that things that qualify as prophetic events still happen, and I am sure I’m one of many. If I were you, I’d be wary of ignoring what is happening, because to do so is on a par with failing to recognize the Messiah.

I’m not qualified to teach, and I am not fit to be a spiritual leader, but I feel safe in saying that much.

I really will catch up on emails soon. Sorry.

ISO9000 NOT

Marv is somewhat disappointed in his adoring fans for not asking him questions, so he has gone off on a rant about human intelligence. You can read it here.

I am going to try to get my butt to the range today. I have decided I don’t totally trust the first box of ammunition I made, so I’m going to have to make more. I dread taking the first box apart, but I think it’s a smart move. I’ve read about the fun things that happen to people who overcharge their rounds, and I am not interested in destroying a magazine and possibly damaging the gun and my precious self.

One nice thing about shooting with Mike is that we went to an indoor range, so we were able to find and recover almost all our brass, including nearly a hundred precious nickel .38 Super cases. Mike wanted to shoot .38 Super; what can I tell you. In the end he liked the .45 a lot better, and vice-versa. Don’t know why. They seem to shoot about the same, from my perspective.

I hope he’ll be able to shoot more often. The only thing more fun than shooting with a good friend is shooting with a good friend who shoots really well. Mike was a little rusty, but he would still be in the 95th percentile at Trail Glades.

I want to get into shotguns. When Mike and I were kids we used to go to arcades and wear out the skeet machines, shooting from the hip. I’d love to get proficient with the real thing.

You would think we could go ten days without a new natural disaster, but it looks like it’s not going to happen. As I’m sure you know, there was an earthquake in China, and they think it has killed 3,000-5,000 people. It’s particularly unfortunate that it happened right on the tail of the Burma cyclone. Ordinarily, a disaster like this earthquake would be big news, but with Burma death-toll estimates ranging up to a million, it will be harder to get the public excited about earthquake donations. I am sure World Vision will be all over this, and here’s where you can find them.

While looking up information on China and Burma, I found a moving story on Yahoo! News. Irena Sendler has died at the age of 98. If you don’t know who she was, don’t feel bad. Neither did I. She was a Polish woman who saved the lives of thousands of Jewish children. She delivered them out of the Warsaw Ghetto. The story is a little sparse, but it says she was arrested by the Nazis, who broke her arms and legs for her troubles.

I will never understand how violent people can take pride in brutalizing the weak. I suppose you can derive a sick sense of accomplishment by harming someone who has the capacity to hurt you. But how can you be proud of breaking an unarmed woman’s arms and legs? I think I would vomit for a month.

As for Mrs. Sendler, wouldn’t you love to face God with a record like hers? As eternal resumes go, hers is hard to top. Most of us pack our lives with pleasure and goods, and then we die, and it all disappears. Mrs. Sendler packed boxes and suitcases with Jewish children and smuggled them to freedom. And her deeds will live forever, and they will continue to give dividends in the form of the new lives of the descendants of the Jews she saved. There is hope that the rest of us can be as lucky as Mrs. Sendler, or maybe less lucky, but in the same general way. If you send Jews to Israel via the IFCJ’s On Wings of Eagles program, the good consequences of your act will continue to flower as long as the world endures. The people you send will have children, and their children will have children, and so on. As charitable donations go, that is a real bargain. Helpful tip: if you specify the country to which you want your donation to go, you’ll receive a card identifying the people or person you helped.

Mrs. Sendler’s story reminds me of another one. I doubt most people are aware that the physicist Niels Bohr was instrumental in saving around 6,000 Danish Jews. And he was Jewish himself, although I don’t think he thought of himself that way. His mother was Jewish, so that made him Jewish, too. If you’re not a physicist, that may not mean anything to you, but if you understand how great Bohr’s contribution to physics was, it’s interesting. Gentiles have done a lot of good work in physics, but for most of the 20th century, you could accurately have referred to physics as a Jewish science. Bohr, Einstein, Teller, von Neumann, Szilard, Meitner…the list is very long. Their work changed the world by giving us nuclear weapons, and sadly, many of them were instrumental in helping the Soviets get the same technology, resulting in the Cold War. So they reshaped the political world at the same time. Mainly in the name of socialism, the primary, seminal exponent of which was a German Jew.

Always at the center of the world. So strange. Scientifically, politically, in matters of religion, and even physically. Check a globe. If Israel isn’t at the center of the world’s land masses, I don’t know what is.

But the Bible is a fairy tale, right?

In related news, via Stand for Israel, Victor Davis Hanson questions Jimmy Carter’s bizarre human rights priorities. Don’t we all? I would hate to have to explain to God why it was that out of all the people in the Middle East, the Jews were the ones I felt most compelled to criticize and hinder. I guess they’ll never be as humane as their progressive neighbors, who are shelling Israeli civilians as I type this.

Pray I don’t blow myself up at the range. Or that if I do, I survive long enough to write an amusing blog entry about it.