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Practically Shooting

wwillson

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Posts posted by wwillson

  1. I contacted the wholesaler I've purchased reloading components from for years to ask if they have any shotgun/pistol powders in stock. I'll be looking for Longshot, Titegroup, and Clays pretty soon. They don't have a single pound of shotgun/pistol powder. They do have some rifle powders like 50BMG, but very little. Are you seeing any powders in stock anywhere out there?

    Wayne

  2. BSW posted this earlier on BITOG - I reposted here with his permission.

    ------

    Without trying to irritate anyone by picking on their favorite rifle, it seems like a lot of aspects of the AR's basic design are marginal:

    1) The bolt is over stressed for the specified steel. Either a better grade of steel should have been specced, more generous stress relief cuts should have been used, or the locking lugs by the extractor should have been beefed up. Or all three. Alternately, a larger bolt could have been used, which would allow for more steel in the highly stressed areas and better stress relieving features.

    2) The cam pin hole in the bolt causes a stress riser. This should have been eliminated. However, with the current design making the cam pin hole in the extractor smaller forces the cam pin to be smaller, which might lead to cam pin breakages.

    3) Extraction is marginal. More spring force is needed and/or a widerextractor would provide for more of a margin against failure to extract.

    4) Bolt travel is too short. As is, the bolt travels just enough to pick up the next round. Anything that interferes with the bolt's travel results in short stroking. A design that allowed bolt over travel would provide a margin against short stroking.

    5) Debris* mitigation features are lacking. The AR has lots of tightly fitted parts with minimal clearance between them. Sand cuts should have been provided like the FAL and/or minimize contact areas of the bolt carrier, and receiver, like the G3, AK, and SCAR designs do. You could even do self clearing features like the Stirling SMG had. A automatic ejection port door like the FNC would be a nice feature too. Anything that relies on the operator is asking for trouble.

    The trouble is no one can try and fix any of the problem areas without breaking the modularity/interchangeability of the AR. Design a stronger bolt and you still have to interface with existing barrel extension designs and bolt carriers. Make a better extractor by making it wider and now it doesn't work with the existing fleet of bolts and barrels that are in service.

    BSW

    *External debris like dust, sand, and mud. I completely agree that carbon fouling in the AR is a total non-issue

  3. Reposted from a couple years ago:

    I have asked friends who have reloaded for many years and not one of them have had a primer go off while reloading.

    Personally, I have experimented to see how hard/easy they could be set off. I found that if you directly dent the primer, like a firing pin would, that you can get them to go off. However, you have to hit them darn hard and make a significant dent. I have thrown them on the floor as hard as I could and slowly crushed them in a vise, just can't get them to go off this way.

    My experimentation stopped when I finally got one to explode. I had no idea how much force they have or how loud they are. I did have leather gloves and safety glasses on, but the force through the leather glove left my finger bleeding and my ears rang for a while. Folks, DO NOT experiment with primers, take it from someone who had to learn the hard way.

    Wayne

  4. It finally happened 5/31/2013. It never would have happened this year without the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel in Chicago affirming a constitutional right to have ready-to-use firearms for self-defense outside the home.

    Full bill here

    The new law is a Shall-Issue, with a twist that a law enforcement agency can deny the permit based on someone being a known bad actor, but the individual has a right to appeal to a state concealed carry board. It required 16 hrs of training from a Illinois certified instructor and will have a fee of $150/5yrs. Concealed carry in IL will also preempt home-rule, which is a very good thing.

    It's about time. We'll see how this all plays out soon.

    Wayne

  5. I lifted this from an email I got today.

    Today I swung my front door wide open and placed my Stevens

    320(a shotgun) right in the doorway. I gave it 5 shells and left it alone and went about my business. While I was gone, the mailman delivered my mail, the trash man picked up the trash, a girl walked her dog down the street, and quite a few of my neighbors drove past the house.

    After about an hour, I checked on the gun.

    It was still sitting there, right where I had left it. It hadn't killed anyone, even with the numerous opportunities it had been presented with to do so. In fact, it hadn't even loaded itself.

    Well you can imagine my surprise, with all the media hype about how dangerous guns are and how they kill people. Either the media is wrong, and it is the misuse of guns by PEOPLE that kills people, or I'm in possession of the laziest gun in the

    world.

    Alright, well I’m off to check on

    my spoons. I hear they’re making people fat.

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