OT Fuel Economy Standards

[rbowman]

I've seen a few vehicles with flex-fuel labels and wondered how well they do with 100% pure dinosaur. might be like a horse that gets into a field of alfalfa.

[rbowman]

Wolf is a crap shoot. Some of their ammo came from Tula but I've got some .22LR that is German and they also buy from the Prvi Partizan plant in Serbia. I imagine the Bear family is out altogether since I think that was all Tula.

Prvi Partizan isn't bad. I got some of their 7.62x54R because I wanted reloadable brass to play with.

That's been going on before Biden. I've got an Baikal IZH-60 pellet rifle that is entry level for 10 meter air rifle.

They also make a match quality air pistol that's a lot more affordable than Hammerli and others:

About the time I decided to get a 46M it was unobtanium. Seems IZH is owned by Kalashnikov Concern and was covered by Obama's executive order. Trump didn't bother to reverse it.

We'll see how it plays out but so far it looks like the only people affected by Biden's policies are US citizens.

[rbowman]

Hazmat can be strange. When I was trucking I often loaded 45,000 pounds of leaking car batteries to take back to LA for recycling. After you got rid of the load you had to wash out the trailer so the acid wouldn't eat the aluminum. That was NOT a hazmat load. 45,000 pounds of brand new batteries in pristine condition is hazmat.

I'm still kicking myself. I was at a gun show in Phoenix in '92 iirc just before a California ban was going into effect. Guys had pallet loads of thumbhole, chrome lined SKSs and were selling them as fast as they could collect $100 bills. I wasn't into long guns at the time and passed them by.

In later years I expanded my horizons. I can tell you when the Commies loaded 7.62x54R they didn't skimp on the powder. The first time I fired the Mosin Nagant on a public range I heard 'What the hell was that?' from down the firing line.

[rbowman]

I think Federal must have the most timid lawyers. Those huge trays were a pita to dump into the primer tray. CCI, Wolf, and the others never went that route.

Over the years I've managed to seat primers upside down or sideways from misfeeds and punched them out with no booms. I suppose if I put one on the anvil and hit it with a hammer it might go off.

I ran a box of steel case through a Springfield Armory XD with no problems, maybe because it was born in Croatia. Otherwise I shoot steel in firearms designed for it.

[rbowman]

I haven't been to the local gun show in years. It sort of turned into an antique show and was very crowded. I'm not big on rubbing fur with people.

I became interested in Appleseed about 10 years ago and you go through a lot of .22 practicing and at the meets. I'd stop at Sportsmans Warehouse and grab a couple of 525 round boxes of CCI Blazers off a pallet full for $19.95 a pop. Those were the days. I still have a few left. Last time I looked bulk pack was down to 200 rounds for $25.

Appleseed originally was designed for .30 caliber M1 but they went to reduced size targets at 25 meters for .22 when people couldn't afford to shoot 500 rounds or so od 7.62 in a weekend. I guess the next step will be .177 air rifles at 10 meters. I think pellets are still reasonably affordable.

[rbowman]

The hazmat surcharge isn't bad if you're getting 5 or 10 thousand primers and a couple of kegs of powder.

It wasn't hazmat but my favorite shipping technique was Dardas Cast Bullets. He used $10 USPS flat rate boxes. With a careful selection of

9mm and .45 ACP bullets you can get about 45 pounds of lead in one of those little boxes. The post office drones must have loved them.

[Clare Snyder]

One big difference is your car/truck has a "sealed" fuel system while most small engines have "vented" systems (chain saws the only common exception) and hygroscopic ethanol sucks moisture out of the atmosphere,and the water in the ethanolin the fuel causes corrosion on anything containing brass -and a lot of aluminum carb bodies have copper in the alloy, as well as floats and jets being made of brass - resulting in the "greenies". It is crystals of this copper based corrosion that plugs the jets. It is not the "solvency" of the ethanol removingdeposits so much - as even small engines that have had ethanol gas from new - no "previous deposits" suffer from the "greenies". Another issue (particularly on small 2 stroke engines) is the ethanol attacks the Tygon fuel lines in the tank causing vacuum leaks in the lines as well as plugging up jets with decomposed fuel lines.

[Clare Snyder]

Last year I ran across a marine tank that had been filled last in the late seventies - and the gas was crystal clear with just a blue tint from the 2 stroke oil - and it smelled totally fresh. No ethanol, obviously - but also no air or moisture.

Same with my old Remington chain saw - Premium ethanol free gas in the sealed and pressurized tank was almost as freshas when it was filled over 4 years ago. Took a whiff of ether to start it first time to get the carb pulling fresh gas through - then it ran just fine. To say I was surprised would be an understatement - - -

[Marilyn Manson]

I keep hearing this "older engines" comment. I'd really like someone to put a number on that term.

Reminds me of this...

I used to work for a company that had a CFO that would ask you to leave the meeting if she asked "How much will that cost?" or "How long will it take?" and you answered "Oh, not too much." or "Oh, not very long."

She'd tell you come back when you had a number that she could actually build a plan around. Vagueness did not please her. ;-)

[Ed Pawlowski]

Pre-2005 roughly. That is when E10 stated and the problems with some engines showed up. Manufacturers soon fixed the problem by changing materials.

Along with that: Don't bring me problems, bring me solutions.

[invalid unparseable]

There are warnings on the use of Federal primers and I believe Lee loaders recommend not using.

[invalid unparseable]

I buy bullets from SNS Casting and they ship in the small boxes too. Funny to watch the mailman haul them out.

[rbowman]

I only ever used one box. I didn't have any problems but I was using the old style Lee auto-prime and dumping the primers into the tray was awkward. With CCI you just slide the cardboard sleeve back and it's easy to only dump a few rows if you don't want all 100.

I see they only recommend CCI and Winchester now.

The new one is designed so you can't set off the whole tray but it looks awkward. I had problems with breaking the pot metal link on the old style and switched to RCBS.

That also has a gate thing. My Lee progressive now has a warning:

Notes: Lee warns that only CCI or Remington brand primers should be used with this reloading press. If you plan on reloading with any other brand of primers you must purchase the explosion shield (part# 533-868)

Think I'll take my chances. I've never detonated a Wolf primer yet.

[rbowman]

Coated? How's that working for you? Years ago I got some coated 158 gr .357 bullets at a show that were great, no leading even with a full on .357 load but I never could find them again. I'd been using Berry's copper washed and they were good too. Berry had gotten behind but I think they're up to speed again.

Dardas's were plain lead with lube and a little messy but cheap. afaik he died and like a lot of businesses the kids didn't want any part of it. The price was right, cheaper than casting my own. I've never found that legendary 'just go to a tire store and ask them for old wheel weights' place. Even before they started going lead free they were always spoken for.

[invalid unparseable]

I have not bought from SNS Casting for a while and coating thing appears to be new.

One of the things I have learned over the years is not to try to load lead bullets to full power. Then you are asking for a leading problem. With my plinking loads I have no problem.

[Wade Garrett]

If you do get some barrel leading from cast pistol bullets, firing off a half dozen jacketed rounds at the conclusion of your range session will usually clear most of it out.

[rbowman]

Most of my .357 loads are down in .38 Special territory. I've got one of these but I don't enjoy using it:

If I do want to go full on I'll buy 100 jacketed bullets. I'll compromise my manly man credentials by stating I don't enjoy hot .357 loads all that much and really don't like them in the SP101 snubbie.

I long ago learned from the .44 Mag hunting crowd that you practice with light loads so you aren't practicing flinching.

[Wade Garrett]

Yeah, I used to have an S&W Model 29 with the 8 3/8 inch barrel (which I stupidly sold years ago) and I mostly reloaded wimp-level stuff for it.

Full-boat charges would recoil the barrel up facing the sky at a 45 degree angle...

[invalid unparseable]

Same here with loading down lead and going full power with jacketed bullets.

Also ditched all my 38 and 44 spl brass as I noted they could lead up the cylinder gap making it difficult to load the magnums.

I put rubber handgun grips on my revolvers and wear gloves when plinking. When I first got a .357 I found the beautiful wooden grip would scuff up your hand after several rounds.

[rbowman]

I have a .38 so I still load some for it.

After checkering my palms a couple of times I put Pachmayrs on. I'm left handed and it has a little right handed bias but i never found anything better.

For years I thought my juggling act during reloads went with being left handed. There is a guy who usually shoots a revolver in matches and he's very good with it. His reloads are fast enough that I had to watch very carefully to find he switches hands too even with moon clips so he's loading with his right hand.

Miracle of slo-mo. I always shot in the classic bullseye stance and having your weak hand stuffed into your back pocket doesn't lend itself to speed. I was an old dog learning new tricks when I started messing around with USPSA. I never got good at it and I think a lot of it was a mental reluctance to go bang-bang-bang-bang. For the A class shooters it's both speed and accuracy but for the lower classes someone content to accept a lot of C or D hits while moving fast will score higher than someone going for A hits at a slower pace.

In the real world a D hit means you shot him in the shoulder and pissed him off. There are two A zones, one center mass and one in the head. Given the number of people with vests these days center mass ain't what it used to be.