We had great news out of California, surprisingly. The court in Reno May v. Robert Bonta has issued an injunction:

This is a complete win for the plaintiffs (good guys).

This was a complete surprise. In addition, the state has not filed their intent to appeal. In the past, in California, they have filed their intent to appeal within hours of a negative order by the judge.

Over in the D.C. Circuit Court, they have scheduled arguments for February, without input from the parties. This is means that the Circuit isn’t going to let this drag out.

There are numerous filings that came out late yesterday that I’ll be looking over.

For those that are bored with reloading, I’m reaching the end of that series. I have received so many good comments that have been helpful. Things to try, things to not do.

I’m currently in the process of machining my own 1/16in drill bit extension, as well as my version of a case trimming jig for use on a drill press or milling machine. It is likely that I’ll make a stuck case removal gizmo.

One of those things where I’ll spend 6 hours in the shop to make something that costs less than $20 from Amazon.

The strange thing, is that the simple drill extension is available for only $59 from McMaster-Carr. One would think a drill extension would be lower cost.

The comments are open, please feel free to let us know what you are thinking.

Imperial Resizing Wax works great at keeping your brass from getting stuck in your dies.

Imperial Resizing Wax doesn’t want to come off your brass unless it is onto a clean white dress shirt.

Purple Power degreaser on a paper towel takes off the wax.

Removing Imperial Resizing Wax from 100 cases makes my fingers cramp.

Dawn Dish soap does not remove Imperial Resizing Wax in the wet tumbler.

LimiShine does not remove Imperial Resizing Wax in the wet tumbler.

Dawn Dish soap plus LimiShine does not remove Imperial Resizing Wax in the wet tumbler.

(It leaves the cases covered in wax AND all the gunk cleaned from the inside of the brass. UGLY)

Purple Power at about 10-20% solution will remove Imperial Resizing Wax from cases!

Using Purple Power after Dawn and LemiShine leaves the brass clean but dull.

Using Purple Power first, with no media, strips the Imperial Wax off

Finishing with a run of Dawn Dish soap followed by a run with just LimiShine leaves a beautiful, like new finish.

Purple Power is cheap when you buy it in bulk, it is ok to use it to clean brass.

The size of a flash hole is nominally 1/16 in, or 0.061.

If the hole is smaller than 0.070 inches, your decapping pin might not go into the hole and if you add too much pressure, it will break.

McJ Tools sells bulk decapping pins, which are nicer than anything I’ve seen from the “Names”.

The decapping pin in the Frankford hand decapping tool is the same as the pin used in Lee dies.

The decapping pins of a Redding die will get stuck in flash holes smaller than 1/16 in.

McJ Tools makes a tool for normalizing flash holes to 0.070 inches.

Some brass has a thicker web between the case and the primer pocket than others.

The McJ Tool flash hole normalizer does not cut as deeply as the web of some brass.

McJ Tool makes a primer pocket normalizer tool to cut the primer pocket to size and depth.

The McJ Tool pocket normalizer does not remove military crimps.

A normal-sized primer pocket is just a little too small for some #41 primers.

The Layman EZ trim tool is fast and easy to use. I trimmed 300–500 pieces of brass in an evening with it.

The Layman EZ trim tool uses the case hold down system I had designed for my drill press/milling machine adapter to trim cases.

Wet tumbling your brass can cause the necks to close up slightly.

Redding neck lube works wonderfully when resizing the necks of cases.

The RCBS swagging dies create perfect primer pockets that can be primed easily.

A depth of cut of 0.050 on a 3/8in boring bar in 6061 will deflect. Spring passes are required.

Having the wrong tool height on a boring bar can cause excess loading.

Using a Lee turret press with auto advance is really nice when it can be used. The four positions are: Neck sizing, through die powder charge, bullet seating die, and empty.

It takes almost the same amount of time from pouring powder to being ready for more powder as it takes the auto charge machine to throw the next charge, accurate to 0.1grains.

If you have good ladder sights, 45-70 can travel a long distance, accurately.

(2450 words)

When you choose a firearm, you choose it for a reason. Yes, I have some firearms that are in the safe because they followed me home. But there are many more that were picked for a reason.

We pick our firearms for looks, for the feel in the hand, the cool factor, the weight, and a multitude of different options.

We also pick for practical reasons. As an example, I have critters that get into the chicken house and into the feed and are sometimes on the porch. There are bears that roam the area. These are all targets at different times.

There is a display rack in the living room. It holds four lever action rifles. The blue haired fairie has them named, “bear”, “deer”, “raccoon”, and “squirrel”. In order, 45-70, 30-30 Winchester, .357 Magnum, .22 LR. Each has a different purpose, coming from different requirements.

Anybody who is anybody will tell you that those rifles really don’t have the ability to go the distance. They are all 100 yards, or less, rifles. The real truth is that I can ring steel at 100 yards with any of them. But getting a line of sight of 100 yards around here is difficult.

In the safe is a Remington 700 in 7.62×51. I’ve taken deer with it at around 600 yards. That rifle has great optics on it, and it was designed for taking shoots at that distance, or greater.
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My family use to watch Bing Crosby Christmas Specials every Christmas.

Hagar happened to mention that she truly enjoyed the David Bowie and Bing Crosby version of this song.

I will also note that she pointed out that if some kid showed up and started playing a drum around my baby, just as I got him to sleep, it would not be a joyful event.

(1800 words)
How to open a can of worms… There are people who have the recipe they swear by. Yet, they will admit that there are other recipes that function nearly as well as theirs does. Bullets, on the other hand, have much stronger feelings.

We’ll start by breaking bullets down into two categories, bullets that transfer as much energy as possible to the target, and those that don’t.

I just finished some reloading. Many of the rounds I loaded were 55gr .224, Full Metal Jacket Boat Tail. Some were 55gr Soft Point Boat Tail.

The difference being that one had a pointy noise covered in copper. The other had the very tip, exposing the lead of the core.

Given that the size of that tip was maybe 0.080 in diameter, I did not expect to see any difference. I was wrong.

Using the super scientific test media known as “pumpkin”, I placed two small pumpkins down range and put 10 rounds into it. All hit. Nice grouping. There was significant damage to the pumpkin. It was still obviously a pumpkin.

I changed magazines, made sure the soft points were going where I wanted (rang steel). Then I went to put the last 10 rounds into the other pumpkin. I was only able to put one round into the second pumpkin.

That “soft point” round caused the pumpkin to fly to pieces. I ended up with pumpkin pieces as much as 4 yards from the point of impact.

This has shown me just how much difference there can be.

History

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