Docendo Discimus
Member
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2021
- Messages
- 303
I'm an old fashion sort of guy so I still use a long rod to measure the cartridge-over-all-length (COAL) of a bullet touching the lands. I use to use a cleaning rod & mark with tape until I found these 32" bamboo skewers at Walmart. They are in the sporting goods department along with the camping gear. On an empty chamber with bolt closed, slip skewer from the muzzle all the way in until it touches the bolt face. Using a razor blade, scribe a mark on the skewer. Next drop your favorite bullet into the chamber & seat it gently against the riflings. Run the skewer in again until it just touches the bullet tip & mark again. Using a caliper, the distance between the 2 marks is the COAL. Play with your seating depth from there to get your best accuracy. Of course you can use a cartridge seated to that COAL to then measure the Base-to-Ogive (BTO) for your rifle.
The skewers are $.98/dozen & reuseable.
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i do the same but i but them in a dollar store pan. The old lady gets peeved but I don't want to have to go out and get a heat gunI use a hair drier and a sieve to dry my brass after wet tumbling.
Dries 'em in under a minute!!! They be seriously hot though, be careful!!!
i do the same but i but them in a dollar store pan. The old lady gets peeved but I don't want to have to go out and get a heat gun
They also work well to test the operation of a firing pin on a rifle. Be careful though I have seen the firing pin drive the skewer into the sheet rock ceiling and damage the finish. For pistols .30 caliber and larger I use a #2 pencil. Either one will show you if the firing pin is working without any possible damage to the rifling.I'm an old fashion sort of guy so I still use a long rod to measure the cartridge-over-all-length (COAL) of a bullet touching the lands. I use to use a cleaning rod & mark with tape until I found these 32" bamboo skewers at Walmart. They are in the sporting goods department along with the camping gear. On an empty chamber with bolt closed, slip skewer from the muzzle all the way in until it touches the bolt face. Using a razor blade, scribe a mark on the skewer. Next drop your favorite bullet into the chamber & seat it gently against the riflings. Run the skewer in again until it just touches the bullet tip & mark again. Using a caliper, the distance between the 2 marks is the COAL. Play with your seating depth from there to get your best accuracy. Of course you can use a cartridge seated to that COAL to then measure the Base-to-Ogive (BTO) for your rifle.
The skewers are $.98/dozen & reuseable.
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NiceMy vibratory tumblers have a simple wing nut, washer and 1/4"-20 threaded rod holding the lid against the bowl. That works OK, but I found it often loosens up while tumbling.
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Rather than over-tightening the lid and potentially stressing or warping the lid, I installed a stop using an upside down 1/4"-20 T-nut on top of a standard nut (I happened to use a square nut) and tightened them against each other. I positioned the nut assembly so that the lid was under slight tension when the wing nut is tightened down. Now I can tighten the wing nut as much as needed while not over-flexing the lid, and it doesn't vibrate loose even after running for hours.
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I recycle food containers a lot... Mostly out of practicality... I use the same brands and quantities so I can then use the empty and cleaned containers... I choose the brands I like with really nice containers... And I'll pay an extra few cents for the product in order to get the well made container it's in... And containers full of sorted brass, polishing media, etc stack easily and can be looked for quickly.
What i do is open the box and LIGHTLY heat the hinge with a hair dryer to give the plastic a "memory" Think this was posted here someware, just repeating.Figured out how to hold a stiff box open to make it much easier to load it up.
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I recycle food containers a lot... Mostly out of practicality... I use the same brands and quantities so I can then use the empty and cleaned containers... I choose the brands I like with really nice containers... And I'll pay an extra few cents for the product in order to get the well made container it's in... And containers full of sorted brass, polishing media, etc stack easily and can be looked for quickly.
Way out of my league...Food containers for small stuff, dollar store bins for large amounts of spares.
Love that deburring tool (I have the set), not something many would recognize.Easy and effective Lee turret holders made from widemouth jar plastic lids. Pictures show the method. The holes are drilled with a 7/8 spade bit. You can get the lids at Walmart or out of your cabinet if the wife isn't watching.
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