so waht ya doin today?

Joshua

Taco Aficionado/Salish Sea Pirate/Part-Time Dragon
Well, I’ve gone to using two molds and slowed my cadence a wee bit. Still no thermometer. I just add spruces and bump the thermostat up and down too what feels right, all the while watching the viscosity as I stir and ladle. I have also found that I can use the first half of the ladle or the last half of the ladle based on how things are running, more lead temp vs less. Living by the seat of my pants.
 

CZ93X62

Official forum enigma
"Art & Science" is correct.

My usual regimen involves two moulds at a time, and most of my tools are 1- or 2-cavity. Bottom-pour RCBS furnace, set at 675* for 92/6/2 alloy. I meant to run some castings today, but the rain (it can do that here every few years) meant another trip to the auto parts house for wiper blades on my own and neighbor's vehicles. They are older folks, nice people but clueless as to car repair or home construction. I also checked their fluid levels, since I was already wet from doing same at my house.
 

L Ross

Well-Known Member
Well, I’ve gone to using two molds and slowed my cadence a wee bit. Still no thermometer. I just add spruces and bump the thermostat up and down too what feels right, all the while watching the viscosity as I stir and ladle. I have also found that I can use the first half of the ladle or the last half of the ladle based on how things are running, more lead temp vs less. Living by the seat of my pants.
Ah, and thus once again, "The Artist in the Art."
 

L Ross

Well-Known Member
Wiper blades, yeah, wipers blades. I bought a 2014 F-150 that came from French Speaking Canada, (another story), in 2016. I have put 60,000 miles on it since I got it. In 2018, O'Reilly Auto parts had a nice sale on wiper blades so I bought a pair for the truck. Just drove 220 miles up and 220 miles back from a belated Christmas gathering. Dirty roads, salt, and then a couple of inches of fresh snow with the resultant slop. I'm still running the wipers that were on the truck when I bought it and they are still doing a fine job of cleaning the windshield. The sale priced spares are still languishing in the shed.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
get his number Hawk.
I will have the wife call him, we can find out if the warranty on his tik-tik is up to date after a couple of hours... probably the cricket scores for the last half century too.
 

oscarflytyer

Well-Known Member
Random thoughts from the gun show, and people I ran into at the range/shop looking for "stuff."

Stupid prices on 22 ammo, shotgun ammo, 9mm and 380 ($50/box) - IF anyone has it. saw $15/5 slugs. Saw one $300 case of primers. Another had $130 on his case. Table across bought it for that and put $200 on it! No powder/ammo/reloading vendors at the show. Gun prices WAY up!

One Nagant for $325 - normal of awhile back/didn't sell. Saw two more - $700-800!!!! The AR parts guy had probably 25% of what he normally has. No clue on prices ( I don't follow the plastic gun market). Didn't really check handgun prices either.

Saw a BUNCH of Garands paraded thru - way more than the norm. Not that I saw any sold. TON of people when it opened Sat AM. Also a lot of the crowd was not the norm GS crowd of the past. A lot of younger people and 'non-gun' people. No real interest in old stuff like I like/had to sell.

On a bright note, finally got the 222 Remington I have been searching for. Package included 100 rds. And I am completely set up to reload, including having 3 diff test load sets already loaded (had a 222/got rid of it).

Last note is, on those that don't have any ammo, etc. Had convo's with two people about it. Had to tell them they missed the boat. And my expectation is that it will take a year to clear up (at least?). And, that it was NOT Covid related, all that had leveled out (imho). But that it WAS regime change driven (again, my opinion). The one guy hated to hear that (just that he was HOPING it was Covid related). Again, people that are used to just going out and picking up a box of ammo for hunting, etc.

PS: it scares me that a lot of people are thinking about taking up reloading. Fine in and of itself, but... I SINCERELY HOPE they take a class/mentor - not just buy stuff and stuff empty hulls. I have seen way too many people buy 38 Super ammo for their 38 Specials!
 

Ian

Notorious member
Reloading equipment has been sold out everywhere for months, when ammo got scarce all the new shooters (mostly covid/riot fear related) kneejerked to the "make my own" mindset and bought up most of the available equipment/components. Used brass is hard to find or out of stock most places. Then the regime change piled in that while Covid has cut production of literally everything. It will be a lot more than a year before we see any relief.
 

462

California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
My thought is, as soon as any components become available they will be immediately swooped up, and the current scenario will be with us for at least the next four years. Especially if the ultra-lefties are able get rid of Biden.
 

Gary

SE Kansas
Went through my stack of reloading dies this morning and found a few sets of dies I've never loaded for in the past. Thinking about selling off several, you know, strike while the iron is hot. Found a set of dies for 338 magnum Lapua; and a set of Redding s type match grade 223 dies plus a few others.
 

JonB

Halcyon member
We are at a place in time, where if there is one incident, like sandy hook, the talk of making new laws will start and everything will be amplified on top of what it is now...and probably change the gun culture forever.
 

Gary

SE Kansas
ONLY if we set back and let it happen. Remember what Thomas Jefferson said: from time to time "The tree of freedom must be watered with the blood of Patriots and tyrants".
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
how do you ramp up err down from nothing to less than nothing?
they have already put out videos showing and saying they are not going to do anything different on the production front.
so the only thing that's going to change is whomever is ordering the million dollars worth of product will be getting it, and the guy's only ordering a few thousand bucks worth ain't.
 

Gary

SE Kansas
Boy o Boy! I moved my "social" media stuff from FB and Yahoo and Google to a site called MeWe and the reloading/ammo/gun groups are going Ape Shite because of the inflated prices of components, ammo, and guns. They call it "gouging" and I tell them it's free enterprise/capitalism at work, but they tend to ignore and simply whine. Actually quite a bit of fun at the moment (my Ox isn't the one being gored).
 

popper

Well-Known Member
I get him calling to make sure my business has proper insurance and accounting facilities. I'm retired. In other words, I do less-than-nothing. But Sirius emails daily to let me know my listening 'channels- don't have a subscription. I presume I will get calls from the new Biden tele-med-phone plan - we can tell them we are 'fine' as frog hair and don't give out mobile phone number.
 

L Ross

Well-Known Member
We recently had a timber cut and sale to salvage our ash trees thanks to another Chinese pest, the Emerald Ash Borer. Anyway, much to our surprise and delight we were able to pay the logger and actually have some money left for us. Also, the saw mill that bought the logs did not want the several hundred left over pieces that were smaller than 8' bolts or saw logs. Firewood!

The landing for the operation is in a neighbor's corn field and Sue and I started the cleanup process yesterday. It was raw and windy up on the ridge and many of these trees were of 20" to 30" diameter. We took the tractor up there with the car hauler trailer. First we moved 50 blocks that were of splittable length to the land owner's wood pile as a thank you for using his field as the landing. I also paid my forester to evaluate the neighbor's woods for a possible cut as a further thank you.

Then we loaded the trailer with left over logs by hanging a log tongs from a chain hooked to a grab hook welded to the bucket on the loader. I'm thinking we are about 1/3 done maybe. Today's snow will keep us off the ridge but the jack pine savages from the deer camp across the road are coming up this weekend and want some firewood and to help us so maybe we can finish this weekend.
 

Hawk

North Central Texas
Got the first Covid 19 vaccine shot yesterday afternoon at 1:30.
Felt like a flu shot.
No problems or reactions so far. Red spot and tender arm.
It was a mad house.
Dallas County Health services sent me and herself each an email to make an appointment for the vaccination last Tuesday.
We set it up for 10:30 yesterday. Left the house to arrive a half hour early. Got there and there was a 2 mile line of cars.
3 hours of inching forward got us into the parking lot.
Nobody checked our drivers license, pre registration papers, age, identifications, anything.
The girl waving us to a parking space asked if we were over 65, but didn't validate that we were.
Another hour and we were both harpooned and injected.