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    ##Cooling Method for barrels##

    I have seen benchrest shooters at the range using air mattress pumps to blow cooling air through their barrels between shots. Thinking of load development and also cooling the barrel between rounds of competition, I followed suit. It works ok, other than the heckling I get from Range Officers...
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    Ladder test

    Yeah, I guess you are right. Just lazy I suppose. Standard Deviation is a pain to calculate manually, plus there is the idea that if I get "Off" by one round in my shooting OR recording, the entire test could be in jeopardy. I HAVE done it that way once before, maybe I'll just have to focus...
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    ## Water Quench or Air Cool Annealed Brass? ##

    Well, there you have it, pretty much unanimous agreement against water quenching. Thanks to all of you for responding. Within the first hour it was pretty conclusive, but just for grins I thought I would give the matter 24 hours. I'm convinced.
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    Tips for a guy thinking about Giraud

    I've been looking at the Giraud trimmer for a while. I am seriously considering an upgrade from my Dillon RT1200 trimmer. I absolutely hate the idea that the Dillon requires you to separately chamfer the inside and outside of the neck in two extra steps. What burns me even more is their attitude...
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    Tips for a guy thinking about Giraud

    I can see why you would be impressed with the Ken Light annealing machine. It LOOKS impressive; however, I'll tell you why I went with the Giraud annealing machine. As impressive as the Ken Light looks, it is far from automatic. You must feed it cases one at a time into each slot. Yes, you can...
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    ## Water Quench or Air Cool Annealed Brass? ##

    I just ordered an Annealing machine from Giraud Tool Co. GTC Home Apparently I have a 12 week wait before it arrives, so I have plenty of time to work out my question. Doug Giraud admits that there are several theories as to whether freshly annealed brass should drop into water or merely air...
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    2-stage sizing process yields very low runout

    If you want to try a different cleaning method that doesn't have the dreaded walnut hull in the flash hole 50% of the time, one option is Ultrasonic, but even that does a so-so job of cleaning. Yesterday I received my Thumblers Tumbler with 5lb of Stainless media. Stainless Steel Reloading...
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    2-stage sizing process yields very low runout

    I may be fooling myself, and/or wasting time; but, the reason I neck turn, or more precisely neck skim, it to improve the consistency of relatively inexpensive brass. Since I bought 1000 LC unfired brass cases, I felt I could not afford Lapua or Norma, and had more time than money. Some people...
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    2-stage sizing process yields very low runout

    I just realized, that effectively, that is what I am already doing. I use a Dillon RT1200 to trim my brass, and it uses a body sizing die with no neck sizing. Then I run my brass through a Redding sizing die which sizes both the body and uses a bushing and a ball to size the neck. Since the...
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    2-stage sizing process yields very low runout

    Darn it, I thought I was through with neck turning for this batch of brass (1000 LC,) but it makes sense that since I have to re-trim brass due to creep, I probably need to re-turn the neck. That is a pain in the neck (intentional pun), but probably necessary.
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    OCW testing FAIL

    Bingo, watching snipers on TV, something finally clicked with me. They do not break their cheek weld between shots. I finally realized that even with my 8.5-32x56 NightForce NXS scope, I was not completely getting rid of parallax shifts. When I started maintaining my cheek weld for the entire...
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    Ladder test

    Oh, on rereading my response, I found that I left out some data. In my second paragraph, while describing a ladder test where I progress from target to target with one shot in each, I neglected to mention that I eventually fire 5 rounds at each target by cycling through the targets 5 times...
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    Ladder test

    There are several methods of conducting a ladder test. It looks like you are performing an "Audette" ladder test. I personally do not like the Audette ladder test as it relies on a single shot at each charge weight. That means that all of your results depend on you making perfect shots. Not...
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    Charge or Seating Depth first on ladder test?

    Actually, the 80gr JLK VLDs shot best jammed .015 into the lands, but it was still a much larger group than with 77gr SMKs. Why pay for hand made bullets if you get worse results? Believe me, I WANTED them to work, I still have 500 or so of them. I might try lighter JLKs sometime, but for now...
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    Charge or Seating Depth first on ladder test?

    Sorry about the long paragraphs. I actually can write (at least according to most of my MBA Professors), but I just got into a stream of consciousness mode and got carried away. I need to make a decision by this morning, so I guess I will go with the advice to vary charge weight first. My...
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    Charge or Seating Depth first on ladder test?

    I am developing a new load and am unsure whether to run a ladder test on charge weight first, or seating depth first. I usually end up alternating iteratively between the two for a few tests since each influences the other, probably wasting time and rounds, something that I cannot afford to do...
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    Left Hand Thompson Center

    My son (22yo) is looking to upgrade from his inexpensive and difficult to accessorize Moisen Nagant (price is still a concern for him.) I initially recommended a Remington 700. At the 2013 NRA show, I spoke to a Remington rep who said that the availability of left handed 700s is pretty slim (he...
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    Rifle Scopes NightForce 8.5-32x56 NXS results

    Some time back (within past year) I turned to this site for help in deciding on my first quality riflescope. I was leaning towards the NightForce 12-42x56 NXS and the responses varied between "What do you want such a powerful acope for?" and, "mirage will kill you", to, "If you can't see it...
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    F T/R Competition .223/5.56 for F T/R class?

    Re: .223/5.56 for F T/R class? <div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: memilanuk</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> ...I've used about 30lbs of the stuff over the last couple years starting when Varget became unobtainium after Obama got elected. For the...
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    Gracey or 21st Century Shooting for Neck Turning?

    Re: Gracey or 21st Century Shooting for Neck Turning?