Arts and Crafts

Reloads

Bad Dancer asks for my thoughts on using reloads for defense. This comes up from time to time, and I don’t do it. Not because of the gun lore of a prosecutor using reloads against you, but because it just doesn’t make financial sense to me.

Let’s say that I wanted to roll my own ammo. What does it cost to roll your own? (all prices from Brownell’s, because I am doing a blog post, not writing a novel)

So call it $735 to load 1200 rounds, or about 61 cents per round. Winchester white box currently costs 26 cents per round and JHP costs 40 cents per round. Now I already know what the reloaders are going to say. They are going to claim that they can reuse the brass. (We aren’t going to be reusing used brass if we are making war shots, because you are either saving them for later, or you don’t have time to police a battlefield for your brass) But OK, let’s play that game. Let’s assume that you can load each brass case 10 times before it gets lost, damaged, whatever. That lowers your cost per round to 34 cents per round, which is still more than buying cheap factory ammo. Even if the brass is free, it still costs 32 cents per round.

However, if we are going to do that, let’s also consider that I have to buy the tools, so let’s call it $300 or so. Then there is also my time, which is worth something. It takes over an hour to load 1200 rounds. Then there is the chance that you will make a mistake and destroy one of your firearms with a double charge, which has a much higher probability of happening with a reload than with quality factory ammo.

So that’s why I have never really wanted to get into reloading. Hey, if you like sitting at the reloading bench and rolling your own, I support that. Don’t think that I am attacking reloaders. Shoot sports is filled with all kinds, and if you enjoy loading ammo, knock yourself out. Just don’t say that you are doing it to save money.

By Divemedic, ago

Dispersal of Forces

Now that there is a Red Flag law that will soon be signed by Biden, there are some realities that must be faced. Think about what the left has been doing and saying for the past two years: anyone who disagrees with Fauci is crazy, anyone who argues with a leftist is a fascist, and other arguments intended to make you an unperson. How easy has it been to get banned from social media? That same moron that complained about the meme you posted on Facebook now has the ability to send an armed SWAT team to your house to have you killed. SWATting on steroids.

Of course Red Flag laws will be abused. Divorce attorneys salivating at this idea.

Those attempts at destroying your First Amendment rights will soon be applied to your Second Amendment rights. The Disinformation Bureau will soon have a counterpart for guns, bet on it. The agents of the ATF have a collective boner at the thought of new budget money. Government informants will soon get rewards for turning you in.

I have experienced this first hand. A couple of years ago, I was made into a prohibited person, thanks to an ex-girlfriend who used allegations of domestic violence to get a domestic violence injunction from a court. It took me weeks to clear my name, thousands in legal fees, and was a real inconvenience.

The first hint that you have of this is there will be a knock at the door, and you will open it to find the cops standing there with a court order to take your guns. Now in my case, they were stupid. I handed them a couple of token firearms and the left without searching. I don’t expect cops in these future red flag cases to be so casual. So here is my suggestion:

The military has had a policy of “dispersal of forces” ever since nuclear weapons became a thing. The idea is not to put all of your forces in one spot, thereby ensuring that all of your weapons won’t get caught up in one giant fireball. We can do the same thing.

  • Make sure that you cache some of your weapons and ammo in locations away from your property. Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.
  • Bury some in the backyard. You do have some 6 inch CPVC, don’t you?
  • Have others at a trusted friend’s house.
  • If you get a visit from the confiscation police, don’t immediately go retrieve your cache. They will likely return, looking for you to do exactly that.
  • Best if those cached weapons are “ghost guns” or guns bought on the secondary market, so there is no record of you having them.

Be paranoid, because as we have explained here on this very website, someone IS out to get you. If you DO get raided, get the word out. Make sure others know that they are taking guns. Maybe you can keep it from happening to someone else.

By Divemedic, ago

Moar Training Manuals

Look at the “training manuals” link at the top of the page. I have added four manuals on making homemade firearms to that page. All of the manuals are in alphabetical order. The new ones all begin with “homemade.”

Since it is easier to make fully automatic firearms than semi, three of them are for submachine guns, and one is a break open. They can all be made with common parts found at a hardware store using inexpensive hand tools.

As a disclaimer, please note that they are being provided for educational purposes only. If you make any of the firearms there, remember to follow the law in making these evil “ghost guns” and you do so at your own risk.

By Divemedic, ago

Pop Smoke

These are the best smoke grenades that you can buy without a fireworks license. I have a bunch of them. I popped one off in front of the house, and you couldn’t see a thing along the entire street. I couldn’t even see the house across the street. My neighbor down the road was pissed because the thought a house was on fire. Dumbass should have known that bright red smoke wasn’t from a fire.

Anyway, these things are awesome.

As usual, when I recommend a product or vendor, I will remind everyone that I receive no compensation for any of the products mentioned on this page, and that I have no relationship with the vendor other than being a customer. All prices paid are the same available to anyone else in the public.

By Divemedic, ago

Gaston Update

As regular readers know, I recently completed project Gaston– an 80 percent Glock compatible pistol frame. Today was the day that I finally got to take it out to turn some money into noise.

I got to put a single magazine through it. Accuracy was fine. Here is the target from 10 yards, rapid fire.

The problem was reliability. Out of 16 rounds, there was one stove pipe, three failures to feed, one round with a dented primer but no PEW!, and one where the fire control group didn’t reset.

I didn’t even get a chance to troubleshoot before the RSO came over and forced me to stop shooting because my ammo was steel cased.

I am wondering if the problems were caused by too heavy of a recoil spring. The slide is a lightweight one, and perhaps changing out the standard 15 pound spring with a 13 pound one will work.

In the meantime, I need to buy some brass cased ammo and save the steel cased stuff for the outdoor range. More on this later.

By Divemedic, ago

Completing Gaston

I had a lot going on this week, but managed to get in a bit of shop time. I used it to get the slide for project Gaston finished.

I used this slide from Ninex19 at a cost of $320, a Glock 19 slide parts kit from Brownell’s ($50), and a Faxon barrel ($210). That makes the total for the upper half $580.

Assembly was easy. I used this video as a guide:

It isn’t the best video, but it got the job done. One thing I wanted to note: the slide came with a brass striker channel, and I used that one instead of the one that came the parts kit.

All I need to do is set the TFO sights on the pistol and it’s done. I think it looks good, but it will be a week or so before I get a chance to test it at the range.

The total cost was $790 plus the $95 for the sights- a total cost of $885, or $45 over budget. A bit more than a factory G19, but I get the extended barrel and the RMR cut. Plus it looks great.

By Divemedic, ago

Building Gaston

Before I began on this build, I wanted to review the Glock trigger system, just to be sure I was familiar with what I would be building. So here is a video that explains the Glock trigger pretty clearly. If you are going to build a Glock, this is a good place to start.

On opening the kit, I read through the instructions to make sure I had no questions, then I went in search of the instructional video. This was the best one that I could find:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN_fYqlLFnA

The frame itself requires less than 10 minutes worth of work to be ready for assembly. I didn’t use a had drill. I have a drill press, and feel a lot more comfortable about drilling something like this with a press than I do with a hand drill.

When you need to remove the tabs, it’s easier to remove them before you put the frame in the jig. Make the cuts with hand cutters (I used a set of dykes and a pair of end cutters) then put the frame in the jig and smooth out the cuts with a hand file. I used a flat file with fine teeth, then polished it a bit with some fine grit sandpaper. It looks pretty good.

In all, the machine work took less than 20 minutes. It was MUCH less difficult and involved than doing an AR lower.

When it came to installing the parts kit, I hit a little bit of a snag. There were no parts kits available at 80percent.com, so I took a chance and ordered a PATMOS compact lower parts kit from Right to Bear. Cost $60

Because of that, the video from 80percent may not be as complete as you would like, but it is still a big help. I was worried that parts from two different suppliers would be a problem, but it turns out that it isn’t.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY_8eaw4Ock&t=69s

The only real snag here was in getting the pins in. A couple of tips: It was MUCH easier to insert a punch through the frame, trigger, and slide release from the left side of the frame, then insert the pivot pin from the right side of the frame. Using the punch as a slave pin and gently tapping the pivot pin with a non-marring hammer from the left was the easiest way to do it.

Another difference was the Mod 1 rear slide rails that come with the frame were not one piece like in the videos. They are two separate pieces. I simply put them in place after the trigger assembly went in. Other than that, the entire assembly went together in less than 30 minutes. In all, completing the frame took less than an hour.

If you look closely at the picture below, you will see that I still haven’t cleaned up the burrs from the removal of the cross frame member. I am holding off on that until it is time to fit the barrel and slide. I will clean that up and smooth things out with a Dremel and a fine round file when I go to fit all of that together.

Here is a second video that may help you with the assembly.

So far, the cost of this build has been the frame at $150, plus the lower parts kit at $60, for a total cost for the assembled frame of $210. I have $640 remaining in the budget for this build.

As usual, I will remind everyone that I receive no compensation for using the parts and suppliers that I use, and that I have no relationship with them, other than being a customer. All prices paid are the same available to anyone else in the public.

By Divemedic, ago