It's Friday

Hich means for the average working guy he's off after work today for a couple of days.

To a sailor on shore leave that really doesn't mean anything except that the guys will be off and I am likely to have a couple more visitoras than I do during the week.

One of the things I like about my job is the time off. I work equal time which means 2 weeks off, 2 weeks on. WHile I am not home during the weeks I am at work I do get uninterrupted free time to tackle projects. Some years ago I remodeled a few things and it was great in that I could wake up, grab a cup of joe and just start right in and get things done.

If I wanted to after supper I could chip away at thiings and by the time I hit the rack I'd have a lot of things done.

Right now I'm chipping away at getting some ammo ready for a match I have coming up. There's a lot of work involved because I found out that my old m14 load is accurate in the bolt gun I am shooting in the match.

The problem is that the bolt gun chamber is a lot tighter than the gas gun the load was made for. When I made the load up I resized the brass to about .003" over and it will not fit in the bolt gun.

Every single round has to have the bullet pulled with an inertia bullet puller, the case resized to about .003 to .004 undersize, the charge reweighed and the bullet reseated. It's tedious at best but I have to do it.

I have commented on the fact that it appears that a nation is gearing up for a civil war and I sure can see it. I'm presently looking for an 8 pound keg of IMR 4064 to take me through the upcoming match season and I can't seem to find it anywhere. It is just not out there except for a can or two on the auction sites where it is running three times retail.

It is crazy that I can't find reloading supplies anywhere, although I did manage to score enough primers to get me by for the season. They cost me a fortune because they are bench rest primers, meaning the most expensive ones out there.

When I located the bullets I wanted they were a little spendy but not too bad as the guy selling them isn't gouging too bad. I'm going to make a few calls today and see if any of the guys that I used to shoot with but have retired from the sport have any leftovers. A couple of these guys owe me a few favors. We'll see.

The load I am running is really not too hot so I'm not too worried about it but I do get leery of hot loads worked up in the wintertime and fired on hot summer days. I've heard that IMR 4064, while my favorite powder for 7.62 NATO is a little temperature sensitive, that Varget isn't so much so if I can snag a keg of Varget I'll just work up a load for that.

I found out about temperature sensitivity a while ago at Camp Perry when one of the Marines was telling me about the results they got by putting some Black Hills match ammo in the freezer and then firing it when it was still cold. He told me the groups just knotted up. Interesting.

I've heard of guys keeping their ammo on ice while varmint hunting and maybe I'll do that when I go to a summer match just for the hell of it.

Anyway, I think I'm going to call around and see if there is anyone out there that is retiring from the 7.62 match game that wants to make a few bucks even though it is doubtful. Actually yesterday I dropped by on another guy that is still shooting actively and damned near died when I got inside his shop. It was a massive collection of hoarded ammo, cases of the stuff. Floor to ceiling.

He told me he was praying for peace but preparing for war and I can state for fact he is not alone, as I can see that .223 ammo these days is running well over a buck a round. I was thinking of ditching a lot of leftovers from other disciplines but I think I'll wait and see what happens.

WHile I am on the subject of ammo, a few years back when I was shooting service rifle competition practically every chance I had I remember two things. Lots of driving to matches and lots of reloading afterwards. There was the year I shot about 5000 rounds for score and X 3 or 4 for practice.

If I recall that season I rebarreled four times that year. It cost me a lot of money and I realized I couldn't sustain it when I added up the cost of the season including travel.

During this time a guy I know dropped by for something and saw about 3 or 4000 rounds stacked upand seemed aghast until I explained that I would go through that as a match shooter three or four time during the course of the season.

This season I intend to find bolt gun and F-class matches and maybe a couple 1000 yard matches if I can, but I sure the hell am not going to do what I did when I was shooting service rifle. I simply can't afford it.










I ought to go on the air today as I have not in some time.





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