Dusty44

I use double ear protection to try and retain what little hearing I have left. Earmuff headset on the outside. You may find that the reusable earplugs that fit into the ear (that I wear under the big ones) and have a tiny cartridge in them that allows normal speech and closes with the pressure pulse of a shot would work in hunting and be enough. They are cheap. Hearing loss is from each and every shot's sound pulse; is cumulative; is permanent. I bought/buy my little plugs at Academy, chain sporting goods in several states. Don't know about where you are.

My shooting range is experiencing an anti-gun lawsuit. EPA is involved. Court order, no 30 cal or larger rifle shooting. Smaller caliber rifles and all handguns are still allowed at last check. That kicked me off the fence real good. The LR-308 is now in indefinite hold. I saw a flier from Cabela's with a passable price on a DPMS Oracle in 5.56 and picked one up. If you want the (very <laughs>) long version, Tactical22.Net, "Plunging In." The new AR has a 1 - 9 twist and is formally chambered for 5.56 NATO. I have bought a variety of factory ammo in 55, 62, 75 grain (all nominal 223 Rem) to try out. I also picked up a Hornady set of dies for reloading. Have not yet had time to research anything (in spite of 5 reload manuals sitting on my bookshelf). If you have a 1 - 9 twist in a 5.56 or know about it for reloading what bullets seem to work best by weight, design, manufacturer? Any preferred powder? Thank you for any information or thoughts!

Would like to see an additional review of adding weight in the BCG to slow the action as an alternative to an adjustable gas block.

Dusty needs 3 T-shirts in XXL, two self-stick vinyl patches, one cloth patch.

Musquitoes?? Try some Vitamin B. Buy a bottle called B-100, grocery or pharmacy on the shelf. One pill every morning. Good for your heart. One of the B vitamins also makes you taste bad to muskiteeoes. Not a full cure, but it helps a whole lot. If you awreddy take a multivitamin (for men, no iron. Iron is bad for men), take some B-100 too. Anyway. Men (and women past Menopause) build up iron and it causes problems. There is more than enough iron in normal food. To get rid of excess iron, donate blood. Vitamin B is water soluble and washes out real easy.

I will check out Armalite.

I am aware of the differences between 5.56 and 223. That is why I stressed the NATO chambering. I did find a 'kit' at the DPMS site for a rifle without a barrel and then a bull barrel by itself chambered for the NATO 5.56. By the time I bought the parts and tool kit and other needed things, I would be just as well off with an off-the-rack rifle.

Went to my usual shooting range on Monday (March 5, 2012). Took the LR-308 and two 308 Win bolt guns. Wanted to try out some reloads and do a comparison shoot of the three rifles with standardized comparable commercial ammo. Range is under a court order: no 30 caliber or bigger rifle shooting. Can use the pistol range, unrestricted; small caliber rifles like my 10/22 on the rifle range. Might do that later. It kicked off my interest in an AR style 5.56x45. Looking for a flattop DPMS with a 20 inch bull barrel or fluted bull barrel chambered for the NATO round. Checked in at the McKinney CTD. None in stock. Checked the CTD catalogue: Not in stock. relatively high-priced rifles are there, but nothing I am willing to pay the asking price for. The question right now is: How difficult are these to find/buy right now? Any ideas? When are they going to pop up everywhere for sale again?

Wasn't sure where you were. Mention of Las Cruces brings a flood of memory. Holloman and Alamogordo in the middle 1960's! Those were some of the good years! Two of my babies were born at Holloman. Would take my then new Colt M1911 out to the base of the mountains on the East side and had all the room in the world to shoot with a 5000 foot high backstop. I have been told that now all that area is heavily developed, houses and people everywhere(?).

Go to Brownell's and buy a CAA grip and a BAD-A.S.S. Go to a local sporting goods store that sells a lot of guns & accessories and buy a Limbsaver (shotgun) butt pad that (nearly) matches the butt of your new rifle. Install them. Find and buy a set of iron back-up sights (if your rifle does not already have them)(mine are Chinese, I really never intend to use them but have them in case). Find a nice scope on sale from MidwayUSA. Or, you can spend 3x or 4x the money for something else, your choice. My AR scope is a Nikon (from MidwayUSA) with mil-dot reticle. Read the section on triggers in this forum. My trigger is the RRA as noted in "Triggers." Keep in mind that some triggers will void your warranty and some will not. I keep my OEM parts in special storage and suggest doing the same. Ah-h-h. . . Zip-Loks with a label inside with the part(s) to identify what it is and the original gun by description and serial number, in the back of a dresser drawer or the bottom of the gun safe? Make a file: description of the gun (all your guns) with serial numbers. All documents relating to the gun(s) (& parts & accessories). I have 4-drawer file cabinets and my gun files are there. Small file boxes can be purchased. Two 2-drawer file cabinets can be used with a custom desktop to make a great computer desk/gun work shop. Give a family member in another place a second copy of each gun description sheet to keep for you. You did ask what to buy for your new rifle. This is my quick list. All good stuff!

Didn't Hoot post the lead weight instruction Tech Order? Use a short piece of electrical conduit for a mold, make a 2 inch/4 ounce weight and insert it into the back end of the bolt carrier; increases the weight of the BCG from 5 ounces to 9 ounces and the whole thing does better forever after? Now if I could just remember names and titles!! Or go the hard way and buy the heavier bolt carrier?

We just went through slowing and smoothing the BCG by adding a lead weight to the carrier. Might be the best and easiest solution. That thread comes complete with a Tech Order instruction. Tried but can't remember the title of the thread and can't find it.

I see them for sale every now and then in the Emails I get every day. Maybe Sportsman's Guide?

How have the manufacturers been treating you with gun troubles that might or should be warranty issues? I joined 1911Forum.com a long time ago. The password/user name was in my computer 'favorites' file and subsequent computer problems wiped out that file. :( Tonight I got an Email from the forum saying they were celebrating 'more that 100K members.' 114K+ according to the notation at the forum. So I added the forum to my listing again, will be a 'read only' member until I get the energy to re-register. I was browsing the posts briefly and found a person who bought a 'Para' (Para Ordinance?) pistol second-hand. The gun has a problem and Para refuses to provide support or parts or repair because he is not the original purchaser. Responses to this post within the thread seconded that Para will not honor any warranty beyond the original purchaser. He said, and I agree, he will not buy any Para again. I also will try to remember to never buy Para, either. I own a Taurus PT1911. It had a problem out-of-the-box. (Described in other threads.) I read the warranty information and decided that the much touted warranty was a bad joke. Taurus appears to make getting warranty work so difficult and involved that most of us will not be able to obtain real coverage. As best I recall, some posts when I was researching my own problem said that the warranty work, after the paperwork gymnastics, is done by unqualified people who go through the motions and the result is often no actual fix along with the gun being gone for a very long time. I went to the forums, found similar problems and solutions and bought my own (high end) parts and fixed the gun on my own. It is a unique & limited blessing that the PT 1911 is one of the guns made to mil-specs so parts are readily available. I will not buy Taurus again and would suggest to anyone else to use real caution and to find a more responsible manufacturer. In contrast, in the 1970's I bought a Thompson/Center Hawken. It was a kit gun, built by an unknown third party. The gunshop that sold it to me put some effort into resolving problems with the gun (finally determined that the barrel wedge was too loose). More than 30 years later I had a lot of age related corrosion and wood stock deterioration. I contacted T/C by letter and explained that it was a kit gun and I was at least the second owner. T/C sent me a bunch of parts. Free. The troubles with the stock cropped up later. This time T/C asked me to return the rifle (Fed Ex, my nickle), which I did. What I got back was some brass fittings in a bag because they do not fit the newer design stock. Otherwise, T/C sent me a complete brand-new (assembled) rifle for free, using my original barrel. They paid the return shipping. Turn-around was, to the best of memory, a couple of weeks. Anytime I am thinking about buying a gun or parts and accessories that T/C might offer, their website is my first stop. Whatever it might cost above other vendors, if any, is well worthwhile for me. :) I would stress that the above is my personal opinion and my personal experience. In making any purchase, use your own independent judgement and information. Please post your own good and bad warranty experiences?

The new detent pin looks just like the OEM one. It was difficult to move for a few throws but is working more smoothly very quickly. I am trying to go to the range next week; sometimes these plans go down the tubes? Will post to Brownell's after some live fire time, real use of the device.

My BAD-A.S.S. came in the mail today. Installed it tonight. Instructions with the device seemed short critical information. Went to the Internet (How to install BAD. . . ?) and there was everything (almost) I could wish for. While fitting the safety selector I modified my CAA grip. The Assembly Pin Detent Spring is a PITA when reinstalling that grip. Drilled a 3/32 hole (Whoops! Way too deep!; tried it anyway and think the assembly pin was not tight enough; found a soda straw in the trash, cut and rolled a little plug of that plastic and pushed it into the hole; End result a hole 3/32 dia, 3/32 deep.) to make a seat for the spring. Works beautifully. Get the grip part way into place, push the end of the spring into the seat, it all stays in place while completing assembly of the grip. Assembly pin & detent hardly know the difference.

Today is a "Finally!!!" My last order from both MidwayUSA and Brownell's FINALLY got here. BAD-A.S.S. for the AR and some reloading tinker toys. Both vendors put them in the US Mail instead of UPS Ground. Ordered on Sunday morning, in my mailbox today, Wednesday.

Fun!!!!!!! Two and a half hours of gen-nu-wine live fire!!! Needed that fix real bad!! Been away from it too long! Next, soon as the parts-on-order get here and I get the AR put back together, the AR and two bolt guns (all in 308 Win) and I are going to go back to the range! I think I will take a few boxes of the German sport ammo and get a real comparison with all-the-same ammo. I have a bunch of handloads to shoot, too. Call the roll-your-own "warmups!" Then, when the need arises again, it will be the "Odd Couple." The 7 MM & the 10/22 & the Marlin Lever Gun. Roll-your-owns for the centerfires and various brands and types for the 22. The most recent trip to the gun stores: the price of new factory 7 MM Rem Mag still gives me cold shivers. Maybe we can post some pictures of targets on the 22 cal forums. Would like to see (sort of) first hand what other guys are doing. Targets like mine with the 1 inch grids or with a ruler laying across the paper? Images big enough to see the holes clearly. For Tripledeuce: In my 44 Mag the 240gr Hornady SWC's were sitting on 8.5 gr Unique. I got the load from one of the Reloading Gurus in one of the reloading forums. The Rem JSP's were over 18.0 gr of 2400. Both loads use a CCI 300 LP primer. Recoil is always strong. These JSP loads went off with a sensation new to me: felt like the gun had been lightly bumped with a 2x4. Disclaimer: for casual readers, my loads are certified unsafe for your gun (and maybe mine) for a thousand reasons. Obtain and verify your own data from reliable sources. Yes, I am aware of need for break-in of a new gun. On Monday I had a lot to do and not a lot of time. I was happy with the results, overall. Eventually I will develop a standard load or a few standard loads. I started with 200 of the Hornady SWC's and have used most of them. I still have most of a box of 500 Rem JSP's. My reloads depend on what components I can find. Bullets mostly on sale at MidwayUSA, some new brass but mostly my recovered fired cases. Primers and powder at local gunshops. Specific powders can be easy to find or impossible. I have a whole lot of supplies, small quantities and one-pound cans of powder. I have cases of 1000 primers but only one brand of each size because that is what the gunshop was selling. There is a certain thrill to using only what 'you' have.

I read something in the last week about how BATFE measures barrel length. Close the bolt. Drop a rod into the tube. Mark it at the muzzle. Measure the length that was inside the bore.

Took 4 handguns to the range Monday. First shooting session since that surgery in July 2010. Surgery & complications ran over a year, then there is always 'something' ?? I promised in another thread to give a review of result of the new slide stop in the Taurus PT 1911. The OEM part would hang up in the spring of the magazine somehow, under the follower. The magazine was difficult to extract after a string of shots and the slide would not lock open. On Monday I ran three 5-round strings and everything worked properly. The magazine I used is a stainless Springfield Armory that I bought used in a gunshop and it is friction tight after dropping about a half inch in extraction. I only shoot casual target, no biggie, may eventually try to figure out what to do to fix it. On a good day I can keep the holes in the target within 2 inches at 25 yards with this gun. I was having a very bad day, at least starting out and the PT 1911 was first up. I wanted to evaluate the guns so I was using my range box sitting on the benchtop as a rest for my forearms, two-hand grip with the guns and my hands in the clear. My legs are not doing well lately so I was perched on a stool while shooting. Second gun was my new Ruger New Vaquero. 357 Mag, 4 5/8 inch, aftermarket Rosewood grips that are duplicates of the factory grip design. Fired some 110 gr HP factory ammo and some handloads done with 158 gr SWC's. The factory rounds went first, first ammo ever put through the revolver (except factory proofs). 25 yards, all holes in the target to left of POA, badly scattered except a general tendency to cluster on the 11 O'clock vector in the 5 and 7 rings. Needs more dedicated shooting time and sight adjustments. Holes all over the paper and two missing holes. This one needs practice, adjustment, more evaluation. In its time the SAA was probably fine but after shooting this one I am much less than impressed. Third gun restored my faith. The 6 inch L-frame 357 Mag Smith was fed the same 158 gr SWC's as the New Vaquero but the Smith put them all in a decent cluster in the red disk of the target. Some factory JSP's did well, too. My eyes do not do well and iron sights are almost a lost cause. I put the white glimmer of the front blade insert on the white golf ball target center and am happy with the result. Lighting conditions and the sunglass safety glasses take away all the red/orange of the blade insert. The loss of color seems to be a specialty of the lighting conditions at the shooting range. Outdoor, bright sun, deep shadow under the firing line canopy. Last up was the 4 inch N-frame 44 Mag Smith. It started as a disaster. I loaded 300 gr WNFPGC's. I did not know where the rounds went. At least I could see dust clouds on the backing berm. After two shots I got another shooter who was taking a break to spot for me. I had four targets in a square format on the backing board; was aiming at a bottom target and was hitting the top target. 8 to 11 inches high. Spread of the holes was atrocious. I switched to some 44-Special-equivalents I had loaded; 240 gr Hornady SWC over light Unique: 2 cylinders all within the 9-ring disk and strung vertically more than laterally. Just a couple of fliers. Restored my faith -- again. Then some Remington 240 gr JSP's I had loaded over full amounts of 2400: Vertical stringing pretty bad but the holes were otherwise as tightly grouped as I can usually manage with most of my handguns. The OEM front sight was a blade with an orange/red insert that proved invisible last time I fired this revolver. I now have a fiber-optic red front sight. It still turned white but was a clearly visible tiny white disk that was very easy to put on the target. Some of my vertical stringing was in deciding where to hold that little disk. It works best with this JSP ammo if superimposed on the white golf ball center of the target. Summary for the Monday shoot: The Taurus PT1911 is fixed. The New Vaquero needs work on the sights and shooting practice. The L-frame Smith is fine. The N-frame Smith is fine. Needs work on the dedicated Bear/Feral Pig Killer ammo. Notes: --FWIW: My Marlin 1894 lever gun, 44 Rem Mag, with micro-groove barrel does not cope with any bullets under 240 gr. 240 Gr JSP factory or handload generates a loose & ragged (10 - 15 rounds) pattern of 6 to 8 inches with fliers at 50 yards (the last try was factory ammo). The 300 gr WFNGC Cast Performance bullets over a load of IMR-4227 that is as heavy as I am comfortable with has given a 14-round pattern filling a 3 inch disk at 50 yards. I have those targets in my files. --The N-frame Smith in 44 Mag was purchased specifically to be a backup for hunting Feral Pigs with the primary weapon to be my LR-308. My health makes such a hunt almost just 'an apple dangling from a pole' to chase. --Almost all of the targets I have used at my current shooting range are in my files. Those targets are for my own reference and review. Original targets & documents tell it like it really is. They document almost all of what I say in this forum. The only guns and shooting not covered are the T/C Hawken in the black powder era of my life, decades ago. --Had not seen any 44 Mag factory ammo heavier than 240 gr. until this calendar year. Found some on the shelf at Cabella's or CTD in late January or early February but will not/cannot pay that asking price.

I "Trust in Kroil." Of course I am a serious "Contrarian" and do no more than what seems to me to meet the need? Aluminum cleaning rod (aluminum is a lot softer than the steel bore?); 22 caliber bronze brush; paper towel cut (NO! not your wife's delicate sewing scissors! A cheap pair of kitchen shears from that aisle in the grocery store!) in strips wide enough to fully cover/wrap the bronze brush and with enough layers to fit reasonably tightly in the bore; Wet the swab with Kroil or my mixture of 20%-35% Kroil mixed into Mobil One Full Synthetic 5 or 10W-30; Push wet swab from breech through bore and out muzzle; unscrew & remove swab before pulling cleaning rod out of bore; put new paper towel on brush and do it again- and again- and . . . until the bore is clean. OK-- I do use powder solvent for the first few times. The Gurus I follow say never never never push or pull a cleaning device through the bore except in the same direction as a fired bullet. Run a dry swab or at least a dry patch through the bore just before you go shoot. Because of that synthetic oil, I do not get much build-up of anything and the bores usually clean up in a dozen or so swabbings. If not, let them sit overnight with a liberal slosh of oil/Kroil or until you have time again. Kroil is like the 'Grinding Wheels Of The Gods-- ' exceeding fine but exceeding slow. I would really love to see the inside of the bore with a good borescope to see what this does in real detail. If any gun writers see this comment, do an article in your magazine with lots of borescope pictures? And tell us here which magazine & issue? In any case, my bores are nice and shiny and look to be sparkly clean with sharp edges & grooves on rifling as far as I can tell.

Nobody at Brownell's today. It's Sunday. Filed on-line for my B.A.D. - A.S.S. Bought some little tools and accessories for reloading from MidwayUSA. At least there was someone there to answer questions. Also bought the Hornady 5-piece head-space gauge. Hope everything I need is included. A lot of this stuff requires additional special tools to work but the first mention is in the middle of the fine print in the directions. All it mentions in the discussion in the catalog is a caliper, which I have.

The little gunshop that I visit sometimes has cold gun blue specifically for aluminum. My current bottle of cold blue is "Birchwood Casey Perma-Blue" for steel. (Black screws for cabinetry are non-existent. Use cold gun blue to make black screws or black hardware items; etc. Most surface finishes/plating, not all, not stainless steel. Duh!)

Hoot, love your 'how to' on this. Thank you for creating it! I pulled the carrier from my own LR-308 and compared it to your pictures. Your carrier, using measurements from my monitor screen, appears to have a tube length behind the slot of about 0.75 x diameter. My factory DPMS carrier has a tube length behind the slot that measures 2.67 x diameter. That would seem to make it a factory "heavy" carrier? OAL of the BCG is (about) 8.5 & 8 11/16 inches; OAL of the buffer assembly inside the A-2 stock is (about) 10 7/8 inches. Weight of the BCG (on a Doctor's Office balance scale) appears to be a hair less than 5/8 pound which would agree well with your 5 ounce BCG plus the 4 oz lead add-on. Operation of my DPMS is smooth and it ejects brass without undue force about 90 degrees to the right into my range box which I use as a brass catcher on the bench at the range. I can and have spent all day at the range wearing a T-shirt, shooting up to 5 rifles, all with the Limbsaver pads and when I finally finish my thirsty is screaming, my hungry is filing for disaster relief, my shoulder is asking "When do we start?"

Don't mess with that gas port. Buy and shoot some US commercial factory ammo like Robocop says. When the rifle is looser after 50 to 200 rounds the Privi Partizan will most likely work OK. Somewhere in this forum is a bunch of noise about foreign made and especially 'surplus' military ammo. You seem to be having a classic experience.