Cliff R

+2 on Blantons but it has caught on and difficult to get here. Bookers is at the top of my list, but pricey. Rabbit Hole is excellent, but if you are looking at lower price points hard to beat Four Roses Small Batch. If you are mixing with Coke or making an Old Fashion Buffalo Trace works well there, and not too pricey. I'll grab Evan Williams Single Barrel for Old Fashion's as well, usually around $30 a bottle. If you are into Old Fashion's these are a must: https://www.amazon.com/LUXARDO-Original-Maraschino-Cherries-105-8/dp/B002YY4OU2/ref=asc_df_B002YY4OU2/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312252971714&hvpos=1o6&hvnetw=g&hvrand=4003726612187003229&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1023754&hvtargid=pla-569110021199&th=1 Put the syrup over vanilla bean ice cream for desert. We sold our bar a year ago but had a full selection of Bourbon and it is very popular here in these parts. We would have Bourbon "tastings" couple of times a year and they always brought in quite a crowd, plus we were always bringing in new offerings so got to sample just about everything out there........Cliff

Going to make a batch here today. We eat a lot of black beans, and buy them dry in 50 pound bags. Recently Deb bought an Insta-Pot. It really takes the wait time out of soaking and cooking down dried black beans. Wash the beans, drain, put in the pot and cover them to about twice the level with water. 20 minutes on pressure cook and good to go. I add a little sea salt, chopped onion, fresh ground black pepper, and piece of bacon if there is any an the fridge.........Cliff

Another ammo story, a little off topic but interesting. I was already a Small Arms Instructor back in the 1980's when we got our first shipment of M-9 pistols to replace our 1911 45's. They also sent us ammo for them. It was from Israeli Industries and marked TZZ on the crates. I don't remember much else about it other than it came in 64 round boxes, not 50. We started doing testing and training with the new Beretta 92's and they were fine for a while then we started having problems with them. We didn't have any weapon failures but we got a message to stop using them as a couple of slides came off and injured the shooters at another range. We got another message to stop using the TZZ ammo and it was replaced with Winchester or Olin in 50 round boxes. We sent all the M-9's in for repairs that we'd been firing with that ammo. They repaired them and we started getting in our full allotment of new ones, and never had any more issues with any of them. No one ever owned up to it but I believe that the TZZ ammo was designed for Uzi's and way too hot for the M-9 pistols. I still remember night firing on the range and the fireball from that ammo was considerably greater than the from the ammo that replaced it.......Cliff

When I was shooting High Power and Bullseye matches for them got assigned to the SAI School so on the range daily. Spent several years there in the mid-1980's and the topic of lead bullets and any hazards from them never came up once. They did "gut" all the buildings on the base around that time and remove all the asbestos, probably spending about 10 zillion dollars on that deal, but no one ever came down to the range and dug all the lead out of the backstop wearing any sort of protective gear, etc........Cliff

Yikes! Can't believe than in all my years of taking big game it never even dawned on me that lead bullets could leave that much behind and so spread out as they passed thru the animal. I've settled in on the Barnes 175 grain bullets for my 308's and sticking with them for hunting. To date all I've shot with them is groundhogs but I'm sure they will perform well on deer and Elk........Cliff http://www.barnesbullets.com/bullets/lrx/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1NCGOm5Upk

Agreed, never even thought about the lead in the meat deal. So curiosity got the best of me and I went down and weighed a recently recovered bullet from a nice buck I took back in December. He was over 200 pounds and quite a ways off so the big 450 Hornady 250 grain ballistic tip bullet made full penetration but was just under the skin on the far shoulder. It's pretty rare to get to recover a bullet but the shot was made at 205 steps and went thru both shoulders instead of heart/lung. I weighed the bullet in the pic below and it's 237 grains, so there is 13 grains of lean floating around someplace. Hopefully not too much of it was in the roast I made last Sunday.......Cliff

My "perfect powder" for 22/250 ended up being H-414. It's a ball powder and measures well, and very consistent over the chronograph back when I was working up varmint loads. Used to load 52 gr Speer bench rest flat base hollow points over a full charge of it. They went right at 3800fps over the chronograph and every one in the same hole at 100 yards. It also worked very well in my 243 and 6MM. It's not mentioned much these days and I have zero experience with the 6.5C, just throwing it out there........Cliff

What sex is the bird on an Officers hat?.........It's a male, and it's ALWAYS a male. Why you might ask? Because there is always a PRICK underneath it!.....LOL "The unsuccessful Officers were micro-managers that didn't listen to their Enlisted Senior NCOs, or just had weakass NCOs under them - and those NCOs didn't uphold a standard" +2, 3, 4 and 5! Officers have their place in the organization and I've worked with many over the years when still on active duty. They are still people, just like the rest of us, good, bad, some just OK. There are PLENTY of enlisted pukes who's entire existence isn't worth two squirts of duck poop. Early in my career worked briefly for an NCO who wished he was close to as tall as I was, and as strong and fast. He degraded (disrespectful and treated my like poop) me on a daily basis until I put a stop to it. Cost me a promotion and got me short toured out of that unit, but it was necessary. The rank structure is there for a reason, most of the time works fine for folks who are dedicated, mission oriented, etc. I liked it, respected it, lived by it.......but......once in a while it doesn't work like it's supposed to and you have to do the wrong thing to get the right outcome. Just like a few others (a couple were Officers) I've known over my 20 year career he would have been the first one to get my bullet if we'd ever got our position overrun by the enemy. That's just the way it is and I try not to dwell on the bad times. On the flip side of the coin in the 1980's (Reagan years) we took on a "task" working directly for the State Department, hell I suppose mentioning it now woln't matter but back then in was all hush-hush secret squirrel crap. Every single person, Officer or Enlisted not only volunteered for that deal they were screened in front of a panel and extensive background investigation done, etc. If you made it thru that deal off for special training required to help us perform the mission. Those that made it (many did not) were by far and above the finest folks I've ever worked with, and to this day everyone one of them would be on my list of folks I'd want in close proximity if we were getting overrun by the enemy or any other shitty situation you might not make it out of without a good fight. One last comment on Military rank structure, etc. Late in my career I saw changes that were not good for the organization. Brought on by HR and "work life" crap (IMHO). They started paying more attention to the members total well being and cushy home-life, and made PTSD a household word. Not that there's anything wrong with making sure a guys personal life is doing well because it can reflect somewhat on how well they perform their jobs, but they blew that crap WAY out of proportion and put too much focus on touchy-feely chit. This just gave the marginal performers another tool to get out of work because the wife was going to have an ultra-sound to find out what sex the bun in the oven was going to be....really.....we're getting ready to deploy and you want an day off for what? I remember those times all too well and glad I retired when I did because I found myself spending WAY too much time dealing with one or two marginal performers and all their work-life crap, instead of being able to put my right boot far enough up their ars to remind them that all that chit, even though important is done on your own time, not on my time. Anyhow, interesting it was mentioned above about lead bullets and Eagles. The ground hog I whacked on the way back to our shooting range last Fall had a young Eagle on it in minutes. Kind of cool but Eagles around these parts get to eat first, the buzzards sit close by but wait their turn with great respect. Never even dawned on me that ingesting lead from gut piles could be hard on them, steel core or solid copper from now on for my varmint loads........tks......Cliff

I like the Barnes 175's and blasted a ground hog with my PA-10 at 150 yards with one heading back to do a little shooting before heading out to Colorado last October. Even on a ground hog the big 175 grain ballistic tip Barnes bullet left a fist size exit hole! Unfortunately I didn't get on an Elk this year. Had one opportunity but passed it up not being sure the bull was legal as he was moving really fast in heavy cover. The 308-AR's I own all like the heavy Barnes bullets, but shoot pretty good with a plain old Sierra 150 grain soft point over a full charge of IMR-4320. I also loaded up some Hornady 155's that shot very well hovering around 1" at 100 yards thru all three rifles. I still haven't stumbled onto a load that will delivery one hole accuracy, but for hunting I'm content with the big Barnes bullets and hope to try them out on a big bull Elk next season........Cliff

If you are going to move out to 600 yards (or further) then groups size at 100 yards starts to become a pretty big deal. I like to see my hunting loads stay at or very close to 1" at 100 yards. That puts me well on deer to Elk size game at "normal" shooting distances. Don't be fooled by the game channel showing folks making really long shots on huge bull Elk at ridiculously long distances. I've been hunting out West for decades and the vast majority of the Elk I've taken have been less than 75 yards and usually in pretty thick cover, moving as well. So low powered scopes, heavier bullets with good expansion characteristics, and quick back up shots are higher on my priority list than loads that punch the same hole at 100 yards. For long range or match shooting you absolutely want to find a load that shoots well under 1" consistently at 100 yards. A 1.5" group average at 100 yards in clear out to 9" or so at 600 yards and over a foot at 1000 yards...that doesn't cut it for High Power matches or days at Camp Perry on the long range course. Back when I shot competitively (mid to late 1980's, and ya I know I'm an "old geezer") they required everyone to pull their ammo from the same lot. I remember Lake City 308 Match was typically brought in on a pallet and you picked from it after the pre-fire lecture. Not overly familiar with the newer ammo but have played around with several types so far and not overly impressed with any of it. I have 3 rifles and fired several military "ball" loads including PMC (which usually fairs pretty well in my AR-15's), and several hunting loads from Winchester and Federal including "fusion". Couldn't get any of them to meet the criteria I was looking for so made up some hand loads settling on Barnes 175 grain bullets over Varget. In all 3 rifles they are easily 1" or a little tighter at 100 yards, good enough for going out West for big game........Cliff

I carry an S & W model 637 38 revolver most of the time. It's small, light, and easy to conceal. Always goes bang too, no matter how much crap lint, dust and dirt get in it. I've tried numerous auto pistols over the years (37 years in Law Enforcement) and they can be unreliable at times and inevitably the magazine will end up hanging out of them basically disabling the weapon. Yes, probably not what most folks want to hear, but I carry every single day all day long, in and out of vehicles, down on the floor or ground, crawling around in tight places, etc to collect evidence (CSI work), and in a wide enough variety of scenarios where a larger/heavier auto loading pistol just doesn't make the grade. I still like them, and use and prefer one of my Shield's if/when I'm working a case where a bit more firepower might be needed (chitty parts of town). For those days I'll either carry my Shield 9mm or 45 and put the 637 in my pocket.......Cliff

Palmetto Armory has a nice soft case. I've picked up two so far for free as they often offer them with ammo or other specials to spice up the deal some. Got the last one with the purchase of a 60 round drum mag for AR-15's.......Cliff

Nice rifle for sure. I own two 45/70 Marlin model 1895's, on is early production and standard rifling (not micro-grooved). I've been shooting 45/70's for about 30 years and found that they really like Reloader 7. It delivers excellent consistency over the chronograph and good velocities for the lighter 300 grain bullets. My go-to hunting load is 55 grains with Remington 300 grain hollow point bullets. I've shot everything from Elk to ground hogs with it. Not overly fond of sighting it in. At the range make sure to remove your hat and glasses, if not your hat will be on the ground and it will knock the lenses out of your glasses when you touch off the first round!.....LOL......Cliff

I'd add here that the groups fired in the 1st pic were the first 7 rounds fired from the 450 Bushmaster. I bore sighted it, fired two rounds that are touching, then 5 rounds pretty much in the same hole. Out of the box that rifle has been the best I've seen with factory ammo for any autoloader. I'm sure I could even tighten things up some more with a higher power scope, the 1-4 has pretty thick cross-hairs and not much of a sight picture on the target at 100 yards. I've achieved very good results with my 308 AR's after working the triggers and hand loading for them. All three absolutely love the 175 grain Barnes bullet over Varget........Cliff

Many thanks!

I'm also partial to the A-2 stocks and outfitted all of my 308-AR's with them. I built my first 308-AR with Alexandria Arms upper/lower and A2 stock with 308-AR spring/buffer, no issues. The second 308-AR is a PA-10, 14.7" barrel and converted their lower to the A2 stock as well. I more recently obtained a DPMS Oracle and put an A2 stock on it. For all three I used the spring/buffers offered for the DPMS: DPMS LR-308 Buffer Rifle 308-BS-11 DPMS LR-308 Buffer Spring 308-BS-10B No issues to date, but after doing more research and reading threads on this Forum I'm wondering if these are the correct parts? I was also told by the shop that sold me the Alexandria parts that I should have used an AR-15 buffer/spring assembly in that build, confusing to say the least. Somewhat related but I also used an A2 stock for my 450 Bushmaster build, but used an AR-15 buffer/spring assembly in it. Attached a pic of it below, the first rounds fired out of it at 100 yards. Two sighters then 5 rounds for the second group, then off to the woods deer hunting.......Cliff

I wished that I had joined the Forum BEFORE I built my rifles, and even though I was able to fudge my way thru a couple of builds (5 to date from scratch) I still have a lot to learn about these AR 308 platforms......Cliff

I purchased a PA-10 308 a few years ago because they offered a 14.7 barrel upper with welded on flash hider. I also bought their matching lower for it. I already had a custom built AR-308 (Alexandria Arms) but it was heavier and I wanted a lighter rifle for Elk hunting. I'm a fan of the A-2 stocks so I never fired the PA-10 with the 6 position stock, spring, buffer, etc. I did some on-line searching and bought a 308 buffer and spring dubbed for the DPMS 308 platform and installed them with no other changes. The rifle functions flawlessly with any and all ammo I've ran thru it. This includes several boxes of PMC FMJ, Federal 150, Winchester 150 and hand loaded 150 grain hunting loads using Sierra bullets and IMR 4320. I settled on 175 grain Barnes hunting loads using Varget power and still flawless to date and zero failures to feed or eject. Not sure how this works into the problem, but I also installed the same parts into the custom built Alexandria Arms 308, and the DPMS that I got in a trade recently and converted to the A2 stock. All of these rifles function flawless with any ammo I've put thru them. They "dump" the brass consistently in the same area, and lock the bolt to the rear after the last round is fired. Haven't looked at gas tube length or gas block hole sizes so can't provide any details there. I was told that the Alexandria Arms 308 Upper was designed to use AR-15 part as far as the buffer/springs were concerned. I actually heard that AFTER installing DPMS 308 parts in it, but since I wasn't seeing any issues just going to leave it as-is unless something develops. As far as Palmetto Armory goes, they aren't free from defects in manufacturing or miss-matching/installing the incorrect parts on their uppers. I received an AR-47 upper from them a few years ago and it didn't work well at all. I discovered that they had installed inadvertently installed the wrong firing pin in the bolt. Having a lathe in my shop I modified the one they sent with it and complained hard enough for them to also send the correct one. I'd add here that they were very good to deal with (I've heard to the contrary a few times) and send the part I needed without question once I explained the issues in detail. I've had a few other minor issues, like leaving parts out of the lower build kits, and every time they sent what was missing without any grumbling, so very good customer service to date......Cliff

Agreed about posting in the reloading section. Might want to just have your friend back the load off to the minimum and test a few of those rounds. I also noticed the firing pin cratering, which bothers me with this sort of thing. Also notice the very sharp rise in pressure from 40.2gr to 43.5 it goes from 44,000 to 59,200. It's always best to start at the minimum and sneak up on heavier loads than be on the upper end of the spectrum right out of the gate.....IMHO. This provides the shooter a chance to check for signs of excessive pressure as you work up to the ideal load. I'd also add that if this is just FMJ "plinking" rounds for sure you'll never notice the 200fps or so loss backing off the load just a tad......Cliff

+2 Never been overly fond of 3031 dating clear back to the mid 1970's when I first started reloading. Going from memory it has very long grains and "crunchy" thru my powder measure. Difficult to tell by the pics but it appears that pressure may be a bit high looking at the primers. In any case have you tried any factory loads with the same bullet weight? Off topic but I've been shooting 45/70's and reloading for them about 4 decades now. My "go-to" powder for that round is Reloader 7........Cliff

I've also seen folks have issues with cases sticking in the chamber from not having the reloading dies adjusted correctly. Likely he's setting them up to crimp the bullet or should be for these applications. You have to make sure that the crimp operation doesn't happen too early. If it does the additional downward force will "push" the case down slightly and put enough of a bulge in it for them to stick in the chambers. The "bulge" can be so slight you can't see it easily but rest assured they will stick in the chambers if this is happening. I've seen this issue several times over the years with home reloaded ammunition so avoid it and only shoot my own reloads........Cliff

I would imagine that the factory ammo only comments are purely due to liability. There is always a learning curve with hand loading ammunition and part of that learning curve can lead to potentially dangerous scenarios.......Cliff

Yep, I found out about the compatibility issues and part interchange quickly, and ended up with two very nice and well performing rifles, 3 if you count the DPMS that I end up with in a trade. For an out of the box rifle it shoots quite well with everything I've put thru it, and didn't require any trigger modifications/improvements, the pull and take up/creep is quite acceptable for that type of weapon.......Cliff

Thanks for the heads-up. For the most part I'm not one to make assumptions about anything. I'm a pretty meticulous person, tend to set pretty high standards for many things, and demand that the weapons that I own and count on for self defense and hunting run flawlessly. The Internet and Forums for various topics help to some extent and can be a great resource, but one has to remember that with many topics the folks putting up the information will have limited skills and experience. The websites are also riddled with "trolls" who have little to any direct experience at all with any topics but "google" up and regurgitate information based on typewriter research and not direct testing. There are also a percentage of folks dabbling with certain things who need to put them down, walk away and get back to their day job. So basically feedback with many topics is not entirely accurate. Still plenty of good info out there to help folks go in one direction or the other, or back pocket the info to see if it applies to what they are doing, etc.......FWIW......Cliff

Don't have an Armalite, but have three 308 AR variants. I was scolded a bit on anther thread so from this point on I'll specifically identify them in discussions. The first one I purchased/built was on an Alexandria Arms platform, despite a few lessons in humility trying to round up the correct parts it went pretty well. There was a little bit of confusing and conflicting info on the NET and from the seller, but I sorted thru it, ended up with a few extra parts, and all is good. I purchased a PSA upper and lower separately, and converted it from the 6 position stock to an A2 stock. It has a light profile 14.7" barrel to keep weight down to a minimum. More recently I traded for a DPMS 308, so ended up with three of them.......Cliff