BrianK

I have no doubt that you'll get squared away. FWIW, I absolutely HATE raking. Yes, it's lots of labor. Every year we have a leaf drop, same as you do in Wisconsin. I let the mower handle any "raking". I maneuver the discharge to blow it into my forest. Edit: Yes, that looks like my stroke unforgiven. I rowed a great deal as a child and brushed up on it 2 weeks ago to make sure I was doing it correctly today, 50 years later. My biggest problem is throttling back my mind. I want to speed up too much and that's not what it's about. So I keep track of the spm and keep it between 16-18. Nice and leisurely but effective. I never started to sweat in cardiac rehab, but I do a little when rowing. I'll get better.

How'd it go Sisco? Still going slow here but doing more each time. Now I rest for 2 every 5 minutes, and I row for 10 minutes. I'm liking the rowing machine and working all of my body. At the hospital all of the exercises worked either the legs or arms and that's it. Still working on the walking; 1.8mph @ 15% grade. It's slow going to get the circulation rerouted but I know how far I've come so I continue. It took me over 3 years to get to where I am so it's not an overnight sort of thing. Went to the gym 2x this week and maybe again tomorrow weather permitting.

I love 300BLK. Did my research and built my own. It runs supers and subs, but, and here's the catch, I handload for my gun. I tried the S&B subs they mention and they just won't function the gun reliably. Supers? If a 300BLK doesn't run with supers just give up, they all do, or at least should. The fly in the ointment is if it'll also run subs as they correctly asked. But build a gun to run subs and it's probably not going to run supers the way it should. But handload and you've got it. At least that's the way I see it and that approach worked for me. Or one could try various loads until a load or loads are found that work reliably. If one needs a crash course in 300BLK it's found here: https://www.300blktalk.com/forum/index.php Everything you wanted to know about 300BLK is there somewhere. Its where I got my info for what I built and I came away with the understanding that I might need to adjust the pressure curve of the ammo to make it work with subs. That's my way of saying don't ask me, instead go to that site to find and learn what you need to do for what you build. Is it worth it? They got it 100% correct that it's a niche cartridge. But on the 300blk talk forum you'll find folks who use it for all sorts of things, including hunting. It isn't a bean field rifle, but used within it's capabilities it works fine. It didn't exist back when I was hunting, but knowing about it today I wish I'd have had it back then. FWIW, my 10" build is a HD gun for exactly the reasons they give. But I don't use subs for HD for at least 2 reasons. IMO they are the wrong load for indoor use. I shoot an 85 gr copper (Maker) @ 2300fps for 1k ft/lbs out of my 10" barrel. Yes, it wears a blast can but that doesn't make it quiet it just stops the pain of the eardrums from concussion. It does keep the firearm shorter. OK, why supers and not subs? A SD gun should ideally have stopping power and that begins at about (if my memory serves me) at around 2000fps. Below that the best we can hope for is that the bullet expands, dumps it's energy to produce trauma, and allow bleed out. The worst, and here's where a sub comes in, is that a tiny hole is drilled, maybe many tiny holes, and a slowish bleed out happens. That could allow a perp plenty of time to do more evil, and stopping that was the entire purpose of deadly force in the first place. At least that's my thinking on it, with absolutely no real world experience and I hope I never get any. That's why I use Maker 85s, they have stopping power, dump a huge amount of energy, produce a perfect 3 pointed mushroom, and gel tests tell me that they'll penetrate about 6" and remain inside with no exit. If I didn't use the 85s I'd use a 110-125 grain bullet, probably a varmint bullet to make sure I got expansion if it was copper jacketed lead at the relatively low velocity we can expect from a short barreled 300BLK (2k fps or lower). IMO, there is no reason to have a long barreled, meaning 16", 300BLK. That just defeats the entire purpose of the cartridge but lots of folks have them and it's one way to get more velocity than I can never hope to get from my shorter barrel. I trade velocity to gain a smallish firearm. OK, a bit more re: subs... There ARE bullets that expand reliably at subsonic velocity. I haven't tried them yet but they look promising. I shoot cast for subs and IMO are a no-no. Those cast bullets, and many others intended for more velocity and their tougher jackets is what I base the above comments on.

Today in the low 40s (central Maine) bright sun and not much wind, a mild gust now and then. It's a nice day for outside chores. I picked up some cut wood from a tree that blocked my driveway 2 months ago and reloaded the inside wood rack. Normally I use the truck for that, but it's kaput and no one at the Toy' garage is smart enough to diagnose an engine that isn't running so It sits on the lot awaiting being traded for a new truck. It's either that or pay $100/hr to have them tear the engine apart looking for what I think is a pollution control problem. That dealership used to have good mechanics but covid hit and now the good ones have found better paying jobs (so I was told). When will my new truck show up? No one knows. Back to weather. Some sort of snow is forecast for later in the week. Again, no truck; since it has the plow my neighbor will take care of it if we get enough accumulation to be bothered with it. On a bright note, yesterday was also a decent day so I sorta sighted in the 10/22 SBR that got the new barrel and parts a month+ ago. I use it for steel challenge and it should be close @ 40ish yards. I'll fine tune it in a month.

After getting mine I've been looking at those Sagebrush. How do you like it? Can you compare it to a manual trimmer? Sisco, I never burned anywhere near that amount of wood in a season. But in my younger days I absolutely loved getting out into the forest and working up our winter heat. Back then we could easily see -35°F, today not so much. I won't light the wood stove unless it's going to be cold enough to justify that amount of steady heat. We love wood heat because it's so steady, the closest we come today is the heat pump. The worst is the oil furnace with it's constant up and down and either being too warm or too cold.

We were getting spoiled thinking an early spring was here (Maine). The temps had been climbing and it was in the mid 50sF yesterday. But we're headed back to winter weather and temps. Heck, it's only February and we can still get anything including the worst weather of the winter. The warm days sure were nice while they lasted though! The forecast says northern Maine can get up to 12" of snow in the next 24 hours. I don't envy them. I've grown to hate snow.

Yeah, I agree. Text makes it somehow more dangerous. Ridiculous! The politicians who wrote that law are a bunch of anal sphincters! Welcome to the forum Lefty308.

One thing I have found, and it's a bad habit on my part. Any saw should be up to full rpms before touching the chain to wood. The centrifugal clutch needs the rpms so as not to slip and due to the power my gas saws have I hit the throttle and immediately start cutting before full RPMs. But they are only the barest split second behind. The battery saw needs full rpm or it'll stall. That's good corrective therapy for my bad habit.

Yeah, now that's one heck of a saw! I think I'd want a spotter if I was the pilot though. I really hate putting a blade in the dirt and rocks as it looked like he did. Chainsaws.... We heat with wood when it gets really cold. It'll drive us out if I light the woodstove when it's much above 20°F. So I have chainsaws to support the wood heat with the 45 acres of wood growth that we own. One is a 5 hp and the other 3hp but I really don't like to fiddle with gas mix when I just have a small job or 2 so those jobs never get done. Heck, when I did have the gas saws ready to go for bigger jobs I never remembered the small jobs and again, they never got done. OK, I'm going to write exactly what I told a neighbor, we'll get back to that. Don't laugh is what I told him and I suggest it here. The wife asked what I wanted for Christmas and I told her a battery powered chainsaw. I had experience with an electric chainsaw 50 years ago, none of it good. But I had been hearing about the new crop of battery saws and all of it was positive, so after a mess of online research I asked for one. I'm in the Makita system and don't need a bench full of chargers and various batteries that exist for orphan tools, so I specified Makita and was told to buy it. I got a 36v saw; it takes 2 18v batteries and has a 16" bar. I used it very briefly to get a fallen trees limbs out of my driveway at the start of the cold season and I was surprised. Based on my previous negative experience 50 years ago it actually was capable of cutting wood and doing a credible job. The saw 50 years ago was just a POS and not worth a nickle. The Makita wasn't any of my gas saws with huge chain speed, but it was decent. Battery draw was minimal but I have yet to use it for a really big job. OK, back to my neighbor. He was over and the conversation got turned to saws and I asked him not to laugh, but I also had a battery operated saw, yada, yada, and it was a decent performer. OK, now my neighbor cuts trees and sells to the mills. I was surprised to hear that he had one too (MIlwaukee) and he liked it. Told me that he puts it on the back of his snowmobile to get trees out of the trail so that he doesn't need to play with gas mix. OK, for cutting trunks into stove length I'll keep my bigger saws, esp' the 5hp* but for limbing the lightweight battery saw is going to see use. Also for the previous mentioned small jobs. It always has charged batteries in place and bar/chain oil in the tank and is ready to go. No ear protection required either, just grab and go. *I don't remember the Husky model number (I think it ends with an "XP") but it has special mods so that it revs up higher for higher chain speed. It's a beast. As I age I appreciate lighter saws when their use is appropriate, like limbing and felling smaller trees.

And do NOT give them any notoriety by using their name.

👍 Good for you! The feces has hit the fan with lots of stuff going on "at home" so I haven't gone as often as I like. But as soon as I get caught up (very soon, Monday hopefully) I'll not make up for it, but I'll go at least 2x a week. Last time I went I went I spent a bunch of time on the rowing machine after doing my rehab on the treadmill, and did something I haven't done in quite some time at Cardiac rehab at the hospital, I started to work up a sweat. Not doing anything outlandish for a workout just rowing at a decent pace (19spm) and resting for 1 1/2 minutes every 3. At cardiac they didn't like us to exercise too hard. 😆 I assume they didn't want to have to get out the paddles or worse yet, do the paperwork if we croaked. They just wanted us to exercise the heart muscle and no more. But I went easy on the rowing expecting to be a hurtin' unit the next day, but nothing was sore. I'll work my way up slowly with both resistance and time monitoring my vitals as I go. Heck, I haven't rowed anything for over 1/2 a century and I was VERY surprised that I wasn't hurting. I also expected my calves that don't get normal blood flow to be hurting as I was rowing, but I guess it's slow enough so as not to be an issue. That's not the case with the treadmill and that's exactly why I do it. For me just going to the supermarket is also rehab for the calves. I walk at my military pace, it's just so hard to slow down, and when the calves start to hurt I stop and let the blood catch up. My point is that normal everyday movement is also rehab for me.

Welcome to the forum!

Welcome to the forum from central Maine! No experience with flat wire on an AR10, but I have one in a .300BLK AR15 and it works fine.

I forgot! There's more. Despite therapy and exercise I'm losing muscle mass. Another thing I've done is to sell many of my long long guns and buy bullpups and SBRs. Without the barrel mass wayyyy out there they handle so much better.

Well, age and medical conditions caught up to me. I never thought I'd get to be this old. I doubted I'd live to be 20 and back then I was superman. But I have, and this is now, it's real, and all of a sudden I have this old worn out body with heart disease and peripheral artery disease (drastic lack of circulation in the extremities). My hunting and days of walking very far are behind me due to those medical conditions I briefly mentioned above. Before I started with therapy I couldn't walk very far at all w/o pain showing up not long into the walk. The alternative is having my femoral arteries sliced open, scraped out, then 2 months of bedrest. I would be able to get out of bed for no more than 15 minutes at a whack and only for taking a dump. But the therapy is working and I'm doing better to the point where I surprise myself at times with what I can do. Therapy doesn't have a rowing machine so I quit last week to take out a membership at Planet Fitness where I'll continue my therapy and use other cardiac machines to include a rowing machine. My last day of therapy at the hospital was Jan 31st and when I said goodbye to the nurse on duty to tell her my plans she suggested to me that I was moving into Phase 4 therapy from their Phase 3. Not only do I get the use of more exercise equipment but I can go as often as I want. Previously I was limited to 2x a week on the hospitals schedule. If weather dictated that it was closed on one of those 2 days, tough luck. Now I can work around the weather and still get in my therapy and exercise. Sure, I'm doing it for health but I also like to stay sharp for Steel Challenge and USPSA Action pistol, and they help me stay sharp for self and HD. Shortly after therapy began I decided to lose weight. I did a bunch of research into heart disease, fats/carbs, and such and decided to put myself into ketosis. Some may not know what that is. It's a drastic reduction in carbs consumed and that forces the body to begin to burn fat. The liver turns fat that is either consumed or stored into ketone which the cells can burn. If you've been following along you caught the "consumed fat" part and may be thinking, "But he has heart disease!". Yup. The common knowledge about heart disease is probably wrong. Fat, good fat, does NOT cause heart disease, carbs do. At least that's what my research turned up and what I acted on. Going into ketosis and flipping the bird to common knowledge was the hardest thing I ever did (Am I going to kill myself??). After all I'm betting my life. But my PCP Dr has told me that he agrees with what I'm doing. One positive spin off from radically restricting carb intake is... I was pre diabetic. Now I'm so not pre diabetic that my Dr has removed it from my medical record as a concern. I've lost 50# and and happy with my weight today. I could lose another 20# and still be happy, but those around me have told me that if I lose any more I'll look emaciated. Yet that would still be over my warrior weight 50+ years ago. For those inclined to choose keto... My GI (not the VA ) Dr told me that it's so difficult that she couldn't do it. I agree, when I first started into it it was very difficult. But now after having learned a great deal it's not terribly difficult to eat and stay in ketosis without a boring diet. But at first it was "What the hell can I eat!!???". I've been in ketosis for 3 1/2+ years and I still crave pasta, bread, pizza, fruit, pie, cake, yada, yada. Carbs are a difficult addiction to break.

Welcome to the forum!

Welcome to the forum from central Maine! In general terms where in Maine is your AO? I'm near Skowhegan.

I have function tested it and it works fine. But accuracy testing will need to wait until warmer weather.

I know, I know, they are heavy and fill only one function that I know of and while I will never own one that function is home defense for someone who can't or won't purchase a better handgun. If it's stolen or taken by the cops little is lost. Go out and buy another. Heck, that's the function of all Hi-Points IMO. They're ugly clubs that no one will ever take to the next BBQ to show it off. I've often thought that if one ran out of ammo they'd be just as deadly thrown at the invading perp due to the very massive slides that are required. I won't spend my very limited $ for one but if I was handed it I'd fire it just for giggles even though I need optics to hit anything at any reasonable distance today. But at bad breath distance sights wouldn't even be needed. A competition gun it definitely is not! Does it even have rifling?

Welcome to the forum!

Welcome to the forum!

I think there has been an ongoing contest to outdo each other to gather as many points as possible toward winning the most useless senator. But yeah, feinstein is right up there.

Correction (edit): the twist on my barrel is 1:7 I previously stated that it was 1:8

The sabots really require flat bottom bullets from what I recall of the way they're molded. High BC bullets would have a boattail and would have huge runout. Maybe it could be done, but I wouldn't know how to do it in a reasonable manner. In the past I found velocity to be almost magical so my thrust is toward that. But I need to find out if they will do the basics of feeding and function reliably. If that doesn't happen it's a failure. One small step at a time. This isn't going to happen rapidly. It'll be at least 1 1/2 months before I even start to think of getting my range melted and usable. . One thing at a time. I don't want to get ahead of myself. First they need the basics, to feed and function reliably. If they don't do that it's not going anywhere.

It's not a new to me idea. The military has been using it in tanks for quite some time. I think they call them discarding sabots. The Thunderbolt ground support aircraft may also use them. I used it, as do many others, with shooting black powder. The twist rate of the 300BLK was lost on me with all the other factors I was considering, but yes, it might mean a cleaner separation. I'm pretty sure my barrel has a 1:8 twist. In the end it'll either work or it won't. If I had a ballistics lab I'd be able to spend the $ and figure out what works best, but what I have is what I have and it'll either work or it won't. There's very little I can do to help it to work. I nearly forgot. That's the story I get from everyone re: the Rem' accelerators. So I guess my 3" groups weren't all that bad. It just wasn't what I was looking for. After that experiment I bought a .17 Remington and throttled the velocity down to 4060fps from 4200+. The bullets were coming apart in the air.