BrianK

We didn't have the choice. the orientation of the T-10 (it was 50+ years ago) and the wind decided for us. Yeah, I guess with rope you'd have a choice, but we didn't. The only time I ever did a PLF correctly was when I was coming down on a concrete road with a red and chrome motorcycle in the way. I slipped as much as I could to miss the bike and did a textbook perfect PLF on the concrete. Clearly part of my brain knew all along how to do one but just never saw much sense in them until it was needed ( I guess). But while I saw what was coming I had an "Oh S--t!" moment and had to think fast. I have idectic imagery of it. I was trying to remember what LZ it was and all I can come up with is Wackernheim in what was West Germany back then.

I think that might have been an introduction? If so, welcome to the forum. Sorry, not from N central Ohio, but a 33% match, central Maine.

Well, what they're trying to tell you is do it because you want to and not because it needs to be stronger. Unless you are going to abuse it in some major way, and that means have a pack horse roll om it as it goes over a cliff or some such you just won't abuse it enough so that stronger parts will amount to anything meaningful other than lightening your wallet.

Yeah, amazing. To do what biteme wants there isn't enough copper on the planet if all of it was mined to wire up all of the PV panels and wind turbines required (edit: so I read). Of course that would change if we had a mass die off of people. But that's a different subject.

The aluminum castle nut is connected to an even weaker alum' buffer tube. While in theory it could be an issue I never heard of one failing by bending or snapping in normal use. Just don't butt stroke anything with the bare buffer tube and you should be OK. That is, abuse it and it might be an issue. But it wouldn't be wrong to have Ti parts if it'll give peace of mind. I certainly wouldn't knock you for it and I doubt others would either. "Because it's America and I can.", is reason enough to have them.

Typical March weather... We've had warmish temps and melting, so yeah, what better time for double digit snow in the forecast? The ground is partially thawed and I have no idea if the gent removing the snow from my driveway can manage that without putting the gravel on my lawn. But we no longer have the old truck and the new one is still a request on paper. We could be screwed. Fingers crossed that it goes out to sea so that the fish can enjoy it.

Not AR10, but I have a bunch of Ti internals on a 10/22 SBR that I use for competition. They work fine. Ti has the strength of steel and the weight of aluminum, at least that's one way to think about it that approximates the reality. Black? IDK. All of mine are the dull grey of the metal, even the few parts that can be seen. Would it be worth the additional price for the ounce of weight it saves? I wouldn't think so. The internals in my SBR are there to speed lock time with their reduced mass. In that role the metal pays off. But if you want bragging rights the grey Ti parts would be noticeable and a conversation starter. I assume they are dull grey anyway. I have no idea if they can be polished. Personally I wouldn't want anything shiny.

Just for the record, they could do lots more than multiplication and division if one knew how to use one. My top speed was multiplication and division though from what I remember. Today not even that. But I ought to pull one out and relearn it since biteme and his buddies appear to want to drive us back into the stone age.

Dittos.

Outages... at the time I'm going to write about Maine was over 94% forested and we love that but it can be a problem... We had a huge ice storm in '98, 4" of ice covered everything from the 3 days that it was icing. Major limbs and trees down, local power lines totally down, major transmission lines and towers down, the area was a complete mess. Go outside and it sounded like a battle in the crystal store as things lost the fight with the weight. We had no heat, no running water, heck, no power and modern homes are designed for power. But I had sorta prepared by having pre-Rural Electrification Act kerosene burning appliances. That saved our bacon, but kerosene was not meant to be burned in todays tight homes. Despite having a window cracked we couldn't get rid of the water produced by burning the kerosene fast enough and our walls began getting wet. Then after the actual ice storm that 1st night with the wind chill it got down below -80°F (I think I remember -86). We were OK, but lots of folks didn't fare as well as we did. On the 5th day of the outage we got power back, but only because we are on a trunk line and they must restore us before they can go further. Like yourself, that was the deciding factor in our building on a "family room" specifically for a wood stove and to house 2k# of batteries for a solar (PV) system. Coupled with that was selling the plug in welder, and buying a 8k gas powered welder for back up to the backup, 'cause there is no sunlight for the PV panels during a storm. Now outages are as long as it takes for me to get to the panel to swap us over, and we can last for a very long time before requiring outside supplies of anything. What did we do for water during that ice storm? The product of the storm itself was our water source. I went out and gathered 4" thick chunks of ice and put the slabs in the tub. The heater we used for space heat melted and heated ice which was poured on the ice in the tub. We used that for flushing, and washing. A big pot of slab water was filtered for drinking using a Katadyn filter. Short wave radio kept us informed of what was going on. On the 4th day we made our way into town to see what was going on first hand and we saw the empty shelves in the supermarket. That convinced us to have a reserve food supply on hand all the time. Live and learn. Today we're ready for much worse. We have at least 1 long duration outage a year and the system still works as good today as when I first designed and installed it. I changed the lead/acid batteries a few years ago so other than monthly maintenance we're good for another 20 years. My widow can take care of it. Outages still suck though. I hope your area is fully restored soon.

It's been decades since I used a slide rule. I have my dads ivory clad ones from K&E in their leather cases but like you gents I'd need to learn all over again.

Shooterrex, do they have a projected day when the outages will all be fixed? Flurries here early this AM, now the sun is fighting to come out. It's in the mid 30s. I don't remember any major weather events forecast here for the foreseeable future.

Jeff Waynes War of the Worlds today. 1st time I'd ever heard it in it's entirety. The version with Justin Hayward singing Forever Autumn.

Welcome to the forum from central Maine!

Welcome to the forum!

Welcome to the forum!

Not unusual for us for March... 10" of snow yesterday and in the 30s -20s last night. Today and the rest of the week in the 40s so we'll lose alot of what fell. Good riddance to it. I'm ready for spring weather and shooting, I have lotsa shooting to do, and developing loads and reloading.

If you plan on getting a laser you might consider the following. Green is in part of the spectrum that human eyes operate best in (yellow/green). If you plan on a laser you really want the laser to be green so that you can pick it out easily from the background clutter or a light level that is marginal (too bright). But an optic, if it's set up correctly is "right there" when the rifle or shotgun is shouldered. There is no searching for the red dot in the optic. Different colors allow you to easily collimate the laser to the red dot. If you have both the same color it's much more difficult to know which is which. So boiling it down, red dot in the optic, green for the laser. Of course if you'll never have a laser on the firearm it's not an issue, but now is the time to decide and buy only once. I've been considering one of the prism type red dots and have heard nothing but good things. Please get back to us to let us know how you like it. BTW, I haven't dropped the hammer on one yet.

Sorry to hear about the goat, that sux. Good that your outage was short lived Shooterrex. Well, they forecast our weather correctly (central Maine 60ish miles inland). When I woke it was snowing hard and by the looks had been for a few hours. It's still snowing hard. I haven't been outside to check the accumulation, but from what I'm seeing it's the "worst" storm of a very unsnowy winter, we've had much worse in years past. The coast may see power outages during this due to their wet snow clinging to power lines and high winds predicted there, but I'd be very surprised if we have an outage where we are, our snow is too fluffy. Plus the storm is too gentle for an outage for us, so far anyway.

Well, that sux about the winds and outages. If I was runnin' the lineman I'd have them sit it out until the winds die down otherwise it'd be like peeing into the wind. DNP, I'm surprised you see snow at all in San Diego. No way would I have ever thought that.

Snow today (central Maine), but the outside temp' is up to almost 30°F (heat wave!). Sure it was forecast, but at this time of the year it has always struck me as being a waste of time, kinda like snow or rain over the ocean, and snowing here just to be a PITA. It's not going to last because of the angle of the sunlight. If I remember the forecast we'll get snow every other day for at least this week. When I refer to the season changes "fighting it out" this is what I mean. At this time of the year the moist air from the south clashes with the Arctic air and this is what we get. A few years ago we got 2 blizzards in one week, days apart, during the seasons fight for supremacy.

I probably ought not be such a cheapskate and buy more commercial subsonic loads to try in mine. But as the gent in the video states it's just too expensive.

Just MHO, but that would make for a really interesting rifle. But one question, why not make a new upper and have both? Just curious, no judgement.

I tried reaming them many years ago and got some primer pockets that turned out oversize. I have no idea how that happened but it must have been me. That prompted me to get the Dillon tool. That was decades ago. The thing paid for itself LONG ago. And despite mine being all manually operated it's very fast!

Rsquared, that's not cold for you? More cold for us today. When I got up at 0630 I looked at the thermometer and it was -3°F. It's 20° now at 1115. The indoor wood rack is getting low so at some point today we'll need to get more inside. Looking at the extended forecast the cold will moderate 'til Tuesday but remain in the 20s during the day, normal for us at this time of the year. Tuesday snow then Wednesday it'll go into the 40s. That pattern is normal; precipitation, then the air mass changes. Typically in March we start the melt into spring and we call that mud season because the frost comes out of the ground and the ground is soupy. As the frost clears from out of the ground the water soaks in and the ground firms up. This year might be a short mud season because the frost may not have gone very deep this year. We'll find out very soon.