Still getting things in order and in place, close to cranking up the presses.

    We are still moving stuff around and unpacking our things in the house and also in the storage buildings. It is amazing how much stuff you can accumulate over the years. The good thing is that all the large items are now in the house, including the safe and piano. We have made two runs to the county dump to get rid of some of my dad's things and stuff we have had. I have started the task of unpacking all my reloading stuff and setting up my presses again to get some production going. As we prepare to move the clocks next weekend, I will start using the extra hour or so to get some things done around the property instead of doing it on the weekends. Speaking of weekends, me and the boys had some work to do in the garden, but before that, we cooked up some breakfast outside with biscuits in the oven.

Sausage from our local meat store

    After breakfast, we headed down to the garden and managed to get two rows of sweet onions in the ground. I used one of the handy attachments I used in my drill when I would change out the numerous flower beds in Florida when I had my business.  It is also great for mixing chicken crap and sand together in a 5 gallon bucket before putting it on the onions.

flower bed auger

Sunday, we did a bit more work til around 1300, the we made a command decision to take the rest of the day off. First stop was to Captain Steve's Seafood restaurant in Fort Mill, SC.

File photo

    We had tried to take JUGM there for her birthday dinner but that happened to be at the time there was some ice and snow in the area. We showed up there but they remained closed for the safety of their employees. I can respect. Word to the wise, better get there early. They open at 1500, by 1600 the parking lot is almost full and there is a waiting list to get inside. They have by-far the best seafood, IMHO, in this area. I have even seen a Safe Harbor Seafood truck delivering shrimp there, Safe Harbor is located in Mayport FL and that's where I bought all my shrimp and the own the docks where the shrimp boats moor. Look at it this way, from the boat, to the counter, to your hands, that fresh.

    After Steve's, we had to go walk off our dinner so we swung over to Cabelas. Of course, the same ole stuff at a fairly decent price. Since I am close to resuming my reloading operations, they have .300 Blackout Brass. Yes, I don't have to make my own from 5.56, which is very time consuming to make. They had 250 count bags and 1000 round jugs.

Came out to .20 cents a case with military discount

     I take numerous routes home from work. I do it for several reasons. First, it breaks up the boredom. Secondly, it makes it less predictable on which route I will take home encase someone wants to follow me for some crazy reason. Finally, depending if I need to stop somewhere or pick up something on the way home I can. I found this Pre-Fab'd portable storage building that someone has made into a home/hunting cabin along the side of the road I travel from time-to-time and is surrounded by pine trees.

    I like the way it is setup; however, I find it a tad bit to close to the road so IMHO it cant be a bug-out location, but I am in SC and anything is possible. It does have a mailbox too, just wasn't able to snap it in the photo. Hey, I give them credit, they grew a set and made it happen. Back to what I said about it close to the road. If I was to buy property to make a bug-out location, I sure as hell would not be within 4 miles of a major interstate. Take for example, I-77, there are service roads that parallel it. What do you think would happen if there was a SHTF situation and a mass exodus people between the major cities they connect? What about a mass mobilization of troops or UN Blue targets? Some would stay on the interstate, some would get off and go the back roads using the interstate as a navigational tool. Anything is possible in a desperate life and death situation. I am proud to say that the nearest interstates to me are 45, 44, 50, and 75 miles. I think I am good.

     Hope everyone has a great week, so far day one went well and is over. Stay safe

Senior
   





    

Where has 2 weeks gone?

    I was relaxing yesterday and thought, hell I haven't done a blog post in almost two weeks. Well, where should I start, most of you know I was in SC with the my better half, JUGM, and of course the boys were with us as well. We tried to make it a spring break trip as the kids were out of school but her dad was in the hospital and we got a 2 day late start. Once there, didn't do a whole lot, just some chores and maintenance around the place and plowed up the garden and threw some rows for JUGM to plant some stuff. Me, I want a full garden but she only wants to put low maintenance items in the ground, so we compromised a bit, only put rows in half the garden. Hey, not bad for my first time on a 1948 Farmall Cub.....

  There are a few rows of sunflowers and a few rows of yellow onions.

   Saturday rolls around, and we have had rain since Friday afternoon and as the rain clears out, we take a trip to Harbor Freight. If you have been in one of these stores, yes it is full of Chinese junk, but how many times do you use a torque wrench? Would you want to pay $21.00 for one there, or spend up to or over $100 at Sears? I'm not a full-time mechanic, so figure which one I went with. Also, you can find items that will help you out in a survival situation in there, yes the quality is not top of the line, but budget minded preppers can start here. On the way home, we stopped by our local Gander Mountain and yes, we gandered through the store and left. Prices are just too damn high!

   Today was an easy day, went to china-mart to get a few things for dinner, on the request of the kids and NW and I stroll to the sporting goods section and buy a few boxes of TUL Ammo in 7.62x39mm. At $5.47 a box, can get it cheaper from online retailers when you add shipping in. With all that is going on in the Ukraine, bet 7.62x39mm may increase in price or be part of a trade sanction.

    Once home I think, what would be more relaxing than doing some reloading. Well I had some 300 Blackout primed up so I hit the single stage and got to work. Here are two of the components. Federal small rifle primers were the other, besides the brass.

    My load call for 16.5 to 17.7 of IMR 4227, my target load was 17.1. As you see I am off by a bit but no worries.

     The final mess of Blackout rounds. it was a nice day, notice me wearing my Crocks and shorts?

 

 

     This week will be a busy week, have some work to catch up on from the spring break trip and have to get things prepped before the spring heat arrives. Also, I will be heading north for an interview with one of the top two logistic companies in the world with a chance to be placed in their management development program. Wish me luck. Have a great week everyone.

 

Senior

Stun Gun Show, Cranking up the Presses and 5 years

     Saturday, JUGM and I dropped the kids off with the Outlaws and headed to the gun show that was in town. Let's just say it was practically a stun gun show full of junk. It seemed as every isle you walked down there was 2 vendors setting off a stun gun. Hell, one vendor with a serious sales look on his face suggested JUGM purchase a stun gun for her safety. She turned to him and said "Son, I carry a gun" and laughed as we walked away. One old man in a wheel chair was trying to sell a Bushmaster AR for $1800. We saw him before we left and he was writing on his sign, make offer. He must have been hurting for money, but hell, I'm not hurting for an AR, have too many of them, but they are investments for the future, they don't fluctuate like precious metals or stocks.   

As JUGM and I sat watching the DVR Saturday night, since there wasn't anything worth a shit on TV, she said to me, "Why don't you teach me how to reload"? I said, ok we will start tomorrow. So before I went to bed last night, I went out and calibrated my manual powder dispenser for 300 Blackout as I wanted to show her how to start out with the basics on a single stage press. It was around noon when we got started and I explained how to figure out how many grains you need use in each round, so grabbing load data sheets and showing her how to read the sheets, identifying all the components such as bullet type (125 grain Spitzer BT and IMR 4227 powder)) we came to a powder measurement of 17.1 grains. Using the LEE powder dispenser, we put 17.1 in and place the casing on the press, place a bullet on top and the marriage was complete, minus a factory crimp that came after we loaded up 30 rounds.

 

   Next we head over to the progressive press I have set up for 5.56x45mm or .223 Remington for you civilians.

 

    I again explain how this press works, this press only has three stages. I do all my priming via a hand priming tool. I do not trust a press to seat primers. IMOP, you a playing with fire using a press, you just don't get the proper feel of the primer seating in the case and take a chance of destroying the primer of having it go off. Here I am before the football game.

 

  

 

I ended up with 293 rounds primed and ready to go so we set out to running the press. I usually stop for a few moments during a reloading session to QA my settings, usually between 10-20 rounds. Today we were using a 55 grain FMJ BT with Hodgden H4198 with a minimum of 19 grains to a max of 21grains. Well we loaded at 20 grains with an expected velocity of 3038 f.p.s. After an hour and a half, we were done and the product is.

 

    The next step in JUGM's learning process will be the depriming, sizing, and deburring of the casings. See, you always start with the best part of reloading to keep their interest, then you teach them the dirty side of the work.

 

   Today was the 5 year anniversary of my mother passing. It sure as hell doesn't seem that long ago and I still miss her every day. Here is a pic of her when she was 18 in Southampton England.

 

 Senior



 







 







As the world rotates, I ponder just a bit.

     I know it has been a few days since my last post, and I apologize for that. Seems I now have one more thing on my plate, an assistant coach for a Little League Minor Division Team, ah hell more like the actual coach since the other 3 coaches only know football and don't know one thing about baseball. Well I do have the qualifications for it, I played all positions except catcher, (I'm bat-blind) in T-Ball, Little League, Minor and Senior Division, American Legion, and 20 years in Military Softball with 2 Base Championships. I don't know how many times I have looked back on my childhood and wonder, where would I be right now if I stuck with baseball, maybe a retired major leaguer, who knows. Instead, I grew my hair half-way down my back, played bass guitar, and smoked Marijuana. Well life does provide you with many roads and mine lead me to the Navy for a very successful career serving the United States and its people. What else could I have done, maybe hopped up on steroids and making millions? Hell, I will take the Navy before that.

     As most of you know from my better half's blog, we had a death in the family. Our 16 yr plus washing machine finally took its last spin and dropped dead of a massive stroke. R.I.P Kenmore... Well this past weekend I have more frequent flyer miles than my brother in law, just driving around this metropolis in north Florida. Well finally we went to a SEARS and found our new family member. Hated spending the $534.00 but that was a need and not a want. Luckily JUGM was going through the mail and found a refund check before she shredded it from GMAC for over $1300 since they estimated our insurance and property taxes at $2000 a year, when they were actually $1400 and some change, we got a nice refund from the past two years. Don't things seem to work out?

     As Stephen has mentioned on his blog, we have a camp out this month, a gathering of the whole klan, Stephen, Duke, Shooter Steve and maybe his Glock Armorer friend, Pirate Jim, Rebel, and of course, your trully. We plan on doing more work out at the NEST, enjoy some great company and food, talk about all of you and shoot some lead downrange. I will be loading up some 300 Blackout his week to take out there and shred some stuff with it. I sent Stephen a nice text tonight to let him know to enjoy the cold weather now, the extended forecast has us back in the 70's and 80's this weekend. I know he was cursing in his response. There is also a chance that we will have some rain over the weekend too. I will be nice and comfy sleeping in my hennessey hammock and Modular Sleep System.

 

    Thursday of this week, I was lucky to get to CHINA-MART and get oil for my mowers before I do spring maintenance on them and wondered to the ammo isle, and by-golly they had .22LR. They had 6 boxes of Federal Match in 325 round packs. Just as I stare at them, 2 other guys walk up. We had a small discussion and we split the 6 boxes, while the other two guys got .40 and 38 ammo. CHINA-MART would only allow 3 boxes per customer, so I didn't want to feel like a hoarder, but if I had my chance with no limit, I would have bought all of them.

 

    Just like routine, had my weekly phone call with my dad. I definitely picked the wrong weekend to take him wood since they had their first snowfall of the year and missed a great opportunity to take the boys to see and feel snow for the first time. Oh well, they will see it sooner or later and after they have been in it for 30 mins or so, they will begin to hate it when their finger and toes start to get cold and wet. Aint parenting great when kids don't take your advise? They will learn just like I did, the hard way and get PHD's from the school of Hard Knocks.

 

Well it's gettting late, have a few more things to do before heading off to count sheep. I would like to thank everyone who stops by to read my thoughts and rants, even when there are breaks in my posts. After all, I am a small business owner, father of two crazy boys, husband of JUGM, full time accelerated college student, now, litte league coach and member of a group of guys who can rule the world. Til next time......

 

Senior

 

 

 

 





Trial Run of the 300 AAC Blackout and I GAINED ANOTHER FOLLOWER, WOHOO!!!!

     My followers are just like customers, they are the most important part of a business, but also to a Blog too, so I would like to take the time to welcome my newest follower, BadgerMedic to the Mess. I didn't see that you had a blog of your own, if you do, please let me know. I will make my best effort to respond to your comments and contrasting points of view. I own a small business, college student, father of 2 boys, husband of JUGM and probably, soon-to-be Little League Coach maybe, so bear with me.



Well I took the day off, not because of the Super Bowl like most other MAROONS, but JUGM and I both had Dental appointments for an exam and cleanings. I came out with flying colors, JUGM, well.....

{I will be sleeping on the cough tonight for this, but C'mon, you all laughed.....}

 



Anyways, I decided to make up a few more 300 Blackout cases to make the total count at 100 cases. I decided to only load up 5 rounds and take them for a spin. Here is the load data used:

Bullet weight,Brand,Style: 125 grain Speer, Spitzer

Powder weight & brand: 17.1 grains, IMR 4227

Primer: Winchester small rifle

Case: Lake City

Case length: 1.365 (Max trim length: 1.368)

O.A.Length: 2.072 (min: 2.060)

 

Using my Lee hand priming tool, loaded up the cases with the primers, then used my electronic scale to fine tune. Min load was 16.5 and max was 17.7. Just like a wise man said, put it in the middle, can't go wrong.

 

 

Next step, into the one arm bandit and seating the bullet.

 

 

Bullet seated

 

Next step is to check the Over-all length (O.A) to make sure it meets my mark of 2.072.

 

Once that was complete, I like to add a little more crimp to the rounds, so I slapped the LEE Crimp Die in and gave it a light crimp.

 

 

Now like a kid, I packed my Blackout up and headed to the local range to try them out. The rounds fired good, no bulging primers, cases, or tears in the casings. Everything looked great. I didn't stay to long at the range, the ventilation system was down and looked like a forrest fire in there so I got out of there without my target.

 

 

Once home, I said, what the hell. Put the Sizing die in and sized, trimmed and deburred the rounds I shot today and they went into the tumbler with the other rounds I made today. Since our group has a camp-out planned for later this month, I will make up some more rounds because I know DUKE has had a big interest in obtaining a 300 Blackout barrel to make him one and we have talked abit about the 300 blackout, also I know he is itching to shoot one and critique it. I know STEPHEN will want to shoot it as well to contradict DUKE's review. Next round for the 300 blackout will be transferring the dies over to my LEE Progressive press to really crank some rounds out. Best so far on it is 400 rounds a hour loading .223.

 

 

Til next time....

 

 

Senior