meles meles

Ah, but his timing should be spot on...

Plenty of straight lines in crystallography...

It's practical. Form defining function... Snag free and rather easy to adjust to artillery time too without the need to take it off your wrist...

That PRS 40, with a nice big date window above the 6 o'clock position, would be just about ideal. The position of the winder is good: we have a couple of watches like that and they never snag on stuff...

If you prefer a watch made from recycled Migs, then maybe a Molnija ?

How about a 38mm, manual winding Poljot ? Possibly made from melted down Kalashnikovs

Not the milk jug anyway Our main concern, perhaps unfounded, was to remove any goo that might build up in the die and then get transferred inside the case, where it could then 'catch' some powder during reloading and so stop it forming a nice heap in the case. It wouldn't do to have dirty case walls, even if nobody can see them.

Hmmmm... *Ponders* Most of our cases seem to last a goodly time: the majority of our rifles are old battle rifles and we tend to shoot them primarily with reduced power loads and cast bullets in deference to their age and prior service. Exceptions to that are our more modern target and stalking rifles. The stalking rifles don't fire enough shots to provide a significant sample size so we'll leave them out of consideration too. Of our target rifles, the 6.5x55 Norsqueagian and 7.62x51 and x54 see their cases lasting for at least a dozen reloads. We don't run super hot loads in them and usually use GGG or PPU brass, both of which we find very good value in terms of price:performance. The one calibre where we have found the cases wearing is 7mm Remington Magnum. That does run a fairly hot load in a Remington 700 based target rifle we use out to 1,000 mards and occasionally further. It's very accurate and a delight to shoot. We've used both Lapua and PPU brass and get similar case life from each - about 7 shots per case and then the primer pocket becomes loose. In a couple of instances we also so a few small neck cracks appearing at about the same time, so generally we use each case 7 times and then discard the whole batch. With PPU that's more affordable than Lapua. Now, what's causing the primer pockets to become loose? Surely it is more likely to be plastic deformation of the surrounding brass rather than an effect of the cleaning and preparation regime. Our cleaning regime is simple. Decap - Lee universal decapper Ultrasonic clean with a small quantity of detergent in tap water (quite a powerful ultrasonic bath) Dry, vertically, neck down, in the sun Lubricate with Lee's goo and resize with a Lee full length resizing die Ultrasonic clean - again with a small quantity of detergent in tap water Dry, vertically, neck down, in the sun Reload...

One could put up a good argument that the bullet isn't falling, rather the earth is rising up towards it. Newtonian equivalency and all that...

Hmmm, and if you insist on lobbing big spinny things a long way, nutation can really shift your point of impact ...

Beggin' pardon for pedantry, pops, but gravity is affecting the bullet all the time. Even when it's in the barrel too.

This may be of interest to some of you https://accurateshooter.net/pix/33xc37xcdata.pdf

Afternoon, oomans. We have a nice subsonic load for .308" 240 gn cast lead bullet (NOE mould, 311-247 FN , gas checked, sized appropriately) 10.6 grains of TrailBoss CCI large rifle primer GGG case We find this gives us an average muzzle velocity from a 16", 1 in 8 twist, barrel of 1068 feet per second, with a standard deviation of 6.7 That gives us a 1.6 MoA group at 100 metres, which we finds quite adequate. We tend not to use it beyond 300m. Problems experienced: Zealous RCOs insisting we wait 30 seconds afore opening the bolt on what they perceive to be a dud round (we use a DTA rifle and an ASE Utra moderator) Butts crew not spotting the impact as the rounds, at 300m range, drop in from high above like a mortar and so don't splash high up in the sand where they are looking. Once our supplies of TrailBoss expire we'll move on to either Viht's N32C or Reload Swiss's RS30, both of which we have used successfully in other calibres for low power rounds.

We have a 32" barrel for our DTA in 6.5x55 Norsqueagian, plus a nice Carl Gustav 63 with Soderein dioptre sights that is awesome on the 1,000 mard target at Eskdalemuir.

Bear in mind oomans that when us and the kows started coughing some of you bald monkeys sought to cull us. Now you lot are coughing, why should we spare you ? *Places a loo roll against a nice backstop as bait, takes up position in a hide*

Maybe we could find an under-utilised tunnel at the back of the sett. Could be quite useful to have all Spud's stock close to paw. Better to stock up on bullets than bog rolls we thinks... Gold is for the mistress -- silver for the maid -- Copper for the craftsman cunning at his trade." "Good!" said the Badger, sitting in his hall, "But Lead-- Hot Lead -- is master of them all." With apologies to Kipling....

Yes, Marc's .416 Barrett can do that to you... 😆

Our opinion is worth exactly what you paid for it 😉

Indeed so, but we understand that clever oomans, with their big brains and stereoscopic vision, can apply pertinent knowledge gained in one area to a second field of endeavour. * Wanders off to look at the small, solid projectile with nylon driving bands in the display case at the far side of the lab *

That sounds quite a hot load, Plecotus ! We're closer to 85 grains with the same powder, bullet weight and barrel length. Accurate though...

You might like to research the topic of artillery shells which ride up the barrel on driving bands that obturate the propellant gases and reduce friction whilst isolating the shell itself from contact with the bore. The barrel experiences less wear and the shell itself can have a textured surface. Knowingly or not, the taxpayers of many nations have spent a lot of money on the technologies involved...

We're not sure he is, wordwise at least. Some people seem unsure of the difference betwixt elasticity and plasticity, and stress relief and annealing. By all means stress relieve and then size, but don't anneal. Pedantic ikkle critter aren't us? 😁

honi soit qui mal y pense...

Yes, it's a great place to shoot. We tend to travel there the evening before, stay at the Eskdale Hotel in Langholm, partake of their excellent food and drink, and then venture out to the range to shoot. M & D can always be relied upon to spot for you with excellent range and wind calls, the heater in the cabin is great and there is usually a copious quantity of biscuits, tea and coffee to keep things going. The .416 is awesome.

No, ooman, only words. We're not of the generation that requires instant visual gratification. We prefer to do, to experience, rather than simply #me too and instagram things. Perhaps we could try and write eloquently of the challenges of peering through the drifting rain, estimating wind speed and direction, allowing for the effect of these on a small lead and copper projectile 'urtling towards the 12" diameter steel targets at a range of 1,000 yards or more, of how the different guns and their sights present different problems to be overcome by the shooter. Young eyes might be able to use iron sights to advantage under such conditions whilst older folk rely more on the light gathering power of their telescopic sights and a single focal plane but it's hard to ascertain that from a simple grey image. Why not venture forth and join the next shoot rather than await the vicarious, second paw pleasure of looking at it from afar ?