Catch-22

I bought the annealer (same as you see in the vid), the timer and an extension chord. I used a very small Tupperware box, with lid, as the box for the wires and the timer to go into. But as the video shows, you could use an only box for bullets. Ill pm you the eBay listings I used.

Yes worth doing. Easy to do, better than the flame torch, get good consistent results with it.

The induction annealer you’re looking at is the same as I’ve got. I followed the instructions per this video and it works a charm. Took 20mins to get setup (most of that was stripping the insulating plastic from around the cables) and is really great. I get very consistent results and it anneals beautifully

Yes. Works very well. Better than my flame annealer did.

That’s a relatively ‘fast-ish’ twist. 1-8” should be good stabilising bullets up around the 77gn mark. My own 1-7” twist (.223AI) is intended for the 77-88gn bullets. Personally I would look at load data for the the 69gn-77gn bullet weights. The thing that is likely to scuppa you is the right powder & velocity. With a heavy/long bullet, you really want to use the mid-slower burning powders to generate enough pressure and velocity over the entire length of the barrel to push the heavies at any meaningful speed. Like N140/RS52 etc. By way of comparison, my .223AI with 1-7” 26” long barrel is throwing a 77gn SMK out around 2980fps with N140. However, with a very short barrel (how short is it btw??) the mid to slow powders won’t do well because they simply can’t produce enough decent pressure/velocity before the bullet exits the muzzle. You’re therefore likely to see very low speeds - possibly around 2000-2200fps with my same load above. So you have 4 choices I see; 1. Go for the heavier bullets (per what your barrel twist is geared for) but try some faster burning powders to maximise pressure to barrel length. But be careful as you’re likely to run into some very high pressures, very quickly. 2. use the heavier bullets but use the normal go-to powders (eg N140) and accept velocity is likely to be very low. 3. Go lighter bullets (say 55gn-69gn) with normal go-to powders (eg N140, RS52 etc) but know that your barrel may not like these lighter bullets as much as the heavier type. 4. If 1, 2 or 3 don’t work, consider replacing the barrel with one that’s a bit longer to maximise the pressure/velocity It’s worth taking a look at the .223 reloading page on Accurate Shooter. Some good advice and useful starting points for load development. https://www.6mmbr.com/223Rem.html As ever, all just an opinion.

That does look fab. I once had a manual BB/air soft L85 as a kid. Is the main outer housing from a plastic, repurposed BB/air soft gun? Or from a deactivated L85 that you’ve changed the guts within?

Just use any safe 6.5CM load data for any 123gn class bullet. As you’re already shooting the 123gn Scenar, I’d use a starting load just 0.5gn less than your 123gn Scenar load, then run an OCW test by increasing the powder charge incrementally until you find the right node for the 123gn ELD. Then alter your seating depth to fine tune things and get your groups small.

After an issue with the firing pin on my Impact 737r, I reached out to Wade Stuttevile of Impact Precision who very kindly offered to send me two new replacement pins free of charge. Wade would only ship to an RFD here, so after reading that Paddy has imported a number of Impacts in to the U.K. now (I brought mine in myself), I reached out to him for help. After explaining the situation and Wade’s generosity, Paddy offered to accept the new firing pins from Wade and forward them on to me, also FOC. Although Wade was on the case, Paddy very kindly offered to give me a pin off a new action that had just arrived from the States, so that I could get my rifle back in the fight in the meantime. I just want to say a massive thanks to Paddy and Wade, both of whom went above and beyond. Their generosity, customer service and genuine kindness has been outstanding. Many thanks to you both! 👍

Good question - I’m not sure. At present, all my moderators, spare barrels and spare bolts are listed on my FAC with no serial numbers. That, despite the US purchase, where each item had to have an ID and serial, seemingly none of that individual info found its way onto my FAC. The firearms licensing just followed their ‘old’ rules of NVD. What things will be like from today, moving forward, I’m not sure. If I were to have another ‘spare barrel’ spun up, it may now need a serial and ID and placed on my FAC?! I suspect different forces will do things slightly differently perhaps?!

Nope, I’ve got multiple barrels for my rifles in various calibre's and the ‘spare barrels’ get entered on to my FAC with just that: ‘spare barrel’ and the ID mark ‘NVD’. Same for my moderators; ‘sound moderator’ and ‘NVD’. Its the action that has the serial written into the FAC.

Regarding your 2nd point about ID marks on component parts, I had to ensure this was so for items I had brought through customs from the US. Before leaving the US, the import company (U.K. side) advised of this new legislation and said best get the ID marks done US side, as without them they may get seized. In the end, the receiver, 2x bolt bodies, and all chambered barrels had an ID laser etched and comprised of; Impact (action manufacturer), Rifle serial, Type (barrel, bolt etc) and part count (e.g. Barrel #1, Barrel #2 etc). However, this all related to a rifle and bits I was shipping over. Dunno if gunsmiths U.K. side will do all of the ID marks for U.K. builds though?! I suspect not.

Is the rail on top of the receiver part of the receiver (all one machined part) or is it a screwed/pinned rail? If the latter, try removing, checking there’s nothing between rail & receiver. Also, If the rail is a removable type, check if it has an incline. If it does, check the rail is installed the correct way around, otherwise it’ll be angling upwards thus loosing you elevation. Same for the rings, are they incline rings? If so, ensure they’re installed the correct way around.

CLR is fine on stainless barrels, just be careful if your barrel is blued as it’ll start to take the finish off. After running some patches through the bore and everything looks clean, I use a dry patch to soak up any remaining CLR, then neutralise any remaining CLR with either some Hoppes 009 or Corrosion X, which I use a light film of to coat and protect the bore before going into the cabinet. Good piece about CLR here: https://www.primalrights.com/library/articles/evolution-barrel-cleaning

Best carbon remover I’ve ever used, and still use, is CLR. ive tried all the usual suspects (Hoppes 009, C2R, Boretech xyz etc) but CLR actually works very wel. Sadly it’s only available from the US and comes in large containers, but not overly expensive and will last a lifetime. Literally my first patch comes out foaming instantly, I can see even very stubborn carbon being dissolved with ease. My second patch comes out almost totally clean. Third patch is dry and comes out clean. Bore looks lovely. Its apparently totally fine to use on stainless barrels, not that I leave it in there as I have no need - it cleans so quickly. It doesn’t eat the copper though, but I use Sweets for that and only when my barrel tells me when I need to do so. I got mine off eBay, shipped from the US.

Bargain for someone! Good luck with the sale

Dunno what underleaver you’ve got, but there are plenty of YouTube videos that show you how to slick up an U/L. I found a bunch which helped with my Rossi 92. Polished all sear, trigger, raceway surfaces. And I installed a Palo Verde spring kit. With the Rossi, even just changing the ejector spring made a massive difference to the smoothness before polishing. I’ve put around 900 rounds (.44mag) through it since the tweaks and it’s 100% reliable. All very simple to do - I suggest you just give it a go. You will of course need someone to thread and proof the barrel though.

Done

Suggest you contact AIM directly. They don’t seem to list the straps as an aftermarket accessory. But I’m sure they can supply to you if you ask.

Deprime, clean, anneal, f/l size, trim, chamfer & deburr, prime, load, shoot

Your AIM bag will / should contain the straps already. On the back of the pack, you’ll see two zips (high and low) going horizontal across the bag. unzip both and the straps should be in there. Use the clips on the loops inside of those zip compartments to fasten ‘rucksack’ straps. Done.

Hardness testing will simply tell you if it’s annealed or not. But testing over a chronny will show you how successful or not the annealing has been. You still need to understand which ‘hardness’ value (time/temp) achieves the best for your reloading (lowering ES) and most consistent groups on target. Otherwise it’s still just plucking a number out of the air and hoping it’s the best (on target)…which it might not actually be.

👆And that’s absolutely correct. Run some batches of cases through the annealer for different times and go shoot them over a chronny. Like a Sine wave on its way down, You should see ES start to drop but then rise again. The batch of cases where the ES dropped before rising again is the optimum temperature/time combo for your annealing. Then just anneal all cases per that temperature/time 👍

I too am with Country Cover Club (ccc3). Haven't had to use them yet (hopefully never) thank goodness, so can’t comment on how good they’ll be when you need them.

Excellent! However, bear in mind many of the MDRC aren’t keen on brakes. Not shot with them on an MOD range, so might not be an issue there, but you must use a moddy, not a brake, if lighting up in the Tunnel. Suggest bring a moddy to Warminster to be on the safe side.

MDRC does have an HME RCO as I understand. They frequently have a dedicated HME session at the Tunnel…perfect for getting sighted in and ‘practice’ ahead of a HME at the range. I for one will be bringing my .338NM along to Warminster in Nov. 👍