hitch

1 ounce loads for 12 gauge

I'd reckon that most of us put more "promo" loads through our shotguns than anything else.  And why not?  For a little over $25 you can get 100 shells that work great for clays and small upland game.  These shells are typically loaded with 1 and 1/8 ounce of lead shot in #8 or #7.5 shot size.  I have no real problem with the Winchester white box or Federal promos.  I do however think there is a place for a lighter payload in our 12 gauges.


I personally don't shoot much other than clays.  And, for me, the queen of all loads is 1 ounce of #8 loaded over a moderate powder charge.  My affection for the load is due to it's soft shooting, yet very effective payload.  In my most recent visit to the trap range I first shot some Federal promos out of Dad's 1929 Winchester model 12.  I did "ok".  For the 2nd round I switched guns to the Fausti over/under and also grabbed a box of my 1 ounce hand loads.  I know, different gun.  But, I did do significantly better with the new combo of gun and shell.  Mind you, I was shooting full choke from both guns and both loads utilized #8 shot. Conventional wisdom would suggest that shooting fewer pellets at the target would make me miss the target more often.  It would also suggest that the light powder charge would fail to deliver the payload to that target in time.  Well, on both counts, convention looses to reality.  Even loaded near starting charge, my loads get there in plenty of time.  I didn't change my lead at all.  Obviously there was plenty of pattern available to bust the clay as well.  If you think about it, what does a typical target load for a 20 gauge carry?  7/8 of an ounce.  So, the 1 ounce load through a tight choked 12 gauge does just fine thank you.  I find the 1 ounce particularly nice when shot through break open and pump guns that have no mechanism to soak up recoil.

My unexpected NEED for concealed carry

So, I'm a lower middle class dude living in a suburb of Peoria Illinois.  There's not a lot of violence here in our town, or in the surrounding towns that we ordinarily visit.  Peoria has it's problems for sure.  Mostly drug related shootings and crimes of opportunity that occasional visit the "good" parts of town.  So, when Illinois was finally forced into offering concealed carry of firearms a couple of years back, I thought I'd do it someday, but not today.  Our financial situation has been shit for the last couple of years due to my Wife's health issues and the fact that my wages basically have remained pretty much flat.  Truth be told, my Wife's ability to earn money has always been hampered by her health.  We've never been what I would consider comfortable.  But, I digress.  At least I have a roof over my head and food to eat.  And, for that, I am thankful.

So, the whole concept of spending $150 for a five year permit to exercise my second amendment right to protect myself, plus the $100-$200 people are charging for the class, was not exactly on the front burner.  In fact, I spent what little cash I could scrape together to build my AR.  Yes, I built it out of fear of a ban.  I guess I saw a CCW permit as more of a want than a need.

That was until recently.  Last Sunday, My Wife and I had just dropped my Stepson off at his Dad's and were headed up to the gas station about 2 miles from our house.  I stopped at a stoplight and noticed a Jeep Cherokee next to us.  The light turned green and we both started to pull away.  The Jeep was accelerating slowly and I needed to be in his lane to get into the gas station up ahead.  So, I turned my signal on and accelerated to get in front of him.  Rather than see the obvious and let me in, the driver accelerated so that I had a hard time merging into his lane.  I was able to get in front of him and it wasn't even real close.  But, upon me entering the lane, the guy laid on his horn and flicked me off screaming.  Damn dude, calm down, I thought. People do stuff like that, so I didn't think a whole lot of it until he jumped on my ass and kept honking and screaming.  I didn't exactly appreciate his endangering me and my family so I tapped the brakes to let him know to back off.  Well, that didn't work.  He continued to ride my ass and honk, scream, and flick us off all the way into the parking lot of the shopping center.  This guy was clearly off his rocker.  I was relieved when he failed to follow me to the gas pumps, but instead continued into the shopping center. But, as he did so, he screamed one more epitath about me being a "fuckin student driver".  (We have a student driver sticker in our back window for my Stepson.) At this point, my Wife and I were both shaking.  I fully expected the dude to come back around to ram us or pull out a gun.  The guy was that pissed off.  And there we were, defenseless.  That shook me up, not only at the time, but as I thought about how defenseless we were just sitting there waiting to be murdered by this crazy SOB.  That pissed me off as much as the guy had.  We called the cops and gave them the tag number.  What good that did, who knows?

Fast forward one week to Saturday afternoon.  My Wife and I went down to the local Target in East Peoria.  We did our shopping and exited the store.  As we were walking to the car, I noticed a young couple walking through the parking lot.  As we neared our car, they approached us, the young woman asking for bus fare.  She started in on some story about her friend's boyfriend was slapping her around and they ended up dumped off at Target.  They just needed a couple of bucks to get home on the bus.  I told them I didn't carry cash.  My Wife did too.  We suggested that they download the uber app because you get the first ride free.  "Oh my phone is dead".  The girl was spouting all kinds of hard-luck stories about getting her hours cut.  She couldn't seem to remember what the name of her employer was, but it was next to the hookah shop.  Ok, now I know you are full of shit.  My Wife started digging in her purse for change, when an East Peoria cop pulled up, got out, and started yelling, "Don't give them a dime, they're heroin addicts."  Bingo.

The cop put them on the hood and frisked the guy.  As he started to frisk the girl, the guy took off running like Usain Bolt across the lot.  The cop gave chase, but couldn't keep up.  The whole place swarmed with cops looking for the guy.  My Wife advised the girl to stay put, which she did for a little while, then ran off.  My Wife was freaked out.  I was more annoyed than anything.  But, it did make me think how we had just been in two freaky situations in less than a week.  People who are looking for a fix are desperate.  What would have happened had I prevented my Wife from getting the change?  Would they have gotten violent?  Would we have been knifed?  Again I was out there with my cheese in the wind, defenseless.

I WILL be pursuing my CC permit.  Period.  Money be damned.  It's just not worth being empty handed.

Are you ready for HIllary?

Well folks, as I predicted, Donald Trump is proving to be the perfect candidate for Hillary and the Clinton machine to go up against.  A combo of carefully timed recordings released by the media and Trump's own self-implosion has made it obvious to me that Queen Hillary will be coronated in January.  She could not have picked a weaker candidate to face than Trump.  Who knows, maybe she did pick him.  The most hated candidate found the one person more hated than she is and that leaves us all in a shit pile.

So, come January, or more like mid November, expect anything having to do with guns and shooting to go crazy.  The fear of a Clinton Presidency and what that might entail for us gun people will take on a whole new level when she takes the oath of office.

Presidents can only do so much without usurping the constitution.  But, a President with a willing congress can do just about anything.  And, she will be nominating a Justice to the Supreme Court.  Ugh.

I do hope that the better angels of our nature will prevail.  I do hope that the hoarding, price gouging, and shortages that result from fear will not materialize.  But, I know human nature.  Your average guy, trying to make ends meet, is going to try to get $100 for a 525 pack of 22 long rifle if he can.  I resisted that urge during the last big shortage, but some people won't.  Some of these folks are just assholes and some are trying to turn a buck to feed their kids.  Either way, it's a self-feeding fire.

I believe nothing short of an agreement between all the major manufacturers, distributors, and retailers can stem the coming storm.  Strict limits must be enacted and enforced when the hoarding starts.  Obviously, high volume shooters will have to work through their organizations to acquire enough powder, bullets, etc to compete.  We must ensure that people are able to enjoy our sport.

Will that happen?  Who knows.

Update: Casting for the Makarov, lube issue solved

My first go round with the lube on my cast bullets did not go well. I was using raw beeswax, some candle wax (10%), motor oil, and coconut oil. Well, it did not work at all. My loads exhibited smoke and left severe leading in the barrel. The smoke I expect, but the leading is not good. After brushing my barrel about 1000 times to get the lead out I went in search of a new lube. I found several people using Barry Dars recipe.


Barry Darr's Lube Formula

1 lb. Paraffin

1 lb. Vaseline

2 Tbsp. STP gas treatment



I reduced the recipe by half, since I didn't know if it would work for me.


I am glad to report that it did work. My barrel had no leading and my bullets shoot true. I was starting to think that my alloy was too soft, so I am relieved that it was just a lube issue. There is quite a bit of smoke with these loads, but I think that can be cured with the addition of a little more paraffin. Honestly, I could care less about smoke.



Mixing up the lube is simple. I weighed out the ingredients on my kitchen scale. The wax is no biggie, but the vaseline is nasty to work with. I really don't like the feel of a whole handful of petroleum jelly. The stp is pretty powerful, so don't overdo it. I used Wal-Mart brand Petro Jelly and Gas treatment. The wax is the gulf wax brand found in the canning aisle.

Pan lubing with this formula is simple. The first time you do it, melt your lube in the pan and let it harden. Then place your bullets on top of the hardened lube. Gently melt the lube again and your bullets will settle to the bottom of the pan and get surrounded by the liquid lube. Once hardened, I pop the pan in the freezer for about 5 minutes. This seems to make removing the bullets easier and less greasy. I just flip the pan upside down onto a piece of cardboard and the whole lube cake comes out like a pineapple upside down cake. At that point, you can just push the bullets out by the nose. They fall out of the bottom of the cake with lube perfectly placed inside the grease groove, not all over the bullet.  Once you have lubed one batch, just place your new bullets in the old holes and melt again.


The lube is not real stiff, but it seems to stay in the groove and definitely is working. As I say, I may add some wax to the mix, though it is probably not necessary.

Freshly cast, unlubed bullets

This is all it takes 

The ultimate in cheapskate shooting, casting for the Makarov

So, I've owned my Makarov IJ-70 for well over a decade.  I've shot all kinds of ammo through it.  Brown Bear, Silver Bear, Fiocchi, and for most of my experience with it I have loaded my own using 9mm Luger brass that I trim and run through the dies.

Bullet availability has always been a bit of a pain.  When I was first loading for it I used Hornady xtp hollow points and a semi wadcutter cast bullet that was offered by Makarov.com.  Makarov.com shut down and those bullets went away.  The xtp is a fine bullet, but a bit expensive.  So, I have been loading hard cast bullets from Meister and Rim Rock.  They are fine bullets as well, but again they aren't free.  A box of 500 runs me at least $35.

The obvious answer was to get a mold and cast my own, but I resisted getting into the casting world.  I was afraid that the lead supply would dry up, that I would need a bunch of tools, or that it would just be too time consuming.

Well, the days of picking up a bucket of wheel weights are over.  Environmental concerns have prompted our great state of Illinois to require zinc weights.  There are however, quite a few of the lead weights out there that end up in the scrap bucket at work.  So, my lunchtime pastime has become sorting through wheel weights to find the lead ones.  I am combining the weights with expended bullets that I find on the range.  The lead supply still concerns me a bit but hey, we all have to let go of our anxieties.



The Lee mold for Makarov is only about $22.  I've had good results with Lee in the past, so why not?

With my current alloy, it is throwing a 104 grain bullet.  That's quite a bit over the 95 grain it is supposed to be, but of no real concern to me.  I simply stay away from the max charge.  Heavier bullets tend to use less powder, not more.

Lubricating the bullets was another concern.  A lubricator/sizer is the tool of choice for this, but since I am not made of money, I had to come up with something else.

I first made some lube with beeswax, candle wax, and synthetic motor oil.  I ended up with a pretty decent lube that had great tack to it.  It felt a great deal like the lube on the Rim Rock bullets I had been buying.  I pan lubed a bunch, or tried to.  The problem with pan lubing is getting the bullets out of the lube without marking them all up with pliers.  They make "Kookie Kutters" that slip over the bullets, but that is yet another item to buy.

Lee makes liquid alox lube that is squirted into a bag that you then tumble your bullets around in.  I figured why can't I do that myself?  So, I did.  I simply took some of my lube and put it in an olive jar with acetone.  Shook it up for a while and some of the wax started to dissolve.  I put some bullets in and swirled them around.  I then drained off the liquid and fished the bullets out.  After laying them on some cardboard and letting them dry, I discovered that a nice thin film of lube remained on the bullets.  Essentially I used the acetone as a vehicle to deposit lube all over the surface of the bullet.  It's reminiscent of a cci mini mag .22.  ammo.

PISTOL CALIBER CARBINES

I love carbines!  Historically, a carbine is the short version of a standard length battle rifle.  I had a Mosin carbine and loved it.  It was simply a shorter version of a standard Mosin Nagant.  Carbines were originally designed for use by cavalry or other troops for which the standard rifles were just too unwieldy.  Over the course of the 20th century the carbine length rifle became the standard, as faster burning powders became the norm and the usefulness of the shorter length became apparent.

The pistol caliber carbine is yet another development.  Basically, it combines the advantages of a rifle, (stability, sight radius, extra velocity), but uses pistol cartridges.  Those cartridges have range limitations, however.  They simply are not designed for long range shooting, even with a longer barrel increasing initial velocity.

Probably the most famous of the carbines is the M1 carbine of US military fame.




Developed by Winchester and manufactured by just about anyone with a machine tool, the carbine became a favorite of anyone for whom the M1 Garand was too big and heavy and the 1911 pistol was too hard to hit with.  It fired the .30 carbine cartridge, which is no slouch by pistol standards, but leaves something to be desired in comparison to the 30-06 used in other US rifles of the time.  It did everything a carbine should do.  It was light, easy to carry, and had minimal recoil.  Some troops who encountered it said it was underpowered, like an overgrown .22.  The most damning testimony came during the Korean war.  Supposedly heavily clothed Chinese soldiers were getting up and dusting themselves off after being shot with carbines.  I don't know if those are just stories or if it's true, but the fact is that .30 carbine does not penetrate like a 30-06.  Today's AR-15 M4 carbine is just as short and light as the old M1 and packs more punch with it's 5.56mm ammo.

Lately the trend in the civilian market has gone more toward light rifles that are chambered in 9mm or 40.  The high point carbines as well as the Kel Tec sub 2000,Beretta's px4 carbine, and many others have become somewhat popular.  In this day of the $500 AR, it would seem silly to pay that much or more for a carbine that packs less punch, but that is not the point.  The whole point of these carbines is to shoot inexpensive pistol ammo at shorter range targets and have lots of fun doing it.  And for that purpose, they are great.  I only wish some of them were a little less expensive.