Attempts at amateur gunsmithing, citizenship, and other skilled trades
“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point being a damn fool about it.”
– W.C. Fields
Hard work and practice are necessary to perfect any skill. But sometimes an utter lack of aptitude rears its ugly head, and no amount of hard work and practice can overcome it.
I’m reminded of this whenever I pick up a shotgun.
Continue readingAs I mentioned in an earlier entry, you won’t necessarily save money by handloading your own ammunition. What you can do is tailor your loads to shoot better than factory ammunition (at least in your guns).
Here’s how I do it.
As I mentioned in part 1, one can’t always be up and doing. Sometimes more sedentary pursuits are called for.
Having already discussed book favorites at some length, I’ll move on to other media:
When the siren song of the workbench falls on deaf ears, the mysteries of ballistics fail to fascinate, or the howl of power tools late on a school night upsets the neighbors, it’s important to have more sedentary pursuits to fall back on.
These are some of my favorites.
In an earlier journal entry I mentioned neck turning brass as a possible way to improve accuracy.
“Neck turning” consists of shaving the outer diameter of brass case necks to minimize variations in thickness. By uniforming the brass you’re supposed to get consistent neck tension, therefore consistent velocity and better accuracy.
A lot of smart people swear by it, but I couldn’t find much in the way of hard evidence for or against.
Seeing this car brought back a vivid memory of my grandmother driving a bunch of kids through the Texas Hill Country for an afternoon swim in the creek.
Those ranch roads could be rough, but “the Plymouth” was up to the task.
You had to pump the brakes to make them work, and sometimes they didn’t work then.
Continue readingMore of the equipment that’s earned a place on my reloading bench so far (continued from part 1).
Stumped by which reloading equipment to choose?
Trial and error can be a frustrating–and expensive–approach, so here’s a look at the equipment that’s earned a place on my reloading bench so far.
A few years ago I ordered a bar for our front room: I wanted something massive, with a foot rail, where I could pretend I was in an old-timey western saloon.
One of my New Year’s resolutions was to get back into the regular practice of archery. It’s been awhile, mainly because I had trouble finding someplace to shoot…
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