How has your week been - part 2

11009 Views 413 Replies 6 Participants Last post by BigEd, 8 h ago

John in AR

Discussion Starter · Nov 15, 2020

The existing 'How has your week been' thread has been running along for over three years so I thought it might be time to start a fresh one.

This week I disassembled my H&R .45 Colt 'Buffalo Classic Carbine' further than normally done, to confirm which receiver frame they'd used in making it. I've been halfway debating on having it reamed out to .454 Casull, as there are several gunsmiths that used to advertise the conversion, but I wanted to personally check on the strength of the receiver before looking too seriously into it.

There were two frames that H&R used when making that size gun, the SB1 and SB2. The SB1 isn't hardened and is only good for low-pressure stuff like shotguns, some handgun calibers, etc. The SB2 receiver is hardened and was used in calibers up to .270, so it would be fine for a .454 Casull conversion. Haven't decided whether I'll do it or not; a small gun like that with its steel buttplate in 454 Casull would be punishing on both ends, but it's good to know that it can take it if I ever decide to.

Non-gun stuff, I worked some more on a new storage room inside a storage room. I closed it in last weekend and hung the door a few days ago, and yesterday finished the door hardware and reinforcing. Reassembled a 4" two-sided gondola shelving section that had to be moved for enclosing the new room, regaining the temporarily lost shelf space. Then inventoried the remaining gondola shelving to try and mentally lay out the room's storage setup. We bought a bunch of retail shelving when a store nearby closed up a few years ago, and it's been phenomenally handy.

Have everything done in the new room (including lights) except shelves and electrical outlets; may finish the electrical work this afternoon. Or if the weather's nice, may be a bum and just smoke a cigar on the porch & listen to the city people trying to shoot deer instead. I don't even deer hunt anymore; too many people who haven't touched a gun all year showing up with their new uber-magnum rifles, blasting away with their yuppie howitzers at deer smaller than they are. I don't go into the woods or even our fields & pasture during deer season if I can avoid it. If I can't avoid it, I make sure to be extra noisy and wear an orange vest over III+ body armor...

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BigEd

· #2 · Nov 15, 2020 (Edited)

If I decide to harvest a deer this year I'll see if I can spot one in the backyard. Buy a lisence online sneak out through the front door around back and shoot it.

Otherwise not interested for the same reasons you gave.
The most fun I had deer hunting was back as a teen hunting with my friend and his father out in the Ozark National Forest around Spirits Creek and Potato Knob Mt ,.
Even if we didn't get anything the whole trip was a hoot.

This week gun wise not much except switch out to better scope rings on my Remington 700 varmint rifle I picked up. And working on processing surplus 7.62 NATO into useable brass. Working on the case trimming phase now in between doing other things around the place.

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Terry G

· #3 · Nov 15, 2020

I got a surprise when my Son showed up on Veteran's Day and said "load up your shotgun we're going Pheasant Hunting. He took me to a Hunting preserve that cost's $90.00 per Hunter, three bird limit. Thinking it would be a walk over I was surprised that we (the Dog's I mean) hadn't kicked up a bird after half a mile or so. The I missed two Rooster's clean. If these bird's were "tame" you couldn't tell it by me. Anyway, we spent five hours and did get our six with no bird's lost. The two Labradors were terrific at finding the downed Pheasant's refusing to give up in some really tough cover. The young Lab, my Son's Dog tends to flush too early so we worked on that. Checking our GPS we had walked just over eight miles. Some "walk over". Great day and my Son insisted on paying for the whole thing and buying my Wife and me dinner at a "Safe" restaurant. I think I'll keep him.

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Garand

· #4 · Nov 15, 2020

Pretty tame actually, went shooting with the wife and a friend on Thursday with 3 different loads for the M1 Carbine. Remembrance Day/Veterans Day up here was limited to only 100 people due to Covid, so I wasn't able to attend. Just getting caught up reloading for next years matches.

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John in AR

Discussion Starter · #5 · Nov 19, 2020

Got gifted another not-quite-full bucket of wheelweights from a tire shop today; this one just 103 lbs, where a full bucket will run usually 120-125 lbs. That means around 74-75 lbs of usable lead when sorted through & smelted into ingots, or around 4,100 or so 9mm or 38spl bullets.

Reloading is gloriously inexpensive when all you have to buy is primers & powder.

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John in AR

Discussion Starter · #6 · Nov 19, 2020

Gave back some of the lead to a couple guys at the tire shop. One of them reloads but doesn't cast so I gave him around 750 each 9mm and 38 bullets, and gave another guy ~20 lbs of muffin-pan ingots for use in fishing sinkers & other misc stuff. It's amazing how grateful people can be for something we can take for granted - the guy who got the bullets acted like he'd gotten a winning lottery ticket or something.

Same thing when I donated a pair of too-small boots to a men's rehab place earlier this week. It seemed to mean a lot more to them than it would have to me. I guess I'm spoiled (like most Americans nowadays), but that served as a good reminder.

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Garand

· #7 · Nov 19, 2020

Pretty tame, between a recent heavy snowfall and this covid thing, not to much going on. My wife and I went to the indoor range Wednesday morning. She had some lively comments about me shooting next to her with my Chiappa "Alaskan" in .44 Mag w/ a 12" barrel. Apparently them moving down range at 1,300 fps disturbed her concentration. Well back to reloading for next year's matches (hoping that we are back to a normal shooting season).

John in AR

Discussion Starter · #8 · Nov 19, 2020

Garand said:
...recent heavy snowfall

I do not miss that part of living up north at all. We get snow once or twice a year down here, occasionally ice instead sometimes, but it's generally gone the next day; two at the most. Nothing like the months at a time we had to deal with up in Michigan.

BigBassMan

· #9 · Nov 19, 2020

Today was not a great day at the range, 40 to 50 mph winds! Truck all over the road. Hard to eat breakfast outside (due to lockdown) Only tested a glock 19, spent more time keeping target stands up.

Garand

· #10 · Nov 19, 2020

BigBassMan said:
Today was not a great day at the range, 40 to 50 mph winds! Truck all over the road. Hard to eat breakfast outside (due to lockdown) Only tested a glock 19, spent more time keeping target stands up.

Seriously, you didn't have your AR with .22 insert and a CAN, Oh the horror how could you practice for the up coming zombie apocalypse?

BigBassMan

· #11 · Nov 19, 2020

There is a AR with 22 conversion that STAYS in back of truck.

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BigEd

· #12 · Nov 20, 2020

Laid off cranking the press handle and turned back to making some rifle slings to sell.
Lordy I hate eBay's layouts for selling stuff. Gonna have to do three listings for basically the same product because there's no drop downs I can set up for color choices.

Well at least Sasquatch Sling Company will get a start soon I hope.

John in AR

Discussion Starter · #13 · Nov 21, 2020

No gun stuff for me this weekend. My DIL recently got her master’s degree and some kind of certification(s) that I’m not familiar with, and starts a new job as a counsellor for the army next week, so I took off work yesterday and my other son and I helped them move from Arkansas to Ft Leonard Wood. Left home 4:30 yesterday morning and got back 3:00 this morning, but got everything moved to their house off base. Today, helping a family member (who’s a well driller) clean out my 81-yr-old mother in law’s water well.

Would like to start learning some christmas songs on the musical targets, but real life constantly intrudes. :unhappy:

John in AR

Discussion Starter · #14 · Nov 21, 2020

BigEd said:
Laid off cranking the press handle and turned back to making some rifle slings to sell.
Lordy I hate eBay's layouts for selling stuff. Gonna have to do three listings for basically the same product because there's no drop downs I can set up for color choices.

Well at least Sasquatch Sling Company will get a start soon I hope.

I’ve never sold anything on ebay, but have been thinking about doing so lately, to get rid of some things that I rarely use anymore. Nearly 35 years of marriage, and especially the last dozen years or so of being paid in trade by a customer who owns a watch shop, I’m thinking about paring down other stuff the same way I’ve done lately with guns. The money would obviously be nice, but just reducing clutter & baggage would be nice as well.

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BigBassMan

· #15 · Nov 21, 2020

Yesterday finished up all the outside stuff for the winter, put tractors an golf cart away an dug the snow blower out an cleaned the carb. Now it is time to start casting the usual. Then dust off the Stars an reload 9mm, 38spl, 45 AR, 44 spl. an 45 LC, everything else is in good shape. Empty brass from this year was 2 5gal. buckets of 9mm an three of 38spl, it is all cleaned an ready to load.

Garand

· #16 · Nov 21, 2020

I've been plugging away this week with my reloading since my wife has gone down to see her parents for a couple of days. I process my brass after shooting (deprime, resize, bell) then just put it away till reloading season (when first snow hits). I base my reloading on how many empty plastic cases are on the shelf. I should be "topped" up by the end of month due to the fact that we probably shot 1/4 the matches that we normally do this year. Around the end of February I'll start building various loads in .30-30 & 6.5x55 for a potential hog hunt.

BigEd

· #17 · Nov 22, 2020

John in AR said:
I’ve never sold anything on ebay, but have been thinking about doing so lately, to get rid of some things that I rarely use anymore. Nearly 35 years of marriage, and especially the last dozen years or so of being paid in trade by a customer who owns a watch shop, I’m thinking about paring down other stuff the same way I’ve done lately with guns. The money would obviously be nice, but just reducing clutter & baggage would be nice as well.

I'd wait until after December 1st as they are making changes to how they do the payment transactions.
And it maybe screwed up.

Because right now I sold a antique/ surplus sling but have not seen a penny in either my PayPal or regular checking account.

eBay is switching from using PayPal to pay sellers to direct deposit. Which is better in theory.
But something ain't right right now.

Garand

· #18 · Nov 22, 2020

I had problems with paypal a few years back, and just closed my account rather than continue the problems.

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BigEd

· #19 · Nov 23, 2020

Garand said:
I had problems with paypal a few years back, and just closed my account rather than continue the problems.

I don't blame you and at one point it was pretty much mandatory for a seller to have one to do business on eBay

Currently I'm rather impatiently waiting to be paid and not sure if it's gonna be PayPal or eBay transferring money to my account.

I like to ship either same day or next after I sell something but I don't ship without getting paid.

I got a rifle stock to sell plus I hope to have a dozen of the slings I put together for sale soon.

PayPal is "bam" instant but this new eBay system will delay payment up to 3days.
I'm no expert in E business and E money but I assume it's their scheme to bank the funds 3 days to earn interest on them. Probably better than PayPal use and transfer fees in the long run, I hope.

John in AR

Discussion Starter · #20 · Nov 29, 2020

Got out the small rocket stove yesterday and ran it for a half hour or so strictly because winter’s coming. It’s a small commercially made one (Bruntmor iirc) and runs okay, but now with my welder son back in the area, I’m thinking about asking him to extend the chimney a little. I think just 6-8 inches extra height on the riser should probably make a substantial difference in its draw and maybe get rid of the small amount of smoke it doesn’t already eliminate.

Got the propane tanks squared away as well; all are full except one that I used for an hour or two at our shop wednesday, cooking for our people. Just small stuff, making sure things are winter-ready, as the almanac indicates this may be a strange one weather-wise. Already cranked up & test-ran the generator a few weeks ago.

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