Florida B.S. Thread

Too bad it's not an immaculate 01-04, or I'd be interested in the front clip, haha.

 

c'mon. You know you at least want these comfy civic seats

 

For what? I have nice comfy pleather seats already. Only thing I'm lacking is a decent armrest.

 

Maybe for the living room? Haha


Have you sold the ogt yet?

 

@michaelrussell is coming to get it tonight.

 

What????

 

the end of an era. There will be more fun to be had in the future though

 

It really does seem that way, what with us not having had an Annual Meet or a Fall Meet this year.

To open up some options, I had to let one of them go and the T4R AKA: Natty AKA: OG4 seduced me away from the OGT. I can only drive one thing at a time and I can only tow one thing at a time.

 

I worry about that if I ever get a daily that can also off-road lol I've eyed some of the v8 t4r and they would be fun with a blower.

That or do a body chop on a sequia.

I'd probably be ready for a test drive in February. We should do a meet

 

This is true. COVID certainly isn’t helping either.

but with that said, if anyone has or sees a 03-06 access cab tundra 4x4 V8 for sale for less than $8k, slide the link my way

 

I just might be interested in that tube bed if you still have it by the time I get some more cash up

 

Let me know. I started cutting it off yesterday so it’ll be ready to go soon

 

Feel free to contribute to the OGT's Build thread. I dicked the video up of her driving out of my life, BTW. Maybe that's some sort of sign, lol.

 

I'll be sure to do so

I'll keep that in mind and like I said whenever we get out on the trails again you're more than welcome to take her for a rip

 

How's the taco? Did you ever get the engine squared away?

 

Not going to lie ive been lazy so its mostly put together just gotta finish plus I had to wait on some new rockers and lifters that I finally have

 

I managed to get a crappy screen shot of @michaelrussell driving off with the OGT. Clearly I need practice using the video feature of the camera. I swear I hit the record button, but I guess I didn't until I hit it again to stop the recording.

"OGT Driving Out Of My Life"​

 

I've got this, I need help starting, please. Been reading the Lymans manual, just don't know where to start. Build bench, mount stuff on it, not yet. Buy the stuff to make rounds, don't know where to start, the powders and primers they call for in the manual, I haven't the faintest idea what I'm looking at if it doesn't match exactly what they call for. Bullets, crimps, sizing, trimming, no clue. I'm in Davenport, would someone be willing to hold my hand and get me going on reloading? Please.

 

I reload, what do you need help with?

 

Merry X-mas everyone!

I take it you're a show me don't tell me-type, so this may not help much. First thing, as you surmised, is you'll need to build or buy a reloading bench. I suggest you set up a reloading space in the house (as opposed to the garage) if possible since many of the components are sensitive to humidity...specifically powder and primers, which you may also want to get a fire resistant cabinet for storage of said.

When mounting your equipment keep in mind whether you're left or right handed and that you'll want an unobstructed space in the middle of the bench for doing the hand prepping steps you will need to do and to have a place to put your trays of charged brass when it comes time to seat the bullets.

Anyway, after you get your bench set up, the manual will pretty much tell you the general procedure and there are dozens of Youtube videos that will show you the basics, or even precision loading techniques, but I would imagine just the Lyman manual will leave quite a bit of the specifics out as they are fairly cartridge/bullet specific. You probably already know what caliber or calibers you're loading for so the brass is where you want to start. Here's where you have to make a decision on what type of reloader you want to be; if you just want to throw together some rounds to go out and blast away with then once fired brass or brass from factory loads you've saved will do (although, you will need to watch out for crimped primer pockets as the will need to be reamed or swaged before they can be reloaded). If you want to load for accuracy then I would start with virgin brass. I'm not even going to touch on precision loading because it can get quite involved when it comes to prepping the brass and you'd need a lot more equipment than what you have there. BTW, I didn't see it in the picture, but you will need a set of calipers for measuring case length, completed cartridge length, and other stuff.

I'm going to assume you want to load for accuracy, so I'll give you some suggestions for virgin brass. Starline makes excellent brass and they are fairly economical compared to high-end stuff. On the high end, is Lapua and Norma; this is the stuff that mostly only precision loaders that don't mind paying for a little bit of higher quality that is just a hair more consistent between cases of the same lot use. I used to use Winchester and then I tried Federal for my .223, but I got Starline for my 6.5 CM and now, when it comes time to replace my remaining Winchester and Federal brass, I'm going with Starline. It's definitely far higher quality that either of the others (higher quality=less prep and more accuracy). When you buy your brass, make sure to keep it all in the same lot. If they come in a bag of 50 or 100, keep those 50 or 100 together, don't mix the lots.

For primers, I use pretty much Winchester (non-match-grade...had a bad experience with that stuff) exclusively--no particular reason why, it was just recommended to me when I started down the precision shooting path and I haven't felt the need to switch to something else except when I got the match grade versions and wound up with a disaster. Once you get some experience you can try different brands if you feel the need. Unless you're loading for a precision rifle, you probably won't notice much difference from brand to brand. Just make sure you use the same brand for each box of ammo you load.

Probably the most important factor is choosing a bullet. Personally, I like Sierra, but people also like Hornady (which I am currently using for my pistol loads), Berger, and Barns for rifles. I haven't heard much about Speer in reference to rifles although they seem to be popular with pistol rounds. I suggest whatever bullet you try you get the bullet manufacturer's manual since they will have loading data specific to each of their bullets used in most cartridges. This is your bible. It will give you the minimum to the max powder weight charge for a range of powders they have tested for that bullet/cartridge combination.

When you're choosing your bullet you need to be aware of a couple of factors. One, is what you're doing with it. Are you hunting with it? Are you target shooting with it? Is it for home defense? Another important factor is your rifle's twist rate. The twist ratio of your barrel is expressed in how many inches the bullet travels down the barrel to achieve 1 complete rotation. The lower the ratio the faster the twist. Higher ratios won't spin a heavy bullet fast enough to stabilize it. Conversely, a fast twist with a light bullet and a high muzzle velocity can cause the bullet to explode apart from the centrifugal force before it reaches the target. If that weren't enough, even if you have a fast enough twist rate to support the heavy bullet, if you don't have the case capacity (for the powder charge) to get enough muzzle velocity, the bullet may not stabilize regardless.

The range (distance) you are intending to shoot at is also a factor in your bullet selection. As a rule, heavier spitzer (pointy aerodynamic) bullets will be more accurate at long range than lighter versions because they resist wind drift better. That isn't the only consideration, but at a beginner level, it would probably just be TMI to go into it any deeper.

You don't have to choose just one bullet, BTW. You can pick out a bullet for different applications or just to see which one works best for you. For my AR, I'm using a 55gr Sierra Blitzking which is a varmint bullet for a home defense round because it expands rapidly on impact and does a lot of damage, plus, it's nearly as accurate as a match grade bullet. I'm using a 60gr Sierra ballistic tipped Matchking for a target round for accuracy. I've tried others, but these seem to work best in my AR. I wish they made a 62-65gr Blitzking for my doomsday stockpile, but oh well, lol. Here's a case in point of the twist/velocity issue. I've tried 69gr Sierra Matchkings in my AR. I have a fast enough twist to support them, but since I only have an 18" barrel, I don't think I'm getting enough muzzle velocity to stabilize them because they don't perform well in my rifle.

Once you have your bullet(s) selected, then you have to decide on a powder (going by the powders tested in the load data in the bullet manual). This is the part where you have to be prepared to waste some money because your specific rifle or pistol is not going to like every powder on the list. Some powders just work better in some barrels than others do and no two barrels are the same. That said, some brands produce consistently superior results. I (and a majority of other handloaders) like Hodgdon powders. I use it in my pistol rounds and my rifle rounds, but I've also had good results with Ramshot powders and I've been load testing with my 6.5 CM with Alliant RE17 with some promising results. When I have to pick out a powder to start with, I'll usually pick one that has a broad range of charge weights to test with, unless someone shooting the same caliber recommends something. Again, that doesn't mean it's going to work well for your barrel, but it's a place to start. Don't be afraid to try several different powders. You may end up with a few pounds of powder you don't like but it's fun to pour the stuff in a pile on the ground and light it up to watch it burn, haha. One thing to watch out for...if you plan to load a bunch of ammo to store for dooms day, try not to get powders that have a copper fouling deterrent and the fun part is, not all powders will tell you if it has it or not.

That's pretty much all I have for you for the moment. Good luck!