Primer Problem Solved!

Primer Problem Solved!


The good news is that it was not me short stroking the press, the bad news is that the shell plate, where the brass rests was loose, very loose. So when pushing the handle up, the primer would push the brass upwards, resulting in the high seat. Kozy came and had a quick look, took nine seconds to tighten it up, and that was that, the plate now holds the brass down properly, and I'm able to re-seat the bad primers.

The bad news is that I should have seen and known that, and that I have to push in about 1,000 primers just to make sure. I did 400 tonight, and it took an hour, so enough of that, time to dry fire, get some practice in, and I'll work the rest out tomorrow before Dave and I hit practice.

Weekly Schedule 10/28/13

Weekly Schedule

6 Days until the kick off of “Plan B”, so one more week of not dry firing, forums, or otherwise enjoyable related activities to turn my mind into mold-able mush. After an enjoyable weekend, where I took Sunday off from what likely would have been my last outdoor match of the season, I’m looking at what is on the docket.

Tuesday looks like I’ll head up to Alpha Range and help set-up for the Wednesday match, and get a little .22 work done before we set-up. It’s been a week since I've shot, or dry fired, and I really want to get a little freshening up done. I’ll just do some group work, and some timed fire.

Wednesday match with MISS, and classifier CM 03-09 On The Move. I need to do some prep work, get my math down, and figure out times, looking for a hit factor between 5.2 and 6.2, but I need to know what that means time wise, with 90% of the points. I will also be delivering my Glock 34 to it’s new owner, may he take it out of the safe and use it more than I ever did, and I hope he enjoys it.

Saturday “Plan B” goes into effect with the first session with Les and David up at Alpha Range, which I am incredibly excited for. It’s time the show get’s on the road.

Sunday I’m planning on going up to Pine Tree in Rockford for a match there. It’s closer than NPCC and it’s indoors, so I hope for a reasonable showing and a solid performance in my first match there since March.

Next week I’ll be back on schedule with live fire practice with David, and doing dry fire drills. MISS shoots again on Wednesday night, so I’ll have 3 matches and classifiers inside in 7 days time. Need some good showings, but since I want to clean up my classifiers, and get my C card, this looks like a great opportunity to do just that.

To get ready, I’m going to have to do some re-loading; I’ve got an order of 124 grain bullets shipping from Bayou Bullets end of this week. I’m switching from 147 down to 124 simply for the cost, pay about the same amount and get an extra 500 rounds. For what I am doing this winter, and for practice purposes, I think that’s a reasonable call. Since I am out of bullets, I had to toss an extra 500 147’s onto my order this morning, so I can cover the 500 I’m borrowing from Kozy. Big thanks there!

Even though it’s 6 days to kick off, I still have some work to do in order to be ready to get started. This is a good thing, it’ll help distract from the fact that I’m anxious to be practicing.

Weekly Plan 10/20/13

Weekly Plan 10/20/13

It’s week 7 of the NFL season, and this is the second week that I’ve been home on a Sunday this season to watch a little football. The plan was to go up to Wisconsin and shoot Oconomowoc USPSA today, but after talking to Kozy yesterday, we decided to take a pass, and I’m actually thankful. It’s been a busy couple of months, and I need today to decompress, and get some small tasks done. That said, it’s 11:15 am, and I am already itching to shoot, something does not feel right.

First off, hats off to my friend Les Kismartoni who rocked out USPSA Nationals to the tune of 22^nd place (of 295 shooters) and 81% of champion Eric Grauffel’s score. This is a major league awesome accomplishment, super happy for him! It’s a shame that Beretta makes things hard for people who choose to shoot them in production. I suspect that Les will eventually make a change in platform, and enjoy extra added support. Not only is he a great shooter, and a good friend, but he’s the guy who came up with “Plan B”, and is going to lay out the path. Can’t let him down now! Seeing his success makes me want to start to lay out my plan for 2014, what major matches I want to shoot, and my full season goals. I’m going to start to get some them down on paper, and will discuss with him what is, and is not reasonable. Way to go Les your accomplishment is inspiring!

One of the hardest things that I’ve had coming up with in terms of reloading supplies has been powder. Les introduced me to Power Pistol as a good starting powder, and I’ve spend the last couple of months trying to find Tite Group, or Solo 1000. While I’ve seen the occasional N320 at $30 a pound, plus a $27 haz-mat fee, I’ve held off. I was getting down to my bitter end of Power Pistol. A friend told me that he had 4 pounds of Tite Group he could spare, for around $75-$80 after haz-mat, and I told him I’d take it.  Yesterday, when I was out, I stopped at a local guns shop that I don’t like to frequent because of their price gouging tendencies, but I was shocked to see an 8 lb jug of Bullseye powder for $149. While Bullsye is probably suboptimal, it’s still useable powder, and the price was good enough that I did not pass. Twelve pounds of powder is around 12,000 rounds I can load, so just a few thousand primers and bullets and we are in business. Good stuff.

I’m going to spend today cleaning my 10 match mag’s, and clean and lube up my PPQ while I’m watching the early football games. This is never a fun job, but it needs to get done, equipment in prime working order is a big deal. I’m also thinking about what dryfire I will be doing at home this week. My plan right now is to go back to fundamentals and work my draw, and just draw to sight picture, no pulling the trigger. What I want to do is eliminate the movement that has crept into my draw again, and make sure that when I’m driving the gun out, that I’m getting a good sight picture, and not having it bob around, and struggle to find it. That alone would be worth a couple tenths of second. I’m also going to work a little on reloads, yesterday Kozy made the suggestion that I’m reloading too low, and costing myself time, and I could reload higher. When I tried it once yesterday it actually felt more comfortable, and let me see the reload cleanly.

What I’m looking at it is this:

Sunday- Clean Equipment, Dryfire 15 minutes

Monday- Dryfire 20 minutes

Tuesday- Alpha Range Live Fire with the .22 only 40 minutes, group shooting

Wednesday- Off

Thursday- Dryfire 20 minutes (Possibly Pine Tree USPSA)

Friday- Dryfire 20 minutes

Saturday- Dryfire 20 minutes (Possibly a little .22 at Alpha taking family up)

Sunday- NISA versus Schultz’s Match (Switch to dryfire if I shoot Pine Tree)

Dryfire may be a misnomer this week, as I don’t intend on pulling the trigger, I simply want to insure that I eliminate some of the sloppiness that has crept into my draw. No forums, no podcasts, no outside interference.