Snowflakes in Hell

Robb has a concern I have been all too familiar with.  One reason I switched from Hoppes No. 9 to using Gunzilla as my gun cleaner of choice, is that I don’t have to worry about some burly gun owner coming up to me, giving a sniff, and saying “My my, is that amazing fragerance Hoppes No. 9?  Enchanting!” and giving me a wink.  Gunzilla, if it has an odor, I think sorta smells like olive oil.  It’s that mild.  In fact, I’m pretty sure the stuff is basically biodiesel, or maybe biokereosene.

I don’t think I could field strip and reassemble an AR-15 this quickly.

Tam has the digs on the Smith & Wesson gun lock issue.  I have a 629, and have never used the lock, or had it engage unexpectedly when shooting.  I use the gun to shoot IHMSA Field Pistol, Production category.  I only carry it in the woods, and even then, I usually have the Glock as a backup.

That’s not to say I like the lock being on there, though.  Too many gun manufacturers seem be interested in having their guns not be illegal in a lot of the nanny states (like Massachusetts, where S&W is located) that mandate this crap.  I would like to see the industry write off the states that pass this stuff, or at the least, do multiple versions if they really feel the need to exploit those markets.

Last night I decided to completely disassemble my Nagant 1895 to troubleshoot a problem with the double action trigger.  When I would squeeze the trigger, the cylinder would rotate, but the hammer wouldn’t cock.  Worked fine in single action mode.  Upon taking it apart, I discovered that at some point, someone had apparently whacked the trigger with a punch in order to push some metal up so the double action fly on the hammer would catch more properly.  I believe this was done to make up for a weak double action fly spring, which was allowing the fly to push in too readily, rather than catching on the trigger.   I took out the fly screw, and stretched out the fly spring, and bingo, it started working again.  I may have to order a new fly spring if it happens again.  There is actually a place you can buy Nagant parts (and from whom I shamlessly ‘borrowed’ the above image).  I decided to write this up, because I couldn’t find much information on Nagant troubleshooting, I’m guessing because most people faced with a broken 1895 Nagant revolver just ceremoniously bury it in the back yard, then scrounge the sofa for the money to buy another one.  But to me, the death of any gun is a tragedy, so I will commit myself to making sure this one stays in working order.

Ruger is issuing a safety recall of the SR-9.  Apparently it’s possible for the firearm ti discharge if dropped with the safety in the off position.

The company said it is reworking the design of a new trigger group that prevents firing when dropped and will retrofit at no charge all Ruger SR9 pistols with serial number prefix “330.”

Better be sure to send yours in if you have those serial numbers.  Fortunatly, I don’t think most of us drop our guns that often.  I don’t recall that I’ve ever done it.

A commenter in Paul’s post over at HuffPo gives a pretty good education on how Lauer Custom Weaponry’s Duracoat process works.  For the sake of brevity, I’m only pasting the relevant bits:

I am a frequent purchaser of Lauer products and the only travesty I see in this report is the fact that the Wisconsin dealer charged $200 for the Duracoat (your first error, its not “paint”) job. I’ve done several, and $200 seems a little steep.

It’s actually a neat process. You have to completely disassemble, degrease, and bead blast the firearm first with 120 grit aluminum oxide, then parkerize, then duracoat, making sure that you have the correct “paint” to hardner ratio between 10:1 and 14:1 (personally, I find an 11:1 ratio just right).  It requires a good bit of tools an know-how. Air compresser, media-blasting gun, air brush (I use a Paasche dual-stage) parkerizing solution, heat tank (or a good sized crock pot), and a few other odds and ends.

The end result, if done correctly, is a beautiful, rock-hard, durable firearm finish resistent to holster wear, self lubricating, and, which happens to come in a multitude of colors.

No doubt it’s expensive, now that, thanks to Bloomberg and the Brady Campaign, Lauer is now the hottest name in Duracoat.  Clearly if we don’t get this technology off the streets immediately, we can expect drug dealers and gang bangers to immediately start procuring bead blasting equipment, parkerizing solutions, and heat tanks, and to begin reading up on hardener ratios.  If this scourge is allowed to continue, they’ll soon be so obsessed with Duracoating, they won’t have time to sell drugs and shoot up street corners!

I just received another three five ounce bottles of Gunzilla. It took me a while to go through the 1.9 ounce bottle I got at the NRA convention, just to try out. My original review of their product was here. The stuff works so well I ordered myself what will probably be a two year supply. One of the 5 ounce bottles will be for Bitter, to go with her new present which is on its way here thanks to Traction Control.

I can’t say enough good things about this cleaner. It works just as well as petroleum based cleaners, has virtually no odor, and isn’t a hazardous material.

One thing all this reloading is going to start producing eventually is a lot of scrap brass.  Does anyone have any suggestions on how to sell your old, worn out brass, to be recycled?  Is there a place you can take it?

This could have ended badly:

Sorry for the light posting today. Too much having to earn a living going on this week, and tonight is my weekly silhouette match. I thought, though, I’d give an update on some things I’ve learned with respect to reloading:

1. You do yourself no favors with a cheap digital scale. They don’t hold zero well enough, and tend to measure underweight if you trickle powder into one. Stick with a quality beam balance or spend the money for a decent digital scale.
2. Case tumblers can really shine your brass up nice, to the point they look better once fired than new cases look. At first I thought a high sheen on the brass was merely aesthetic, but it actually makes your brass remarkably easy to spot and recover.
3. Powder dispensers don’t seem to measure all that consistently if you’re thinking about loading up to the maximum recommended powder load. I’ve had best results setting the dispenser to throw a bit under and then trickling up to weight.
4. A powder trickle is well worth the money.
5. My Alpha Chrony is very finicky on a low light range, and often can’t see small bullets like .223 and even 6.8 SPC sometimes. It never seems to have trouble seeing .30-06.

The main thing I’ll be looking to improve is my reloading speed. It can take me a few evenings to reload as much ammo as I can shoot in an hour at the range. Nonetheless, it’s a very fun winter time distraction, much the same way brewing beer is, except reloading isn’t quite as detrimental to health, well, except for the lead exposure risk.

Primers are important components of ammunition.  But what are they made of?  How do they work?  Basically, a primer is some shock sensitive explosive mixed with other fuels, oxidizers, abrasives and binders.

The most common compound used to initiate the explosion is lead styphnate. Needless to say, it’s pretty toxic, which is why people say to wash your hands after shooting or handling ammunition.  Primers made from this compound are considered to be non-corrosive.

The original compound used for priming was mercury fulminate.  Its main disadvantage is that it produces elemental mercury, which readily forms an amalgam with brass, substantially weaken brass casings.  In more modern corrosive ammunition, it was combined with potassium chlorate, which when ignited would coat parts of the firearm in potassium salts, which attract moisture and promote corrosion very rapidly if not removed.

Pics here.   Looks like it blew the grip panels off.  Anyone with experience out there… double charge?  Case issue?  OOB?  I don’t own a 1911, and don’t have much experience with them.

The Bench of Evil got quite a workout tonight, now that I have all the things I need to go to town.  I reloaded 40 rounds of 6.8 Rem. SPC and loaded 50 rounds of .223.

Started off loading some .223 rounds.  This is starting with fresh Winchester brass.  I’m using CCI small rifle primers.  Sierra 55gr Spitzer boat tail bullets, and 20 grains of IMR-4198 powder.  Going is slow at first as I get used to everything.  I spilled some of the powder all over the table, and had to do cleanup.  Put one primer in seated backwards, and thought better of trying to decap a live primer from the business end.

I managed to do the 40 rounds of 6.8 Remington SPC a good bit faster than the .223, but that’s not counting the decapping, resizing and cleaning I did prior to tonight.  I’m using Sierra OTM 115gr bullets, and 22 grains of the same powder.

The real reward will be firing them out of the rifle without anything blowing up.  I’m a little disappointed it took me all night to reload probably 30 minutes worth of ammo at the range, but I figure I’ll get faster.  My next purchase will be a reasonable electronic scale.

Ahab is building a PDW based on the 10/22 platform.  I like the .17HM2, personally.  I had some silhouette shooters tell me they like the high-velocity rimfires because they are flatter shooting than .22LR.

I finally got a place set up for reloading, so I can once again shoot more without going broke.  How else is am I supposed to practice firing from a hip at 600 rounds a minute without going broke?

It’s your basic Lee Anniversary Kit.  I’m not sure about where I had to mount the press, because there’s a bar in the way in the front, and I was worried the lever would tip the table over.

I’ve already ordered the dies and various other things from Ko-Tonics and MidwayUSA.  Hopefully this weekend I’ll make it up to Cabela’s this weekend to get some powder and primers.  I’m anxious to get started.

I just noticed there’s a hazmat fee for shipping powder and primers, that amounts to 40 dollars for them to be each shipped separate from Midway.  I can drive to Cabela’s for cheaper than 40 dollars!

I took my 10/22 trigger group apart in order to clean it out and re-oil it a few days ago. And now I have no idea how to put it back together. Usually I can figure it out, but Ruger designs seem to be overly complicated, and this one has me stumped. Time to hit Google.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from other people’s experience with the gun police, it’s don’t wander into gray areas when the state is looking for reasons to put you in jail for being a gun owner:

Here’s what I’m wondering.  Using something like a braided steel fishing leader and some lead split shot, I could conceivably drill small holes in the channel near the base of the mag (where it won’t interfere with the spring and follower) and securing the thin steel cable there by creating a lead tag of a melted lead split shot.  Then, run the cable up the mag body inside the channel on the outside of the mag and hang them outside of the lower receiver.  Close the action and attach lead tags to the steel cables on the outside of the action.  Now, you have a magazine that can be attached without removing the standard mag release button, but can’t be detached without opening the action.  The cables and tags wouldn’t get in the way of the operation according to my Mk. I eyeball.  And there should be no problems with the receiver closing on the cable.

Good idea, bad idea?  Completely idiotic?  I mean the idea, not the laws that inspired it - I know they’re idiotic.

It depends on whether you want to sit in front a jury, explaining all this to them and hoping they understand it, while the prosecutor tries to explain you’re a dangerous extremist who was illegally manufacturing assault weapons in violation of state laws.

The state will surely argue that all it would take is a pair of wire cutters to convert the AR into an assault weapon, and thus it falls into the “readily modifiable” provision, since it doesn’t neatly fit into one of the exceptions.  It is readily modifiable without taking the action apart, because all you have to do is cut the cable.

Got the new SKS today.  For the rest of the evening, I will be battling the cosmoline.  Pictures forthcoming when I’ve won.  This will be a good test of Gunzilla.

I’ve usually shied away from reviewing products, because I hate the idea of spending my time doing other people’s marketing for them, but sometimes I run across a product that genuinely is really good, and I think would be of help to other shooters.

While at the NRA convention in St. Louis back in April, I bought a small bottle of a gun cleaner called Gunzilla. The guy at the Gunzilla booth said the product was developed for the military, was plant based, had very little odor, wasn’t harmful to the environment, but still “removes rust, lead, copper, plastic, carbon and even cleans corrosive ammo.” I was skeptical of these claims, but he was offering the 5oz bottles for six bucks, so I thought I’d give it a try.

Now, I’ve always been a Hoppes No. 9 guy when it came to cleaning the power residue out of firearms. I’ve tried other cleaners, and I always thought No. 9 did the best at cutting through thick residue. The chief problem with No. 9 is that it smells, though not necessarily badly in my opinion, it’s quite strong. After I clean my Glock, for the next few days, I’m waiting for someone to come up to me and say “My, that’s an odd fragrance you’re wearing, what do you call it?” I’m probably the only one who can detect the smell, but it’s definitely there. I usually put all the wet patches and q-tips in a zip lock to keep it from continually stinking up the house.

So tonight I decided to try the Gunzilla to clean the Glock. When they said it didn’t have much odor, they weren’t kidding. Vegetable oil has a stronger scent than this stuff. I did take a quick whiff before I bought it, but even with a few wet patches laying out, I still couldn’t smell anything. I was skeptical when I bought the bottle that it would be a truly effective cleaner, but my skepticism was unwarranted. This stuff cleans pretty well! Granted, I’m meticulous about keeping my carry piece clean, but it cut through the powder residue pretty ably. I think for my regular cleanings, I’m sold on Gunzilla.

The real test will be to use it to clean the Kalashnikov, which I clean maybe once a year, after a thousand or so rounds of filthy Russian ammo have been fed through it. If it can clean up that mess, I may never buy another bottle of No. 9 again. You can’t beat something that cleans well, and saves both the environment and your nose!

UPDATE: A few people have asked if I got paid to do an endorsement.  Who would pay a C-list blogger to endorse their product?  Nah, I just thought it was good stuff.   If someone offered to pay me to write an endorsement I’d tell them to get lost (well, unless there was a lot of money involved)

It’s time to get a big safe.  I’m just buying too much I guess.  Any advice on safe buying?   It seems that most places I can get them don’t deliver them, but I don’t have the equipment to move a 750lb hunk of steel around.  Any of you have experience with safe movers?  Or buying safes?  Any advice would be appreciated.

I’ve always heard for shooting corrosive ammo, the best thing to use for cleaning is soap and water. Straightarrow suggested ammonia solutions. Others have suggested Windex. After shooting the AK-74 in Texas, I tried Windex, and had no rust spots on the firearm. A few days ago I tried soapy water, and found the results to be less than pleasing, with rust splotches on the flash hider and in the gas tube. Windex would seem to win hands down.

But I doubt Windex is effective because of the ammonia. I think it has more to do with the fact that Windex has much more effective surfactants in it than plain soapy water. The ammonia is immaterial, other than its power as a detergent, which can be explained by the chemistry in the primers.

Corrosive primers contain mercury fulminate, which is strike sensitive, and an amalgam of potassium chlorate as an oxidizing agent, and rosin as a binding agent and fuel. The mercury fulminate gets the reaction going when the primer is struck by the firing pin, and gets hammered against the “anvil”. The potassium chlorate and rosin begin reacting violently to create a jet of hot, burning gas which then ignites the main powder charge. The problem with this reaction is that one of the byproducts is potassium chloride, which ends up on metal surfaces and attracts moisture, which quickly starts the corrosion process. The purpose of using warm water is to dissolve the potassium chloride, and wash it off of the gun. I suspect Windex works well because it has surfactants that will dig into the powder residue, get to the surfaces, and help wash away more of the potassium salt.

Another by product of of the primer reaction is elemental mercury, which can form amalgams with brass. If you ever wondered why the Soviets use steel cased ammo, this is one of the reasons. Over time, mercuric primers can leech enough mercury into the casing to weaken the brass, increasing the risk of rupture when it’s fires. Using steel casings minimizes this risk, even with very old ammunition.

Modern non-corrosive primers use lead syphnate, which doesn’t leave moisture attracting salts. The lead syphnate is bound up with ground glass as a frictionator, tetracene as a sensitizer, along with an oxidizing compound, typically barium nitrate, and a fuel source, such as antimony sulfide.

Non-corrosive primers are more prone to degradation than corrosive primers, in large part because tetracene makes the primer a lot more heat sensitive. There have been a lot of advancements in primer technology lately, particularly with non-toxic primers, and I won’t pretend to be an expert on this.

But I will say that Windex is definitely your friend if you shoot corrosive primed surplus ammunition out of your firearms. It seems to get the job done better than soapy water.

It’s a slow day. Lots to do at work, and lots of preparation for Bitter and my’s Texas Fun Time Shootout trip. I figured I’d crack open the stuff I’ve meant to blog about, but have kept in reserve for just such an occasion. From Clayton Cramer, we have this totally cool animated diagram of the Glock pistol.

For those of you who think that Austrian Tupperware is an affront to God, Country, and John Moses Browning, you can see a 1911 version of the same thing on this page.

Bruce of mAss Backwards has a great post on how to remove cosmoline from a new rifle; a problem we’ve all had to face at one time or another. I think we all remember Easy Bake Ovens. Same principle, applied to guns.

UPDATE: I didn’t try Bruce’s easy bake oven for rifles, but the oven did the trick for me.  There are advantages to living alone :)  I have the Mosin-Nagant nearly ready to shoot, and will have to do a range report in a few days.