Real Guns

[Rage Racer]

I cannot see any reason why someone would not want to have a BTR to drive. How expensive are they to purchase?

A BTR usually costs $10,000 to $80,000 depending on model and condition. The problem is, that BTR is not allowed to be driven on public roads, because it's too wide. Or it needs a special permission from police for each trip on a public road. So, private BTRs are purely off-road vehicles, and they're not very popular.

More popular type of armored vehicles is BRDM.

They're cheaper - $8,000 to $50,000, and can be driven on public roads, as they're not bigger than an ordinary truck. So they usually get sold pretty quickly after they become available.
However, maintenance of these things is hard and expensive - they comsume a lot of fuel, and spare parts are hard to get. No wonder that they are all purchased by rich and crazy people who have enough time, money and wish to have fun with this stuff.

 

[a6m5]

Sure beats Humvees I see around where I live! I was thinking about the parts & maintenance, too. Perhaps the initial purchase of the vehicle is the cheapest part of the ownership.

 

[Nicksfix]

Some photos made by me on my military training in 2010 (Kubinka training area).

{snip}

Very nice. 👍

And Nicksfix, guys are probably on to something with the international shipping. You can never be too careful. There very well could be some red tape on shipping just even gun parts, and consequence could be very serious for such violation. Not worth discovering it the hard way.

I do not, nor will I do international shipping, unless it would be through an FFL or C&R Dealer. Even at that, I'm very, very, very hesitant. So we can rule that out. Stateside shipping is not an issue, I've done it. Mind you, I'm just doing some parts / accessories for some friends. Stocks, magazines, barrels, things that friends cannot find within their locale ... no ammo / complete guns have or ever will be shipped. I've checked with officials on this matter ... I CMA.

 

[Michael88]

Almost blew my face off today, shot handloaded ammunition and it was way, totally WAAAAAY overpressure, massive gas leakage at the primer pocket, badly deformed sticky brass cases, an awful lot of recoil. I'm a perfectionist when reloading ammo - so what happened? Faulty powder!
Turned out the powder granulation was all over the place, especially lots of small powder pieces which make gas pressure go through the roof in rifle cartridges.
I can only imagine what pressure spikes my rifle hat to endure, I'm still surprised it didn't disintegrate in my hands, along with my face..*

Here is a pic of normal rifle stick powder with uniform granulation:

And thats the faulty powder I loaded:

Some photos made by me on my military training in 2010 (Kubinka training area).

Very nice! 👍

 

[Omnis]

So what then? Do you sue the powder maker?

 

[Michael88]

Demand a refund and...yeah, thats about it. If I had to sue someone I'd have to sue myself for not checking the powder before loading and shooting it.

 

[a6m5]

"So what then? Do you sue the powder maker?" - American
"Demand a refund and...yeah, thats about it." - Austrian

I'm sorry, I'm a cheap shot artist. Don't sue me! We are very glad that you are OK Michael! 👍

 

[Omnis]

Hahaha. I was just saying. I mean, what if you gun blew up and you got really hurt?

 

[Michael88]

"So what then? Do you sue the powder maker?" - American
"Demand a refund and...yeah, thats about it." - Austrian

I'm sorry, I'm a cheap shot artist. Don't sue me! We are very glad that you are OK Michael! 👍

👍

Thanks! From now on I'll inspect my powder more carefully, lessons learned!

Hahaha. I was just saying. I mean, what if you gun blew up and you got really hurt?

If I got hurt you can bet your behind that I'd sue them so hard that the people responsible would have to sell their kidneys to pay me. Both of em.

 

[Solid Lifters]

Here is a pic of normal rifle stick powder with uniform granulation:

And thats the faulty powder I loaded:

That looks a lot like two different powder types mixed together! Looks like a flake power got mixed with your extruded powder. What manufacture of powder is that and what kind is it? I've NEVER seen gunpowder that terrible before! I'll check here if there was a recall for it because that is a serious issue you've found there!

I'd separate the extruded powder and the flake powder and check their burn rates. I have a feeling the flake will burn a lot faster. That means it is completely two different powders wich means somebody must have mixed them together for some reason before they sold it to you. Or, the manufacture used a filling machine without cleaning it properly and you got the container that was fillled first before the old powder was cleared out.

You're pretty damn lucky nothing bad happened to you!

 

[Nicksfix]

Almost blew my face off today, shot handloaded ammunition and it was way, totally WAAAAAY overpressure, massive gas leakage at the primer pocket, badly deformed sticky brass cases, an awful lot of recoil. I'm a perfectionist when reloading ammo - so what happened? Faulty powder!
Turned out the powder granulation was all over the place, especially lots of small powder pieces which make gas pressure go through the roof in rifle cartridges.
I can only imagine what pressure spikes my rifle hat to endure, I'm still surprised it didn't disintegrate in my hands, along with my face..*

Here is a pic of normal rifle stick powder with uniform granulation:

And thats the faulty powder I loaded:

Damn .... glad to hear that you escaped that one in one piece.

I have a friend who has a Czech VZ24 8mm Mauser. He bought the gun really cheap, basically as what is commonly referred to as a "rack grade". Upon getting it home, he tore it down and ran a thorough inspection on it. Here to find out, this gun had a bad firing pin, it was slightly bent. He was able to acquire another pin for it, install it, clean up the rest of the gun to get it ready for some shooting. He took it to the range, chambered it, pulled the trigger ..... nothing really great happened. Just a "little bang" and nothing else. The round never made it to the target that was only set at 200 yds. Here, upon a closer inspection, he had discovered that the head space on the firing pin was set to low. Realizing what had happened, he remembered that while installing the pin, he thought he had set the head space, he did not. He says that while doing this, his daughter had interrupted him and side tracked him from setting the correct height. He came back to the gun, thinking he had set it. It's a damn good thing that the pin height was set low and not too high. Too high of a setting punctures the primer and well ... not good news. This could have released some very hot gases in his face casing some serious injury, let alone, possibly even blowing up in the chamber. Thank God, he too lived to tell about his self proclaimed mistake. He is very adamant about things like this now.

But seriously Michael, really glad to hear that you got out of this one to talk about it. 👍

 

[Michael88]

Having a wrong firing pin headpsace can happen very easily with a Mosin Nagant if you do not pay attention when re-assembling the bolt, its just screwed in and there is even a special go & no-go gauge for the firing pin. Most people don't realize the danger when putting the rifle back together.
A wrong firing pin head space in a 98 action is news to me though.

I just sealed some ammo absolutely airtight for my SHTF backpack. If the sealed ammo isn't exposed to very high or low temperatures it should still be in perfect condition after 200 years of lying at the bottom of a lake.

And now something really interesting, what needs to be done to re-barrel a rifle? A lot!

 

[a6m5]

I just sealed some ammo absolutely airtight for my SHTF backpack. If the sealed ammo isn't exposed to very high or low temperatures it should still be in perfect condition after 200 years of lying at the bottom of a lake.

That is flipping awesome. 👍 I try to keep most of my ammo in standard U.S. Army ammo can(has gasket, of course), some has silica gel packs in them to help keep the moisture low. Oregon isn't very humid, so it might be a overkill.

 

[TB]

silica gel packs in them to help keep the moisture low. Oregon isn't very humid, so it might be a overkill.

I have silica packs in my camera bag. One can never be too careful with ones toys! It might not do anything but it makes me feel better!

 

[a6m5]

Peace of mind, I hear ya.

 

[David]

.

 

[a6m5]

I think I finally saw Alien sometime in the 80's, but it obviously scared this guy more.

 

[a6m5]

When I got upset with Google for taking away firearms from shopping searches, I switched to Bing. It seems that Bing has quietly taken away firearms from shopping search as well. 👎

I tried both today, and while Google at least show you gun accessories, Bing wouldn't give me any gun related search results in shopping. I'm back with Google again.

 

[David]

.

 

[Brett]

I never found the lack of results from a shopping search to be an issue. The "shopping" feature on either Google or Bing is just about useless. You are much better off finding an online store, like Midway USA, and doing your searching there.

 

[a6m5]

Somebody gave me this website at work today. Zipfactory.com I haven't checked it out yet, but it sounded cheap & interesting. Anybody familiar with them?

It's good to know that the ideologues running these companies are okay with censoring search results of legal products from law abiding companies. I can't wait to see (not see) what they disagree with and censor next!

All about "P.C." & equal rights, until it's something they don't agree with. Oh, we don't want to offend anybody, especially the minorities, except when we do!

I never found the lack of results from a shopping search to be an issue. The "shopping" feature on either Google or Bing is just about useless. You are much better off finding an online store, like Midway USA, and doing your searching there.

Not always. It is hit & miss for me, but I've found not only bargains, but also discovered retailers I'd otherwise never would've run into.

 

[Michael88]

I have seen video reviews about the zip gun, seems like it jams more often than any gun I've ever seen before.

 

[Omnis]

Also seems unnecessarily complicated.

 

[Jedi2016]

I have seen video reviews about the zip gun, seems like it jams more often than any gun I've ever seen before.

I'm not sure what you're referring to there.. zip guns are, by definition, single shot. It's not exactly capable of "jamming" in the traditional sense.

 

[a6m5]

He's referring to the guns made by Zipfactory I linked above his post:



Too bad to hear about the potential jam issue.

Good news from the ammunition availability front. I went to some Walmart stores tonight & it is starting to come around. Still nowhere near where it should be, but I saw some .45ACP, 5.56, etc. It's tiny, but I saw a light!

 

[Michael88]

I always wondered, when ammo shortages happen due to hoarding, does the more exotic ammo vanish as well or is it collecting dust sitting all alone on the shelves? Is there anything left?

By the way, I'm looking for a decent scope with adjustable parallax thats not more expensive than 400-500 bucks but can't find one, only the really expensive target scopes have that adjustment. Target shooting without adjustable parallax sucks. Any ideas?

 

[David]

.

 

[a6m5]

I don't know about the scope(to be expected! lol), but with the ammunition shortage this time aroud, it started with the popular handgun rounds, semi-automatic rifles rounds and .22LRs. Gradually, hunting rounds started to disappear, but I recall seeing .30-06 on the shelves for some time. Other calibers that were rare or not as popular, they were still available if you looked around, probably even few months in. 12-Gauge also stuck around for long time, but lately, I mostly see smaller shot. Once in awhile, I still see buckshot or slugs, but they've become rare, at least in Walmart.

I check two other chain stores. One's doing about the same, but this one sporting goods doesn't have anything. They just get cleaned up.

I'm just glad that at least the Walmart inventory seems to be coming around. I haven't shot much, so I should still have 3,000+ .22LR, but when the availability normalize, I'm gonna start stocking up on those. .45, 12-Gauge & .308, I am stocked up & don't use them as much for plinking anyways, so it's not like I need 1,000+ of those. Like David noted, prices have risen little bit.

 

[Michael88]

.....but when the availability normalize, I'm gonna start stocking up on those.

Good god, if thats the general mindset of the US gun owners the ammo shortage will NEVER end.

Already found a scope, Bushnell 3200 5-15x50. The ''Elites'' are good scopes and don't break the bank (€ 348). 👍

 

[a6m5]

Good god, if thats the general mindset of the US gun owners the ammo shortage will NEVER end.

Quite the contrary(I think you misunderstood what I said lol). I'm pretty much refusing to buy until either the availability comes back, or I am actually running low. I don't want to take part in what I consider to be the manufacturing of the current shortage, which I believe are caused by hoarders & scalpers.

I saw some .45ACP Friday, I didn't buy them. I feel I have enough, people who needs it should get their chance to buy them. Month or two ago, I was at the right place, right time, was able to buy three boxes(store limit) of .22LR. I kept none, sold them to couple of my friends who were out of .22s for exactly what I paid. Sooner more people adapt my mindset, quicker ammo shortage would be over with.

Unfortunately, indeed there is a lot of hoarding & scalping delaying the market to normalize.

P.S. I also always try to explain, I don't think there is anything wrong with people buying, say .22LR when they are plentiful, then reselling when their market value is up. I'm talking about scalpers who clear out store shelves during a shortage with sole purpose of reselling for profit. Especially when they violate store limit of one box, three boxes or whatever, it sickens me.