Neanderpundit

I looked at all the stuff at the show, including Ranier bullets and Hornady presses, and discovered something… well, unsettling.

I can buy reloads cheaper than handloading.

No, really, theres a local place that sells reloaded bulk ammo, loaded with the components I specify, for $250 a thousand. And they have a return policy on brass, $30 a thousand. Which makes the end price $220 a thousand. Between the cost of the components and the time I’d spend, I could not EVER handload this cheaply. Plus, they do a damned nice job.

So I’ll continue to handload for the rifles, and tell the fine folks at Precision Cartridge to take care of my pistol ammo needs.

Now I just need to get there and stock up.

While this is my first ever Shot SHow, I got a chance to spend a LOT of time with several dealers, and of course, my sponsor- and the consensus is, the “black” rifles have diminished.

It’s not that they aren’t popular, of course, I think the people who are into militaria are just as interested as ever- but the show has (according to most I spoke with) become more focused on wood.

There’s a lot fo plastic, for sure- but the people I spoke with at most of the major mfrs claimed that the plastic was less abotu cost and utility as the lack of adequate manufacturing resource. A lot of people are buying plastic stocks and later upgrading to wood.

The prettiest and nastiest things at the show were one firearm: the new Mossberg lever action. Fit and feel, trigger pull, easily the equal of the finest offerings by marlin- of course, these were prototype guns and not production, you expect them to be better. The problem was, the stock SUCKED. They actually had one which had a checkered walnut stock (nice, but shaped wrong) and a plain Birch forend. And the combination looked like crap. I hope they get this right- because this rifle is AWESOME.

No racist references, thankyouverymuch.

Seven hours of driving in four seasons: Bright sunshine, driving rain, hail, and snow.

I’m just glad to be home. Toward the end I was in the zone, just driving along, and I got to a piece of fresh concrete bridge on 90.

I had just gotten to the edge of the Gary Aromasphere- you know, the point at which you can smell the open sewage smell? And the tail end of the truck did a hard left turn and I was looking at the broadside of a semi in the eastbound lane. And then the back tires hit (relatively) dry pavement and barked a bit, and straightened out, and I drove the remaining 25 miles in a state of heightened alertness.

Took five or six minutes to pry the exploder seat cushion from within my tightly clenched buttocks.