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hurtbringer · Sep 9, 2025

Inquiry sent.

LMTMWS · Sep 9, 2025

91Eunozs said:
My wife was telling me about this earlier today… As much as I can’t stand the CEO of Camper World, sounds like he saw this too and gave that family tickets to the World Series….and a camper! LoL

Silly looking initial response aside, really nice job de-escalating the situation by the dad…looks like that demonstrated maturity paid off.

No, he was a weak ass coward and reacted like a teenage girl. He is the reason women act like that and have zero accountability.

338LM_Sniper · Sep 9, 2025

PM Sent.

aprocast · Sep 9, 2025

Grease · Sep 9, 2025

straightshooter1 · Sep 9, 2025

RegionRat said:
Many folks tend to size too slowly, and that opens the door for a different kind of friction problem.

If you have ever seen the speed of the machines in a factory, they are not moving slow. By that same token, they are not going as hard as LCGW either.

What it takes is a pretty good velocity into the stop without slowing down and getting into what is called a "stick-slip" friction problem. The really hard slam into the stop isn't really required, but if that is what it takes to avoid the friction regime change for you, then slam away.

You can practice with cheap brass and check your headspace. The problem shows up as variation in that shoulder datum length. It is better to go a little faster than it is to go a little slower and accidentally get into stick-slip.

Make sure you don't get sloppy with case lube, or you also introduce problems. More is not always better, and too skinny can also be bad.

Brass is magical in terms of how well it is suited to cartridge use. It has a shear storage, and shear loss term built into the modulus, as well as a damping term. When you cold work it, you want to be as consistent as possible with your speed while avoiding that stick-slip which is like dozens of starts and stops. YMMV

This is one of the things I noticed and, as I so often to, ran an experiment of some range brass I picked up. I changed speeds in how fast I rammed my cases into the sizing die and measure to results. The results changed with the speed, like faster resulted in more springback and less consistency. And with my bushing sizing dies, which I just don't use anymore, there was a big difference in concentricity (faster was better). My lubing procedure works well with decent speed getting case into the die and giving my annealed cases a few seconds dwell time in my non-bushing FL sizing die has given me my best results. I guess a good lubing help with that.

straightshooter1 · Sep 9, 2025

_Thor_ said:
This is interesting, because I've definitely seen some people claim to size, mandrel and then tumble. Maybe they just do it for a shorter time than I did. It definitely seems like the most logical step to change the order of operations as you suggested. I do find it interesting that just-mandreled brass settles around .239-.240 for a .241. I guess that's "spring back"? I went with a .241 mandrel based on others' suggestions and hoping for 2-thou-or-so of neck tension, but I guess a .242 would have been a better choice.

You always get springback, unless your brass is dead soft, and that's something no one wants. How much springback you get will depend on the hardness of each piece of brass (the more you fire and size the cases without annealing, the harder the brass becomes).

_Thor_ said:
A trimmer is probably in my future. At least those are somewhat within my budget. I'm curious if you chamfer even when not trimming though?

I trim and chamfer after every sizing session. Always chamfering assures me that any little bit of peening I might get is taken care of so that bullet seating is more consistent.

_Thor_ said:
I wish I could drop $300-$700 on an annealer but it's really not feasible for me. I saw a post on here somewhere where someone said it's better not to bother annealing vs doing a shoddy inconsistent job by hand. I guess I'm shortening the life of my brass to maybe 4-5 firings, then? But with a set of 300 cases, that might even get me through most or all of this barrel's life. Granted, annealing saves money on a long enough timeline.

You can get a nice annealing machine for under $300, well . . . at $300 after tax.

If you've got some mechanical talent, you could probably build something for much less.

Annealing not only extends case life, it really helps a lot with consistent sizing results (like way less springback and more consistent bullet seating).

Doing a decent annealing job is NOT hard to do well enough. You just need a little understanding of what it takes in terms of the amount of heat and the time at that heat to get the job done. It's NOT rocket science.

But this is a lot of misinformation floating around for beginners to be confused . . . just like that comment about "better not to bother annealing vs doing a shoddy inconsistent job by hand."

_Thor_ said:
Correct, no pins, just the hour with water/dawn and brass. Maybe the shorter wet cycle was the more likely culprit over the overnight with walnut then.

Wet tumbling is very well known as being the culprit. Dry tumbling can do it too, depending on how it's loaded and the design the the tumbler. Like my cheap Frankford Arsenal dry tumbler has a threaded steel rod up the middle to tighten the lid on to it. That steel rod tended to produce some peening, so I put a thick plastic liner over it keep that from happening.

_Thor_ said:
I don't think the drum was highly loaded - maybe 70 pieces total. I think following Kaldor's suggestion and yours should be a huge help:

Lube/size

30 minute wet tumble

Mandrel with dry lube

Dry tumble

Chamfer (after mandrel, I assume, not before?)

etc

I'd suggest changing that order a little bit that should actually give you better results IMHO:

30 minute wet tumble (HOT water)
Lube/size
Dry tumble
Chamfer (before mandrel, it helps the mandrel go in easier like it does for seating bullets)
Mandrel with dry lube

I highly recommend you get a trimmer, even a cheap one as every time you size the brass, it'll grow in length . . especially when using no custom sizing dies.

PS: I do a 3-way trim at the very last of my processing.

Modoc · Sep 9, 2025

This is a cool hummingbird feeder!

Modoc · Sep 9, 2025

Modoc · Sep 9, 2025

westford86 · Sep 9, 2025

steve101610 said:
Can’t believe you didn’t send it back or at least contact them. Mistakes happen to even the best companies out there. Their customer service is great and I’m sure they will make things right.

I was in touch with them when I initially got the barrel and made note of all the mistakes. They are the ones who suggested honing out the gas block to fit the oversized journal. At the time I just wanted to get my build running in time for hunting season, I didn't want to wait another 6 months for another barrel. I have tried to contact them recently, now that I have exhausted every tuning option I can think of, but haven't heard back.