I just ordered a long range varmint control tool

[GaryM]

When I bought the 6.8 SPC upper there were fewer choices than there are now. Ammo's not cheap, and I'm not shooting it enough to bother right now. I do reload 9MM and 40 S&W. And pick up any other brass that's nearby as well. I do have several hundred .223 and 5.56 empties that have been run through the tumbler.

I bought the 6.8 upper becaues it was available at a 'reasonable' price, and I wanted something heavier than 5.56.

I like my .22LR conversion as it works well and installs easily. Of course the 5.56 chamber needs to be nice and clean for it to fit as it should. I've had no problems, so must be doing a good cleaning job.

[Pat]

Gary, Ammo prices and interest in shooting and plinking more are driving me towards considering the .223 and .308 as my "other" calibers due to availability and cost. The 6.5 is what I would consider mid priced ammo with variations of a few dollars per box for the same thing from different retailers. I'm gearing up to hand load it.

I have had a new and unfired Weatherby 300 mag bolt gun just waiting for me to get around to it for quite a while (saw bargain price and lost control.) I will be setting up to hand load that as well some day eventually. It would be too expensive to shoot a lot with factory ammo which typically runs in low 40's to high 60's per 20 round box. I have lots of emotional resistance to shooting that expensive of ammo so need to hand load it. Somehow th idea of shooting round after round, each as expensive as a ham sandwich, bothers me.

More rain so I can't get to my back yard 100 yd targets to put up fresh ones and too wet to go out on the property for longer ranges. I'm still waiting for a chance to try the 6.5 at 300, 500, 800, 1000.

Pat

[CJDave]

[img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img] Whump! .....ONE ham sandwich; Whump! ....TWO ham sandwiches; Whump! ..... THREE ham sandwiches; etc. etc. etc. etc. Oops....out of ham sandwiches! Oh well, it's time for lunch anyway. How about a ham sandwich? [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Dave, I guess I am sort of frugal. I am going to move a 35x70 ft building about a quarter mile across my property and have to store its contents prior to moving it. I am building some storage boxes (4x4x8 ft) out of 5/8 OSB joined at the edges with 2x2 inch stock and dry wall screws. I have done it before and you get most of the screws back as well as the ply or OSB with a few holes along the edges but still good for sheeting or roof decking.

This time I am building the boxes two units high and two units long (8 each 4x4x8) so I can share the interior walls and save on materials.

At the big box stores the cheapest 2x2 stock is almost as expensive as the cheap 2x4 stock so I made $20 earlier this Am ripping a dozen 2x4 into 24 2x2 MOL. Only took a few min (about 10) Twenty bucks is twenty bucks or 6-8 shots with the Weatherby 300 mag if I were to buy factory ammo Which I haven't due to excessive cost ($50-$60 for 20 rnds.)

Pat

[CJDave]

[img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] I found the same thing to be true, Pat, and my "reclaimed" 12" Monkey Ward table saw has done a lot of ripping because of that. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] You haven't BEGUN to register on the frugal scale until you've done stuff like a guy who farmed near us in CA in the forties and fifties. Back in them days, very few farmers on the west coast were set up to move their farm product in BULK, it was sacks, sacks, sacks. My dad had a "sacker" combine with a drop chute on it, we picked almonds and walnuts into sacks, and even barley and wheat was sacked clear up to the end of WWII. The Midwest and the plains states had long since gone to bulk, but not us west-coasters. ANYWAY, we had walnuts and almonds and we took our sacked nuts to a local huller for processing. Our frugal neighbor took his sacks as well, but instead of closing them with string and a sack needle, he pinned them closed with big nails and then sent a can along for the huller guys to put the nails in so he could get them back! [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img] THAT is being frugal; almost to the extreme. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]