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Stock Refinishing with Tru Oil

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Not too long ago I bought one of the Civilian Marksmanship specials. The specials are remanufactured M1 Garands with new barrels and new stocks. Once mine arrived I was rather pleased with how it looked, however I needed to do something with the stock as it was essentially bare wood when I got it. I decided to use Birchwood Casey’s Tru Oil on this project. Unfortunately I did not take any pictures before I started so I will use some proxy pictures that hopefully will serve the purpose. On the right is a picture of the CMP special from the CMP website. You can see that the wood looks nice but it needs some finish. After receiving mine I took all of the furniture off and used a bit of 400 grit paper to smooth out a few rough places and then give it a light sanding overall. Then I blew all the dust off with my compressor and then used a tack cloth to remove anything else. Seeing as how I failed to take pictures of my stock before refinishing, I am going to show some pictures of a box that I made for my wife not too long …

Leupold Mark AR Scope Review

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I have been in the market for some decent optics for my flat-top AR. With the economy the way it is I initially tried to keep the cost down and crashed and burned with the NCStar Mark III. Thankfully Midway USA made the recovery much easier with their no hassle return policy. After that experience I put aside some money for a little while until I was able to save up enough to order a Leupold Mark AR from Optics Planet with a coupon. I also purchased a one-piece Burris Scope Mount from Midway to go with the scope. The Leupold Mark AR comes in a 1.5-4×20 model and a 3-9×40 model. You can buy it with Duplex or Mildot reticles and the lenses are coated with Leupold’s Multicoat 4 System. This coating is supposed to result in increased brightness, contrast, and clarity. The view through the scope looked good to me although I did have some issues making out 22 cal holes at 100yds. I bought the 3-9×40 version with the Mildot Reticle. It is a one inch tube in matte finish.  The elevation knob is adjustable in 1/2 moa increments and includes a built in bullet drop compensator …

Dillon Powder Measure Tuning

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I love reloading on my Dillon. I usually use it for straight wall pistol ammunition. Once it is set up and dialed in, I can crank out plenty of 9mm and 45 to feed our shooting habit. My wife even likes the Dillon as it saves money on ammo and she thinks that the sound of me reloading on the Dillon and reaching into the brass bucket reminds her of the Pink Floyd song Money.   In the past I have usually reloaded my rifle ammunition on a single stage press. For no particular reason I wanted to reload some rifle rounds on the Dillon. I started with 30-06 as I had the dies and I could use the shellplate, buttons, etc from other rounds that I already reloaded. I set the Dillon up with the 30-06 dies and filled the powder measure up with some IMR-4895. This load was going to be for the Garand so it will not be too hot. About 45 grains of 4895 behind a 168gr SMK. I was trying to get the powder measure dialed in but I kept on noticing that when I brought the handle up I still had grains of powder …

NCStar Mark III Tactical Scope Review

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Up for review this month is the NC Star Mark III Tactical Scope. I got this from Midway with a coupon for about $115. I was kind of apprehensive about this purchase as I had read a couple of not so hot reviews and I am usually of the mind that you get what you pay for. Anyhow this is a 3 to 9 variable power scope with illuminated mildot reticules. It comes with an integrated quick release weaver style mount. My intention was to put this scope one of my flat top ARs. The package from Midway was packaged adequately as usual and I pulled the scope box out to take a look. The box packaging looked decent and I did not see any damage to the box.  The end of the box shows the 3-9X with a 42mm objective. the actual model number is STM3942G. I carefully removed the scope from the box and checked it out. One of the reasons that I picked this one is that it has the built in bullet drop compensator that is calibrated for 223. It is actually calibrated for a 55gr M193 round and I usually shoot 69 or 75 gr. …

M1 Garand Tune-up – Tightening the Gas Cylinder

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When shooting an M1 Garand and here I am talking about a service or field grade rifle not a match grade rifle, there are three areas to check. Like buying a used car there are usually a few areas you want to examine to insure the car will operate properly. Three areas to check that will ensure your Garand will shoot fairly good groups are tightness with the gas cylinder, rear sight, and stock lock-up. The gas cylinder is held in place by three splines on the barrel, the gas cylinder lock, and gas cylinder lock screw. What is important here is that there is no movement, wiggle side-to-side of the gas cylinder on the barrel. A loose gas cylinder will effect grouping or cause several groups on your target. There is an easy fix to eliminate this problem. What you will require is a ½ inch socket, small hammer, 1/8 inch steel punch, and block of wood. When looking at the barrel from the muzzle end there are three splines, one at 12 o.clock, another at 4 o.clock, and another at 8 o.clock. You first want to lay the barrel with the top spline up and the 6 o.clock …

Shooting Chrony Beta Master Review

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I have been reloading for a long time but it was usually just to save money for target practice, so I usually just used the starting load in many of the books. Sometimes I would modify a few things to see what would happen but for the most part if went boom when I pulled the trigger it was good. For a number of reasons I wanted to collect some data on how my reloads were performing, so I decided to buy a chronograph. I was doing a lot of research on what kind to buy and I was leaning towards a particular model when I received an email from Midway and the Shooting Chrony Beta Master was on sale for $99!. The one I was considering was quite a bit more and that was why I was hesitating. For $99 I went for it. Shooting Chrony has quite a number of different models available. The three main models are the Alpha, Beta, and the Gamma. The biggest difference between the three is the amount of memory for storing velocity readings. Each of the three models are available in the base model and the Master model. The base model has …

Console Vault Review

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Up for review this month is the Console Vault by Unique Security Solutions, billed as the Ultimate High Security In-Vehicle Storage System. For those times when you need to secure your personal items in your vehicle, and stuffing them under the seat just doesn’t seem like the smartest idea in the world, the console vault may be just what you need. The Console Vault is advertised as a specially designed insert that fits into the console space of your truck or SUV while still allowing the console to close normally. The vault is constructed of 12 gauge steel and has a five point high security locking mechanism with a spring assisted lid. The manufacturer claims that the unit can be installed in under 10 minutes without any modification to the vehicle. Models are currently available for over 26 different trucks and SUVs.         In the past I have owned some of the other in car safe like containers. Most were built from rather flimsy metal and did not hold up well. One container in particular that comes with a long cable for securing the container into the car and can be purchased for about $29.95, was not …

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