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Reloaders have made their own dippers for measuring powder charges for decades. I made a dipper from an empty .22 Long Rifle case and some copper wire, and tried it out with three different fast burning pistol powders: Accurate No.2 (AAC-2), Alliant Bullseye, and Hodgdon Titegroup.
I was hoping to get a dipper that would throw very small charges suitable for use in small, low pressure cartridges like .32 S&W Long. However, the charge weights are a bit higher than I'd wanted.
To measure, I threw 10 charges of each powder and weighed them individually on a Frankford Arsenal digital scale. I then took the average of those 10 charges.
My results (It is likely that yours will vary, see below!):
- AAC-2: 3.08 grains
- Bullseye: 2.98 grains
- Titegroup: 3.68 grains
To put these into perspective, with AAC-2 or Bulleye, these charges are good for loading .38 Special 148 grain wadcutters. They'd be light loads under a 158 grain semiwadcutter or round nose bullet, because those aren't seated as deeply in the case, thus lowering chamber pressure.
In .32 H&R Magnum, 3.0 grains of AAC-2 would be a mild load with a 100 grain lead bullet. Likewise, 3.0 grains of Bullseye would be a mild load with 96 - 100 grain lead round nose bullet.
The Titegroup load would approximate a .38 Special (not +P) 158 grain service load. It could also be used to load 85 grain JHPs in .32 H&R Magnum.
VERY IMPORTANT WARNING:
Before you rely on this data consult with one or more loading manuals. Use at your own risk.
If you try this make sure to create your own charge table. The amount of powder a dipper will measure will vary depending on the case used, the manufacturing lot of the powder, and your technique.
Since this dipper measures out charges larger than what I was after, I plan to make another one with a .22 Short case to see what that gets me.
In mid-October an apparently mentally ill sixteen-year-old entered an elementary school in Bend, Oregon and murdered three children and an adult and wounded two more victims. His murder spree was cut short when a thirty-something father of two young students there happened to be passing by, saw the gunman approaching the school, and stopped his […]The post Unique Prototype FN FAL in .30 Carbine first appeared on Forgotten Weapons.
Charles County Sheriff’s detectives are investigating a homicide that occurred early this morning, October 31, at The Cut Bar & Restaurant, located at 2570 Business Park Court in Waldorf. At approximately 1:46 a.m., officers responded to the establishment for a reported stabbing and shooting. The preliminary investigation indicates an altercation occurred between two men inside the bar. During the confrontation, one of the men produced a knife and threatened the other man. A private security guard assigned to the business attempted to intervene and gain control of the suspect’s hand and the knife. As the confrontation continued, the suspect stabbed the victim once in the abdomen. As the suspect appeared to make another attempt to stab the victim, the security guard discharged his firearm, striking the suspect once in the chest. The suspect walked outside the establishment and collapsed in the parking lot. Responding officers located him with the knife still in his hand. Officers and emergency medical personnel provided medical assistance; however, he was pronounced deceased at the scene.
According to court filings described by The Columbus Dispatch, officers who arrived found Cusmaan lying partially inside the right rear passenger seat of a 2016 Chrysler 200 with a gunshot wound, and he was later pronounced dead by Mifflin Township medics. Investigators reviewing surveillance footage allege Ibrahim got out of the Chrysler from the rear driver’s-side door and began firing a handgun before fleeing, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
Court records also state that Omar, an employee of the mosque, was inside the building while a funeral service was being held before he followed several juveniles involved in the incident, The Columbus Dispatch reported. Omar was then seen pulling a handgun from beneath his thobe and firing at one of the juvenile suspects, according to those records as reported by The Columbus Dispatch.
By Dave Workman On the eve of a historic vote on whether Massachusetts citizens will keep or repeal onerous Chapter 135 governing gun law in the Commonwealth, the executive director of the Massachusetts Gun Owners Action League (GOAL) got a startling surprise when he tried to download gun laws already in effect in the Bay […]
The post On Eve of Historic Vote in Mass., GOAL Exec Stunned by Gun Law Search appeared first on Liberty Park Press.
The post New Headstamp Book: The Real Schmeissers (MP18 to MP41) first appeared on Forgotten Weapons.
POLK COUNTY, Fla. - A knife-wielding Kissimmee woman who is in the country illegally was arrested after threatening customers with a knife and being held at gunpoint by armed citizens at a Polk County Dollar General, according to the sheriff's office.
The affidavit reveals Gray pulled out a mini-AK-47-style rifle from his backpack and pointed it at Guerrero, and then Guerrero allegedly tried to pull out his own gun from his waistband, but Gray shot first and then quickly ran off.
Gray left behind a trail of evidence, including his phone in a parking lot, his clothes in a creek, and his Red Toyota Corolla abandoned in Southeast Oklahoma City.
A nearby business, Mears Engineers, also caught the suspect leaving the scene in his car on their surveillance cameras and gave it to police.
(snip)
“He also had a gunshot wound, had a gunshot wound to his hand that apparently happened during the botched robbery attempt,” said Msgt. Gary Knight, Oklahoma City Police Department.
Last month I put several guns on consignment with a local gun store. Yesterday I went to the shop to get the payment for the final gun I sold but I decided to take it in store credit.
I'm a fan of compact .22 autoloading pistols. They often can be easily used by all sizes of shooters, if reliable enough can be secondary defensive arms, and are simply fun to shoot.
So I came home with a Smith & Wesson M&P22 Compact. It is a 10 shot semiautomatic .22 pistol, intended to serve as an understudy to the S&W M&P centerfire pistols. It came with an adjustable rear sight and a thread adaptor to accept a silencer.
The gun weighs about 1 lb. loaded with 10 rounds.
Additionally, it has an ambidextrous manual safety which as a lefty I appreciate, a magazine disconnect, and a Picatinny rail on the dust cover under the barrel. There is a built-in lock with 2 keys supplied, and it also came with a cable lock.
The rear sight is adjustable for windage and elevation, while the front sight is dovetailed into the slide so if you wanted you could replace it with something else like a fiber optic (it has a white dot).
The aluminum slide is not cut for an optic. This may matter to some folks but not to me.
Unlike the centerfire M&P pistols the M&P22 is not striker-fired. It has an internal hammer.
Something I always do when I get a new-to-me gun is field strip it, clean off whatever preservative was put on in the factory, and then lubricate it. On the M&P22 Compact you need to first remove the barrel nut so you can remove the slide.
However, some idiot at Smith & Wesson thought it would be a good idea to put copious amounts of strong threadlocker on the barrel threads, so even with the supplied wrench I couldn't get it to budge at first. I applied Kroil and let it sit for about an hour, then locked back the slide, clamped it in a vise, and used a mallet to smack the wrench to get it turning. WTH, Smith & Wesson? Why would you do this?
The vise jaws are lined with copper sheet. The slide was not marred.
The recoil spring is captive on a plastic guide, which makes removal and reinstallation easy. Racking the slide is very easy.
After getting it apart I cleaned off the threads as much as possible, cleaned and lubed the gun, and when I reassembled it I covered the barrel threads in Shooter's Choice grease as an anti-seize.
Today I took it to an indoor range and put 91 CCI 40 grain Mini Mag solids and 100 Remington Golden Bullet 36 grain HPs. The gun functioned perfectly and none of the ammo misfired. The gun feels smooth when cycling.
The trigger is meh but I’ll put at least 1000 rounds through it before thinking about a trigger job. Unfortunately, couldn’t get any good groups because the windage adjustment screw on the rear sight -- which should've had blue threadlocker -- kept loosening and thus it would lose zero. I put blue Loctite on it after I got home and plan to zero the gun at 10 yards.
I've ordered 5 more magazines for it, and a barrel thread protector to replace the thread adaptor, since I will be mostly shooting it unsuppressed. I'd rather not have to remove the adaptor every time I want to strip the gun for cleaning.
It fits in the El Paso Saddlery M-1942 tanker holster I bought for my S&W M&P9 2.0 Compact, with a little room to spare.
Once I get the M&P22 Compact zeroed it'll make a nice kit gun.
Hereabouts it is opening day for the rifle season for whitetail deer. Most deer clubs have one iron-clad rule. If you see a hog, you put it down. Feral hogs are an invasive species that we have to control. Grandson Lucas was on the stand this morning and had a hog walk out on him. Bang, flop.
The post Disappointments, Surprises, and US Army Small Arms: Q&A October 2026 w Henry Chan first appeared on Forgotten Weapons.
I think I mentioned that a couple telescope parts did not survive the move undamaged. One of them was the refractor's focuser. I bent the damaged parts back into what looked to be the original shapes, but the focuser is rough and it binds. before the move, I had considered replacing the focuser with a dual-speed focuser. These have two knobs; one is the coarse focus typical on telescopes; the other turns at 1/10th speed, allowing very fine focus changes. So I ordered the GSO 2" Linear Bearing Crayford Focuser (made in Taiwan). It is an gorgeous piece of machining:
The only downside is that the flange is 112.5mm OD and the refractor's tube is 125mm ID. So, I need to make an adapter. To quote the opening sequence from The Six-Millionaire Dollar Man:
Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology.
At least, I do. I have a 6" 4-jaw chuck. No, Sherline lathes do not normally go this large. In the past, I have made riser blocks for the headstock and tool holder to allow turning big stuff.
1. I will start with a 6" x 6" aluminum square.
2. Drill and tap a 3/4"-16 center hole. (This is the Sherline headstock spindle size as well as the size of the rotating table adapter.)
3. Remove 6" chuck.
4. Rotate workpiece onto headstock spindle.
5. Turn workpiece to 124.8mm OD.
6. Make riser block for the tilting table on which rotating table will sit. (I need the clearance to rotate this large of a workpiece.)
7. Tilting table to 90 degrees.
8. Put workpiece on rotating table adapter.
9. Turn workpiece 120 degrees at a time.
10. Center drill each hole.
11. Repeat for two more holes.
12. Replace center drill with twist drill for a through hole deep enough to get through the 112.8mm layer.
13. Return workpiece to 6" chuck on headstock spindle.
14. Use cutting tool to cut 105mm hole.
15. Use boring bore to enlarge center hole to 112.7mm.
Detectives and Crime Scene Personnel responded to the store to investigate the incident. Through investigation and evidence collected at the scene, which included video surveillance, the investigation revealed that the 53-year-old male was outside the store drinking alcohol and carrying a handgun. This male got into an altercation with the 38-year-old victim when he pulled the gun and began shooting at the victim. The victim ran from the store, but the 53-year-old continued to shoot at him while he was running.
The employee inside the store heard the gunshots and ran behind the counter to find cover, while attempting to activate the door locks. The 53-year-old came inside the store, yelling at the clerk in a threatening manner, demanding the surveillance video, while holding the firearm. His actions put the clerk in fear for his life, resulting in him pulling his firearm and shooting the male to stop the threat.
According to charging documents, Reynolds is seen on surveillance video standing in a parking lot next to the football field. Two men walked past him and appeared to exchange words with him. Police say Reynolds then reached into a backpack, pulled out a gun and opened fire.
Prosecutors said Reynolds arrived at Leon Day Park, where a youth football homecoming game was taking place, with a .223-caliber rifle in his backpack. Bates said Reynolds appeared to exchange words with the man before putting down a fountain drink, retrieving the rifle and opening fire.
(snip)Investigators recovered 20 .223-caliber rifle cartridge casings and seven 9mm casings from the scene.
Bates said the .223 casings were recovered where surveillance video showed Reynolds allegedly firing, while the 9mm casings were found where the other man returned fire.
10/26/26 Real Clear Investigations:
The U.S. has been running a real-time experiment on two approaches to criminal justice: the Biden-era emphasis on social justice versus the Trump administration’s embrace of traditional law and order. The results are now in.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) reported this morning that felony violent crime fell 25% in 2025. Rape declined 13%, robbery fell 27%, and aggravated assault dropped 31%. Property crime fell 19%. Except for rape, these are the largest one-year reductions recorded since data collection began 53 years ago.
The reductions followed substantial increases during the previous four years, when felony violent crime rose 59% and violent crime, including misdemeanor simple assault, increased 42%....
Murder also declined sharply last year. The U.S. recorded about 4.1 murders per 100,000 people in 2025, a record low, down from roughly 5.1 per 100,000 in 2024. The murder rate has continued to drop. If preliminary FBI data showing an additional 18.4% decline during the first seven months of 2026 hold for the full year, the murder rate would fall to approximately 3.36 per 100,000.
“We are witnessing a historic plunge in crime to levels never seen before in the United States,” Professor Carl Moody, a crime researcher at the College of William & Mary, told RealClearInvestigations. “As a result, we are all safer in our communities than we ever have been. We should all thank our law enforcement professionals.”
These declines go far beyond normal cyclical fluctuations in crime. The murder rate has fallen to record lows. Crime also shows a clear pattern over time. Felony violent crime declined during Trump’s first term, surged under Biden, and is now plunging during Trump’s second term. The pandemic can’t explain Biden’s increase: Felony violent crime rose 59% from 2021 to 2024, including a 4% increase in 2024.
Permethrin is an insecticide. Treat clothes with it and insects do not survive.
How to Treat Clothing With Permethrin
The most important thing to remember when spraying your clothing with permethrin is that you must follow the instructions on the product label. If you don’t, you could be violating federal law, Conlon says. (Because permethrin is a pesticide, the Environmental Protection Agency regulates its use.)
It’s also important to follow the instructions on the label to ensure you’re using the pesticide as safely as possible, says Michael Hansen, PhD, a senior scientist at Consumer Reports. “It’s an endocrine-disrupting compound," he says. That means “if it gets into your system, there can be effects on the hormonal system."
The CDC notes that permethrin and related chemical compounds can cause serious health problems in people exposed to high doses. “You don’t want to be inhaling it or getting it directly on your skin," Hansen says. Hansen also says that some recent studies suggest permethrin and other synthetic pyrethoids may be linked to adverse effects at lower doses, too.
If you follow the directions on the label, however, the dose of permethrin you receive by wearing treated clothing is considered safe, even for pregnant women. (Higher concentrations of permethrin are used in medications for treating both head lice and scabies.)
Permethrin Safety Tips
Spray only your clothing. We said it before, but it’s worth repeating: Permethrin spray is only for your clothes and gear. Don’t apply it to your skin. And when treating clothes, stick to outerwear. The Environmental Protection Agency says that you shouldn’t treat underwear with permethrin.
Spray while the clothes are off your body. Hang them on hangers outside, and spray them down while they hang. Don’t apply permethrin to your clothes while you’re wearing them, and don’t apply permethrin indoors, where you could risk inhaling it.
Never spray around cats. Keep your feline friends away from the area while you’re treating your clothes because permethrin is highly toxic to cats. According to Sawyer, which makes permethrin products, treated clothing is not dangerous to cats once it has dried.
Spray enough, but not too much. Mather says he often sees people making the mistake of giving their clothes a quick spritz of permethrin, even while wearing the clothing. But it takes a slightly heavier hand for full protection. Mather says you should spray enough for your clothes to become damp (they should look a little darker in color) and not spray the clothing you’re wearing. You don’t need to drench them—to where they’ll drip if you wring them out—but they do need a thorough coat.
The product labels can help give you a good idea of how much to use. For example, the label on Sawyer’s permethrin aerosol spray says that a 4.5-ounce bottle will treat a shirt, a pair of pants, and a pair of socks.
Let the clothes dry completely. Before you wear them, they should be totally dry. That should take a few hours, depending on the humidity of the day.
Re-treat when necessary. Manufacturers of pretreated clothing say their products are still effective after many washes. But the clothes you treat yourself need to be re-treated much more often. Sawyer says you need to re-treat after six weeks or six washings, for example. Even clothes or gear you don’t wash need re-treating; Mather says he sprays his own and his family’s shoes monthly.
By Dave Workman A veritable avalanche of amicus briefs, primarily from traditionally anti-gun organizations, Democrat-controlled states and cities, and Democrat governors hit the U.S. Supreme Court this week, calling on the justices to rule in favor of bans on modern semi-automatic firearms in Connecticut and Cook County, Illinois. There were briefs from teacher groups, the […]
The post Avalanche of Anti-gun Amicus Briefs Hits Supreme Court appeared first on Liberty Park Press.