I was wrong about “X” - a misconceptions thread

[Sidneyious]

I thought I was too good to shoot steel ammo... then ammo prices became obscene, and I didn't want to waste "the precious" good stuff, the next thing you know I was buying steel cased ammo. I still cry myself to sleep over this, but at least I don't do it with an empty wallet.

During the ammopocalyps I didnt have anything to do anything and now just getting back on my feet, still wont bother with steel.
That reason is most people dont bother looking an when they do find steel they think its just going to be automatically cheaper.

I will dig to the end of google to find good prices on the ammo types I use.
people dont really do this anymore

[markm]

I used to think the only appropriate bullet for AR was 55 gr FMJ/M193 ammo, and the 77gr stuff was goobers trying to make the 5.56 a bigger gun.

Now I never shoot 55 gr bullets.

[TommyG]

I know something about how this thing works because I put a couple of them together with brand new parts and they work great.

Trying to diagnose rifles that someone else bought/built/worked on to make them run reliably was a lesson in just how much I didn't know.

[ndmiller]

I thought I was too good to shoot steel ammo... then ammo prices became obscene, and I didn't want to waste "the precious" good stuff, the next thing you know I was buying steel cased ammo. I still cry myself to sleep over this, but at least I don't do it with an empty wallet.

Good one. I had so much wolf 762X39 from years and years ago and sold all my AK platforms. Thought I would never shoot it as steel case was taboo. Bought a Ruger Ranch bolt in 7.62X39 (for $350) and have been lobbing them down range at the steel plates 100-300 yards (silhouette range at my club) for hours. Complete fun, had my daughter out and she loves it too. Had no 22LR left, so cheap 90's-2000's wolf to the rescue...kept us all shooting.

[Rmorris]

Scout rifles. I thought they were stupid fudd guns until I used a scout to hunt with. It has a place in my safe now, and gets used a fair amount.

[Ned Christiansen]

"I thought I was wrong one time but I was mistaken" har har.

When I was a kid my Dad was white collar but had come up from blue collar (as a lineman). The outfit he worked for had a well-equipped maintenance shop that was definitely not off-limits to him on weekends, in fact, the big lathe they had, they had bought from him. He and his brother had had a welding shop in the UP right after the war. The lathe was war surplus and Dad said they took a trailer down to Detroit to get it; there were acres of machines out in a field-- for sale, cheap. They built the shop's framework from steel that had been brought in to the port, steel that was going to be part of a new shipyard for making some kind or warships (this was the Great Lakes, not the East or West coast).

Anyhoo. One day, on a weekend, we were there at the shop. Dad had his own shop in the basement (that place really fertilized the toolmaker seed in me), but when the job called for something bigger, we went to the shop at his work. They fixed their own equipment there. Line trucks, "Ditch Witches", boom trucks, even an old White half-track (never saw it run but often begged, "let's fix it, Dad!" It had bullet holes in it, at least that's how I remember it.

This day there was a line truck that was under repair on the drive shaft and the guys had left it for the weekend. In those days they didn't just buy a new drive shaft, they fixed the old one. For reasons I didn't understand at the time, and because of that I can't say now exactly what the situation was, the old drive shaft had been torch-cut and was just laying there. I observed that the shaft was hollow-- just a piece of tubing. Hollow!?

"Dad, you guys got gypped on that drive shaft, look, it's not solid all the way through!"

In my mind, my 9-year-old logic said that such a drive shaft could never be strong enough. If it wasn't solid steel, how could it propel a big ol' truck? The logic was absolutely irrefutable.

Dad explained to me how they were all tubular, if they were solid they would be too heavy and maybe get out of balance, and just the outside part (9 YO terms) was enough to take the power from the engine to the wheels. The "inside part" would not really help. Yeahp, after that, it all made sense and I never forgot the lesson that day-- that what is so totally, perfectly obvious, so logical and certain in theory, sometimes does not match up with reality. It applies very much to firearms.

PS, the "UP" is: https://www.michigan.org/upper-peninsula

[OutofBatt3ry]

Hard chrome is far superior to bare iron, but there are better ways of rust/corrosion proofing, like starting off with a metal that doesn't rust or corrode(excessively) with salt slurry.

[Dutch110]

I thought I was too good to shoot steel ammo... then ammo prices became obscene, and I didn't want to waste "the precious" good stuff, the next thing you know I was buying steel cased ammo. I still cry myself to sleep over this, but at least I don't do it with an empty wallet.

Oh man. Two weekends ago I took a new 11.5 7.62 x 39 build out to the range to break it in. Was getting a horrible failure rate on rounds not lighting off. Both suppressed and non suppressed. When they DID light off the ejection patterns were exactly where they should be. I have an identical 16 inch set up so I pulled the BCG from that one and no luck. It has a full power hammer spring in it but just in case I swapped that out too. Out of 100 or so rounds, 20 did not light off. And the primers were struck deep and even. This past weekend I grabbed 100 rounds of PMC bronze and took it back out. Ran like a top. Now I have a buttload of Russian steel that is even more unreliable than before lol.

[Dutch110]

1.) Quantity is no replacement for quality. I'd rather have 3, really well built and tuned ARs than 6 bargain bin ARs
2.) Nickel Boron - just like everyone else. Learned that one the hard way.
3.) Instructors bring their own personal bias to the range with them. Not everything they teach may work for you. Take as many courses as you can and pick and chose what best works for you. Adhering to any single doctrine without applying critical thinking is dangerous (example is I took a class from a former IDF member who taught the Israeli draw. Thanks, I'm good, Ill keep one in the chamber - but I understand why they do it)

[hotbiggun42]

I dont need a bunch of mags and ammo because in SHTF i wont live long enough to use them. Now i know this is a defeatists attitude.