The Firearms MagEzine

The Firearms MagEzine
A publication of
CenterFire Central
http://www.centerfirecentral.com
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The Firearms MagEzine is no longer published
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VOL. 2 ISSUE 5 May 1999
Circulation 1275

IN THIS ISSUE

THE EDITOR'S NOTES
Apology
By Bill Wade

ANOTHER DAY AT THE RANGE
"What’s A Safety?"
By Bill Wade

FEATURE ARTICLE
Gun Storage
By Bill Wade

PRODUCT REVIEW
Gracey Trimmer
By Gary Lambert

RESOURCES
Other resources for related information

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A WORD OF CAUTION

CenterFire Central and contributing writers are not responsible for mishaps
of any kind which may occur from use or misuse of data or information
published, electronically or otherwise by CenterFire Central. Activities
involving firearms, ammunition, components and equipment require strict
safety precautions and training which are not detailed herein.

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EDITOR'S NOTES

On April 23rd, CenterFire Central web site went down. As of this moment, it
is still down.

To make a long story short, my web site host, physically lost his server
while he was in the process of switching Service Providers.

I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you and hope that we
can get things under control this week.

Bill Wade

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ANOTHER DAY AT ANOTHER RANGE
"What’s A Safety?"

By Bill Wade

Your kidding right? Don’t I wish?

My brother Kyle and I have been working countless hours at our new acreage,
(see New Playground, April 99).

Finally, safe for small children, his wife has been bringing their 2
youngsters to the farm to spend the night in their travel trailer.

They have a 4 year old boy, and a 9 year old girl. It has been interesting
watching their reaction to a totally new experience. The boy stays in the
trailer playing Lego’s and watching video taped cartoons. The girl has been
driving the magnetic nail pickup around the area and fetching tools.

Neither child has hunted yet, but the girl has fired 22 rimfires and has her
very own Red Ryder BB gun.

This past weekend, the BB gun made the trip to the farm and she got to mess
with it, under super vision. I kind of blundered in from the field and
pulled up a chair to watch. They had run out of BB’s and asked if my son had
left his BB’s in my truck. He had, so they were back in business.

I filled the girls gun up and she went 30 feet or so away from us and went
back to shooting.

Cocking a lever action BB gun is no small feat and can be awkward for a
child to do. I watched as she battled with it and heard the occasional "be
careful" from her father. I noticed the safety was not on as she cocked the
rifle. I said, "put your safety on while you cock it" and the next thing I
heard, sent me into shock.

"What’s A Safety"

"Kyle", I exclaimed. With a sheepish look on his face, he called the girl
over and showed her how the safety worked. She has owned this gun for over 4
years.

My brother knows how I feel about gun safety and I did not need to explain
my response. He offered no excuse and frankly, had none.

Now granted, the BB guns that he and I had as children, had no safety, but I
believe they should have.

The industry is working to make firearms safer and in so doing, are
protecting themselves and the sport. BB gun or 30-06, it makes no
difference; if we ignore their effort, who loses?

Bill Wade
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THIS MONTH'S FEATURE ARTICLE
Gun Storage

By Bill Wade

Click here for the "online" version with pictures.
http://www.centerfirecentral.com/guncab.htm

Gun storage is an area of concern for all of us. I have not purchased a safe
yet, mostly because I enjoy looking at the guns hanging there in the rack.

Having toyed with the idea of purchasing a generic, vertical storage
cabinet, I decided that if I am going to leave them in plain view, I want
to be able to see them well and not just the under side.

I chose to build a cabinet that would allow the guns to hang horizontally.
Nothing is perfect, but this cabinet does the job for me.

There were basically only a couple of things this cabinet had to do. The
first consideration was it had to be able to hold my longest gun, which in
this case, happened to be my 12 gauge with a 30 inch full choke barrel. The
second consideration was building it to hold as many guns as possible. If
pushed, this cabinet could hold 15 guns.

Other considerations included the fact that I wanted it as dust free as
possible and lockable if I so desired. I do not have little kids, locking it
was not a major concern. Being built of pine, about all I could do is slow
someone down a little, anyway.

I chose to build 2 doors on the front and used plexi-glass to keep the
weight to a minimum. I did not want a bunch of hardware in the middle of my
new big screen so I used magnetic catches that are not visible when the
doors are closed.

Magnets, of course offer no stopping power at all so I wanted to come up
with a way to "latch" the cabinet shut. I came up with a steel rod, 3/16
inch in diameter and about 30 inches long.

I ran up to the local lumber yard and rummaged through their new hardware
system. It was a tinkerer’s dream. Probably 20,000 pieces of hardware in 6
foot tall parts organizers.

I needed a sleeve of some sort to run the rod through as it passed through
the side of the cabinet, a button for the end of the rod and rod guides of
some sort. Long story short, I found a plastic sleeve that measured a
quarter inch outside with a hole that just fit the rod. I used closed eye,
screw-in hooks for the guides, and presto, instant cabinet latch.

It was a little tricky talking the rod into doing what needed to be done,
but it worked. To latch the cabinet, you simply pull the rod out. The end of
the rod, inside the cabinet, is pointing towards the button end of the rod.
When you pull the rod, the end passes through an eye hook at the top of the
left door and then an eye hook at the top of the right door. When latched,
the rod protrudes from the cabinet far enough to get a small combination
lock on it. I can remember numbers, I can’t remember where I leave keys.

Bill Wade
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PRODUCT REVIEW
The Gracey Cartridge Case Trimmer

By Gary Lambert

I became tired of the slow process of trimming cases. Most every reloader I
know agrees that trimming cases is the most dreaded part. I have an RCBS
Manual Trim Pro that I have been using since 1995. I never liked it much.
The cases were sometimes out-of-line with the cutter. Also, I did not like
adjusting it for different length cuts. When the 3 way cutter came out, I
though it was a great improvement. Anyway, I learned of the Gracey trimmer
from a guy named Steve Weldon. He started telling me about it and it seemed
too good to be true. I finally broke down and bought one.

What is it?
The Gracey unit is different from any other case trimmer that I have ever
seen. It uses the shoulder of the case to index off of. It resembles an
electric pencil sharpener. It trims the cartridge to the desired length,
chamfers the case mouth and debur's the case.

Gracey claims 500 cases an hour, I usually do batches of 100 in around ten
minutes. The case does not have to be attached to anything, unlike other
makes of trimmers. The Gracey does require a different shell holder for
each different caliber and you must FL re-size. If you send 3 neck sized
cases to Gracey, they will build you a custom shell holder.

Setup:
The Gracey will come set up for one caliber. The first time I adjusted the
cutting heads, it took around three tries and 30 minutes. After becoming
familiar with the concept, one try and about 5 minutes will do it.

Adjusting the case length is as simple as loosening a set screw and turning
the shell holder in or out.

Other Gracey products:
Gracey also makes:
1. neck shaver (turner)
2. primer pocket uniformer
3. primer pocket cleaner

How do I get a Gracey?
I ordered mine through Steve Weldon (sweldon@wizzards.net). He has the
best prices on the complete Gracey line. FWIW, I am not in business with
Steve nor do I know him personally. I am a satisfied customer. After using
a Gracey, you'll wonder "why did I wait so long?".

Gary Lambert

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OTHER RESOURCES