Month: May 2020

I’m always a little bit unsure how to address Memorial Day. It feels odd, to say “Happy” Memorial day, as it really shouldn’t be a day of happiness. Rather I feel it should be a day of somber remembrance, and while most of America see’s it as a day marking the end of winter, I see it as a day to be thankful for those who given all.

This past week we continued to make progress on a few project. We tried making our own homemade sizing lubricant. This is a mix of Lanolin, Castor oil, and some isopropyl alcohol. I’ve already tried it, and can say it works quite well. Here’s the write up on what we did.

Homemade Case and Bullet Lube

There is some work to finished up this write up, look for the conclusion this week. That also goes for the work we did polishing the Lee sizing die. These projects really were a two prong approach as solving our sizing die issues. Both projects are wrapped up, so I’ll be posting the results this week.

In other news, I have taken on a new job, at a new mining company doing the same type of stuff I did for the previous mining company. The unfortunate thing is that much of my free time I have been using to maintain the site is about to go away. I’m going to have to figure out how to balance the time at the new job and continue pushing forward and write ups that I’ve been working on.

I’ll continue to try and meet the goal of some sort of write up once per week. Stick with it, we have lots of stuff we’ve been working on and I haven’t abandon any of it.

As always if you have any comments or questions, feel free to email me at jayandrew338@gmail.com. You can also check us out on Facebook, or at Instagram.

Thanks for Subscribing!

The Ballistic Assistant

Good Monday Afternoon/Evening,

I’m trying something a bit new with my project updates. Most of my projects are broken down into steps. Each step usually is a write up, however sometimes it take me a bit of time to complete a step. I might need to order some materials or tooling that I didn’t anticipate needing, or I may break a leg, and then not be able to do anything for weeks on end. Well, to change things up a bit, and to try and continue to deliver content I decided to post what has been done, despite not quite completing everything. See an example below.

Bullet Sizing Troubles – Polishing a Lee Sizing Die

This approach is a bit different for me as I generally only like posting completed stuff, but as I make progress I’ll update the article. This keeps me working on the website, hopefully provides people with something to read while seated on the toilet, and perhaps, it gives an opportunity for people to give me some ideas, that may change the course of the project, or save me from disaster.

We are now on Instagram. So much of what we do, deals in photos. So Instagram gives us a platform to share in real time what we are up to. Undoubtedly you’ll see photos that later get used in a write up, but you’ll get a chance to comment or interact with use as we do new things.

Many of these idea’s were purposed by friends of the site, so I appreciate the feedback and the help people have given me. If you have anymore feed back, shoot me an email at Jayandrew338@gmail.com, give us a shout out on Facebook, or now check us out on Instagram!

Thanks, stay safe out there,

The Ballistic Assistant

This should be the last week with no updates. I am up and about, limping along, and am able to do stuff. It’s likely I won’t be completely back to my old self for a few more months, but I should be able to tackle some projects. My goal is one per week, and I plan to try and stick to that. I appreciate everyone’s patience, this has been a less then fun experience. However some good has come of it, so I’m not complaining.

Here in South Western Utah, spring has sprung, we have officially started our garden. We will see how that goes this year. Last year we lost the battle with the squash bugs. With spring comes Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) matches. If you haven’t looked into participating in a CMP I would highly encourage you to give it a try.

I have found the club in Cedar City, Utah to be very welcoming to new comers and they bend over backwards to help get you up to speed. The competition is geared towards self improvement, and you compete with military rifles both modern and historic. It is a great opportunity to connect with like minded individuals in an relaxed and fun environment. Due to this virus many matches have been canceled, but it looked like we will be doing a D-Day commemorative match on Saturday June 6th.

Participating in a CMP club also qualifies you to purchase a M1 Garand from the CMP. I have has my heart set on one, and hopefully I can get one ordered soon. In the meantime I typically shoot my M1A, but I’d like to also shoot my Lee Enfield. There may be a project in the future for getting that rifle ready to shoot in CMP Matches. We will see.

I have read the terrible news coming out of Canada, what the government is doing there is shameful. There are a lot of good rifles, and shot guns, that will be forced from responsible citizens. We try and stay away from politics on this website, but I feel it would be a dereliction of duty if we did not pay attention too, and support, our northern brothers. I fear these may be a type of things to come if we do not continue to fight to maintain the rights we so enjoy.

That is it for this week. No new updates, but I do plan on easing back into projects at time and as my ankle allows. I need to polish up the Lee Sizing die, so expect to see a write up on that, and hopefully it solves the problem with sizing our Hi-Tek coated bullets. As always if you would like to leave some feedback, have suggestions or comments, email me at jayandrew338@gmail.com. Also check us out on Facebook, and soon, Instagram.

Thanks for Subscribing!

The Ballistic Assistant

It’s hard to believe that it is May already but here we are.

As many of you know, a little over a month ago, I broke my leg. Things are healing nicely, I am now about to put weight on it, and walk around some. This is quite exciting for me, as it means I’ll be back out creating mayhem and havoc in no time. This benefits all those who enjoy reading about my latest adventures.

You might think with being laid up, I’d have all the time in the world to work on the website, but alas, life has kept me busy with other tasks. So there have not be any website updates this week. I am anxious to get back out there and get working on projects again, it will happen in due time.

I hope everyone is staying safe and sane out there.

As always if you have a suggestion or a comment shoot me an email over at jayandrew338@gmail.com. Alternatively you can post something on the Facebook page and share your quarantine project!

Stay Safe Out There!

The Ballistic Assistant