Gear Review: The Brass Wizard

Brass Wizard Review

 

Gear Review: Brass Wizard
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Today’s review is on a device that gets me more oohs and ahhs at the gun range than my spectacular shooting skills or neato jiffy gun gear – the brass wizard.

Like all gun guys I have a couple things I really don’t like:

  1. People that are irresponsible in their usage of firearms
  2. The rising cost of ammunition
  3. Policing up brass
  4. Sorting said brass

I believe that most gun guys have similar dislikes. I also think that most would agree with me that all but the first are minor irritants that we gladly put up with as long as we get to use our favorite spent casing creation devices.

At some point I will cover all of these pet peeves; this article will show how I deal with number 3 – Picking up brass after my range sessions.

I have long searched for an easy way to collect my fired brass, both to keep the ranges I use looking nice, but also to feed my reloading habit.

Things I Have Tried to Get Out of Picking Up Brass

  • People
    • I have tried getting kids and girlfriends, more than one wife, and students.
    • Using people is either prohibitively expensive (especially wives that turn into ex-wives).
  • Tarps and mesh screens
    • I don’t like being tied to one spot.
    • At the risk of sounding tacti-cool – I don’t want to do anything that may place a subconscious routine of standing still while shooting. (like dumping spent casings from your revolver into your open hand).
  • Mesh bags that attach to your firearm
    • I am severely biased against those bags that attach to your gun to collect fired cases (both from malfunction prevention and training viewpoints).
    • I don’t like anything extra on my gun that does not fix an articulable problem and makes the firearm run better. This does not fit those criteria.
  • Those little sticks with the gripping claws that sell on TV infomercials
    • They are cumbersome and only pick up one casing at a time.
  • “bag-a-nut” machines adapted to range use
    • These are to large to move about easily and are awfully expensive.

Only Three Choices Left

This leaves me three choices. I can shut up and pick up my brass; I can design some Rube Goldberg contraption to pick up my brass, or I can use the brass wizard.

As soon as I saw this device I ordered it. It originally was designed by farmers that grew tree nuts like pecans (just like the bag a nut). It’s a small wire cage that attaches to a broomstick (and later a collapsible metal pole) by a hanger that allows it to roll on the ground.

What happens is that as the metal cage rolls over a fired cartridge case, the wires are forced apart, allowing the case to be swallowed up by the wizard. As the brass wizard continues to roll, the wires spring back to their original shape trapping the case inside.

This device works really well, and can hold several cases before having to be emptied. I works on rounds from .380 and up and while it can collect Shotshell hulls, the company makes a large wizard that works better for hulls.

Works Best on Packed Ground

In all fairness, I do have to tell you that this device works best on hard ground. Cement is the best, but I have personally used this with success on hard packed ground, sandy soil, and short grass. I have even tried it on a gravel range, but that is the weak point of the system. In gravel, it picks up as much gravel as it does cases, making it pretty much useless.

When I bought mine it came with a metal device that presses onto a 5 gallon bucket (I supplied the bucket) and helps with emptying the cage full of cases. You just press down and wither wiggle or twist the wizard and the cases fall out into the bucket.

This is starting to become a more common item, but I enjoyed being an early adopter of the device. When I went to a range with my brass wizard I was very popular, and many people borrowed my wizard to try it out.

They sell for around $45.00 and if you police up your own brass, this is a bargain due to the amount of labor you will save.

Stay tuned, as next week we will review my solution for peeve #4 Sorting Brass

 

Review of the Shell Sorter

Shell Sorter Review

 

Gear Review: Shell Sorter
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Like I said in my Brass Wizard review, one of the things I dislike doing is sorting brass for reloading. It’s not that hard or troublesome if I sort it after every range trip.  I I tend to procrastinate and never attempt to sort out my brass.  At least until I have a 5 gallon bucket overflowing with casings.

Until recently there were no good shortcuts to sorting brass. You just had to dive in and look at each head stamp.  Then manually throw each case into its own bucket. Luckily some smart gun guy came up with a faster way.

Today’s review is on the shell sorter – an ingenious device to sort brass quickly by size

Why I Love the Shell Sorter

To me, one of the great things about guns their preciseness. There is not a lot of grey area when dealing with guns, they either are loaded or they are not. The round has the correct amount of powder or it doesn’t. For a guy that tends toward approximation and it is good that I have one precise hobby to keep me balanced. Guns are something that keeps me understanding that some things are black and white with no wiggle room for feelings. It is this level of preciseness which allows the brass sorter to work.

Each round has a specific measurement. Each case has a proper length and its case mouth has a specific diameter. By machining slots in a rigid container that are slightly smaller than a cartridge’s case size you can create a device that allows and object smaller than the specified cartridge to fall out of the container, while retaining the case it was designed for.

By creating three different colored containers each designed for common caliber dimensions, you can use them in series to quickly sort out a large quantity of mixed brass.

Colors Equal Sizes

The yellow sorter is cut to allow anything smaller than a .45 acp round to fall through so it collects anything larger like: .45 acp, .45 gap, .50 ae, .243, .308, 7.62×39 and .45 lc

The next size is the blue sorter, and its cut to allow anything smaller than .40 to fall through, so it collects .40 and 10mm. Because of the size of the rim of the cases .357 magnum and .38 spl cases are also collected.

The black is the smallest and it allows anything smaller than 9mm to pass through so it collects: 9mm, 38 super, and .223. If you buy the additional .380 aluminum plate, this black sorter will also sort .380

If you sort your cases before you clean them, then it is pretty easy to separate those nested cases where loose 9mm sometimes slips inside of a .40 casing. Actually, they tend to come apart on their own if you shake the sorter hard and long enough. If you tumble them before sorting, loose media can jam a 9mm into the larger .40 case tight enough to cause problem separating them.

The fastest way to use the sorter is to place the black sorter over the top of a 5 gallon bucket, then insert the blue sorter into the top of the black one, top the blue sorter with the yellow sorter and then dump a couple handfuls of cases into the yellow sorter and shake the bucket until the cases pass through the sorters. .17, .22, .25 and .32 acp cases along with small gravel and dirt will collect in the bucket, and you can then pull out each sorter and deposit the casings into there respective buckets.

This is the fastest way is you sort pretty regularly. If you procrastinate like I do you may need a different procedure.

How I Use the Shell Sorter Trays

  • I take a bucket and nest the yellow sorter in the top.
  • Next I then fill it to about ⅓ to ½ full and then shake the bucket until only the .45 and larger cases remain in the yellow sorting tray.
  • I dump the tray into my .45 bucket and then repeat the process until the container holding the unsorted cases is empty.
  • After that I then know that in my bucket that holds my yellow sorter contains only items smaller than .45.
  • I repeat the process with my blue sorter, leaving only casings and junk smaller than .40 and .38 revolver.
  • Lastly I finish up with my black sorter to get out all the 9mm.

Trust But Verify

Obviously, if your sorting range brass, and you are not 100% sure of the contents (and it would be a good idea to even if you are 100% sure) go through your sorted brass to make sure a nested cartridge, or some oddball casing or loaded round did not make it into your brass buckets. This is easy to do with .45 acp and .45 gap, or 9mm and .380 or 40 and 10mm.

As I said on the video, I really like this product. It is well worth the $40 or so I spent on it. I haven’t bought the $20 .380 plate as I RARELY shoot .380 but if I did, I think it would be money well spent also.

On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the browning M2 Heavy Barrel .50 and a 0 being the Clinton Gun Ban I would rate this shell sorter as a solid 9.5.

How to Safely Dehydrate Hamburger to Make Hamburger Rocks

 

Dehydrating Hamburger (AKA Hamburger Rocks)
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Today we are going to talk about dehydrated hamburger.  This is commonly called “hamburger rocks” online.  When you make some you will quickly learn how it got its name.  Once the hamburger is cooked and dried it resembles really small dark brown gravel.  The reason we make it is not to have small meat stones, but because when stored under a vacuum, and kept in a cool dry place, our hamburger rocks can last a couple years.

While nothing beats fresh meat, this ingredient works very well in any recipe that uses browned ground beef.  I use it quite often in making chili, tacos, or spaghetti.

While in my video I state that the recipe for rehydrating is subject to personal preference, and I like to use a 1:1 ration (since I use it mostly in chili and lasagnas), most people prefer to rehydrate with more water and usually use one cup rocks to 2 cups boiling water and let it rehydrate prior to using it their recipes.

Now, as the video shows, you may cry a little when your done, as 5 or 6 pounds of good ground meat will dehydrate away to a quart jar of rocks, and you may think you wasted a lot of good meat, but it is the decrease in size that is helpful for long term storage.

How to Make Hamburger Rocks

Instructions

  1. Cook Ground Beef
  2. Drain Fat
  3. Rinse Meat in a colander to remove all fat
  4. Recook to drive off water.  Cook until steam stops.
  5. Dehydrate
    1. I use a dehydrator with a temperature setting and cook it at 160 for 8 hours.
    2. You could use an oven by putting the beef on a roasting pan and putting in a 200 degree oven with the door open slightly and continually monitoring and stirring the beef until dry (its easier with a dehydrator)
  6. Once it is dry and cool, and hard to the touch, vacuum seal in mason jars or bags.
    1. Alternatively, while the rocks are still hot, you could “can” the hamburger rocks for long term storage, by preheating mason jars to 250 F, simmer the lids as usual, put the “rocks” into the jars while still hot, then seal the jars. After 15 minutes or so the jars will cool and you will hear the jar lids “pop” as they seal in place.  This is not my favorite method, but it is similar to a vacuum seal.

 

Simplest Way To Become a Firearm Instructor

 

So You Want to Be a Firearms Instructor
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So You Want to Be a Firearms Instructor?  I can tell you that of all the things that I have done to improve my life, becoming a firearm instructor was one of the best.  I have received much more in return than I put into learning the ropes and gaining the certifications.

The only caveat is, that a weekend NRA firearm instructor course may certify you, but you cannot stop learning if you want to a competent instructor.

It took me over a year of teaching to become comfortable, and I have spent many thousands of dollars on books and continuing education courses, and I think that is only a good start.  I have been an instructor for more than 15 years and I am still learning.

As far as becoming a firearm instructor, unless you are a law enforcement officer and can talk your way into a FBI or P.O.S.T. class, the simplest way is through the NRA training program.

If you are interested, and want to know more, please feel free to email me directly at dnash@tngun.com

There are a few ways of becoming a firearm instructor, some better than others.  While I don’t think a 17 hour course on the weekend will prepare you to be a firearm instructor if you don’t already posses the right knowledge, skills, and attitudes.  It is a good start if you are serious about the process.

 

How to Make Sprouted Grains and Beans at Home

How to Make Sprouted Grains and Beans at Home

Sprouting Wheat and Beans
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We all know that nothing is free, especially food storage, finding foods that are cost effective, and long storing generally means you have less of the two V’s – Variety and Vitamins.  Sprouting wheat and weans is a way to add both.  I used to associate sprouts with homeopathic medicine practitioners, vegans, and yuppie soccer moms, but once I got over my initial prejudice I have learned that it’s simple and cheap to add sprouts to my food tool-box.

Sprouted Grains and Legumes are Healthy

Studies show that sprouts have 3 to 5 times the vitamin content of the seed they sprouted from. And as for Vitamin C, sprouts have over 30 times the vitamin C content of the original seed. Wheat grain sprouts have a lot of vitamins and also have a good amount of protein and enzymes.  The great thing about wheat is that due to the enzyme actions in the seed as it sprouts, your body is much able to use the nutrients inside.

There are all sorts of recipes online for sprouts, and I would suggest you try a couple now and see how easy it is to incorporate sprouts into your everyday food.  Personally, I like adding them to my salad, but my favorite way of using them is feeding them to my chickens and eating the eggs they produce…. 

How to use Sprouted Wheat

  • Add either chopped or whole to  homemade bread
  • Add to oatmeal or other whole grain cereal
  • Stir into cooked rice
  • Added to rice pilaf.
  • Kneaded into pizza dough.
  • Chopped and added to cookies.
  • Add to muffins, pancakes, waffles (Like our whole wheat pancakes)
  • Mix in to casseroles, stuffed peppers, meatloaf, meatballs, pasta sauce, mushroom and sprout sauce.
  • Add to sandwiches
  • Sprinkled on yogurt.
  • Sprinkled in salads.
  • Stir fried

How to Make Sprouted Grains

Equipment:

  • Wide Mouth Jar (or something similar)
  • Nylon Net or Cheesecloth + Rubber band (to cover the jar & keep the cover in place)

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup wheat berries
  • Water

Directions:

  1. Rinse ½ cup of wheat berries.
  2. Put the wheat berries in a wide-mouth quart jar.

*Don’t put too many berries in the jar – no more than ½ cup per wide-mouth jar.

  1. Add 2 cups of room temperature water.
  2. Place nylon net or cheesecloth over the jar opening.
  3. Use a heavy rubber band or the metal jar ring to hold the nylon or cheesecloth in place.
  4. Soak 12 hours, then drain.
  5. Thoroughly drain the water – shake a bit to remove most of the water.
  6. Keep the jar out of direct sunlight.
  7. It needs the air, so keep cheesecloth as a lid.
  8. Each morning and night rinse the wheat berries with room temperature water, drain again.  Taste after each soaking, Some keep the liquid drained off and drink it, I have done this, but I don’t very often, I don’t like the taste.
  9. 36 to 48 hours after the first soaking, Walla! You have germinated wheat or if you continue the process for a day or two more you have sprouted wheat.

Storing Wheat Sprouts

Replace the nylon net or cheesecloth with plastic wrap or the metal jar lid to help keep it moist but not wet.  Store in cool place for no more than 5 days