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Things to do when stuck at home...

6K views 64 replies 46 participants last post by  ZIF 
#1 · (Edited)
Okay guys, here is a list of things you can do while under self-imposed (or government-ordered) quarantine:

1. Clean all of your guns. By now you shouldn't have a single dirty one left in the safe.

2. Inventory all of your mags and ammo. Never know, you may find a Pmag or box of .45 missing and need to go ask Junior what he knows about it.

3. Organize all of your cleaning gear. Throw out all your worn bristle brushes and empty solvent bottles, and start cutting up some old shirts to make more patches, especially the ones you got last Christmas.

4. Re-arrange all your guns in the safe. Sooner or later this pandemic will be over and you'll be needing to find some extra room to fit some of those used guns that'll soon be flooding the market.

5. How long has it been since you last swapped out the grips on your 1911s?

6. If you're a gun nut you're bound to be a knife nut as well. Surely some of those need re-sharpening and oiling?

7. Read all active threads on your favorite gun forums, and join some new ones, so that you'll keep your firearms knowledge honed as sharp as your knives. Don't let any new guns sneak onto the market without you knowing about it.

There. If the wife goes and tells you that now is a perfect time to clean out that slow sink drain or help her put up some new curtains tell her you're too busy. You can thank me later.
 
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#10 ·
Ahhh... I was going to mention reloading but it slipped my mind. Unfortunately I don't reload, although I keep telling myself I'm going to get back into it someday. I mostly shoot at indoor ranges where I can't retrieve the brass, but the calibers I want to reload are mostly expensive revolver rounds like .44 Magnum and .45 Colt where saving the brass is easy.

So there is item #8 on the list for me... do some online price-shopping for new reloading gear. :)
 
#5 ·
Been thinking I will do more cleaning of the goods with my time off.

The other day I knew I had several boxes of ammo, fired cases I thought. When I dug deeper, I soon discovered I had new in box ammo in 22LR, 40, 44MAG, 45, .223 / 5.56 and 308.

I like ammo hunts.
 
#6 ·
I'm think of making a great contribution to the field of virology in my kitchen dinette table. I must have almost a dozen gun cleaners and lubricant, and I want to know which one has the greatest anti-viral property and gets those stubborn carbon deposits out!!!! ;)

Is it?:

Ballistol
Hoppes No. 9
Gun Scrubber
CLP Breakfree
Mil-Comm MC25
Tetra Gun
Frog Lube
Eezox
 
#7 ·
I did a long overdue inventory and found 5K primers and 7K bullets.

I sized and trimmed 300 30-06 LC brass for the M1 Garand. Re-loaded 250!

I sized and trimmed 500 .223 LC brass for the black-uglies. Reloaded 300!

Reloaded 200 9mm and 200 38Spl.

Rifles, pistols and revolvers are in que for cleaning.

As the weather clears a little, to the range for a little ballistic therapy!

I'll also get the boat ready for the early fishing season if there is one!

Smiles,
 
#8 ·
Fighting a spring thaw flood in my basement right now. Even with two dehumidifiers running, everything is gonna need to be cleaned and oiled again.

Then I need to crank out another few thousand 9mm for when I can get to the range again.

Been stepping up my dry fire too, since I got the time.
 
#9 ·
All good suggestions!

So far I have;
Reorganized the gun safe.

Cleaned out the closet that holds my hunting clothes and deer camp bedding.

Cleaned out the garage. We burned the last of the wood that was stored in there last week.

Cleaned out about 1/2 of the shop. Plan to get back on it this week.

Melted about 1200# of lead and cast it into ingots.

Recently completed reorganizing my brass stash. Everything is sorted by caliber and head stamp, deprimed, tumbled and all of the straight wall cases are resized.

Things yet to do;

Finish cleaning the shop.

Clean some guns.

Load enough ammo for an upcoming prairie dog hunt.

Reorganize and inventory my beer fridge.

I'm retired but I usually don't stay at home as much as I have been lately. Trying to stay busy and at least do something every day.
 
#53 · (Edited)
All good suggestions!


Melted about 1200# of lead and cast it into ingots.

Reorganize and inventory my beer fridge.
============================

WOW! lightman,
1200# of lead? From where did it come?

As to reorganizing and inventorying my beer fridge..only drink Bud these days (NOT LIGHT), and at anytime I’m down to under a full case, I ask my more mobile friends to bring me more!

Cheers,
Unkei
Is unus bibliotheca magna , He is in himself a great library.
 
#13 ·
And come the 2030s their parents will be cracking dad jokes about them being in their quaren-teens. Poor kids.
 
#14 ·
Haven’t gone nuts just quite yet. I’m working from home so weekends are filled with some moderate fun. Given that Trump declared all ranges and stores essential I’m hoping that the state ranges will be open soon.

Just did some casting and some 9mm reloads with my weekends off.

Stay safe everyone.
 
#54 ·
My freakin state of Ma closed the ranges. Don't know why I am still here.
 
#16 ·
We have a sorta "basement" room because our house is on a slope. It's set up as a gym. I'm adding a sliding glass door to let in some light and a small deck outside of it.

Not really Gun-Related unless I use that deck to cover our North Flank with my scoped Schmidt Rubin.

It's my go-to long range rifle.
 
#17 · (Edited)
I had already loaded about 4K 9mm and 45.

This week I don't have a dull knife to be found.

Next is clean every gun.

Since I can't go to the gym, I did buy some weights and a bench to fill the empty spots. Once the weather gets better, I will be out on my bicycle.

I did make it to the outdoor range today. I was the only one there. Good news and bad news. 22-250 shoots 6 shots in 1/2" @ 100 yards. Bad news, the 1917 Enfield I tried some 215 grain cast bullets went through the target sideways. Need to work on that load.
David


 
#18 ·
Working from home- DL is still ongoing, analyzing both DL and resident course data, getting cause up on the fences and property chores, spring cleaning, a few hours a week of stick and rudder....
 
#20 ·
I'm in Ft. Worth, TX. I can, and it is mandated, we work from home through the pandemic so no real impact for my family. A couple of people tested positive for Corona Virus so I got my office thoroughly cleaned.

Wife and I have not changed our lifestyle since all this happened. Maybe I need to re-asses my life.

All caught up on gun stuff since I disassembled, cleaned, lubed and reassembled my newest 1911, an Iver Johnson Thrasher. Mine is the blued and polished model.

Local ranges are closed but that doesn't keep one from fondling firearms.

All caught up on reloading so spent some time working on a raised bed garden. Built 3 planter stands, each stand holds 3 planters. Picked up a dozen plastic "oak barrel" planters from Lowe's along with Miracle Grow Organic potting soil and now have a nice veggie crop planted.

Local butcher delayed my order for a half dozen 1 1/4" thick bone-in Ribeyes. They can't keep up with the buying panic. Glad we have a well stocked freezer.

Plenty of paper products on hand without hoarding.

We're good.
 
#21 ·
Put up a couple more shelves in the ammo cabinet so as to better arrange things.

Wifely unit came downstairs and asked why I was sitting there frowning at it, and I explained that although I had some extra space on the .25/.32/.380 shelf...it just somehow didn't seem right to put the .357 Sig there. Mebbe it should sit next to the 10mm, which is currently sharing shelf space with the .40?

She stomped off muttering to herself. This from a woman who color/season codes all of her outfits...in three closets.
 
#23 · (Edited)
Around here we are doing firewood.

Feeding two stoves all winter long uses a lot of wood. I buy some but also cut some myself. A couple of my racks needed a little help. Going to fire up the splitter tomorrow, and start stacking. Keeping a weather eye out for trees that are ready to come down. One of the first things I did when I saw this thing was going to be bad was to heavy up on fuel, chain oil, spare chains, etc.

If I can avoid cutting my leg off we should be in good shape.

I actually found some plastic boxes that will hold .38 Super rounds. And I just happen to have a couple of hundred .38 Super cases, plus everything else I need to load my business load. That will get done at some point here.
 
#24 ·
Just fixed up my savage .17 HMR, I set it up when I was younger and didn't know what I was doing. Scope was loose, rings were not even, TQ was random, nothing was locktited, scope was not level with the gun, stock touched the barrel, just a mess overall.

It's all fixed now, everything is super solid and the scope is perfectly flat and even to the action. No play anywhere and no contact anywhere it's not supposed to have any. Before the gun had a wandering zero at 100 and always shot off, can't imagine why lol but still produced great groups.

I'm looking forward to this gun again since now it should be able to hit a 1/2 inch target every time without wandering lol
 
#25 ·
This weekend:

1. Made up a list of what I will need for a short-term no-notice bugout. From tent to bedding down to stove and everything in between. This.. is not in the budget, but I'll make it work.

2. Cleaned my Colt .45 today. It is, after all, her birthday.

3. Practiced. Piano, and rifle. For the piano, scales and chewing on Joplin's "Bethena"

Since the USAF didn't see it necessary to train me properly in rifle, I've been watching the 1936 Army film, adn the 1990 Marines "Fundamentals of Marksmanship". There is a non-zero chance that I may have to function as a rifleman in the next half year. So lots of dry-fire prone, sitting, kneeling. Getting into hasty while standing was drilled into me by my uncle, and that's why I carry what they call "African" style. Muzzle down, slung over left shoulder, I can get into standing hasty *really* quick. I learned that in 1982 and it never left me.

Why.. oh why... doesn't the AF train us in rifle.. ugh.
 
#26 ·
Why.. oh why... doesn't the AF train us in rifle.. ugh.
Navy didn't either. At least when I was in. In boot camp we did half a day of pistol training with .22 1911s and if you were good enough you could try the .45. If you handled that well enough you could try for your Navy Pistol Expert medal.

But no rifles.
 
#29 ·
Allot of Doing Nothing is my Goal

Since I maintain a semi-quarantine lifestyle, I already have all my firearms maintenance up to date, ditto for my records organization and ammo inventory. However, I have a few guns that I haven’t shot in awhile, so I’m going to prioritize a “shoot-em” list.

I have a short punch out list for a few things around the house, along with some vehicle maintenance. But, I was able to replace the 16 year old hurricane straps on my shed, because one of them snapped and the other was on the verge. But, this time I used some thimbles to prevent the cables from chafing on the underside of the cable anchor eye-bolts. I should get another 16+ years out of these cables.

At the beginning of the year, I declared 2020 as the year of Living on the Edge. The decision had nothing to do with our Nation’s current crisis, but rather that as spare cash became available, I’d focus on buying things with an edge. So, to pass some time in the evening, we’ll queue up a movie marathon that has a blade-play theme.

Ok, don’t laugh, as I said already, I’m self quarantined most of the time, so I have plenty of time on my hands. After years in the workforce, I’m enjoying occasional part-time employment, with a heavy dose of doing nothing. Allot of times I sit around doing nothing, but that’s exactly what I want to do. In fact, there’s still a whole lot of nothing I want to accomplish. I haven’t establish an actual quota for the amount of nothing that I hope to execute, but doing nothing is very high on my priority list. Actually, as soon as I post this, I’m going to do an absolute butt-ton more of nothing for the remainder of the day.
 

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#30 ·
My wife duped me. Asked me to take her to the grocery store, I got dressed and then she said she didn’t want to go until tomorrow.

But, since I was already dressed, I decided to break quarantine and head a few miles up the road to the local gun shop. I returned with this little guy. Let that be a lesson to my wife, that there’s a price to pay for interrupting me from doing nothing. :D
 

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