Has anybody else lost their pipe tool? I'm going to pick up another one but I've been using a nut socket extension. It probably doesn't make a difference as I only tamp the bowl every now and then but I'm curious if there's a better alternative for tonight.
Do you have an old fired rifle case? If it's something around .30 caliber, they work great. I've got a few 7.62x54R Mosin-Nagant steel cases, fired, or course, laying around that I frequently use for a tamp, and will use the case neck to stir ash.
I've seen a tamp made from a fired .38 special case and a short piece of dowel rod glued into the case. I suppose you could whittle the wooden end flat for stirring ash, but the rifle cases work just fine just as they are.
These were the things people used to use for tamps before you could buy tamps. Just a piece of hardwood whittled to size and cut flat across one end would work quite well. In fact I've thought of cutting a small piece of oak or hickory and doing that.
My most often used tamp. A 99c cast aluminum pipe nail. It's fifteen years old. They are still cheap and ubiquitous. I get one for free with just about every pipe I've ever purchased in a B&M store.
I've used just about everything for a tamp. Large allen wrench, nail, metal screwdriver butt, spent bullet cases, unsharpened pencil, piece of mulch trimmed with a knife. a stick, a bolt, my thumb, I'm sure I've missed something. A 2 ounce fishing weight.
It was a lead free. Some kind of steel if I remember right. I ended up tossing them because they rusted on my throw lines.
Cool. You'd be fine doing it for a day, but I just thought it was worth a mention, even if just for those who lurk. Lead water pipes may have had as big an impact on the fall/change of some past societies as anything else.
As the saying goes... "he died of acute lead poisoning". Lead is especially poisonous when administered in tandem with copper, at a delivery speed of 3450 feet per second. One dose usually does it, if placed in a unfortunate locale.
In that regard I am a surgeon. The Army knows how to train people. I can make 2.5 inch groupings at 400 meters with iron sights on an M16 I can do better with any of my guns. I hope I will never have to but preparedness is key. I'm almost that good with a handgun. I load my guns so the chambered round is a ratshot round filled with rocksalt. I like to give would be intruders one last chance.
I got to go varmint hunting with a childhood friend. He has served 12 years, including 8 years wearing the red beret. I totally believe what you're saying. With me looking through a spotter scope, he decapitated a prairie dog at about 375 with iron sights. Nothing special, just a DPMS AR-15 with a twenty inch barrel and muzzle brake.
