u/Lefthandmitten

My oldest brother has always had issues. He was the first grandchild born into what would become a huge family (up to 60 cousins and kids now under my grandparents). He would beat up, berate, and generally bully my younger brother and I growing up. He got into smoking at 16, then drinking, then drug use before he was 20. He joined the army, went on lifetime disability after a tour (he found out he could claim PTSD after seeing a buddy do it and most of his squad shared the symptoms he would need to say he had to get disability) and never worked a day in his life. I'm not saying he doesn't have issues from his service, but he went into the army an addict and was pretty open with us at the time that he was seeking full time disability by saying the right things.

His biggest vice is alcohol, he has many DUI's to the point of getting a felony and has claimed many times to be sober (though he smokes weed and uses other stuff on occasion he thinks if he doesn't drink he's sober). He burns through relationships like firewood, had a baby with a one-night stand, and for decades squandered his life away getting into fights, stirring up drama, and somehow getting everyone to blame everything but himself for the situations he got himself into. My parents have ALWAYS worked their hardest to eliminate the consequences of his actions. When he would get into fights at school they would go down there and say it was the other kid without seeing anything. At home he would rarely get blamed for beating us up as he always did it out of sight. As an adult they drove him everywhere after he lost his license and basically became the parents of his child when he had custody.

The physical bullying as a child turned into verbal and relationship bullying as we grew up. I have been quite successful in life, I have a great job, make enough to be comfortable, have an awesome wife and kids. He is clearly jealous and has turned my parents against me and uses any opportunity he can to start fights with me. He has bullied my kids and wife in the past when they did anything he disagreed with (shouting at my wife, lying about my wife, lying about what my kids did when his kid was wrong, etc). My parents really took his side when there was a huge incident at a family gather a few years ago and I have been mostly no-contact with my brother and parents since. He finds a way into everything to bemoan me to my friends and family, write a jab about me, or in general be a bully. I've blocked him on everything and don't see most of what he writes/says but a lot of it still makes it back to me.

My sister has always been on his side like my parents. My older brother has largely divided my immediate family (parents and siblings). They are always hoping the latest bout of sobriety will last longer than a few months and give him the benefit of the doubt in every situation. We've been to family therapy over it and I was told my parents have some deep-seated issues with thinking that they are a failure if they admit their first child is a failure, so they lie and cover for all his consequences to prevent him from appearing to be a failure to others and lie to themselves about what he is.

The issue is that by being no-contact with them I largely do not see any of my family anymore. I was extremely close with all of them and now can only see some of them outside of the normal family gatherings. I've talked about the issues with several of them and everyone seems to see that his is a bully and a problem but he goes to all family events and since I have chosen to distance myself from him they are sad I'm not around but on the few occasions they decided not to invite him to something he has made a huge deal about it and caused huge issues so they don't say anything to him when he goes which prevents me from attending anything.

The bullying for the last 30 years has mostly been verbal, and I know "words can never hurt me" but yet he lives in my head and the hurt he wants to cause me I allow to affect me. I've tried hard to "live the better life" and not hate him and not show that he hurts me, but I'm at the point where I do hate him and his harm hurts a lot. How do I move past this guy, go to events where he is at, and not let this idiot bully me anymore?

I got my first suppressor about 6 years ago. been using them heavily on AR’s and 9mm sub guns since. About 6000 centerfire rounds. Haven’t cleaned any of them and it appears I don’t have to any time soon.

Got into Rimfire cans about a year ago with a B&T Print Tiger. I’ve put about 2000 rounds through it. All CCI standard and Fed Automatch

My Tiger gained 7 grams over that time (112g to 119g). Did a soak and it’s back down to 114g.

I used to see pictures of 22 cans with ounces of buildup in them (I’m guessing 100 grams+). Has our ammo gotten that much cleaner or were they shooting tens of thousands of rounds between cleanings?

I have a bunch of P30B 18650's and run them in most of my lights. I noticed I have a few throwers that are 10amp max. Would the M35A actually perform better in these? I'm looking for max runtime at full power (10amp draw) between the two batteries. Will the M35A sag when fresh or partially drained more than the P30B even if the draw is right at 10amps?

For that matter, would the Vapcell N41 (10amp, 4050mAh) be an even better battery yet for this application?

I have been putting together a lightweight suppressed rifle for awhile now. I settled on 308 after running the numbers on a lot of cartridges from an 18" barrel. It's a Browning X-Bolt 2 SPR 18" in .308. I have an AB A-10 can and a Leupold VX-3HD 2.5-8x36 CDS scope for it. Ideally this would be a 300 yard elk gun at it's extreme.

My first thought was to look at TTSX bullets (130gr, 150gr, 168gr) for their penetrating power. Estimated Max Range for these bullets:

1500 Ft-Lbs Threashold reached at:

130gr (.350 G1), 3000 FPS: 280 Yards (2285 FPS)

150gr (.420 G1), 2700 FPS: 285 Yards (2124 FPS)

168gr (.470 G1), 2550 FPS: 310 Yards (2008 FPS)

These are all close to what I'm looking for and I think the 150 may be the way to go (at 310 yards it's doing 2078 FPS with 1438 Ft-Lbs of energy).

Should I instead be looking at a bonded or standard cup and core bullet to get better performance at 300 yards? To be honest the most use this rifle will get is deer at less than 250 yards but I would love to keep my same load for trips out west.

Also, I load with a lot of Varget, would this be my best bet for all the weights in 308? Is there a better powder to hot rod the 168gr?