Lacie MosKeyTo Flash Drive Review

Lacie's MosKeyTo flash drives can be summed up in one word: Miniscule. These things are tiny. What you see here, which looks almost like a bare USB connector, is the [i]entire drive[/i].

Flash drives have always been handy, but carrying one hasn't. These are so tiny that I simply clipped mine to my keyring, and haven't noticed it since. It's so tiny that unless I need it... I usually forget that I even have it. When people ask about it, it usually takes a few minutes before they believe that such a small device could be a flash drive... let alone a 16GB flash drive.

Speeds are quite reasonable, in fact, faster than I expected based on the size and cost. If there is a downside to the MosKeyTo, it would be that it is SO small that on a tight USB slot, sometimes it takes a good grip to be able to pull it out when you're finished.

Now, the downside... while the lanyard is strong, carrying it on my keychain did eventually cause the cover to come loose and get lost. And, after a few months, being exposed to the static of getting carried in a pocket killed it. I've had the same thing happen with most drives that I carried for months without a cover, so that isn't necessarily a problem with the drive itself, just an inherent risk of such a small package.

Daniel Defense A1.5 Rear Sight

AR15 rifles have become extremely popular over the last couple of years. This morning at the range, I noticed that only three shooters did NOT have an AR15 - and two of those were only there to shoot pistols!

Even though red-dot sights are becoming the norm, a lot of people still want a backup sight. Often, the first thought is to flip-up sights. Personally, I like fixed sights, because they're a lot more rugged. They're also simple. And they're always there, you don't have to worry about flipping them up. If your optic has a "Lower third cowitness", then using the optic with the fixed sights in place is quite easy.

Daniel Defense makes a very nice fixed rear sight. It's tough, it's solid, it's well-made, and it's reasonably priced - in fact, it's not much more than the plastic flip-ups. If you're in the market, take a look at one - you'll probably like it.

OCZ Agility 2 SSD Review

Three months ago, I purchased three OCZ Agility 2 solid-state disk drives. OCZ has, in the past, had a few winners in the price:performance arena, and I thought I'd try these out.

The price was reasonable, and performance was good, including power savings for the laptops. But the quality (or lack there of) astounded me. The first drive worked... but after a couple of days, put itself into a sort of "read-only" mode. You could do anything you wanted to the drive - write to it, delete contents, even format it - and after a power cycle, all of the original contents were back. While that's a nifty party trick, it's not useful in a laptop. So, I tried doing a firmware update. Their updater went about halfway through, gave an error, and the drive was dead.

So, I moved on to the second drive. It worked for twenty minutes, then gave an error, and the drive was also dead.

The third drive hasn't failed... yet. But given what happened with the first two, I'm not using it for anything important. I'm sure that OCZ would replace the dead drives for me if I sent them back, but honestly, if QC is that poor with these drives, I wouldn't want the replacements anyway.

As replacements, I bought Intel 320- and 510-series drives. They're more expensive, but they have an amazing bonus... all of them work.

RCBS Rockchucker Supreme Master Reloading Kit Review

RCBS makes some good reloading gear, and the "Rockchucker" press is universally known - it's been a favorite for many decades. This isn't so much a review of the press, as it is of the entire Master Reloading Kit which is assembled around it.

On the charging side, the press includes the well-loved Uniflow powder measure, with a large powder metering rotor. It also includes a powder funnel, and two sizes of powder drop tubes. Despite having the larger-sized rotor and powder meter, this will still throw 5.1-grain charges of W231 or HP38 for me exceptionally reliably, only occasionally throwing as much as 0.1 over or under. Reliably throwing significantly smaller charges may necessitate the small rotor and meter. Ball powders for rifles, such as TAC, meter just as well. Stick (extruded) powders such as Varget meter as well or better than with any other volumetric measure, but unless you're actually weighing each charge, you simply can't get the repeatability with stick powders as you can with ball powder. It's just the nature of the beast, sticks don't pack themselves as uniformly as balls do. Having the Uniflow is a huge advantage in this kit, as it is a solid, highly regarded powder measure.

Now, if you are aware of just how tiny of a volume is represented by 1/10th of a grain, you appreciate how precisely these measures have to operate to achieve that. To get your Uniflow started on the right foot, follow the instructions and take it apart, and clean off all of the oil that it is packed with - inside and out. Then assemble it, and wipe down everything on the inside with a dryer sheet to alleviate static electricity, then run a few pounds of powder through it (again, as per the instructions), then it will be ready to roll.

For priming, it comes with the RCBS hand priming tool. Hand priming tools have upsides and down sides. On the up side, they let you "feel" the seating of the primer much more sensitively than any press-mounted solution. They also let you do your priming away from the press. I have been known to prime cases while I watch a movie, but I am always sure to pay attention to my work! I've also worked in conjunction with a friend, one of us priming brass on the Hand Primer while the other preforms other work on the press. The down-side is that since it's not on the press, it is one extra step beyond press-mounted solutions.

The hand priming tool is fairly straightforward: You put your primers in the tray, put the cover on it, and insert it into the hand tool. Place a case in it (it takes the same shell holders as your press), and squeeze the lever. It's straightforward and easy. Changing from small primers to large isn't covered terribly well in the instructions, but it's easy to figure out.

The tray, being round, is not quite large enough to get all of the primers from Winchester's large, square packing trays - it can only catch 98 of the 100. You catch the other two in your hand. Smaller packaging, such as available from CCI, works terrifically. The tray has spiral grooves to assist in flipping primers should your vendor not do a good job of it.

For weighing charges, it has the 5-0-5 mechanical scale, manufactured by Ohaus. It's a time-proven mechanism, and does a fabulous job. Keep it dust-free, level it before use, don't abuse it, and keep ferrous objects away from it while you're weighing. In return, it will give you a lifetime of reliable service.

The RCBS universal loading block is decent and usable. Not terribly remarkable, it's similar to other universal loading blocks. Caliber-specific loading blocks are not expensive, should you not like the included option.

It also includes a lube pad and a bottle of lube. While usable, that's a bit time-consuming for me, I prefer quick spray-lubes. Hornady's One-Shot is acceptable, or you can make your own from alcohol and lanolin.

The press itself is a Rockchucker - strong, solid, precise, and sturdy. There's not much to say that hasn't been said over the decades.

Finally, no kit would be complete without a reloading manual, so the Speer manual is included.

Overall, the kit has nearly everything you need to start loading - all you have to add is a set of dies. You get a solid press that will last a lifetime - or two - and good quality components to accompany it. There's simply no way that you can go wrong.

Lee Reloader Single-Stage Reloading Press

Lee is well-known for making economical, yet reliable reloading equipment. I bought one of their "reloader" presses just to deprime military 5.56 brass, which has crimped primers. The normal price was, if I recall, $29.99, and I got it on sale for $24.99. For a reloading press, that is astoundingly low-priced. But what about quality?

The press itself is cast aluminum, with a steel ram, steel linkage, and a cast aluminum handle. Where it counts, such as on the ram, the finish is quite acceptable. Elsewhere, the finish is a tiny bit rough - but hey, it's still better than you would expect from a $29 press. The ram travels smoothly, and the press offers plenty of leverage.

The press is, quite obviously, a "C" press. Such a design is more compact, and offers more free access around the shellholder, but is not as stiff as a classic "O" press. In this design, that is mitigated by keeping the ram and die very close to the vertical beam, minimizing flex. As we'll see later on, the open design can also be a very large advantage!

The handle on the press is shorter than on some other presses - perhaps 2/3 the length of the handle on a Rockchucker Supreme. But as we'll see later on, that's not necessarily a bad thing, as the press still offers plenty of leverage.

Now, what about the actual use? As I said, the first thing I did with this press was to deprime between 600 and 800 pieces of crimped 5.56 brass, with a Lee Universal Depriming Die. That operation went quite smoothly, so I started to wonder when I'd find the downsides of this press.

After that, I sized and deprimed a few hundred .45ACP cases. Once again, all went well. Then I flared the cases, primed them (with an RCBS hand-primer), charged them, and seated bullets with this press. All went smoothly.

Then I started sizing the 5.56 brass, with Hornady One-Shot lube. While One-Shot does work... it doesn't work as well as other offerings, and means more force is needed, and more stress on the press. Nevertheless, all went well.

After that, I've gone on to process another 400 or so 5.56 cases, and about 1,500 .45ACP cases. For a while, I kept wondering where the "downside" to this press would be, but it never showed up... it just worked, and worked well. In fact... it worked ASTOUNDINGLY well. Because of the open design of the press, when you raise the handle after working a piece of brass, you can simply flick it into a waiting bin with your right index finger, and insert a new piece of brass with your left hand. After a little practice, I average less than one second to swap out cases on this press!

Another positive aspect is the mechanism to catch spent primers. When you deprime, the primer falls down the center of the ram, then is thrown into a hole in the body of the press. The underside of the press is hollow, so with a well-placed hole drilled into your reloading bench.... all of the primers fall into the receptacle of your choice. You don't have to fiddle around trying to remove an on-press catch tray without spilling it, and you don't have to empty a tray every 100 rounds. A quart mason jar will hold many thousands of spent primers before you need to empty it! The press is also quite reliable at catching the primers, VERY few are missed.

So, how does it rate overall? Well, between how quick it is to change cases, and how well it catches spent primers, I now do nearly all of my reloading on this press - my Rockchucker Supreme only gets used for a few specific tasks. The Lee Reloader press has more than enough leverage for all pistol calibers, and for full-length sizing small rifle rounds such as the .223. If you only require neck sizing, then you could probably do quite large calibers in it just fine.

Speaking with other reloaders who load with other presses, a good number of them use this same press as a dedicated depriming station, simply because of how fast and well it performs the task. Others have one as a "mobile reloading station" that they take with them when they travel. These presses are so handy, and so inexpensive, that most reloaders would probably find use for one.

Are there any downsides? Well, perhaps. After a couple of thousand rounds, it seems like there may be just a tiny bit more play between the ram and the press. Everything still works just fine, it doesn't cause any problems. But I'm going to keep an eye on it over the next few thousand rounds and see how things go.

Echo CS-400 Chainsaw

Last year, it was time to bite the bullet and buy a new chainsaw. Having used cheap chainsaws, I didn't want to go that route, so I went with one of my favorite brands: Echo. After a trip to the store, a brand-new CS-400 followed me home.

This saw has been everything that I would have expected from Echo: A powerful, responsive, easy-starting motor with a solid machine built around it, and it's been a true pleasure to use.

In buying a chainsaw, size matters, and it matters quite a bit. This saw comes with an 18" blade, and a 40.2cc motor. In my opinion, this is a pretty decent size for a residential homeowner, as it matches well to the size of trees that a residential user is likely to cut. If you have a tree that's too big for this saw, chances are that you don't have a place to safely "drop" it inside of a city. Climbing and sectioning a tree is something best left to the professionals, doing it safely takes a lot of knowledge, skill, and equipment.

This chainsaw does have what I call a "Nanny-Brake". There is a handguard which, if pushed forward even a little bit, engages a brake to stop the chain. This is an attempt to protect the user in case of a kick-back. The downside is that if you have large hands, you're wearing thick gloves, and are holding the saw at the right angles, you can trip the nanny-brake fairly easily. After you've used the saw a time or two, however, you get used to how you

Since buying the chainsaw, I've cut down and cut up a 40' tall poplar, and a cottonwood of similar size. I've also cut up the remains of a pair of 40' tall pine trees. Through all of that, the saw done just what you'd expect, and done it smoothly. So smoothly, in fact, that it almost makes the job boring! Between a powerful motor and a sharp chain, this is how sawing should be.

I once heard a person say that to start a two-stroke motor, "You have to use just the right combination of swear words." Well, that may be true on cheap or poorly-maintained equipment, but on good quality motors, it shouldn't be. And Echo holds true to its reputation with this saw. Starting it up for the first time in six months took three pulls with the choke on, then one pull with the choke off. Not bad for something that's sat around all winter.

This chainsaw has certainly lived up to what I expected, given the price. It does the job, and does it amazingly well.

Finally, if you're going to buy and use a chainsaw, play it smart: Learn how to use it safely and effectively.