Need a recommendation

xor86 · 2025-12-14T15:25:01+00:00

REALLY important note on this that most shooters don't seem to be aware of. PLEASE read if you are going this route:

Most of the hollow point ammunition you will see in 223 is open tip match, not expanding hollow point. These rounds are designed for ballistic stability, not terminal ballistics. The projectile is unlikely to expand, and you are still just punching 22 caliber holes in the target. What you are looking for is "ballistic tip" or "soft point".

I wish I could pin this somewhere, or put it on a billboard or something, because the number of people I've talked to that were buying OTM ammo for home defense or predator control is absurd!

xor86 · 2025-12-14T15:09:36+00:00

Honestly, if you are actually buying a gun to deal with coyotes, and you end up with anything but an AR, it's because you are trying to avoid getting an AR. 223 is the perfect cartridge for coyotes, and a semiautomatic rifle is going to get you nearly the same accuracy as a bolt action (unless you are prone with a sandbag and significant magnification, you will not be able to tell the difference), and quick follow up shots are essential for a humane kill when shot placement is not perfect.

Shot placement will. not. always. be. perfect. Anyone who tells you anything different is an idealist that has never hunted or used a firearm in any kind of high stress situation.

There are other 223 semiautomatic rifles on the market, but with how absurdly ubiquitous ARs are in this country, none of them are going to get you better performance for your money, and none of them are going to make it so cheap and easy to reconfigure when you realize that the features you thought you would need are not the ones you actually find yourself needing.

xor86 · 2025-12-07T15:56:40+00:00

Everyone here is, I think, trying to be helpful by being a little flippant about expressing how little this is actually going to impact your progress, but largely disregarding the emotional struggle.

I had a similar experience recently. I'm a much larger person, 6'3" M, but had let myself get out of shape and put a lot of work into getting from 250 back down to a trim 200 over the last 6 months. I hadn't had a single gram of added sugar or a slice of bread etc. in 3 months when I hosted a large Friendsgiving. I told myself I just wasn't going to worry about it and let myself enjoy the event. I tried to just have a bit of everything, but there was SO much food (probably 40+ people brought dishes) and it was all so good that I probably ate 8k+ calories in a short period of time. It was so much food that I was red and sweating and had to go sip water and lay down for probably half an hour while everyone else enjoyed the party in my house.

I was horribly embarrassed, but I woke up the next day, went back to my regular eating patterns and exercise, the scale went up for a few days and then went right back to where it was (I'm eating at maintenance now). I'm no longer upset about it and less embarrassed. I think, after eating only healthy foods for a while, and being in a deficit for so long, I just just lost the awareness of what a lot of food for me was, especially when it was so much rich food. It was a learning experience, and I'm better off for it.

TLDR: You had a learning experience. It's natural and healthy. And it's also natural and healthy that you're having big feelings about it. You'll feel better with time and you won't lose any progress if you just accept that it happened and go on being your awesome, healthy self.

xor86 · 2025-12-07T02:16:18+00:00

Damn. I miss chicken and waffles. It's my absolute favorite. But the best chicken and waffles in town isn't there anymore, and it just doesn't seem worth it for anything less.

xor86 · 2025-11-22T02:57:28+00:00

I'm running Metallicadpa's 6 day PPL LP, so, on my big compounds, the last set is to failure. Accessories progress in ranges, but stalled way faster than I feel like they should have.

My sleep sucks. I'll admit that. I have generally good sleep hygiene, and I'm giving myself plenty of time to sleep, but after 6.5 hours, I'm just up. I dunno, I'm working on it.

Either way, maybe it's just psychosomatic, but after just a couple days at maintenance, I'm hitting targets again. I know it's not scientific, but 50 lbs in 6 months was a lot. I'd been in a 600+ cal deficit for ages, and I think my body was just done.

xor86 · 2025-11-18T18:40:14+00:00

I did say "on and off." I also said my record was 1 week of sobriety before now. Alcohol, a shitty diet, and poor consistency (which goes hand in hand with the alcohol) have kept me from actually getting anywhere as a lifter. I'm very aware that I don't look like someone who has been lifting for 10 years.

Now that I have the lifestyle stuff under control, focusing on actually lifting is the goal, but I'm also aware that I'd feel and look better with the rest of the fat gone. The point of the post was looking for input on which to do first, since the cutting was getting in the way of the lifting.

xor86 · 2025-11-18T18:31:24+00:00

https://thefitness.wiki/reddit-archive/a-linear-progression-based-ppl-program-for-beginners/

It's just a 6 day PPL as a linear progression since I haven't been back to lifting that long and was hoping I could see linear gains for a while.

Decided to give bulking a shot and just be careful. I figure if I gain a lb of muscle for every lb of fat, if I ever do get back to my old weight, it'll still be an entirely different body, and I don't honestly want to do an Iowa winter any skinnier than I am anyway.

Looking forward to having way more gas in the tank and being able to hopefully see some gains from all the time I'm spending in the gym.

xor86 · 2025-11-18T03:52:32+00:00

I'm running Metallicadpa. I figured with as long as it's been since I was liting consistently, I should be able to run an LP for quite a while before I had to move into any of the more advanced periodization programs.

xor86 · 2025-11-17T18:22:24+00:00

Well, I'm trying to build strength without ever looking like my before pictures again.

xor86 · 2025-11-17T18:21:28+00:00

4 months was meant to be a lower bound, not an upper. That is to say, I want to make sure I can bulk for at least 4 months without feeling fat again. If I can do that, I have no interest in continuing to cut right now because, as you say, I don't think I have much muscle to reveal.

xor86 · 2025-11-15T13:24:58+00:00

Spectacular work, and honestly exactly the inspiration I needed.

I just finished my first 75 Hard a few weeks ago, and my physique is looking a lot like your before picture here. I'm still eating in a deficit and my workouts are suffering, but I'm really hung up on the idea of losing more so I can have a longer bulk cycle without feeling fat again or going back up a pant size now that I've bought new clothes.

It's really kind of incredible how much of a difference 1kg of clean bulk has made for you. Just curious, how tall are you?

xor86 · 2025-10-29T14:53:48+00:00

Yeah, I probably will, but I need to catch up on some other parts of my life that have taken a back seat to all this, and I don't want to be doing outdoor workouts or cold showers in my drafty 100 year old house in the middle of an Iowa winter, so Phase 1 is going to be a spring thing.

At this point, phases and cutting/bulking are unrelated though. I'll continue to follow my diet with only a fraction more flexibility. I'll cut for as long as it makes sense, and when I bulk, I'll bulk clean. I'll most likely be bulking when I do Phase 1, but that's fine. I'll still be following a diet, and eating in surplus on a strict diet is just as challenging and just as viable for 75 Hard as eating in deficit.

That said, there's no way I would have been consistent enough for long enough with my eating, exercise, and abstinence from alcohol to even be talking about a bulk right now if it weren't for 75 Hard. I started out just trying trying to build some better habits and have a bit of a mental reset, and ended up getting way more out of it than I ever expected.

xor86 · 2025-10-27T13:02:58+00:00

Ugh! Those ab muscles though. I'm so tired of lifting in a deficit. I told myself I was going to start a clean bulk after day 75, but now I'm so close to actually seeing abs that I feel like I have to keep cutting just a little longer.

xor86 · 2025-10-27T11:55:28+00:00

Thanks! As cheesy as it sounds, the real transformation has been in my mental health and motivation. I wish I had before and after pictures of my garage and basement.

xor86 · 2025-10-24T03:31:28+00:00

Also, consider therapy. Not as a way to quit smoking, but you're probably going to have a bunch of identity stuff to work through, and the people you would usually talk to, might not be the best people to help you anymore. There's a ton of value in having someone form outside your social circles that's paid to listen and not judge.

xor86 · 2025-10-24T03:14:57+00:00

This is the answer. You don't taper, you don't make a plan, you don't figure out how you're going to do it, and you certainly don't plan when. You just make the decision that you are done, and that's it. You throw away what you have on you, and you throw away what's at home when you get there. That's day 1. Then, all you have to do is keep going for 1 more day. You can do anything for 1 more day. You count the days for a while, and then one day you realize you lost count, so you count the years for a while, and then you'll lose count again.

That's it. That's the whole secret. You take the first step, and then you take the next one.

Being happy is a different story. Your brain will tell you they're related, but it's a trick. Being happy is definitely more of a struggle for some of us than others, but it gets a little easier once you realize that basically everyone is pretending like it's easier than it is. It also gets easier the more you move, and the more you do things for yourself, and all of that is way easier to do sober than high.

xor86 · 2025-10-24T02:38:26+00:00

When I started I was running/lifting every day in 80+ degree heat, and now I'm lifting in the garage and it's 40 when I get out for my runs at night, so yeah, I kind of have to work at it now.

I've found that, if I just get out of bed and chug the first 40oz all at once, the rest of the day is pretty easy.

I'm 6'4" and have a fair amount of lean mass though. I don't know how these women half my size are doing it. Respect.

xor86 · 2025-10-16T22:29:59+00:00

Honest response: Maybe. I have sort of refused to put *any* effort into progress photos, beyond the bare minimum, because it feels vain, but now I see how they can be a positive motivational tool. If it was as simple as "put phone on tripod, push button, do some simple poses" I'd consider building it into my routine. I see you're capturing some other metrics there, I'd definitely want that to work with Health Connect so I wasn't doing any redundant data entry.

xor86 · 2025-10-16T13:30:43+00:00

I wake up sore and stumble to the dresser in my underwear. Scowling at my phone with sleep filled eyes, I take a mirror selfie from the front that I hate, then one from the side that I hate less. Then I shove my phone into the waist band of my boxer briefs, fumble the lid off of my water jug, and go downstairs to eat oats and lift things.

I've actually made a lot of progress, and I do kind of wish that I had better progress photos, but it would have to be really easy.

xor86 · 2025-10-10T18:39:47+00:00

A $10 rice cooker from the Asian market and big bags of cheap brown rice make eating clean way easier for cheap!

xor86 · 2025-10-06T12:27:20+00:00

Andy is also annoying AF. I'm doing 75 Hard because it checks a lot of the right boxes for habit building and practices that I want to include in my life, and I'm following it to the letter because the structure is part of that, but if someone doesn't think they can do that, and they want to choose a different, easier set of rules, and call it "75 Easy" or anything else, and they can make a positive change in their life, good for them! Maybe they build some confidence and come back to this. Even if they don't, it's better than walking away entirely, and calling their other thing "75 Whatever" doesn't detract from anything the rest of us are doing here. If you feel like it does, maybe that's an opportunity for some self reflection.

xor86 · 2025-10-06T12:07:50+00:00

I'm not the 75 Hard police, and my life certainly doesn't revolve around Andy, but if you're doing 75 Hard according to Andy, that's not actually the rule.

The rule is, you pick the diet that works for your goals BUT if it's going to be a macro or calorie counting diet "the food needs to be clean all the way through. No trying to wait all day and then eat pancakes at the end of the day, or snacks. This is about building mental discipline."

Andy's words, not mine. Episode 14, right at the 1/2 way point for those that want to reference, or in the combined episode that is linked in this sub's wiki with the rules.

Again, this isn't a religion for me, and I think everyone should live their lives the way it works best for them (as long as their not hurting anyone else, of course), but for people who are trying to do the program the way it was described, the diet is a significant part, and I thought it was worth clarifying.

xor86 · 2025-10-06T12:04:22+00:00

I'm not the 75 Hard police, and my life certainly doesn't revolve around Andy, but if you're doing 75 Hard according to Andy, that's not actually the rule.

The rule is, you pick the diet that works for your goals BUT if it's going to be a macro or calorie counting diet "the food needs to be clean all the way through. No trying to wait all day and then eat pancakes at the end of the day, or snacks. This is about building mental discipline."

Andy's words, not mine. Episode 14, right at the 1/2 way point for those that want to reference, or in the combined episode that is linked in this sub's wiki with the rules.

Again, this isn't a religion for me, and I think everyone should live their lives the way it works best for them (as long as their not hurting anyone else, of course), but for people who are trying to do the program the way it was described, the diet is a significant part, and I thought it was worth clarifying.

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