Austin Hemphill

I was watching some match videos last night and noticed something odd. When watching my grip, I noticed that the gun moves less with titegroup then with N320. And the lighter barrel in my gun lets it move less than the heavier one. I don't know if it was just different days, since the videos covered about 6 months of shooting, but it was interesting.

I think I found the problem. The toolhead has a crack in it and I think it is allowing the powder die to move. I switched it out with another I had, but I managed to shoot my skyscreen before I could chrono the new loads. So, I will have to wait to get a new set to test.

I recently switched from 320 to TG, just to try something different. I bought a 1# can and developed a load off of it, and found it to be very consistant and clean. However, I recently traded for an 8# can and have had the opposite results. I am getting a 50+ fps spread and it is much dirtier. I wonder if the powder could have been contaminated with something. Has anyone ever had similar troubles? Here in Nevada, the humidity is low, and I always dump the unused powder back into a can when I am finished to prevent any humity related problems. However, I am questioning the treatment of the powder before I received it. I do not remember seeing any kind of seal over the mouth of the can, and I wonder if storing in high tempratures can cause any of these problems. Any help with this will be appreciated.

I used to use Gene as my smith. He does good work, but it does take forever and you will probably go through about 3 or 4 delivery dates before you finally get the gun. If you do go with him, be sure to get a written quote when you agree on the price. He didn't give me one on my gun, and after 3 missed delivery dates, I termited the job and got my deposit back. If you are in the Reno area, try Jonny Lim. His shop is over on North Edison, off of Mill. He deliverd my limited gun on the day agreed, and has backed up his work 100% with while I waited service. If you have any more questions, please feel free to e-mail me.

One of the shooters here in northern Nevada uses a fobus in Lim-10 with supprising results. He can consistantly draw in under a second. I personally prefer blade-tech, but in the big scheme, any of them should work fine. I also really like the wilderness belt mentioned earlier. Very sturdy and durable.

I'll hazard a guess at Ray Chapman, Missouri, Pachmayer(sp), and no idea on second.

If I remember right, Ong45 uses WST. Drop him a line to make sure. He is one heck of a steel shooter, and a nice guy to boot.

BDH, I can't remember exactly, but from what I remember I used 4.8 of N340 loaded to about 1.2" and a small rifle primer. My load is listed in Maass' list. I found that the 180 RNFP bullet shot better for me. It is listed as a 38-40 bullet. Mike Boyd gave me some of them to try out, and I was impressed. If you try them out, you have to load a little shorter because of the short proflile and the large bearing surface. I can't recommend laser cast bullets highly enough. A truly excellent product, with some of the best customer support I have seen.

I used VV N340 with that bullet and got pretty good results. I did notice that N320 and Titegroup gave some leading problems, but N340 did not. I tried Universal Clays but did not like the smoke.

I have been very busy lately finishing up my degree, and have not had the time to really relax and think. Recently I went to tour and interview at a mine about 2 hours away and used the drive to think about where my life is heading and what has put me on the path I am on. I had gotten the info about the job from a fellow shooter, and at the interview I learned that he talked about me rather well, and made an impression with the interviewer. It really blew me away that someone that I hardly knew, and would never had met if it weren't for the sport would do such a thing. I also remember another shooter that gave me hand when my car broke down after a match. He stopped and waited with me for the tow truck to arrive in the cold. As many of us have stated in the past, shooters are the best people in the world. I truly believe this now, and hope I can give back to this sport as much as others have given me. As some of you might know Nevada is a major gold mining state, but has fallen on hard times lately. Many mines have shut down or dramatically reduced their labor forces. The prospects looked bleak for me staying in this state, and I had started looking in Canada and overseas. Now, I have a job in the field I had always wanted and can stay in this state. This was only possible because of the actions of this shooter going out of his way to give me hand. Many times I have felt that this sport is merely a way for me to have fun, but now I realize that there really is more to it.

I hate my school. As I mentioned last time, the buggered up my graduation good a proper. Now they topped it again. Not only will I not be graduating saturday, but they won't accept my current app for May because it is the "old form" and I need to pay another $35 to get the new one. Next, the company I planned to work for is now in the midst of being bought out by the freakin Russians of all people. So who know what will happen now. I am down to two other potential jobs. One is with a company I hate and won't return my calls, and the second is famous for starting and stopping operations at a moments notice. I am seriously considering walking away from this engineering gig and getting back into being a miner.

I have a 22 oz trigger on my limited gun. I really like the feel of it, but lately I think I have been using it as a crutch. When I let other people shoot it who are not used to such a light trigger, their groups usually improve dramatically over their own guns. But, I have yet to realize the advantage of the pull fully. At 50 yards, I cannot consistantly shoot A-zone groups slowfire freestyle. At 25 I am barely all in the A-zone. When I let a GM shoot it, he shot a beautiful 2" group at 25 yards. I feel that I haven't been developing my trigger control to the proper degree since I can "hit" the target. So, despite my ramblings I think that a light trigger is fine for safety. However, I think it can stifle the devolpment of some people, myself included.

Flex, Steel Challenge has been a serious challenge for me. We have a club here that shoots it about once a month and the best I have done was 114. It's good to know I am not alone in this. The more I work at this sport, the more I find that the sublties make huge differences. A small change in my attitude can change my performance dramatically. When I noticed that I was really forcing my transitions, I decided not to care about the outcome on the next run. And I managed to get my transitions to almost perfectly match my splits.

Chris, I shot some more of the brass today. They all looked good pressure wise. I saved the pieces that hang up today and will mike them when I get a chance. They all came out of the chamber after forcing the extractor on. In fact, one fell out after I took the mag out to clear the gun. I am guessing that the rim is out of spec but can't tell for sure. Would long cases hangup like this?

Flex, I got a chance to do some shooting today and noticed a number of things. I think the main problem was that I was trying instead of just shooting. I noticed that I was snapping my eyes to the next target before the shot broke, and that I was trying to muscle the gun over to the far targets and not using my lower body to pivot. Thanks again for the help.

Thanks for the great replys. I haven't been shooting as much as I used to and have seen some other problems start to surface. Flexmoney, the more I think about it, the more I see your answer applying. I used to spend my practice sessions as I called it "exploring" and now I am more or less trying to return to where I was a couple of months ago. I wonder if I have closed my mind to observing what I didn't have as much trouble with in the past. Thanks again for the help.

While I was practicing today, I noticed that I was missing targets on the right, or getting poor hits. I can hit them just fine if I start on the right. I also noticed that there seemed to be more of a bounce as I transitioned right than left. What can be the problem? Am I just not giving it the needed focus, or is there something else?

I picked up some armscor 40 brass for a great price a while ago. This week I finally loaded some up to test and had failures to extract about 1 in 30. I am running an aftec and had no troubles with my other brass. Has anyone had similar problems? I miked some of the brass before I loaded and they were all within the range of my other brass in length, rim dia, and body dia. I am rather pissed as I have about 2k pieces.

Erik, I had the same hassle with one mag all summer and it got godawful this fall. I had tried every follower and spring combo I could to no avail. I finally put an old arredondo basepad on and all my problems went away. It used to go four rounds, a little hesitation on feeding the fifth accompanied with a death rattle. I have since reconsidered what that one round really means to me.

I have been playing with my loads a lot lately and have found that WST seems to be the softest I have shot, but my gun did not seem to track as well for me. I found that for me, titegroup has the best feel and tracking with Montana gold 180JHP. 320 may be a bit softer, and a good bit quiter than TG, but I think I can get used to it.

Universities that lose my applications for graduation not once but twice and follow it up with removing my major from future catalogs. Inane overly tedious projects that consume 60+ hours a week removing any hope of serious practice. And Australian mine design programs that cannot have any continuity in command names or menu formats between the program and the manuals.

Julien, I have one in as new condition. E-mail me if you want it.

Check out Robert Soderstom's website at www.ipsc-dagboken.com

10ring, like Jon said, if it is threaded like a limcat, you should have no problems. I have heard of other brands causing problems. If you want a very soft shooting gun, then the tungsten barrel is for you.

As you problably know, Eric Grauffel uses the CR for his Tanfoglios, which are imported to the US by EAA. If you decide to get one, or have any questions, drop me a line. (Edited by Austin Hemphill at 8:33 pm on Sep. 24, 2002)