JoeBoboutfitters

If you want off the shelf low recoil ammo that cycles reliably you may want to look at Winchester AA International shells. Part # AANL1275. They wont beat you up as bad and once the 1301 is broke in after a hundred rounds or so they cycle the gun well. Id shoot at least 1-200 full power loads breaking in the firearm though. The international loads have a small payload but are pretty fast. The targets wont know the difference except maybe a spinner.

Did you just drop a shell while loading?

Can you replicate the issues using live ammo at the range? If not I wouldnt worry about it.

As a vendor and a shooter, I wouldnt change a thing. Most big matches offer a good value for retailers and manufacturers. A sponsor only donating cash would be a poor move, IMO. It would defeat the purpose of a sponsorship table. Its a 3gun match. Allstate may want to donate cash because they cant donate goods...but a retailer or manufacturer should donate goods to promote their product lines.

Thats a pretty accurate method to test em.

Doubletap

Spinners are about as easy to calibrate as a Polish Plate Rack or Texas Stars. IMO, if they can be turned with 2 normal shotgun loads and a decent shooter then they're fine. I've never shot them with a rifle or pistol, and I'm sure that would be much more difficult. With a SuperNova I typically can turn a Spinner over in 2-3 shots with normal loads or 1-2 with hot Prairie Storms loads and the like. At the Pikes Peak challenge I ended up hosing myself accidentally and ended up with only Low Recoil Low Noise shells (980FPS) for a spinner on Stage 3. I got the spinner over with 4 powder puff loads, which isn't all that bad. At the Nordic Tactical Shotgun Championship in 2013 they had a polish plate rack and 2 spinners on the same stage. All 3 targets are hard to predict and aren't really caliperable (Trapr word). As long as the variables are kept as similar as possible throughout the match then I think they're a good target. They're not very forgiving with accuracy or timing.

Major matches will have sponsores and a decent prize table, as they should. I try to sponsor matches we attend and we feel offer value for the sponsorship amounts and exposure. Honestly, some businesses sponsor matches that shouldnt due to their own customer base or business model. Thats the risk they play in marketing. Thats life. If a major match had no prize table then it would be a big local match. Prizes also attract pros which of course draw in sponsors and make the competition stiffer. Modest fees without a prize table are available at hundreds of local matches a month. You gotta play to pay in big matches. The good big matches fill up fast for a reason. Without a prize table at all that would change.

In my experience, the versamax is hard for a smaller person to throw around. I like the lower recoil and reliability, and dont mind the weight. However, the Beretta 1301 with a kickoff system added may be a better bet. The 1301 has a sharper recoil due to lighter weight but kickoff helps a bunch. Cost after both guns are modified will be similar but the 1301 is substantially lighter. My girlfriend is 5'2 and petite and has no problem running the 1301 and the length of pull works fine. Just my .02

Another good match put on by the Heartland Shooting Range! This year had really good props, AND much longer stages than last year. Videos from the match: Joseph: Jodi: Myself and 2 others on our squad shot in Amateur (5rounds in the shotgun to start). The RO's and wranglers weren't overly critical about watching loading of shotguns so it could have been possible to sneak extra rounds in the shotguns at the loading table, but it would have been pretty obvious if one Amateur division shooter needed to reload on a stage and another didn't, especially with so many people videotaping. Personally, I feel if an individual feels the need to cheat then they probably aren't going to be high enough up in the rankings to affect anyone. The top shooters typically shoot with other top shooters and thus the chance of being called out for cheating would be higher. Unless you place in the top 3 then your score really doesn't affect anything with the random-draw prize table.

Is yours stock or does it have a kickoff system?

I shot my SuperNova at the PPSC. My arms are Semi Auto and it ran pretty well. The 1301 is my girlfriends shotgun, and she didn't shoot this match. However, another competitor shot her 1301 at PPSC and has no cycling issues.

We've been running a 1301 with very little lube with great reliability. Current round count is about 600 rounds. We've had no issues with cycling even with lighter International AA shells for a lighter recoil option once broken in. It had a few issues initially with the light loads but after 100 rounds of full power loads it seems to have broken in.

I just threw together a quick video from this weekend's match for those who didn't attend: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrlONYd9NY0 It was a really nice match! Other than waking up at 6AM Mountain Time, we had a really good time!

Correct. However, it doesn't show overall match points overall, unless I'm missing it? Example: https://www.practiscore.com/results.php?uuid=2D96D57A-88E6-432F-A3F6-A3557BC59696&page=classLeadersCombined

Are the final scores on practiscore time+ or just raw time plus penalties?

For my dual-loading, I prefer the Invictus Practical caddies and the Carbon Arms. My only complaints with the Carbon Arms is the fact they can spin since they pivot around a single screw. The Invictus Practical take up very little belt space and are very well thought out! They release well AND retain shells very well.

Thanks for those who put on the match! All of the stages were a lot of fun and the match overall was very challenging. The stages all ran smoothly and having people to help reset stages made things go really fast. Kudos to all those that helped make it happen. It ran like it was the 5th year of operating that match! Many of the stages introduced new elements that I haven't ever seen at other matches, such as the foot pedal activators for aerial clays. The range has quite a few resources to use that other ranges don't have access to which made it very challenging. Hopefully we'll see some midi's and rabbits next year . We'll be planning to attend next year as well!

Yup, what he said. The Nordic 18" barrels are nice, and have the gas ports sized properly so an adjustable gas block isn't required. MOA or better accuracy, assuming match ammo, a good trigger, and a good shooter.

What time frame are the mini clinics expected to run?

Hiperfire (24, 24E, 24C, 24G), Timney 4LB, or POF 4LB AR trigger would all be good choices.

Beretta 1301 with opened up loading port and c-rums extended lifter. The backside of the handguard was beveled a little to take the edge off for dual loading.

They are a great caddy system! We just started carrying them and I just switched over to them from the Carbon Arms system (Also a good loading system).

FWIW, I've had issues with RIO's in the past, especially in the cold. Their powder composition didn't seem to always give consistent velocities when subjected to cold weather. We had to keep shells in our hotel room overnight in order to keep them igniting properly during a match. This was across many makes and models of shotguns. It was an odd issue to have, and I haven't seen it with any other shells. Personally, that made me swear off Rios for competition shells, especially in cold climates. I'd assume if they see a velocity drop in the cold they also may see a spike in the heat.

Those guys seem squared away