fastmtnbiker33w

I traveled up from El Paso last week and the haze in the Burq was nasty. I was in Los Alamos last weekend and it wasn't too bad. I'm just north of Albuquerque right now and it's been nice other than hot. From the facebook posts and El Paso Times articles, it sounds like El Paso got it really bad with a dust storm and the smoke. Southern Arizona is on fire as well with a big fire wrapping up in the Chiruacuas and a really big one in the Huachucas which forced evacuations in Sierra Vista. A breeze from the southwest could easily inundate Albuquerque. If you have asthma, bring your meds and keep them on you. It's like what they told me when I used to do asbestos work, "It's what you can't see that will kill you." I hope I shoot ok. It's been over a week since I've practiced and too much mountain biking has my upper back all jacked up and I've got a pinched nerve in my arm. If you see me poppin' pills, it's just Ibuprofin. Getting old sucks.

If you haven't figured it out yet, the LDS church is king in Utah and that means the only fun things to do on Sundays are to ski/hike/mountain bike or shoot alone at a public range - which should be open. I know there was one near the mouth of either big or little cottonwood. Can't quite remember as it's been 11 years since I've lived there. There are plenty of "shooters" in Utah. Most just go out to the west desert and blast away at bottles and stuff.

I put on a big mountain bike race and we always send the sponsors a race t-shirt with a thank you card. It proves to them that we got their logo on the shirt and demonstrates that we want to build a relationship with them. I also email digital copies of any press that the event receives. I've only had a couple sponsors not return to the event and that was due to their own financial problems or changes in ownership/marketing directors. It would be nice if bike sponsors came through like gun sponsors. The amount of product gun sponsors give away makes me think that the wholesale cost or manufacturing cost is ridiculously lower than average retail.

I use the Williams and they've been ok. The rear elevation adjustment came loose but I put some blue loctite on the tiny screw and it's holding now. I ended up with gouging from the screw with made it difficult to get them adjusted. I used my file from my leatherman to smooth them out so I could move them to the appropriate spot while trying to get them zeroed. I also broke part of the fiber off of the front sight so I'm now looking for fiber to replace it. I think it broke off from cramming it into my bag and yanking it out before I shoot. I'm rough with my equipment. Nothing from those previous two sentences really sounds right. I was afraid I'd never be able to hit flyers with them but I hit both popper activated flyers in last weekend's match!!! Even shot another popper while the activating popper was falling. That stoked me out considering I've only done a few local multi-gun matches. I'm not using them on a benelli, but vent rib add on sights are vent rib add on sights.

Used the glove in last weekend's match and it worked great. I never weak hand loaded....not sure why. I think I was scared I'd drop shells or something. I shot things well but still think I could have loaded much faster. More a problem of not going for it with the weak hand loading than not having the ability or skills. No singed fingers. It was in the 90's so guns got hot quickly.

Where is the file?

I practiced loading with a full fingered mountain bike glove and I was faster on the weak hand loading. So I'm going with a glove for this weekend's match. With the blister and the cut I have on that hand, it will be a big help. I'm still going to try the velcro thing and put some A-grip on the forend stock.

I was thinking of putting A-Grip on there, but velcro would be much cheaper and I can get it locally. Good not so secret tip. Thanks.

I load from the strong hand when I'm taking shells out of the side saddle and the two rounds on the forend. I place the buttstock on my right shoulder when I strong hand load, so it's too easy for me to place my thumb or almost all of my fingers on the barrel. I weak hand load from a CCW shell caddy. I'm going to give a glove a try and see how I do from the caddy.

I hit the range after work today to rip a few boxes of ammo through my shotgun to practice loading, shooting FAST at clays I placed all over the berm, and to make sure everything was functioning ok. I shoot a gas gun (CZ 712) and the forend gets pretty hot but not unbearable after a magazine's worth of shooting. What got me BAD today was after shooting a full mag, I touched the barrel while positioning it for a strong hand reload and blistered up one finger and really hurt another finger than has a nice cut on it. Yeah. I know. Call me a wambulance. I have really long fingers so it's kind of easy for my fingers to overlap onto the barrel. It happened so fast and hurt so bad that I dropped my gun. I thought, "Whew....glad I didn't do that in a match." I was thinking that it would be a good idea to maybe wear a glove, but then that would impede my ability to do weak hand reloads....and I'm getting pretty good at that. Does anyone wear gloves or a glove when shooting....particularly in competition? If so, what kind? I have lots of thin material'd mountain bike gloves that have pretty good dexterity, but I don't want to look like a dweeb and I definitely don't want to reduce the tactile ability of a bare hand when grabbing handfulls of shotgun shells.

It's kind of funny....or maybe sad is a better way to say it....that the Russians are making a shotgun based on a weapons platform that hundreds of thousands of American vets are familiar with. Seems like Colt or Remington or somebody...sheez...anybody..Buehler, Buehler.....would have been making one of these in America YEARS ago. Can you imagine how awesome it would be by now if they had?

Everyone I work with thinks it's so AMAZING that I ride my bike to work and home everyday. I have to go up a decent hill to get home. It's no big deal considering the price of driving is about $5 a day and considering it's only 20 minutes home compared to the 2 to 6 hour rides I put in on a weekend. I always tell people, it's not the hill that gets me on the way home, it's the wind.

I'm running a 712. +4 Nordic extension (use the benelli NOVA model), pachmeyer pad mainly to increase LOP, Williams universal sights. I bought the Utility model so it looks kind of funny with the mag tube being longer than the barrel. Don't notice it when I'm shooting it. I haven't done anything to the gas ports in the barrel and it WON'T run low recoil buckshot. I haven't tried low recoil slugs or shot....don't really need to as it shoots pretty softly as it is with game loads and LE slugs. I wogged out the loading port with my dremel and it's much easier to load but I will be sending the lifter to C-rums to get it extended after my next match. Not much available for it yet in regards to bolt handle and over sized safety. I think you can put an oversized bolt release made for the other weapons which have the button release on the side of the receiver. I've got around 200 rounds through mine now. Do a search and you'll find more input and comments on the 712. I think it's popularity will grow because it is a soft shooting gas gun and it is very affordable. The 930 might really take off if Mossy's competition model is under $600 and ready to race.

Yes, leave it on the powder die. pull the two pins, remove tool head and dump it. Nothing easier than that, right? That's the way I do it. I had only one powder dispenser for a long time. Even with two, I find myself changing powders more than I'd like.

I used a cheap shotshell bandolier wrapped around my belly above my pistol belt during my first match. It worked pretty well other than being kind of slow. Another guy did the same thing but he used a shotglass holder from Octoberfest that happened to hold shotshells perfectly. There is no shame in trying to have fun with what you've got.

A lot of the cases I trimmed looked a bit ragged and some I'd run through again. Most I dismissed and left it to the tumbler to clean them up and they looked as good or better than factory ammo. I learned pretty quickly that you need to hold the handle down for a full second to wait on the cutter to do it's job. I'm shooting 3-gun competitions and the longest distance I've had to shoot is about 150 m. Shots are taken so quickly, I doubt worrying about neck tension and chamfers is going to help me any. I still haven't finished all the primer crimps, but I've been inspecting each case as I do them and so far so good.

I got lucky and scored a brand new trimmer on craigslist for $170. I had to buy a die, but saved quite a bit of money being patient and checking ALL the websites regularly. For high volume use, you can't beat the Dillon because you can set it up in a progressive press with a depriming die and knock out two steps with one run. It didn't take long to set it up...maybe about 30 minutes to get it perfect. I also made an adapter for my vacuum cleaner to hook up to the trimmer and that took a few minutes. With the vacuum running, it's LOUD. You never really realize how loud a vacuum cleaner is until you have one sitting next to you for an hour or so. Ear protection is highly recommended. After running my entire batch through the trimmer, I put them in the tumbler for about an hour to remove the case lube and take off the trim leavings on the case. The brass looks fantastic now. All I have to do now is swage the primer pockets....arrgghh. One day I'll have a 1050!

I set it up with a regular IPSC target at 50 yards, took one shot through each port, and scored the target. Limited to one shot per port. It worked ok. The "tatctial Timmies" didn't like sticking their barrel through the ports, but they quickly realized that they wouldn't be able to make the shots unless they did. 100 yards would be a better distance, but walking out to it to score it every time is a pain. May use a steel plate next time, but it will require a bit of coordination with the scorer and the RO in regards to calling hits.

You are right, this is the softest load combination I have ever shot. By the same token, this is not the most accurate load I have ever tried. I ditched the Clays in favor of the more accurate WSF and will at some point try N320 too. Ditto. 3.7 grains of Clays and a 124 gr MG bullet. Great feel, not that accurate which I attribute to the large flakes not metering well on the 550B.

I'll be interesting in reading the article, but I'm wondering if the gist isn't more along the lines of combining ESR & SSR back into a single division, rather than eliminating revolvers altogether. Relevance? Check out this gem from a recent "IDPA gaming" thread: From: http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1298&st=75 Vintage road bike racing?! Cool! Can I play? My 1982 12-speed Campy Super Record Colnago is hanging in my garage! Toe clips? Wool shorts & jersey? Leather hairnet? check, check, check and check. A mullet? Working on it. Tom Believe it or not, they actually have a retro category in some mountain bike races now. I guess it's for all the guys who never rode their bikes back in the day. The only reason I have a new bike is because I've broken everything previous to it.

If you start reloading in volume, you'll want a power trimmer. I started with a Forster hand trimmer and was able to do about 1000 223 rounds in about 5 hours. It worked fine for 223 brass being shot in an AR for 3-gun matches. I had blisters all over my hands. I finally purchased a Dillon trimmer and I was able to deprime, size, and trim about 1300 pieces in 4 hours. Worth every penny. I'll still use the forster for low volume stuff for my 308 and my hunting rifles.

That's nasty!

I can't watch the video here at work, but I'll bet it's the AP Custom 4x4 shell holder. I'm asking for one for my birthday and one for father's day and one for christmas. http://www.apcustomusa.com/carrier.html

My gun must be a bit different in that the distance between the barrel and mag tube is greater. I put a Mesa TActical clamp on it and I thought I was going to bend the tube. I went with a Choate because I was able to shape it to fit better. POI didn't change.

What gun uses a 6 round mag? Wouldn't that be a BUG and used for BUG matches? Next time maybe encourage the newbies to borrow a more appropriate gun. I'm always willing to lend mine and even bring extra ammo and my spare holster to every match. The only thing someone would have to do is stash the mags in their pockets....which seems very "concealed carry" to me.