Jim Norman

I am possibly not the best to answer this, but here is my thoughts on the issue. The Stoeger M3K is a decent gun for the money. It is NOT a Benelli and it is NOT a Beretta. It is a good gun. Would I buy it again? Yes in a heartbeat. Would I buy the out of the box 3-Gun model? Maybe, but that would depend upon how much more I was willing to spend. MOA built my gun, did nice trigger, polished up the inards, put on a Kick-Eze pad, extended safety and bolt as well as cutting the loading port. The benefit of the 3-Gun model is that the serial number has been moved so the port can be cut higher, but after that they didn't cut the port as high as mine was cut so not sure the benefit as you still have to spend money to get it cut and polished. Also you'll need an extended mag tube to make it complete. by the time you are done, you'll probably be into $850 to $1000 to get it done right regardless of the path. That is half a Benelli. The extra can get you a back-up or a lot af ammo for matches and practice. Good Luck, hope to see you on the ranges.

While I have a Do-All Aerial Assault If I was dealing with your budget I would look to 'Crazy Quail' They have a really nice unit. Saw it at the Great American Sport Show last week. Holds 120 and they may be adding to that, will throw across a wide angle and elevations. You may actually be able to get hteh basic pro model at your figure.

They are displaying the M3k 3-Gun version at the Great American Outdoor Show in Harrisburg. I saw it, I handled it. The single major thing it has going for it is the raised serial number. The port is still designed by the legal team. You'll need to get a tube, a trigger job and still have the port opened at a minimum. I would look to MOA Precision, a dealer here on Enos and see what he'll do for you. I know I did mine and added a Kick-eze pad and including shipping and all the work was under $960. Understand it is NOT a Benelli but it is less than half the price, you can buy a crap load of ammo to practice with for the difference.

WOW! Nearly 20 years shooting USPSA and 3-Gun and with extreme rare exception I have not seen anything approaching what Bobby says. Yes, I have seen cheating, from shooters, I have seen a few crappy stages, and a couple that were not as safe from an RO's point of view as they could have been. Usually the stages favor the shooter over the RO as in RO traps where the RO has nowhere to go id the shooter gets lost. As for the big name shooters, I have seen only less than I can count on the fingers of one had tantrums and bad behavior on the range. On those occasions, other big names have taken the offender aside and more or less read them the riot act and also taken the RO aside and let them know that their calls were good and that their work was appreciated. yes there is the one infamous case of the 'Plus Two RO' why is it so well known? becasue it is so rare! I love the shooting sports as much for the if not more for the people than for the shooting.

Anxiously awaiting details. Need Application. Have check. Have stamp.

I also use a 100 foot cord to allow me to set the trap where ever I want it. I am looking forward to the snow melting so i can put the thrower out in front with a shield and simulate trap at our SG filed. That should be fun. As for broken clays and Do-All, I think that the occasional broken clay is a given, even the three trap ranges I go to have the occasional thrown crumbler.

Regarding the Do-All thrower that I have. My unit is an older one, a Red Aerial Assault model. The original arm was basically a piece of crap. I added a length of vinyl tubing to it and bent it just so. It then worked fine. Usually had to re-bend the arm after storage. The major issue with the older model was that you could not release the spring. It was stored loaded. VERY SCARY. Moving forward, Do-All has added a much improved arm and also a de-cock position on the thrower so that you can remove the spring. On my unit I just added a much longer bolt to the spring so that I can release the tension, I added a wobbler and the extended magazine. I also installed the intermediate models throwing arm. The newest arms are an actual shelf, the bird is dropped onto the arm and thrown, not dropped onto a plate and swept off. As it is currently I am breaking to many clays in the machine, I need to adjust where the arm indexes. At that point I will have a decent unit. If I were buying again, I would look at Atlas and also the newer Do-Alls. When I got mine it was the only game in town. Good news is that hte prices have actually come down!

This is my DoAll trap. I recently added the extended clay magazine added a wobbler and rebuilt the cart.

Just started using my SL 900 recently, Due to low prices in the past I had a supply of 12ga, now that the days of $35 a case SG ammo are behind me, I am ramping up production of my own loads. So far I've dumped a bit of shot, had primers hang up allowing 20 grains of powder to filer into the workings of the machine, darn near ran the powder measure dry, had issues with the case feeder funnel meeting the drop tube, adjustment of the initial crimp die, adjustment of the final crimp, and the occasional shell not inserting into the shell plate. Of all the issues above the only one I have net satisfactorily solved is the last. The shell plate is aligned, it indexes to the correct position. I think it is the shell hanging up just a little in the tube. It may be I try to go a smidge too fast and the shell isn't dropping all the way before I start to move. All in all this is an easy machine to operate and makes great loads, it does take a thorough reading of the instructions and a basic understanding of how things work and interact. I would buy again. My next step is to make different loads for different guns and sports. Right now I am still getting in the groove so I load only 1-1/8 oz #8, I plan to drop this to 1 oz for trap and SC, but keep it for 3-Gun.

Mike, With all the work that Tom did on mine out at MOA it was still less than the price of a stock M2. I can buy a complete back-up gun and some practice ammo for a fully done up M2 from TTI or C-Rum, Now if I were to do all the work myself, Maybe I'd save enough to get teh M2, OR more likely I'd have to buy a second M2 since the first one just maybe got all screwed up. As for the M3k being an entry level gun, I suppose I can't argue with Jesse on this. It is not a Benelli but for an old guy like me that shoots a couple majors and a few club matches, it is probably just fine. Like most 'casual' shooters more money spent on practice will yield far more results than more money spent on equipment.

I really appreciate all the help and suggestions. Right now I will probably keep running the heavier loads. One reason is that this load runs my Stoeger M3k so one load does all. That said, after I get more comfortable loading, I'll start switching up runs. I was having one new issue, the darned primer system started hanging up. I think lubrication has solved that.

I'll give that a try in the future. I just finally got the press running right. ( I think ) A side benefit is more rounds per pound.

Not lucky. That is the proper load for the gun! (within the context of our game) OK, not luck, just using the right stuff and not screwing with success. I'll take it! Usually I figure out somewhat to get it all working and then take one step to far!

A word to the wise, this mod does NOT work on an XL 900 Shotshell loader. There is not enough space in the tool head for the added height of the bearing under the bolt.

I am currently using 1-1/8 ounce loads, but can probably drop back to 1 ounce. Since I acquired 8 pounds of Green Dot, I am using that up first. After that is gone, I have to decide. Thanks for all the info, I'll take a look at Shotgun World. Jim

I am new to loading Shotgun. I few years back I bought a Dillon SL900, used. Set it up and loaded maybe 20 rounds. There it sat. Recently decided A) to start shooting trap and Sporting Clays, Prices of components are equal to Wally World loads, but I can load to AA specs. So, I have read the manuals, Adjusted the starter die and the final crimp and am making loaded rounds. No problems! Well not exactly. I have had a number of issues. I have however solved them by being observant and re-reading the manuals and using what little intelligence I have to assess the issues as they develop. My list is long. Shells not dropping in the shell drop tube. Apparently the shell feeder support arm is tweaked just a little bit. The tube and the funnel don't quite align, solution, judicious bending of the support arm. Shell not feeding into the shell plate on Stage 1 resulting is a damaged shell. Still working on this one. Primer system sticking, does not always reset to drop a primer. apparently solved with a little silicone lube on the slides. Powder measure no issues, unless the primer doesn't drop and seat, then the powder runs out the very large hole in the bottom of the shell! Wad positioning arm. Only happened once, Be Careful! Insert wads right side up! Had to disassemble the arm to remove wad and dump shot into recovery bin, Don't lose the little spring that moves the arm and when you put it back together, make sure the spring is properly positioned! Shot reservoir, OK, Remember, there is NO SHUT OFF! if you screw up here you can have 25 pounds of #8 shot all over. No, I did not do this, I was lucky, I only had a small 'starter' load up in the hopper! Lost at most 2-3 ounces but would have been happy to have three more hands to get it all back togehter without spilling any more shot! Starter Crimp, this one actually was set about right, I added just a little more initial crimp. Final Crimp. Now here is where it gets interesting. Apparently this die was turned down in a couple turns. I was crushing or buckling shells. RTFM. adjusted this die back out and then down until it didn't buckle, then set the crimp. Still tweaking, but down to 1/16th of a turn at this point, the shells look god and run in my Stoeger. although my intention is to load for trap, 5-Stand and Sporting clays and buy ammo for 3-Gun. This may change. I like that I get all my hulls back. Where am I going with this? Simple, do not be intimidated by loading Shotgun. It is slower than handgun and may require a bit more attention to details, but it is rewarding. I do have questions. Lots of them. #1 is: I have about 3k of AA hulls. My press is set up (finally) to load them. What other hulls can I load? I have cases of S&B, I have cases of Rio, I have a couple buckets of a few other shells I saved before I understood I can't load any shell in the same manner I load any (OK almost any) pistol brass. Is there a comprehensive listing of reloadable Shotgun hulls? Can you load only brass? or is it OK to load the steel hulls? In reading the manuals and having had a number of issues with wad/powder/shot combos to get the lengths right I am a bit shy about just plowing ahead. One thing is if I have to reset the press to load Gun Club or STS or RIO, then I might just toss them. Appreciative of the knowledge available here, but sometimes my search-foo doesn't work all that well.

Maybe I am just lucky, but my M3K runs Wally World Winchester 1-1/8 3 dram loads, # 7.5 or #8 at 1200fps. I have had just a couple chugs with Fiocchi low recoil slugs.

I can state with all honesty that if tomorrow I could no longer shoot USPSA or 3 Gun I would become an avid Sporting Clays shooter with Trap and 5-Stand close behind.

Mike, Funny the way you put it. At our club we have a 'sort of 5-Stand' and it is easy to show up, sign up and shoot between 9 and 12 then out. There are 4 Trap fields within an hour of home and I've sort of gotten hooked on that, show up, sign up, shoot 3-4 runs and be gone in less than 2 hours. It is quite a learning experience though learning to shoot trap. I have an electric thrower and with that I can hit 80-85%, go to shoot trap and I am down at 60%. It can be very humbling. I do thin k that being able to hit clays on the fly will help with shooting paper, steel and clays whilst running. Just it will be moving instead of the target. Down side is that I can go through a case or more of shotgun ammo a week plus the $5 a run! And if there was a Sporting Clay field closer to home it would get really expensive. $40 a run, gas and of course a decent dinner after! What is good is that I have set up my SL900 and can turn out some really nice AA shells at about the price of Wally Worlds. I am going to re-read the advice here in Brian's house regarding Trap and Skeet (I've not yet shot Skeet, will have to try that sometime) and see if I can get into the 90%+ .

Just started loading Shot. I bought a used SL900 a few years back, set it up and then let it sit. Prices weren't high enough to matter. Now I am finding that I can load at about the same price as I can buy, but the difference is I am loading an AA equivalent for about the price of a Wally-Word load. Now I will admit, i had to RTFM a few times to get the adjustments right. the previous owner apparently changed a few of the settings. with regard to the initial and final crimp dies. My only issue is that the shell feeder doesn't align perfectly with the tube an dI have to make sure I have shells feeding in. That and you have to keep the primer tray full. Speaking of which, it is a shame that Dillon couldn't use the SL900 primer system for loading handgun rounds,

Howard, Mine will be in the mail this weekend. Thanks for getting them out early and thank Larry for getting the dates out as early as he did. Makes planning the year much easier.

Thats ok. I think it was a great move. It was either allow eight shooters or kill the division. As it was it was almost dead anyway. Around here it defiantly seems the 8 shot rule has pumped life into revolver class. I think it was a nice move. Want to buy a 625 for the full value the move destroyed? The move sure pumped life into revo around here too. We now have 3 shooters in stead of one or two. WOW! As for the gun being obsolete, IDPA may have a barrel length rule, I neither know nor care, but a 4" 5-1/2" or 6" barrel is good to go in USPSA and now I own an expensive paperweight. We could have made a new division or if you will, a new category, Open Revolver, 8 rounds, minor, ports and optics and left the 'Limited" revolver alone, all the steel shooters and ICORE Shooters with 'Open' revos would have had a place to play and the 'Limited' Revos would still be viable.

Got to love it when an organization makes an expensive piece of equipment obsolete overnight. I am not a big Revo shooter, but I spent the money to get a 625 and have it worked over, now it is a safe queen. Sure, I can use it in steel and II could shoot USPSA with it if I wanted to, but it would be like shooing Open Minor with Iron sights and 10 round mags! I don't care what others say, changing the rules to allow 8 rounds minor in USPSA was a bad move.

Phong, Nice but what we do is write teh squad list out so anyone can see it at any time without bothering the RO/CRO. the squads carry their list stage to stage, we also note who has shot as we rotate and als reasons for DQs, Early departures etc.