Jim Watson

I broke my 550b's handle-ram toggle, the "crank" #13409 on the drawing . It had probably been cracked for a while, I was having to push the handle harder and farther to seat primers. I even ground out the clearance notch in the loaded round chute to let the handle swing farther away on the prime stroke. Finally it just slammed over and I saw the crank had broken clear away, both sides of the bottom of the ram. I phoned in to ask about sending it in for repair but Jeff said he would just send me the part and an alignment tool.

Now if they will make one that will cock the hammer or fake it like the ones you can get for a Glock, they will have something.

Now it is really weird. A case of 124 gr RN 9mm came in last week, on order for 5 weeks, and they were the old style. Old stock in the Quarantine? Back to a known product? I dunno. I kind of like the old style, I fancy that they feed better in long actions like 1911 and I am not setting up a Ransom Rest to test fine accuracy. Be interesting to see what the next lot looks like but it will take us a while to shoot these and the remaining NLG.

Like others, I find the cheap stuff adequate for reloading. I have a RCBS branded but Chinese made dial caliper that is fine. I have a Frankford dial in reserve, I asked them to replace the second dud cheap digital with a dial. I still have my $4 Sears plastic vernier which served for a long time, but it is hard to read a vernier these days. But for fine measurements under an inch, I get out the Starrett micrometer I bought in a pawn shop.

What powder? I tried 700X in .38 wadcutters for PPC. But sometimes when 2.5 grains was wanted, the old CH delivered 1 grain. Never a zero load "squib" but after I had a couple of bullets hit a 7 yard target about a foot low, I changed to W231.

I really showed my character flaw by not buying one of those the short time they were cataloged.

Very interesting. I was contemplating skateboard tape on the soles of dedicated indoor range shoes.

So you won't shoot ESP.

They came in promptly. Feed and slidelock in my two most used IDPA ESPs. OK on both 10+1 LAMR and slide lock reload.

I have already passed out there once and hope not to do it again.

No, IDPA shooting resumes at Joe D's club which is within my combat radius.

I have run into those. At one time, there was a match design policy that fault lines not be placed to require excessive contortion. My arthritis really appreciated that, but the provision did not last.

I am sure setting up more vision barriers instead of specifying target engagement by fiat is more work. We shall see on July 11.

I have seen several shooters go down on the indoor USPSA here. Scary. I don't understand why the lights are so dim over the stalls of indoor ranges. The targets are better lit, and I don't have any trouble with sights and targets out on the floor for USPSA. I had a new fibre optic that I needed to zero yesterday so I sweated outside to get some daylight on it rather than squint in air conditioned comfort indoors.

The fault line has really changed that. On walkthrough, I look to see where along the fault line I can shoot all or most of the targets in that array without leaning hard. Often actual "cover" is not involved, all that is required is to shoot the targets outside to in.

1. Clean up the stages, use make up shots if necessary (aim for zero down overall) 6. Make up misses while on the move (after engaging targets from mandatory positions) The question is how you know to make up shots. If you can call your shots and make up as needed, great. I see a lot of people wasting time peering at the target. Another thing I do is to program in "insurance shots" on difficult targets. 2. Watch for the procedurals Amen. My first couple of matches in the "Reopening" were awful. My hits were good because I had been shooting regularly on a square range. I was very out of practice managing a set CoF and picked up a FP and several blunders that did not draw procedurals but sure hurt my time. 3. Get really low when shooting around barricades (for exploding out of position) Good idea but I am too arthritic. My last match was USPSA and a couple of us codgers had to take a route that put a low port last. IDPA will not require you to get up from kneeling or prone on the clock which is a help. 4. Do visualize stage plan even though it seems unnecessary I think it is necessary, because you are working to somebody else's plan. 7. Practice shooting from awkward positions Oh, yes. I just cringe when I hear people going on at length about "stance" and see them shuffling around to get in their stock position. When you combine the fact that fault lines extend to infinity with the fact that you can re-engage targets from other positions if they're still visible, some interesting (and not so obvious) stage strategies appear. Yes, the substitution of fault lines for cover calls was a major change. You can do a lot even within the length of a board, never mind the virtual prolongation. SOs who don't know the rules like they should. The reason I am no longer an SO. I can't completely overwrite the last edition(s) of the rules with the current version. 3. Go fast in the fast parts and slow in the slow parts. Something to watch for, MDs around here are bad about putting targets at widely varying ranges and degrees of visibility from the same Point of Cover.

Looks like a Return of the XP. Greg Cote has them for $20.95. Doesn't say for sure if he has them in stock. https://gregcotellc.com/cart/1911-mecgar-magazines-c-166/mecgar-1911-9mm-10-rd-match-grade-mgcgov910afc-p-1586.html?zenid=javnp11f7st4q2qbpvvcrulhb0 I don't NEED another magazine but it would be interesting to work with. I surrender, I ordered two to try out.

I'd get an extra plug and face it off flat with a strong bevel on the edge so it didn't hit the case mouth when loading HBWCs flush. That's what I did with regular dies for wadcutters in CH and 550.

Me, too. I sent in a question and Dennis called me up to explain why he changed 124 9mm molds.

There is an indoor range within my combat radius that has held regulation USPSA shoots every Wednesday for a while. Shut down by Covid, they held a match on a 50% entries basis recently and say they will resume the regular schedule next week. In masks.

Me, too, but I don't know for sure. Seems like they have pulled a dickerson and doorknob trick and won't supply magazines. Pity, they could have sold me one if they had supported their products.

Ouch, I have been hit by rebounds and ricochets but that is a bad one.

From what I have read, Quickload is just not very accurate on straight wall cartridges, especially pistol size. It takes fudging of the inputs and assumptions to make the program "predict" objective reality.

Neat looking outfit, but there is a corollary to Murphy's Law that states that a convertible firearm will be found to be in the configuration you did NOT want to shoot today.

https://www.jgsales.com/smith-wesson-10-revolver,-38-special,-no-barrel,-round-butt,-gss,-cai-mark,-used,-s-w.-p-104679.html?osCsid=7080efa83965ce633c7384d3ac7b9eaf Looking at the reviews, some of these are worth putting a barrel on, some maybe not.