Bret Heidkamp

Last time A1 was in Missoula (2000) the format was the same - trophies only. However, there were zero prizes. Todd Jarrett showed up, along with the Army team, and a bunch of other GM's. So, while I personally prefer prize tables, I don't agree that a prize table is 100% necessary - I think this match was just a scheduling conflict with A8 (and especially if A8 ran a prize table...). Actually, the way A1 gave away guns this year was pretty decent - much better than having nothing at all. I guess I just don't care much anymore. We shoot this game for the love of it, not to make money, right? At least I do. If it were to make money, we'd have to travel to and win prizes from everything we entered. Then we'd make about 12 cents on every dollar spent!

This poll was started because of an interesting thread drift from the 2005 Area 1 discussion. It is intended to give the MD's an idea of shooter's overall preferences. The Th-Sat schedule is what Area 1 did this year, last shots were about 12:30 and awards were 7pm on Saturday. This gave shooters a chance to tour the area Sunday and relax. This is intended to have you stay over on Saturday night. The other option is to run a Fri-Sun schedule that finishes Sunday afternoon, and is intended to give you time to get out of town on Sunday afternoon. This is a bit more rushed of a schedule, with not much extra time to explore the area and does not give you a night to go out with friends. What is your preference? Please vote before posting a reply.

Thanks for the kind words, James! Regarding that hot potato thing - I just couldn't put it anywhere near my mouth, alchohol swabbing or not. It was under people's armpits; in their mouths; in a bucket that sat out in someone's barn filled with God knows what; no-way-Jose. Can you say "hepatitis"? I wanted to go and buy a big salmon hook and just hook the thing to my cap. I ended up shooting that stage terrible - all dorked up with the ball under the left side of my jaw... couldn't shoot fast to save my life. Personally, I don't care for stages that are a contest of how to deal with a prop vs. shooting skill. Like the infamous "squirrel stage" at the Nats a few years back. Note to stage designers: a briefcase is OK, but don't make it have to stay on a table - if you want us to shoot strong hand, just make us shoot strong hand and set the case down at the end. (you all know this has nothing to do with my run on the briefcase stage which resulted in a "thump" sound as it slid the length of the table and onto the ground, right?) The Missoula range is definitely one of the prettiest in the country, in my opinion. I think it could possibly fit a Nationals if the parking would fit. The weather is SO much better than Barry (no offense if you live in Barry, but the weather there is so damn humid !!).

Kudos to Bruce and the stats team. Nobody posted yet something that ALL matches could use: Bruce and team got the final stage scores up on the wall within 3 minutes of the last shot fired!!!!! We finished at about 12:30 on Saturday, and those scores were up. This has got to be a freakin' record! It was SO nice not to have to hang around for hours to check scores. You da stats man, that's for sure. Unreal.

It is a CTS pot, 1/8w carb vert. 10K linear part # 296UD103B1N This is the non-click model. Digikey page

I researched this one a while back - I have about 10 of them on hand back at home. I'll post the part number for you as soon as I can. It is not a common pot, but digikey and mouser both carry it if I remember. The little bushings wear out (for me) before the pot fails.

STI tubes all the way. They have less bearing area on the cases. Double stack mags make the cases roll as they ascend, and the SV mags have a wide flat area (more rolling resistance) whereas the ST ones have two thin areas. This, IMO, means they will run better with any "accidental debris" in them. Regardless, clean both brands religiously if you drop them in the dirt and always use mag-slick to prevent magazine drama.

Just a quick note on the primer feeding system on the super 1050 - I found one other thing last summer that was responsible for the headaches, and I wanted to add it to this archive: The track the primer arm slides in was not machined 100%. Turns out the last pass on the mill didn't go all the way toward the center of the machine. This resulted in a little lip in the track bottom of about .010" It wouldn't goof things up until there was a little buildup of gunk (very little!) in the track from use, and then the primer bar would start hanging up. This resulted in smashed primers and cases without primers - up to one in every 100 cases. It was driving me batty last summer, and the only way to fix it was to tear down the press and clean that track. Once I milled off the lip, it works 1000% better. You can check your press for this fairly easily: Remove the shellplate and primer tube, then just press lightly downward on the primer slide and you will feel it toward the end of it's stroke moving to the center of the press (forward). If there is a lip you'll feel it. Get rid of it and there ya go. The last thing to check is something a Dillon tech told me: Put the press back together and without primers in the tube look down the tube while shining a flashlight into the base at the shellplate. Make sure the primer slide comes all the way back to pick up a primer and lines up 100%. Adjust by shimming (or removing shims) from the primer bar stop bolt (the half-circle shaped part that stops the primer bar on it's return stroke). Hope this helps someone, post if it does!

The other thing to do is to smooth the feed lips on the shellplate. I've had to smooth out the CNC'd angle on the shellplate lips to get the cases to feed in more easily. This helps with the beat up cases that we all end up with for practice, eventually. I've done about 12 different things to this machine to get it to be reliable.

Oh my God. I didn't think anyone used brake cleaner anymore. Wow was I wrong. Brake cleaner is extremely toxic - I advise anyone using it to stop. That stuff has neurotoxins in it. Way, way bad. Two gunsmith friends enlightened me a long time back. Don't use brake cleaner, they said! So, I listened. Here is the advice, and I've been doing this for at least 5 years now: Get a small bucket and 1/2 fill it with 409. (Don't laugh, once you try this you won't ever go back to brake cleaner.) Put in your gun pieces and parts (if you shoot limited, the whole frame can go in) and use an old toothbrush on any hard to get at areas. Using a strainer basket helps too... MOST of the gunk will fall off on it's own in a couple minutes. Think about it - 409 is meant to remove what? Grease, oil, and carbon based gunk. What's on your gun? Grease, oil, and carbon based gunk! Pull the parts out and blow them off with air. This works awesome! Your gun will be spotless. I even run a bore brush through the barrel while soaking / brushing everything with the 409. This is super effective, cheap, totally non-toxic, and the gunk and crap sinks to the bottom of the bucket so the 409 is always clean. There really isn't any downside except do not leave your parts in the bath overnight. They will rust while in the solution. They WON'T rust after you blow them off with air - don't worry one bit about that, just don't leave your gun in the 409 overnight. FYI I went from 12 cans a year to less than one using this method. I am NEVER using that toxic crap again and I don't miss it one bit! Now on rifles that is another story... I still use bore cleaner.

Spring "Blow out the Cobwebs" Bolt Rifle Fun Match - April 30 2005 Manhattan Wildlife Association is putting on a Spring "Blow out the Cobwebs" rifle match April 30, 2005. We are trying to have this on a piece of land adjacent to the range so we have more room to shoot. If that doesn't work out it may have to be run on the Logan range. This is a FUN match event, and runs in a totally different format. It is akin to a round of sporting clays, except with a rifle. The course (we are working on securing a piece of land vs. having it at the range) is a mild hike with designated shooting points along the path. At each point you will be required to engage steel targets at various distances - some known and some unknown. Most positions will be up to you to resolve, some will be mandated (such as offhand, kneeling/sitting, etc.) All of the steel is reactive and self resetting. Your score is your number of hits at the end of the day. There are two classes right now (we may add more if needed) Hunter class and Precision. Hunter is for factory skinny barrel rifles only - no target knobs, etc. This will be 40 targets and all will be known distances. Most targets will be around 1 1 /2 to 2 moa. Precision class is open to all rifles and is intended for any heavy barrel rifle with any scope, subject to the caliber limits (to preserve the steel - calibers are limited to 6mm to 30 cal, 3200fps max for all classes). This class will have to engage all of the Hunter targets plus some harder ones. Total round count will be 60. You may shoot both classes if time permits. I do not know if anyone on this board will be interested in this event - but I thought I would post this anyway. We will have prizes donated from local businesses that will be awarded with random draw. This is the first event like this to be put on, so hopefully maybe some of you are locals and can support it. If we get enough interest it could be put on more often. Also, if anyone has comments about it please post them - is this a good concept for a match, or a total waste of time? The goal of the whole thing is to appeal to folks that wouldn't normally shoot a match and maybe get some new people into the various sports - Plus I was getting tired of hearing "boom....Boom.....BOOM!!" during hunting season as people missed their critters. So I decided to spearhead this match. The main page for this is: www.istdesigns.com/riflematch/April05.html You will find the match flyer, match entry form, safety rules, and results pages there. There is also a new forum with a bit more about the match that will be updated as we get closer: www.istdesigns.com/forums Thank you!

I hang out right here. I've shot that match twice now, will be there again this year. The biggest thing is communication. If you can't practice with your partner, forget it. Other places that aren't too hokey: www.long-range.com www.snipersparadise.com Look for my post on our upcoming match that is kind of ITRC-style, but without the time constraints. Kind of like a round of sporting clays, but with a rifle. :-) It's a FUN match, probably not something to travel to as it is only a one-day deal but if you are in the area don't miss it. Of course that area would be Montana.

I will be there! Host club page link: Big Sky Practical Shooting Club

I was dissapointed with the scopes at the Shot Show too. The only scope that absolutely ROCKED was the new 5-25 Schmidt & Bender and it won't be available until June - check our website then for pricing Way nicer than any other scope I have seen to date. All I can say is "wow." IOR Valdada has a true 1x variable, as did Nightforce. I didn't see the Horus 1x - but I was in their booth looking for a new LR scope. Personally, I hate shelling out almost $1,000 for a 1x variable. That is too much for my blood! Maybe OK if you are a government agency with specific needs - but for 3-gun, ouch! For now, the setup I'm using is an old variable with an extra scope ring holding a chunk of weaver rail mounted upside down holding a Docter red dot. Works pretty slick - if you need magnification there is usually time to get your head down into a good cheekweld - if the targets are so close to be able to use a dot, you lose the strong cheekweld but it doesn't really matter as there isn't much parallax issue at those ranges and you can just hose.

I'm looking forward to shooting it again. Harder targets? Did you guys really say that? Oh crap. Is the Hoblit Ranch the one that was new for 2003 with the metal palm tree at the entrance? That course was tough as it was very gusty when we got to shoot. Plus, the LR targets were those plates on belts... we found it tough to spot any misses as the background was just bushes. Yeah, the RO-ing is totally variable. I think Clint RO'd us one year on the Bambi course, and he was great. I guess we started out on the wrong foot in 2003 because the first shot of the match on the Hoblit course was from me... BANG... WHACK! on an easy 300 yd. full size popper with the AR... silence from the RO... I bend around from prone and ask "are you calling out hits or not?" then, after a couple more seconds ... "miss" is the resonse. "WTF?? That wasn't a miss! What are you looking at?? You don't even need your eyes open - you could hear that one!!" First shot of the match and down 40 because of the RO. Anyway.... I might volunteer to RO just so this kind of stuff doesn't happen to others! Just out of curiosity what was the scoring on the helicopter stage / how was it run?

John, I didn't get to see the AD - please describe what happened. Three years ago when we were shooting the "standards" part of the match the guy standing right next to me AD'd into the dirt probably 6 feet in front of me. Made me pretty mad that he didn't get a MDQ right then and there. Not a USPSA match, so the rules are kind of "flexible." That actually made me quite mad but I kept silent. The last thing anyone needs is a damn 308 that close. Turns out they were the clowns that ran up on us during the Bambi course, with one of the match officials egging them on. They shot a 740 or so out of 2600. I think they didn't even engage half the targets. They finished 35 out of 36 (I think the 36th was a no-show). Just figures they were sponsored by one of our best target companies. Then, two years ago I'm running through the shoothouse (which is a big labyrinth thing if you haven't shot this match) with my partner and one RO in tow, and it turns out the backup RO decided to come along. I'm blazing really fast (with my open gun!) and I hear someone yelling at me to stop until everyone is together. What the hell - where did that come from??? I stop and look back and sure enough here comes the second RO to watch me for who-knows-why. We've got something like 3 minutes left and so of course I'm shooting as fast as I can. So finally the guy catches up and we blaze on. Note this is after running through the school bus and probably two turns into the shoothouse. Sheesh, what am I supposed to do, walk? Too much IPSC maybe. Then I fire two makeup shots at a target (a no-no, but I'm on IPSC autopilot now and I called C's) and the guy yells at me that if I do that again he's going to DQ me (for taking extra shots - I yelled back, just score it as a miss and quit yelling at me while I'm shooting!!) The RO-ing at that match sadly needs work on consistency, because the rules are there as written. But hey, they are all volunteers and it's a ball buster to RO it. They just need to get everyone on the same page. The main complaints with that match are the rules change from year to year and aren't enforced consistently. I think it would be easy to fix, but the RO's aren't competitive shooters - just local volunteers from the community. Maybe that's the problem. I'm still probably going to attend again, the match is a blast even though it is sometimes really frustrating for those of us used to a more level playing field. FYI the match fee doubled this year, it's $500 bucks per person now ($1,000 per team!).

The new style AA hulls have been reported to separate - although I've reloaded these a bunch, and they usually split earlier on me vs. Rem STS - I've not had one separate. I have switched to STS for all my clays shooting The problem is supposedly the plastic powder cup can move forward in the hull, thus reducing capacity and resulting in an overpressure reload. I'm not sure how this would go unnoticed, personally, I would have shot scattered everywhere on my reloader - or a crumpled hull. This problem was not reported with the old AA hulls as far as I know. Do a Google search for "winchester AA hull separation" and you will see several boards discussing this - Just thought everyone should know, sorry about the thread drift.

Interesting that last year's JP-sponsored winners were 6th this year.

Zak, Thanks for the report. So am I understanding it right the Bambi course wasn't shot this year, and the gully course didn't include the uphill portion - just the main shoot house / rifle areas? Then the third course was the "palm tree" course (last year the PR targets were 8" plates on rubber belting)? Thanks !

Guys, Please post comments on the other stages - I've done this match a couple times and was not able to attend this year. I'll be there next year for sure, but were the stages the same (again!). The Bambi course, the palm tree course, and the gully course? Did Dave come up with anything else? Thanks !!!!!

One other point of view, if I may add: Don't know about 9x19 major, but in 38 super the 115's work great with the "old" style of comp (4 port, large first port, like Dawson's stuff and add a couple bbl holes). The 124's aren't the ticket, at least for me. All depends on what you desire - less flip, or less recoil. I prefer less flip and will shoot a hotter 115 load vs. a soft 124 which for me is too bouncy. But again, this is with super, not 9x19. So I think this comes down to shooter preference, and gun / ammo setup to match that preference being the key. There isn't one "best" - there are too many variables and subjective issues - and a gun / ammo setup that doesn't match those preferences will make you hate your open gun. Make the gun fit your shooting style, in my opinion.

It is totally safe to wash 99% of all electronics - they are washed during production in high pressure board washers using a soap mix and a deionized water rinse. Many are then dipped in isopropyl alchohol to get rid of water under chips. For the cmore dot module, I used to have problems with them getting dirty until putting one of the lens shades over it. Now I don't clean it at all. If yours is dirty, do the Qtip thing with your choice of water based cleaner - 409, etc. Isopropyl works too. Then blow it out with the air hose. Most of my old dots came back fine doing this - but I owned one 8 years ago or so that was just plain badly drilled. I know all the new dots are very round - and cmore will replace them if you get a new one that isn't round.

Wow! I don't usually check this forum. There can be a bunch of different things from shooter to gear for this one. Looks like: a) Parallax issues mirage fooling you c) shooting during different winds Solutions for these are: a) Check your parallax setting. Make sure your cheekweld is consistent as someone already mentioned (your eye needs to be in the same place all the time, and make sure you are getting a full sight picture). Watch the mirage - it can make the target appear to be in a different place c) Shoot only when the wind is the same. Have your spotter call wind for you, using a meter. Most of all, testing a load on a windy day just doesn't work too well. Wind is great for practice - I like shooting in wind, but I don't work up loads in wind. Get up early - there usually isn't any wind at dawn. There is SO much more...

Kbear, I feel your pain. I have one of the first super 1050's and was also convinced the thing is a total POS. I have incurred problems with practically every aspect of the machine. (and I've owned a 550 and a 650 which I keep set up for 223) I have some posts on here somewhere with all the troubles. Regarding the primer feed issues, here is what I've found. The slide was getting hung up by the little rubber tubing section because it was too long from the factory (admittedly an easy mistake to make) and was rubbing the slide's channel. This was enough to make it hang up intermittently, a real frustration. It only rubbed as the slide went to the last 1/3 of the travel toward the shellplate, and would cause the slide to stick in there a bit. Nothing that would feel too terrible, more like it had buildup on the slide. It was enough to crash the machine, though. The other thing took forever to find, I hope I can describe it adequately: If you remove the shellplate, the track the primer slide runs in had a milling mistake (since this is CNC, yours probably does too!) where the track bottom had about a .002" lip towards the center of the machine. So, as the bar slid in, occasionally it would catch on the lip and cause the bar to hang up. This in turn caused the machine to crash. It is found in the bar's last little bit of travel as it slides in toward the shellplate. The front edge of the bar catches it. After I took out the home gunsmith's favorite tool ... Mr. Dremel and removed the offending lip, the bar slides quite smoothly. I only found this hiccup with a little bit of downward pressure on the bar as I manually slid it in the channel with the shellplate removed. It's in a very awkward place to reach with anything to polish it out, thus the Dremel. Hope this makes sense, as I am willing to bet you've got this same issue as we both have early models, and mine would crush primers and lock up, spit them across the bench, etc. About 100 rounds = 1 hour on this machine. You should see how much powder used to flip all over my bench before I got this fixed. I had also polished the outside edges of the bar, to add a bit more clearance as it was quite tight. Maybe about .001" or so. This helped only a little. Also, when you have the low primer alert tube out, get a really bright flashlight (surefire, etc.) and shine the light toward the feed area of the primer system from the shellplate side. Look down the main primer feed tube and cycle the machine. This will allow you to see if the plate goes all the way back to pick up a new primer correctly. If it isn't 100% aligned it will miss primers and generally add to the frustration. This is adjusted by adding or removing shims to the primer slide stop / slide stop bolt. I can't remember if the primers would tilt or otherwise mess up, but the little blue tip that goes on the aluminum feed tube would sure get mangled. I am shocked that Dillon just said to add, then remove the shims without telling you how to actually align it. I'll try to remember more of what I repaired if this doesn't fix your 1050, mine is running smooth now and doesn't puke every 50 to 100 rounds like it did when I got it.

Ouch! Goon of the month from how2ride.com