Ultimo-Hombre

I have used the mesh goggles as a sawyer. they are great for running a big saw when your hazard is wood chips and stuff thrown by a chain saw. However I doubt they would defeat higher velocity hazards such as lead splatter or fragments from an overcharge/pistol failure.

Don't throw partially empty cans of booze on top of it. That stuff won't polish out

Open is a lot of fun. Hope you try it!

That's interesting about getting less junk on the gun without the shield. I seem to get more clouding on the backside of my lens than the front.

Eric, I'm workin on 2 years worth of hi tek bullets thru open guns. I havnt experienced what you are describing. I have recently started running them thru a gun with popple holes and I get a fair amount of clouding on both sides of the glass. A quick wipe with my shirt and I'm good. What brand are you using? Some of the new compounds like the hard bronze seem to hold up to open well. Could you feel a build up or ridge with the marring you experienced?

7.8 of HS6 for the same bullet.

Same here! And I might add that's one home repair I won't do myself. Watching that guy winding that spring....... No thanks! No kidding. I replaced one of those things. By the time you realize you are about to be gruesomely disfigured at best or have your brains blasted across the garage by satans egg beater at worst, it's too late and you're committed. The next 10 minutes are fing terrifying.

PM me if you need any Intel. Pretty comfortable with this stuff.

There is some disputed info here. More crimp does not prevent setback in my experience. Neck tension, or the sized case holds the bullet. In my experience increasing the crimp actually swages the bullet and reduces neck tension resulting in increased possibility of setback. A good approach is to measure your case wall thickness and add that to a measured bullet diameter to arrive at a crimp that does not swage the bullet. The best approach is to research this issue beyond forum posts, good luck amigo.

Safe areas must have fault lines also. Standing inside them and handling ammo regardless of bags on the table or not will get you. Also make sure that when handling your pistol you stay within these fault lines. At a crowded match I have seen at least one occasion where a guy was at the edge of the safety table, strapping up but he was stepping outside the fault line. FYI.

Chrono is average of your best 3 of 7.

For what it's worth... This is a hobby sport. We all have families, mortgages. Stressful jobs and all too often resentful wives. What I see as a frustrated mag toss, someone else may see as inappropriate rage. Let's be our brothers keeper, if a guy acts out in frustration, perhaps because he failed to meet his own expectation in the only thing he feels he can control in this world, let's look after him. I don't think that tossing a mag in frustration equates to a serial madman that we need to DQ. How about putting an arm around the guy and saying " I get it bro! " of course a reminder that we need to be in control and what the expectations are is in order.

Uh, I think we are saying the same thing. Start with 170, reload to whatever. I dig on the new MBX 155's

We just use duct tape. Only a few indoor matches in the winter so simplicity is the goal. It is difficult setting up anything other than classifiers or very simple stages, on account of the angles. Not allowed to put rounds into the walls. Because of these limitations the simple solution is most practical. Not to mention big movement is kinda sketchy as the polished concrete floor can be really slick!

My stupid comments aside... If you think it's the gun not the bullets, the only explanation would seem to be something with how gasses are getting ejected from the muzzle. How about gradually increasing your distance to the chrono?

Twilight zone man.... I have to get a bit more than 10 feet back to get my chrono to work. Unless I'm borrowing my buddies chrono, then I just shoot one of the screens, put the wreckage back in the box and don't say anything.

Mine seem to slip past at 28 though, I just want 28 reliable, not trying for 29/30. In any case, fix's above offered, I wasn't missing some mysterious thing and know how to get where I need to be. Oh. That's odd. 28 should be ok. Is this just one tube doing this? If so I'd consider sending it back. Not being able to get 28 reliable with aftermarket pads and guts is abnormal in my opinion. Good luck amigo!

When I started shooting open I set up STI tubes with Dawson pads and grams guts. Was able to get 29, tight but worked +1 to start. (30 in the gun) after a while I started to get rounds under the follower and reliability problems ensued. I suspect it was the springs breaking in or something. A malfunction totally kills a stage whereas 1 less round in a big stick... Meh. Nowadays I don't push it. 28 in STI's and 29 in MBX's Reliability over capacity has served me well.

In your bag is fine as long as it is cased and only handled at a safety area. No different than bagging your pistol between stages. Just keep it cased when you bring it to the RM.

Dude, it's AstroGLIDE. Come on.

Another vote for 18 yards, open.

Sorry to hear that. I hope you gave it a proper burial.

Interesting, I am running 1.175 in STI mags with hardy spacers no problem.

No worries amigo! It's good stuff. I've heard people compare it to AA7 But have no experience to back that up. Explosia.cz website burn chart puts it at the same rate as N105, slightly slower than 3N38.

Absolutely!I have been working with this powder for a bit and hope you find this info useful... I shoot open for Leatherhead Bullets. One of the Owners gave me some of this new powder (I don't know how long Explosiva, the Czech company has been selling this stuff in the US) to experiment with, Lovex DO 37.1 I was running HS-6 behind their 125 grain hi-tek coated bullet. 9 major. The powder is a very fine flake. I was initially worried about static and charge consistency but found that it meters very well out of my 550. With LHB's 125 grain bullet, Around 9 grains out of my 5.4 STI pattern gun with a 3 port comp and 3 popple holes gives me a very consistent 170 PF. SD was around 12. (Of course discretion mandates starting lower and working up!) I use mixed brass and am not exactly a meticulous reloader so I think that is pretty darned good. Primers looked normal with this also. Seeing the velocity that I'm getting with a 9 grain charge, tells me I'm getting the kind of pressure curve I want and am generating a lot of gas to work the comp. slow motion camera testing shows minimal muzzle rise, ended up going from a 9lb recoil spring to an 8. Subjectively I feel that the gun shoots softer. Much less violent of a hit. Another plus is that it burns super clean with leatherhead's coated bullets. They are running a new bronze compound and I am pleased with the lack of leading in the comp and at the popples. The only drawback I've noticed is that after a few hundred rounds I am finding a bit of unburnt powder in the gun upon cleaning. I really can't offer any info on performance with a jacketed bullet, sorry. I know I have omitted some details like primer and overall length, as well as the exact powder charge. I am not offering load recommendations, rather my opinion on this powders performance for my application. Feel free to shoot me a PM if I can answer any other questions. For me, this stuff is a winner.