double down

Maybe we'll see the M1 end up in the rack of WalMart stores like the Beretta 390 has...

Ranger, we're just outside of Minneapolis or about 20 minutes south of the Mall of America / airport area. You have a standing invitation to drop by anytime and we'll go shoot. Do you shoot FITASC events? The UK / US Masters event we host is a great shoot with excellent national and international competitors. I found the website for the social shooting club, it's a very good concept. It would be nice to see more geographic area's start similar programs.

Ranger, Premier facilities and high target costs are not always hand in hand. If you were to come to my facility you would find 50 bird fees in the $15 - $18 range. You choose which of the 5 courses to shoot because they are all active at all times. Your targets will be thrown from close to 100 pro-matic electric traps, and you'll find the surrounding to be exceptional. To keep the competitive shooters happy we have several competition only courses that see very limited use so the presentations stay fresh. Even on the non competition courses the presentations change every few weeks to keep things fresh. If more course owners would take the same approach the sport would grow into something many people think isn't possible. There are a few of us that have figured out what it takes to succeed. Build and they will come fits very well to this situation. Look at the success golf enjoys at every level in rural areas and metropolitan areas. A cheap golf course costs far more than a clays facility.

Pathetic is 100% accurate. The NSCA shows a consitant annual growth of approximately 8% with less than 20,000 members total since day one. Consider 4-5 marketplaces generate 90% of that growth. League and recreational shooters are a minimal number but it's hard to actually pin point what the figure is since ego or half truths seem to find their way into the discussion about target volume. We throw 3.5 million targets to league and recreational shooters every season and another 500,000 to 1 million competitive targets depending on the shoot schedule. When you say new ranges are opening and new shooters are finding the game that's true to a point. I'll ask you to research how many facilities last longer than 18 months and then actually grow into a profitable operation. Shooters are leaving the game at a faster rate than they are arriving because of poor experiences, cost - value perception, and half assed facilities. I would compare it to havng golf courses with 14 holes and half of them don't have greens or there missing hole's on the putting green. Premier facilities are few and far between and this limits the growth of the sport in many ways.

This is the primary reason sporting clays has experienced pathetic growth over the past decade and a half. 99.9% of the range owners and target setters have absolutly no clue how to present the targets to be fair and challenging. So what you end up with are targets presentations full of very short windows, gimicks, excessive distances and speed.

Try spending more time shooting those targets to bring up your ability or confidence in that tighter choke.

Are you wanting wood or synthetic? If wood, several custom makers will do this for you. If synthetic, use some fiberglass jelly (fiberglass autobody filler) and shape it like you need it. I've used the jelly for mine, it's held up very well and looked factory when I was finished. Obviously I lost the checkering when I shaped the palm swell so I stippled the grip area. I would imagine re-checkering is possible with the cutting tools.

I want to build or purchase a 1911 based pistol but all of them seem so small since I have large hands. I've held the standard government single stack, the Para double stack, and one of the STI double stack versions. It seems like my hand hangs below the bottom of the grip by a good 3/4" to an 1" when my hand is tight against the beavertail safety. The guns with big mag wells felt really different to hold, I couldn't imagine shooting it like that. Can anyone offer some options or your opinion on what frames, grips, etc. for someone with large hands?

What's the lever looking device on the trigger guard pictured in the web site?

This is a very common scam used against people selling stuff on-line. Unfortunately far too many people fall for it and find themselves out of luck.

Usually you can approach a store like Galyan's, Cabela's, Gander Mountain, Dicks, etc. and get a good discount on large quantity orders. Someone on a shotgun forum I frequent recently purchased 9000 rounds through Galyan's. They were Federal bulk packs, 150 rds per box. He received 20% off the regular price of $17.99 per box making it $14.39 per box. Total price for 60 boxes including sales tax was a little over $900. If you're serious about buying 50-100 flats at one time try calling these guys. They are the U.S. distributor for Hull and it's one of the best shotshells made. Hull Cartridge Web Site NC Cartridge Co. 866-HULL-USA or 252-908-4360

Nice, but all to common with many things in life.

This is beyond annoying especially when they make eye contact with you in the checkout line. I think Best Buy and Sam's Club are the worst. It's really bad at Sam's Club when the line backs up and then the poor old lady (who should be retired) checking tickets gets flustered trying to chase you down when you walk around the line. Most of the time I don't get asked or questioned, maybe that's one of the few benefits of being a big mean looking bastard. All of this talk of owning the store if they touch you, has anyone actually heard of getting paid off if they don't seriously injure you?

Forget about B&P, it's going to be gone in the U.S. until some things are worked out. I pasted an e-mail from Mike that was sent out quite some time ago. If this is true Mike deserves a hand for putting B&P in their place. Dear Friends, fellow shooters and hunters, First, let me enlighten you on what's new. Three weeks ago today Baschieri & Pellagri asked me to rescind my contract which had 2 years remaining on it. Why? Simply because a big distributor in the Midwest came to them and asked to have the rights to the United States. Why was/is that company interested? Simply because I did a good job branding ( National TV exposure on Shotgun Journal etc) the name here in the USA and B&P realized that they could increase their sales ( they hope ) more by doing business with a firm with deeper pockets. Anyway so much for their honoring a contract. They may find it difficult to import their shells since I trademarked B&P & Baschieri and Pellagri names and logo. Enough of me. What does this mean to you? Well, Last year I averaged approx. $1.13 to the Euro and it is currently $1.24 so I would expect that NEWCO ( New Company) will have to increase prices. But if they can not deliver shells due to my trademarks pricing means nothing. I don't think they will be willing to settle so, B&P shells may be unavailable shortly. Hell, I lost money last year but I'm able to hold pricing the same while I close out since my inbound freight on containers was paid last year as was my excise tax bill. On 12/31/2003 I had 5,841 cases and as of the end of today I have 3,629 so I'll be clear in 2/3 months. Now I have a disproportionately high number of 28ga. shells in relationship to my sales ratio so here is what I'm doing. 28 ga. Special 3/4oz H.V 7.5's ( polished lead 5%) @1300fps $69.00 delivered 3/4oz Standard vel. 8's (polished 5%) @ 1230 fps $69.00 delivered 3/4oz standard velocity 7.5's ( same lead) @1230 fps $61.95 delivered 3/4 oz H.V. # 7 & 6's @1300fps $61.95 delivered but if you buy 5 cases of any 28 ga I'll reduce the price on the 6's & 7's to $57.00 delivered. Other Deals Pigeon, Helice and game load -- the F2 Flash in # 7, 7.5 & 8's ( 36 grams @1328 w 5% polished lead) ( patterns 81/82% out of my gun @ 40 yards ) $ 69.00 delivered which is a savings of $16.00 per 200 rounds. 20 ga & 16 ga deals I sold about 100 flats of 20 ga Super Mag # 5's (35 grams 1-1/4 oz in the last 3 months but still have some @ $57.50 a 200 round flat. F2 Classic 20 ga 15/16 oz # 9's and 10's @ 52 delivered F2 Classic 16 ga 15/16 oz # 9's & 10's @ 52 delivered 12 ga target F2 Sporting 12 ga 500 rnds # 8.5 @ 102 delivered F2 Sporting 12 ga 500 rounds # 9.5 ( same as American 9) @ 99.00 delivered will break 55 yard targets As Always I will not adjust the pricing on my web site but will adjust the order to the above offerings. These specials are for internet customers only. Good Shooting and thanks for all your support. More later Best Regards Mike

Since you're shooting a clay target I would follow the rules used in clay games. Most of the time the trapper or scorer determine the break. If you want to challenge the call you can petition the shooters in the squad. I cannot think of any case in trap, skeet, or sporting clays where you get to go look and see if the target broke. You must break it in clear view or it's a lost target. You'll see a lot of targets that are hit but don't break, tough luck. Hit it cleaner or tighten up the choke!

Sounds good. What all did you have done? Any pictures?

Just curious what Benelli model people started with, field guns or tactical guns? What barrel length and do you use more than one barrel for different applications? I'm set up with an early HK/Benelli, factory it was a 21" field barrel with standard stock. I've also collected the 18.5" barrel, 24" barrel, synthetic pistol grip butt stock, and a full wood stock set.

This is being debated on another forum with some people thinking what was done to those prisoners was actually torture. I can only hope in the event I'm captured and tortured I receive the same treatment as those Iraqi's.

Since I have no concept of the targets shot in 3-gun matches please clue me in as to why you want or need such a spread pattern at close range.

I've spent quite a bit of time on the pattern board going over these loads and chokes for sporting clays targets. The gun used was a Benelli M1 with a 21" barrel using extended chokes. With my gun the diffusion and skeet chokes were needed to see a difference on paper with spreaders. No difference on paper could be established with light mod or mod chokes. Actually shooting clay targets I could never establish the difference, both spreader and standard loads broke the targets. I've been shooting with a ported and extended light mod choke and it seems to break the targets better than a non-ported choke. The theory behind this is the ported choke slows the wad down enough that the shot string separates faster which shortens the shot string. You end up with more pellets contacting the target at once putting more energy into the target. Targets that previously cracked apart are now vaporizing into black smoke. For you guys shooting metal targets I would think the short shot string would benefit because you'll put more energy into the target. Poor hits would have a better chance to knock the target down. If nothing else it will help extend the effective range of the shotgun.

If companies are going to offer e-mail as a contact in todays internet driven society why can't they respond and do so in a timely manner? My advice to vendors is if you don't have time to respond to customer e-mail then pull the link from your web site. I don't always have time to play phone tag for an answer to a straight forward question. Remember there's only so many hours in they day. Sometimes your busy, sometimes we're busy, and before you know it the days over and telephone contact isn't possible. I know you get those e-mails asking questions that require a ten paragraph response but a simple "this question requires a detailed answer, please call me to discuss this" response looks much better than not responding. Keep in mind you may be busy now but the future may not be so busy with lousy customer service. While this is directed at the industry in general I hope two business owners who frequent this site take note and realize they both lost my business from either not responding or giving piss poor answers.

I would love to see some stuff like that. Around here I'm not sure if or where any of the shotgun events take place. I've never participated in any of the action shooting events but would love to try it. Maybe I better start practicing reloads. Can anyone point me to some sites with videos featuring shotgun events? Even some small clips on a web site would be cool to see. I've watched a lot of pistol videos found on this site and some others, the speed and accuracy is so impressive. When you see it for the first time it's like wow, you wouldn't think that was possible if you weren't seeing it.

Given the choice I would rather have a longer tube. It's always available, faster than loading the "ghost round", and you can always use the "ghost round" to increase capacity where allowed.

Do you have a choke tube you can measure?

I had a nice long post typed up and somehow it has found it's way into the cyber-Bermuda triangle before I could post it. Without getting too long winded this can be done quickly but other methods of adding one round are faster. I've done quite a bit of experimenting and timing different loading sequences for the hell of it. The biggest problem with loading the "ghost round" isn't the actual loading but the time it takes to pull the gun down, position it, load it, and shoulder it again. From what I remember it only takes 3-4 seconds to load the chamber and ghost round but the entire process takes 12-15 seconds. Compare that with adding one round from the waist band area into the magazine tube in 3-4 seconds. Or adding one round to a dry gun by reaching over the top in 4-5 seconds pulling one round from the waist band area.