Lou Graham, # 26112

And he did it with Black Powder! A great Soot Buddy and the kind of young man that makes his parents proud of him.

You are both right. The tooling was really old, current blueprints were practically non-existent AND they didn't take a single "old codger" that knew how to make the guns anyway. I was still living there when that happened and got some first hand horror stories about what went on. I have lots of Marlins - antique, modern, oddball, collectable and cowboy. All from CT before the sad move. I was pretty bummed out when I heard Remington was toast. I'm at least hopeful now that Ruger is in the picture. I sure do wish them success in getting production up and running again!

This is a very cool idea! Thank you Dungannon. Not sure but I think you intend for this to be ACSA. (see below) You did good figuring out we shoot at the same place Winter Range is but these guys have nothing to do with cowboy shooting. Ben Avery is a huge range, like the size of Rhode Island huge. Multiple clubs, multiple shooting disciplines, etc. I think if you use "Ben Avery" in Google and not the official address it might come out correctly but you still won't have our link as we use a P.O. Box. The Arizona Cowboy Action Shooters website is acsainc.com. Cowtown - just down the road from us looks great in the map. Yur Pard, Lou

I like making mountains of plump, shiny bullets. I have molds for smokeless and BP but my main efforts go to BP, the smokeless molds are now mostly for "just in case" purposes. One of the advantages to casting is that you don't have to settle for unacceptable when it comes to long distance. Only the most perfect of 405 grain hollow base bullets make it into the reloading room to be fed to my trapdoor. I generally keep a third to half of what I cast. The rest go back in the pot. If you check and weigh store-bought before making your distance ammo, you will acquire a collection of rejects over time. How do I know? People give them to me because I cast! Main match ammo is about volume, not total perfection. For main match ammo, I'm not so finicky. "Close enough for Cowboy" is just fine. There are so many options for smokeless bullets in pistol calibers, it may not be worth your time if you have a reliable supplier with reasonable quality control. Find a pard that is set up and can give you some tips and let you try it out before you invest in your own equipment. Kind of like what we tell new shooters before buying guns. If you find you like casting, go for it.

Widder - thank you for the explanations. You gave me some advice you didn't mean to! I'm going to play with ammo length and see what that does for me. Snozzberries - thank you for the pictures. The mock up of how everything in the receiver goes together combined with the color-coded close ups is so helpful, I've saved all the pictures.

I've been writing stages since the time there were always themes, stories and lines. The line might even require a back and forth posse participation way back when! I still "think" in theme when it comes to writing stages, so every match has one. As all the different prior posts indicate, the stage writer has to appeal to two different camps. The theme is there for those want to "get into it" for the day, it can be ignored by those that aren't interested. I don't do stories anymore, not even a one or two sentence set-up. There are start lines related to the theme for those that want use them. "Shooter ready!" works too, if you aren't into remembering lines. No hard feelings. I found that once I was writing stages, practically every dang thing I watched on TV or read was sparking ideas. I keep a file of TV, movie, historical places and events, etc with potential themes, lines and target order ideas (listen to El Paso, it writes itself) to draw on when I needed new material. Even non-cowboy things can work. "Nice shooting, Tex!" and "Aim for the flat top!" are from the original Ghostbusters movie which most people are familiar with. It makes a fun October/Halloween match, especially if you throw in a decorative prop or two related to the movie. It's a challenging balancing act to get enough in the match for those that want the ambiance while still being unobtrusive enough to not disturb those that view it as a distraction. This consideration has to go on top of all the meat and potatoes of stage writing like preventing unintended outcomes because you didn't say I can't, not setting up a "P" trap, safety concerns, etc. I'm glad I was able to sort of grow into stage writing over the years. I think it is much more difficult now and my hat is off to any newly-minted stage writer with the guts to take on the task.

Capt. Morgan Rum was a driving force in promoting fun times and SASS in general in New England. The "Intergalactic" BP Championship, the 5 - gun shoots, the Halloween shoots with everyone in crazy costumes, and all the work he did when the Regional system split to get New England Regional off the ground and then running smoothly. His BP matches were one of the very few that Wonnerful Hubby could be persuaded to shoot and we always had such a great time! Miss Delaney is one of the earliest Soot Sisters. My condolences to her and Raven.

Phantom Yes, ordinary people (like me) can send a box of explosives, A/K/A black powder ammo - must be packed correctly, have the labels, etc. You don't need to be a business or get a note from BATF or anything like that. Just an ordinary BP Girl sending her ammo out ahead so she can fly to a big match. Real BP can't fly, has to go ground. I bet you are right about there being more to it if a business deals with HAZMAT items, but if a private party needs to ship something that falls under HAZMAT regulation, it can be done. UPS will give you a lesson on how to do it. Before I lived 7 minutes from Ben Avery, I had to send my ammo out ahead every year.

The regulations for HAZMAT have nothing to do with charging or not charging extra. It's about how it's packaged, labeled and shipped. I got some stuff a few months ago (I think it was from Midway) and they were running a deal on orders over a certain amount with HAZMAT fee of a penny. The proper box, label and shipping method were still used.

Heddy (that's HEDLEY!) converted to PDF and you can save them for forever. The Open Range existed for a long time after it was not longer an active forum but it was taken down just a few months ago.

I think the part we're missing here is that anybody can go to the airport, park, stroll into baggage claim and open fire. He didn't have to come on the plane. I've checked guns and ammo many times when I fly. I generally don't bother with the ammo anymore as it's not enough to get through a match and just send it all ground. It can be in a factory box or reloader's box, either is fine as long as it's not over the weight limit. In all the years and times I've flown, I have never been asked for my permit and have only had a couple of nasty people from either the airline or TSA. Often the gun case just comes down with the rest of the luggage, which I don't like. Some airports are more careful and you have to pick it up at the baggage office by showing the claim check or they call your name on the loudspeaker and ask you to meet the baggage person at a specific location. I like that better. Even moving security to the entrance to the airport won't help, he did everything per the rules and would have gotten on the plane, gotten off at his destination, gone to baggage claim and we would have the same result. The issue is how did a mentally unstable person - and a vet to boot - end up not getting the help and attention he needed before he went totally off the deep end and killed a bunch of people?