Edward R S Canby, SASS#59971

Some gun shows offer discounted entry to NRA members - just another reason to join. I you were local to me I would advise you to go to an indoor gun range that rents firearms and try their rentals. You buy a box of ammo, rent a shooting lane and a gun and try it out. Doing so you may discover a hand gun you love.

Black powder is presently available from both Grafs and Powder Valley. 209 primers are another matter.

The Mossberg .30-30 is not a legal main match rifle but is legal for some long-range side matches. If you are only interested in firearms for main matches pass it by. I recommend waiting until you attend a local match and try other shooter's firearms before making purchases. I also recommend firearms chambered in .357 if you are concerned about cost.

Another possibility: find a local tailor who will sew shirts using patterns from Buckaroo Bobbins.

I wondered what Rattlesnake Gulch looked like. Looks like a worthy range.

The Utah State SASS Championship will be held the first of June in Salt Lake. You are nearby so I would stop by for a day and watch the action. I strongly agree with OLG: get some fundamental firearms training before you start competition. We don't care how fast you shoot but insist on safe gun handling. You need to develop safe gun handling skills before you shoot on the clock.

I had my Wal*Mart account hacked while at Legends. I got an e-mail about a purchase to be delivered to a party in Spokane and promptly cancelled. I would like to say the hacker was cuffed as he arrived to pick up his purchase but know it won't happen.

I switched to a CZ Sharptail a year ago after wearing out some Stoegers. I love the CZ. Stoegers are used by many and are satisfactory for CAS. Borrow some at a local match and see what you prefer. Someone might have an SKB, a BSS or a Baikal you can try too. These are used too.

It's a long drive from Georgia. I would not come just for the match. However, if you visited some of the national parks of the Colorado Plateau it would be a worthwhile trip. Vegas is a half day drive to the south if you like man-made attractions.

This match has been very good to me in the past. My wife and I have won costume contests and I took home a Dillon 650 a few years ago. I find the wind conditions challenging for a black powder shooter. The wind can change from north to south and to dead calm in seconds. However, this is a treeless, low-humidity range and smoke does not linger. There is nearly unlimited on-range camping and a designated area where one can run a generator all night. The area caters to tourists (Zion Nat'l Park is nearby) and there are plenty of hotels and campgrounds near the range. I always enjoy the dr

I had a Fed209A fail to fire at EOT but otherwise had success with them. In the days I used Pyrodex I preferred them for shotgun shells.

I was interviewed on the CBS Evening News about forty years ago while responding to an emergency in Arizona. My boss told me not to talk to the press but the emergency manager set me up for an interview. The boss saw it and told me when I returned it was a good interview. I kept my job.

Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam

Garden Gnomes are now in short supply. Perhaps we should hide them at night.

I don't understand the economics of siting a solar facility in a high elevation area with winter snow cover. There is so much barren land in the 4-Corners region at lower elevations lacking winter snow cover that this does project does not seem the best choice.

I registered early and got one of the RV sites on range with power and water. This is a sweet setup. No running generators, no hauling water and no commuting to the match from a nearby RV park.

I agree on the high desert areas of the Southwest. Elevations between 4,000 and 6,000 feet are quite nice. Snow is infrequent and melts quickly. Temperatures drop quickly at night. Look at Southern Utah around St. George, Prescott and Tucson in Arizona, and Central New Mexico in the Rio Grande Valley. We do have strong Spring winds. However, they are not every day and mornings are calm. You can investigate tax rates, crime stats and gun laws online.

I find the hardest to size 44 mag brass is the occasional 45 Colt that got mixed in and I missed while sorting. I quickly learned to stop sizing and check when encountering extra resistance. Fortunately all my 44 mag brass is the same length and I can easily seat and crimp in a single step.

What not to use: fine grained sand. My club has two plinking pits where shooters are allowed to place targets in the ground. The sand prevents bullets from bouncing out of the berm. However, the sand is difficult to walk on and you would not want to set steel in these berms.

You waited too long to trade. The Wall Street Journal reports Americans have a surplus of TP.

At least the Plainsman side match is calling. I find cap and ball revolvers quite accurate. Persons shooting metallic cartridge revolvers don't believe me.

My S&W 1911 has an external extractor - preferred by some. I have a scandium alloy frame model. These are comfortable to carry but unsuitable for competition as a steel frame absorbs recoil better. My Kimber target model has a better trigger. My S&W 1911 is my carry gun where I might encounter feral hogs or a bear.

Kirk defeats the Gorn with homemade gunpowder.

Bordertown has many things going for it besides target size and being a state championship. It is held in a historic, Old West location. Weather in October is consistently very good. There is onsite camping and plenty of nearby full-service campgrounds. Tombstone has plenty restaurants and motel rooms. All these positives help draw shooters.

ABQ has high wind conditions. Here is an article with video of an outhouse blowing down a city street. There was no information whether the "driver" was cited regarding the lack of a license plate.