Edward R S Canby, SASS#59971

Fifty weeks on the road sounds like work and not fun to me. My wife and I travel to major matches but never are gone from home more than a third of any one month. RVs are fragile beasts and need frequent repair. Much is easy and can be done inexpensively at home. I also need to restock with ammo and need time in my reloading room to assemble ammo. Medical care is easier to get from a single location. Both Texas and California have numerous SASS clubs. The cost of living is clearly lower in Texas. Transporting firearms is easier in Texas. Knott Hardly Dunn and Shamrock Sadie are another shooting couple you will see frequently at matches.

Next Saturday would be a good day to watch CAS. Hang out with CS’s posse if you can. You will learn more by watching than reading this Wire.

I have visited the Damascus Range but not shot there. Looks like a good place to shoot. Many of us started with Stoeger shotguns. They are serviceable shotguns for CAS. My backup shotgun for EOT next week is a Stoeger. GJ is right, your trap loads are legal but too stout for CAS. Load 3/4 or 7/8 oz of your 7 1/2 shot to as low a velocity as you can get. Less than 1,000 fps would be ideal. Otherwise buy low noise, low recoil AAs. Recoil is undesirable in CAS. There are many matches within a day’s drive of MD. I recommend shooting nearby state and regional matches. Land Run in OKC would be fun when you are ready.

Arrived safety Thursday PM. No dust storms this trip. There were two traffic accidents on Phoenix freeways but that is normal. Trailer was set before sundown. I’m looking forward to busting some clays and shooting Fire and Ice before EOT.

I keep an old single stage press on my loading bench for odd jobs like loading small lots of rifle ammo. It serves as a backup for times when a part is on order for one of my Dillons. The single stage press is slow but doesn't have a primer feed that can jam or an indexing mechanism that can break. Still, I repair the Dillons as soon as I have time. In my location Dillon repair parts arrive within three days of placing an order.

How heavy is the gun? How does it compare to a Pedersoli or a TTN?

They won't prime on my 650 so I used to hand prime them carefully. Primers were a little damaged but they all went bang. When one popped when I was hand priming I decided to stop loading them and just toss them in my scrap brass bucket. I don't mind getting them. They have scrap value just like the Amerc brass.

I'll be leaving mid-week coming in from the east. Travel weather looks good. Blowing dust is not forecast along I-10. I had to travel in the mornings last year to avoid dust storms. No major snow is forecast on I-40 in either Arizona or New Mexico. I-40 was closed for days last year due to snow and ice.

Old bottles of Triple Seven may have large clumps. However, they break down into granules very easily.

Hodgdon's Triple Seven loading instructions here. A 45 Colt loaded with Triple Seven and no filler will easily meet anyone's Warthog requirements. They would be legal for Champeen of the Hillbilly Nation category. (See this.)

Part 2: Nickel cases. I use nickel cases for my handgun loads when shooting APP or real black powder. I use plain brass cartridges for smokeless loads. This helps me keep my ammo sorted out. However, I do not use nickel-plated ammo in my rifles as it splits much sooner than unplated brass. Corrosion: APP is gentle on steel but will leave a dark brown tarnish on unwashed plain brass. Nickel-plating prevents this tarnish but will develop a light frosty surface if unwashed. APP Loading Instructions

I read the report. The first paragraph is a good summary: Responsive Management research indicates that the incentives with the highest likelihood of encouraging participation in the shooting sports focus on creating opportunities for hands-on, tangible experiences with the shooting sports. When introducing someone to shooting, it is important to provide a physical, tangible opportunity to experience the activity first-hand. Less active mechanisms of initiation to an activity, such as reading about the activity or watching others do the activity, are not nearly as effective at providing meaningful opportunities for persons to become involved in the shooting sports. Responsive Management research indicates that the most important reasons for participating in any of the shooting sports (other than hunting) typically include honing skills, having fun, and being with family and/or friends. A shooting club where I am a board member is doing a good job in this respect. We allow our ranges to be used by young shooters preparing for the Junior Olympics. Every year some are selected for the Junior Olympics. We partially fund their travel expenses. Our indoor .22 range is used by 4-H shooters and scouts to earn merit badges. Recently we made the indoor .22 range handicap-accessible so disabled veterans could compete under a Veterans Administration recreation program. One of our members runs the program for the VA. At a recent tournament our veterans brought home many of the top prizes. Finally, we restarted a .22 action activity loosely based on NSSF Rimfire. I run the activity. About a third of the shooters are youngsters brought by the families. My experienced adult shooters are proving good at reinforcing basic firearms safety and coaching youngsters how to engage target arrays efficiently. Our hope is some youngsters will continue in the shooting sports as they grow up. However, all get a positive shooting experience to help counter the anti-gun teaching they get in public schools. Sidebar: the scouts that have the most difficulty are those that spent endless hours playing shootem-up video games. We teach them how to shoot a rifle, but they revert to video gaming when shooting for their merit badge and have so many misses that they fail the course. The other scouts earn their merit badges. When they come back for another try next year we teach them fundamentals again. They put aside their video game methods and earn their merit badge. They discover that shooting a rifle is quite different than manipulating a game-controller.

I reload black powder shotgun shells because they are unavailable to me otherwise. My low-recoil loads cost me $6 less a box than new AA low noise, low recoil shells. I reload them for that cost saving and because the low noise, low recoil shells are not always available. Loading for shooting clays only saves me ~$1/box. I buy promo ammo but am glad I have components on hand for the times when shotgun shells disappear from retailer's shelves. I load some shells for clays just to use up old stock reloading supplies.

I too remove primers in a press using a universal decapping die. Besides eye and ear protection I remove any powder on or near the press.

Perhaps an established reloading company like RCBS or Dillon Precision could buy Magma Engineering and incorporate its products into its business.

Note that a 7x57 Mauser cartridge is rimless and therefore not legal for SASS long range matches.

First thing to consider is whether they are chambered in a legal caliber.

You can often pick up once-fired Gun Club hulls at clays ranges for free. At CAS matches some shooters who do not reload might hand you once-fired AA hulls. Once-fired STS and Nitro hulls can be bought on online auction sites. Cabelas and Sportsmans Warehouse often have shot and wads. Wads are light and can be ordered online. Hodgdon's Perfect Pattern and Alliant's Extra-Lite are two powders particularly suited for light loads though other fast-burning powder will work. Check Alliant's and Hodgdon's online reloading sites for 3/4 oz and 7/8 or loads. I load 7/8 oz of shot with the minimum amount of Extra-Lite recommended. Some load a grain or two less of powder. Just look for loads using Cheddite primers for they are the most available currently. I'll be shooting Shootin Foxes shot at EOT in a few weeks. It knock plates down just fine.

OP: good choice of bullets. My caster is dropping plain cast bullets from his inventory because he sells five times more coated bullets than plain cast bullets. I'm loading Alliant Sport Pistol under Hi-Tek bullets. Sport Pistol is specifically designed for Hi-Tek coated bullets. However, the other powders mentioned in this thread will give you satisfactory CAS ammo. Distributors are telling us that gunpowder will be scarce this year. You will be able to sell the CFE if you choose.

Grafs still has 1-lb bottles of Unique in stock with a purchase limit of ten bottles.

It is easier to learn how to shoot a self-cocking SxS fast than an external hammer SxS where you must cock the hammers manually. I have both kinds of SxS shotguns and shoot the ones that self-cock the fastest. I shoot my external hammer shotgun in Plainsman side matches where style is more important to me than speed. Regarding the availability of parts, I defer to our gunsmiths.

I have sold small quantities of powder, shot and primers to leaders (club officers and match directors) whom I wanted to keep shooting. This was only for supplies that were entirely unavailable otherwise at the time. When available locally or online I point them to retail sources. Most recently I sold a 25-lb bag of shot to our webmaster who lives in a remote community and was having trouble replenishing his supply.

Tightgroup is #17 on your chart. I've used Bullseye (a dirty powder) and currently load Sport Pistol (a newer, cleaner powder). A local shooter loads Clay Dot. Clays was the local favorite until it became unavailable. A commercial loader of CAS ammo used Red Dot. I load Extra-Lite for low recoil shotgun shells and Perfect Pattern is being loaded locally for these shells too. Here is Alliant's load data for Sport Pistol: You can contact the distributor (Hodgdon or Alliant) for load data for 105 grain bullets.

Stateside French-made Cheddite shotgun primers are available but no other shotgun primers are easy to buy. I'm loading BP shotgun shells this week with Cheddites for EOT. I appreciate that the French are still serving handloaders. Our manufacturers have abandoned us.

Some of the larger merchants have free HAZMAT and/or free shipping deals that last a day or two. Keep checking and you might get a deal. I bought my last batch from Nachezss.com.