Null N. Void

On things I can't do myself, I deal with Three Cut. He tells you where you are in his list. Anything he's done has been in the ballpark of what he told me. There are no favors. As he does one, he picks the next one in line. He tells you where you stand when you ask. I had a 97 that about every 20 rounds would not cleanly eject. Intermittent faults are the hardest to fix. I got it back yesterday and everything I shot with it ejected cleanly to 4 to 6 feet away from the SG. Well worth the short wait and the cost. And he doesn't accept payment until the job is complete.

I feel your pain. We've been dealing with this for the last year.

Someone swapped a Chicom follower for a Winchester follower. I may have that backwards. If you put the wrong one in, you get what you see at least on my 97s. I have two of each.

My backups and practice revolvers are .357 Blackhawks. I'll occasionally shoot the main match with them.

I had a problem with some of my brass that I had obtained from various sources, both new and used. It turned out that some of it was bulged and my dies do not resize all the way to the base. The round would either chamber and extract hard, or not chamber at all and I'd jack it out. I had not been fully checking the rounds (357). I had always checked for splits and cracks, but not all the way down to the base for bulges, and it bit me hard in a couple of matches. I now 100 % check all the brass after it has been cleaned and discard any with splits, cracks, or anything that looks suspicious. After it's loaded, I 100% check the rounds with a chamber guage and put them on a flat plate to find any high primers. Since I've been doing that, all the ammo problems have gone away. I'm not sure any 357 die can get all the way to the base. Someone may have some suggestions. I'm OK now, but there may be some other help out there.

My 45 Colt rifle is not as reliable as my 357. Both are manufactured by Uberti. The 45 Colt cartridge is a dirty cartridge and I spend much more time cleaning it. In order to limit blowback, I use 5.5 grains of Trail Boss with a 200 grain bullet. Anything less that that, I get spitting in my face. The recoil is much heavier than my .357. Feeding on both is not a problem. If I had to get a big bore rifle again, I'd probably get a 44-40. They are much cleaner to run. If you do this enough, the recoil from the 45 Colt pistol and rifle together start to add up. I only shoot the 45 Colt rifle for Wild Bunch as that requires a high power factor. I'll occasionally shoot gunfighter with 45 pistols, because the have lower hammers, and use Cowboy Special rounds in them to reduce recoil. I'll stick with my 357 for the rifle for shooting GF. There is a Big Bore match in the area I shot once that required everything to be 150 PF and above. My wrists and shoulder were sore for a couple of days. I won't do that again.

I learned early in my Navy career that one should not confuse smarts and ability with education. A Senior Chief drove that home with a couple of us instructors and he was absolutely correct. It was a valuable lesson I never forgot as well as a couple of other things he told us.

As a member of my club, and being the MD for Cowboy trying to get SASS re-established at my club, the absolutely last thing I will do is insult either the club members that come to shoot or the guests that come to our match. At this point, we have a small match with about 10 people coming out per match. With the weather we've been having, that's not bad and I think we'll be into the 15 range by the summer. With that number, we shoot on one bay and change the setup every two to three stages. We're getting new shooters out, and they are still getting into the rhythm of how a match works and at the same time being new to how their guns work. Things I see easily are still confusing to them. My wife, who does not shoot, and I start setting up the stages early and I get some help from other club members. My goal is to have the match set before the shooters arrive. I consider it bad form for people to drive for a couple of hours and then expect them to set up steel. They are my, and the clubs, guests. Nothing is set in concrete, and if I'm having physical problems, I may call and ask for additional help, but I try to not do that unless it's a last resort. I have recovered from two ruptured achilles tendons, a bad knee strain and have chronic foot and back problems. That doesn't stop me from running the Cowboy matches, shooting, and enjoying life in general. I can't do it by myself, but do get enough help from the club and cowboys to make it go. I ask everybody to do what they can. Sometimes a bit of prompting in done to get people to pick brass or spot, but I've never had anyone say no. The biggest help is at the end of the match to put steel away. By then, I'm about done. I have not been disappointed with the help at the end of the match. Not everybody can haul steel, but picking up mats and other light work is not that hard and gets the job done. On away matches, I'll do whatever is needed to keep the match going. At some clubs I'll run the timer 1/2 of the time and pick brass or spot the rest. For closer matches, I'll help breakdown the setups. For matches are a 2 1/2 to 3 hour drive and I'll leave as soon as I can get my gear loaded. I think most people understand that someone 67 with a long drive needs to get home as rested and safely as possible. NNV

I think we need to be very sensitive to new shooters not having the financial ability that some of the veteran (or retired, or both) shooters to go to shoots. We have a new couple at our club that love to shoot. They are young, love the sport, and one is a teacher and one is a social worker still going to school for his Masters. He wants to work with disadvantaged kids and is taking debt and spending time to do it. They are working to get what they need for two shooters. I'm happy we can get them out to a match once a month with all they have on their plate. I hope they can start travelling to other clubs soon.. Making the sport as affordable as possible will help them out. I feel guns are the first thing to spend money on. Get to something comfortable as quick as you can. So long as they are good guns, you can always trade them in for something else with a minimum loss of value for something that feels, or is better. I suggest doing the guns first, then worry (not to much) about clothing. Boots, jeans and a long sleeved shirt are all you need for any age based competition. If you go to a multi-day competition two sets will do if you rotate. A cowboy hat is good to keep hot brass from going down your back. My first one cost me $10 from a thrift shop. Costuming is fun and I won a contest where the object was to reuse and recycle clothing. Most of my early wardrobe came from Salvation Army and Goodwill and that contest was right in my wheelhouse. The next next best costume contest winners, for me, were people that made, from scratch, their own costumes that reflected working people and families from our era of the west. For me, winning a costume contest because you spent the most money does not compare to those that make it from scratch. Costumes are fun, but shooting is the sport.

I wouldn't worry about clothes. I have a very small camper and have to make maximum use of clothes. For a 4 day match, I'll usually take 2 pants and 2 or three shirts and rotate them. I'll take one vest and one hat. I travel in jeans there and back using the same ones. They are emergency backups in case of spills, mud, etc. I'll go out to diner in my cowboy stuff. I've never had anyone notice that I've used the same shirt later in the match. If it's really hot and the shirt and pants get sweaty, I'll rinse them out and they will be dry to use a day later while I'm using my alternate set. They may be wrinkled, but after one stage everyone is wrinkled anyway. The bigger matches are fun. You usually shoot two days. If you get there on the day of the first matches, shoot them, stay overnight, shoot the next day and leave you can get away with one nights stay but you may be worn out by the drive to get there.\. Just let the MD know that you'd like to shoot later in the day, if possible. Your friends can pick up your awards and get them to you later. It's also a chance to see vendors and other shooters, to meet with friends and share stories. You don't get that as much with other sports.

I was reading a novel and a shady outfit had paid shady characters with checks. The checks were signed by Knullen Void and of course were invalid and untraceable. I was considering a name change because there were so many "slims" around. I thought this one was too good to pass up. With some help from my wife on how to spell it, so as not to cause too much confusion, Null N. Void was born.

Cold and wet are the break points around here. I'll set up under cover with modified stages if it's warmer but showery. I will cancel if it's freezing and windy, or the forecast has heavy rain and thunderstorms. If I cancel, it's usually Friday afternoon and I send it to my distribution list and post on the North Carolina wire. We've been in a very wet pattern and footing has also been an issue. When the Sandhills are so wet that they don't drain and the footing turns to slime, I'll also call it. We can stay dry under cover, but the rivers coming off the berms underfoot are not safe.

I did some work with using SG targets as pistol knockdowns and had too much splatter coming back and too much damage to the target frame by misses with heavy loads. I have other pistol/rifle knock down targets used for IDPA and 3 gun that work much better if shot with a SG.

http://www.vtigunparts.com/store/shopdisplaycategories.asp?id=106&cat=Rifles Reduced power (among many) http://www.thesmithshop.com/ldmainsp.html

I was the TO. Hammer was down, just no bang when he cycled. I was looking for rounds flying out, but there was nothing. I was thinking, " Did he forget to load the rifle?" It was great to watch the smoothness in that he knew where the rounds were, pulled them out, loaded, shot, gathered the remaining rounds, moved, loaded the pistols and fired away. I did check to see if the person taking the video was still running the camera, and she was. The general comment in the background after the stage was " Talking instead of loading" with a lot of smiles and head nods. It was a pleasure to shoot with him and I look forward to doing it again!