Roger Rapid

A.J.McDraw... Hurrah! And double ditto!!!! RR

Larsen... You obviously don't know the old cowboy song: "You Better Not Make Fun of My Slime Green MEC!" Just sayin'... * About 8 or 9 years ago they had a promotion and their MEC Jrs were slime green. It absolutely keeps me from falling asleep when I'm loading shotshells!!!!!!!! See ya at Bordertown! RR

Marshal Fire... Re: vendor? ... at the moment, they can be purchased from UniqueTek, Coyote's Mercantile, or directly from me by clicking on this link. (Regarding price, please check with the various resources above so I don't make this sound like a commercial post.) Yes, they absolutely can be used on factory (non-"reloaded") ammo. RR

Crazy Gun Barney: Thx for the question. After being tapered, the shells are measuring .793˝-.795˝ in the middle of the case. The cases I just measured are not PERFECTLY round - which I believe is due to deformities in the case and wad and not to the die. The very end of the case after being tapered (a DoubleAA Winchester) measures .765˝-.767˝ - about .030˝ difference. (Your calculation of a 32° taper delivering a .745˝ result is right, but the cases are "plastic" and the diameter rebounds a bit. However, the feed edge of the shell is where the big difference is, and this is the edge that gets in the way when feeding doubles into a s/s. In the photo I posted above, the rolled edge of the untapered case (left in photo, a regular shell out of the MEC) was .803˝-.808˝!! - showing a rather not-perfectly-round crimp end that is almost .040˝ larger than what QuikLoader does. RR

Cole Younger: Thanks for the post and glad you're having success with QuikLoader. Crazy Gun Barney: This die is made specifically for 12 ga and is very similar to the clean-up die RCBS used to make. It doesn't "neck" the shell or "cone" it. Instead it does a final sizing of the shell after it is crimped (the final crimping usually bulges the case slightly). Also, the force of the final crimp usually puts a small roll-edge on the shell (see left shell in photo below). So, in one step QuikLoader does a final-sizing as well as a minor taper on the last 1/2˝ of the shell (shell on right in photo below). A minor difference in the cartridge but really helps them drop into a s/s. RR

PaleWolf... The original 1st-generation Colt Lightning rifles had a roller on the bottom of the bolt. Do I assume correctly that because it is on the bolt and not on the firing pin AND because it was an original feature that it is legal? RR PS: The Lightning-replica makers (Pedersoli, Taurus, Uberti, AWA, USFA) did not utilize this feature.

Chacon... Yes, the three attributes you describe - equipment, athletics, and skills - speak to some of the demographic elements of our market segment. These and other attributes are what 99.9% of you and your fellow cowboy shooters are made of. The task is to find others like us who have similar attributes but never heard about Cowboy Action Shooting™, and bring them into our fold. RR

Snakebite... Looks like your problem is solved. I had it, too, and found that the primer wheel and the shell plate were not exactly aligning with each other, such that when the primer plunger pushed the primer up, the primer would catch on the edge of the shell plate which tilted the primer allowing it to go up sideway. Cleaning out the recesses in the shell plate and primer wheel and slightly lengthening the springs for the shell plate and primer wheel ensured that they aligned perfectly again and solved the problem. RR

DDD… Yes it is an impasse, and a serious one. To your points: 1) If SASS never makes a decision to drive a focused marketing campaign... Then our days are numbered. 2) If local clubs cannot do marketing… The message needs to be a clear, concise, globally-positioned SASS message not a club-positioned one. 3) Can individual marketing efforts hedge attrition… While some local clubs can be somewhat proactive to grow a few members here and there, the growth has to be more than a 10% growth in 10% of the clubs. It’s just not enough to sustain the big picture. It appears that whatever efforts are coming from SASS only serve to protect their payroll and new building, and are not directed toward the common good of growing our sport or even keeping it alive. This post is filled with good ideas and valid concerns, and in just two days it has scratched the attention of 1,600 views1 The issues raised about THE cost of guns and leather, and the availability of primers and ammo is a real and valid concern, and is what it is. It will continue to weed out those who cannot afford the barrier to entry. But look at our current membership; every single one of us found a way through the barrier. We are not the only ones who can afford cowboy action shooting. Bottom line is that we must backfill the dropouts and the seniors who can no longer shoot. We absolutely must speak to new and younger shooters - SASS must focus on having shooters grow through our sport and not grow up with it. The silence from SASS is deafening!!!. Have you seen a single post here from SASS leadership? Is no one there reading the organization's own chat site? RR

Phantom... Re: "Market research being rather scientific..." - you are absolutely correct. The psychographic and demographic aspects of marketing are the "number crunching" components are are very intricate, and somewhat scientific. In fact, how that information is captured from all of us today is VERY scientific. There are many elements to "marketing" and it's not just about doing ads or making up flyers. In fact, the advertising and promotional component - while creative - is the simplest part of the marketing process. Understanding who the target audience is, what they eat, what hobbies they like, what clothes they wear, where they live, what their income is, and how to excite and motivate them is the "secret sauce" of marketing. A Madison Avenue marketing guy would tell you that "... marketing is the art of managing the perception of a product or service in the customer's mind." Anyway, I'm being windy... I don't see even a whisper of this going on in our organization. RR

Eyesa Hong There IS an easy solution to marketing – marketing is not a hidden art and it's not rocket science. And there are thousands of organizations with qualified marketing personnel who know how to craft concise programs to engage both their current and NEW audiences. With the exception of a drive last year to get folks to sign up for Life Memberships (to raise capital) SASS has done NOTHING to drive new memberships. The sad part is that the future of OUR sport is in "corporate's" hands, and it will shrivel up someday like an old creek bed. RR

DDD: Thanks for raising this issue! -- It may surprise many of you that SASS has (or had) a marketing plan - actually two marketing plans; a Market Recruitment and a Market Retention plan. I say “surprise” because it surprised me to learn they existed - I had to ask for them. The two plans - if they still exist - are seriously faulted. They speak to a strategy of each club implementing a marketing plan, but the plans omit the tactics needed to do so. Further, the strategy was for each club to have one of its members become the quasi-marketing director who would develop and implement the positioning of a local marketing plan. The real fault is founded in the very idea of implementing a local marketing strategy. SASS is an international - i.e., “global” - organization and sport, and the marketing thrust must be global. The marketing plan(s) must be developed by “corporate” and driven out by corporate to the potential audience. (I'm not suggesting that clubs should not be proactive - we should be. But we should have powerful marketing tools developed by corporate that help proliferate the corporate message.) The user (shooter) experience should be virtually the same whereever we shoot. Yes, targets, scenarios, and facades may not be the same, but the overall shooter's experience should be very similar. In fact, our rules were crafted for this very purpose. Imagine what it would be like if each MacDonald’s was allowed to promote and market its own store, have its own menu, produce its own packaging? If you travel at all, MacDonald’s medium fries come in the same red and yellow container (everywhere in the world) - it is what you expect, and the consistency of messaging is a critical component of the user’s experience. SASS needs to craft a global marketing strategy with corporate-driven tactics, and then drive that plan from corporate. What was the last time you heard from SASS about a focused and well conceived marketing plan? RR

And, I forgot to ask: If you noticed a decline was it because of: coronavirus? lack of powder/ammo/primers?, lack of interest?, summer weather?, some other cause(s)? Thx. RR

With the onslaught of the Coronavirus and the shortage in primers and ammo, I'm wondering what your clubs have been experiencing over the past year or so in match attendance? Constant, no change? Drop off?, etc? RR

I think a lot depends on your style. If you're shooting gunfighter, you might find that one pistol model works better than another for your right-handedness or left-handedness. Same for double duelist. If you are shooting cowboy, you'll probably want the guns to feel and react the same. I do know a few folks who shot two different pistol types when they got started (because that's all they could afford at the outset) and claimed that their game improved when they got a matching pistol (but I'm sure their game also improved with practice). RR