Joe West

Krazy Kajun sent this out, it says it well.: "Bearclaw Ben, member of the Cherokee Cowboys passed away this week after a long period of heath issues. He was a gentle giant of a man and always had a smile on his face and was very faithful in assisting during match target setup for a number of years. He will be missed. The only funeral arrangements that I know of is that visitation will be held on Sunday Aug. 16th 12:30 - 2:30 at the Carter Funeral Home, 265 Hwy. 211 NW, Winder GA. Their website is https://www.carterfwinder.com." From me : I knew Ben since he started shooting SASS matches. He helped as much as he could, even when he didn't feel well enough to shoot! He was a great friend. Prayers up for the comfort of his family.

I don't have a picture of that. I was always last off the range so often missed it. His wife made me promise to make sure nobody busted his teeth.

This is a ,1998 I believe, pic as we throw Coyote Calhoun into a very splintery wagon. There were several takes. Joe West

Meeting and becoming friends with new people was our best quality. We didn't put cas matches together to give away money prizes, we came from other shooting sports, racing, or whatever seeking something different. Our gatherings were like a big reunion with new family members each time. The best matches still are. That attitude carries over to most folks that post. But any group with Isom Dart in it automatically goes up a notch. When Kid Concho , Isom ,and me were shooting together that was as good as it gets.

Like Fireball I use hard cast bullets. My cartridges are loaded full case triple 7 2f , no wad standard lube, heavy bullet for caliber. Antique firearms would need a little more gentle load but modern mfg firearms, hard is better. Less leading equals less pressure build up as you shoot and easier cleaning. Less deformation of bullet gives better accuracy. It needs to fit the chamber mouths go smoothly into the forcing cone and obdurate into the rifling and it'll hit where your barrel ends up pointed.

I've shot the lever revolution 44 mag in a Winchester 94. Those are good shooting rounds. The polymer tip really provides a superior ballistic bullet to safely use in tube mag guns. There's no need to guess when a company puts it resources and expertise into providing a quality product. I know from running ranges people are going to do whatever suits them and justify their actions anyway they can regardless of rules, manufacturers recommendations, and often in spite of common sense. It's human nature, most of what little knowledge I've retained is from my screw ups. In the end it's simple, I prefer everyone leave the range in as good a state of health as they had on arrival.

Only witnessed it once, Remington factory round nose lead round nose .38 spl. yellow box in 1866 carbine Uberti. CAS match in Dalton, GA. 2nd shot ignited 3 rounds blew side plate off & deformed and blew out mag tube. No injuries as no one close to the side plate. Val Folgett found us a side plate, unfinished rough cast, as it was an early 1xx serial number Navy Arms gun and I was able to salvage the gun. It's still in use today with the caveat not to use round nose bullets. One of my pards blew his hand up a bit with a 1860 Uberti Henry with rnfp 44-40 bullets when the follower slipped. So a round nose bullet shouldn't be that much of a stretch to see you don't want to be that guy. I've been shooting and officiating in all kinds of matches for many decades. I've seen every kind of firearm in those matches suffer a failure. The majority were ammunition based, some of those were factory rounds. The round nose flat point bullets designed for the specific caliber ie: 30-30 are made to be safe in that loading. The fmj pointed round nose .308 bullets for loading rounds into the chamber from a box magazine obviously shouldn't be in a tube mag and the manufacturers and the loading manuals point that out. We've had this argument among shooters since I can remember reloading starting in 1973 and i guess we'll have it forever. Please just tell me if you're using sharply rounded bullets so I can stand back a bit more while timing you. Anyone who has ever watched me run a timer notices I stay pretty clear just as I never stand in front of a door while knocking on it anymore.

The 1866 was made until 1898. The 4th model was it's latest version, some sent to the Mexican Army, were centerfire 44. I had the opportunity to examine one.