Duncan Disorderly

odorless mineral spirits works pretty well and no smell. you can reuse the 'used' spirits until you decide they're too dirty. cheap too. rec by a pistol smith. he soaks the guns in it. brake cleaner is nasty stuff, but works. carb cleaner i've always been told leaves a residue (on purpose). at the bus garage they use starting fluid. yep, ether or whatever it is. works to clean the goo of new brake rotors. part cleaner in garages, etc is mineral spirits.

I use the shell holder that is for the press and cartridge..so lee shell holder on a lee press, dillon on a dillon...never had one break or wear out so can't say any one brand of shellholder is any different than any other. i use lee dies in a dillon 650 because i had the dies from my loadmaster..i make accurate ammo and have no issues.

started our club this year.. AR400 3/8 is fine. A lot cheaper than 500. I"m told mild steel is fine too. If you're shooting light 38s you'll be fine with mild steel - if you're shooting hot 44/45 loads or BP i'd say go with AR400. Distance matters too - if you're gonna shoot 44-40 from a rifle at 1200fps at 5 yards you'll gonna wear the targets a lot faster than if you place it at 25 yards. Wear as in bend or dimple. Size..whatever you like. I find round/square/rectangle as boring. A shape 'wastes' steel but is lighter..an issue if you have to setup yoru targets. We have some 20x24 3/8 ar400 and i'd not want anything bigger/heavier. Most have 'sweet spots' (inside of arms/legs/etc) of 16x18. Early in the year people whined and missed..last two matches same folks hit the targets and didn't whine. IMO practice at farther and smaller targets and when you get to a match it's gonna look like a cake walk. welding..you can weld AR steel, a bit tougher but possible. Stands..we're using 5/8 rebar (donation..don't look a gift horse in the mouth). Easy to work with and functional. Could angle iron stands be better? Sure. how many...get 8 - you can set up 4 pistol/4 rifle or 5 and 3 - gives you all the sweeps options out there.

'Round here every match has food, most at the end some in the middle. Do you have food at your matches and how do you handle it? As in - who's in charge of it, how do you handle knowing how much to have, to charge, dealing with leftovers or shortages? Our first couple of matches had a lot of folks show, then it sorta leveled out..the last match had very low turnout - the weather went cold and it may have well gone great ..so we had lots of leftover food..and a loss for the match overall. So looking for ideas and ways to make this work in the future.

I shoot BW most of the time and use a 92 (rossi) with some home slicking and lighter xtractor spring, load 38's to 1.51 with 158rnfp. the only issue is you must work the action completely,,,or vigorously as stated above. Other wise the hammer doesn't cock completely - easy enough to grab with your thumb but does slow you down. Lube helps..probably cleaning it would too. LOL. Mine is extremely accurate and I love it. I will be buried with it. marlins are very well revered around here. Seem heavier to me, but the 92 is very light. I've seen people have issues with them. Why? can't say. A few people shoot Henry's..at a recent match a gent had such issues he had to borrow a gun to finish the match. the one's i've shot are heavy and very stiff action - but they're newish and completely stock.

have a rossi 92 in 357. LOVE it. I polished up the guts and it's slick and smooth. . As long as I do a COMPLETE stroke i"m good - if not it will not cock completely. it's the operator, not the gun. I need to run 1.51 OAL 158 bullets to get 100% good feeds. If they're shot it's easy to eject a live round. No idea if 45's are as touchy or not. Since mine will do 357 it's got to be able to handle thier length, so that is I think the issue. run 357 cases and it's not an issue. accuracy? I've not put mine on paper at 100 yards, but we have steel targets at 200 yards at our range and with 357 loads I can from standing hit em all day long (smaller than SASS targets). I"m not shooting grounhogs with open sights, not shooting deer at 200 yards with a 357..so it's more than accurate for what it's capable of shooting - btw, 357 rounds, 158 jacketed, come out at just a hair over 2000fps..that's in the 'hood of a 30-30 in speed and bullet weight, not same bullet design though.