Idaho Gunslinger

Just look back at all the spotters and say "Good Luck"

I guess I'm getting senile in my young age... it is a C and I just assumed he was dry firing. I agree that if it is doing it during live fire there is something wrong.

This is normal for 97's. There is a split washer in the foreend and that click is you over coming that. I don't recall the purpose of it. During live fire the recoil will take care of that for you which is why you don't notice it. There are ways to modify/replace the split washer but I don't know that they are worthwhile. I thought both of my 97's do it but I just went and checked and my old B model made in 1899 doesn't seem to do it. My E model made in 1911 does though.

I use a grip and pull. It works for most bullets though depending on your press it may be hard to reach pistol cartridges. https://grip-n-pull.com/

I've only ever done it once so no problem there. Since I'm younger I'm probably more useful as a brass picker and target resetter than getting tied up with the timer.

I am really cautious about expediting long guns for people and I probably won't ever do it at larger matches. You have to be careful to check for a case/round still being in the rifle before even handling it on top of the risk of dropping someone else's gun if an accident happens. That being said I do it occasionally at monthly matches for the folks who don't move around so well. I'm not sure how I would feel as the TO having to hand out an SDQ to the expediter (dropping an empty gun is an SDQ right?) but if they hadn't already shot the stage I would probably still let them shoot it and move on. I view monthly matches as just having some fun and practice. As long as I get to shoot I don't care all that much. I like to know my score just to see if I am improving or not, but overall it doesn't really matter. Having to hand out an MDQ, especially early on in the match is going to be a lot more painful to do though. For this example I too wouldn't appeal the call. You still got to shoot all the rounds on the stage and have fun. If it were a monthly I'd feel like I still accomplished my goal. At a larger match it would hurt because I got knocked off the score list, but I'd be mad at myself for trying to shoot in the wrong position in the first place. We had a stage that had an 11th rifle reload shot at a bonus target. I shot my 10 shots and forgot about the bonus shot. About the time the TO realized I wasn't grabbing an extra round for my rifle I had already dropped shells into my shotgun so he just stayed quiet and let me keep shooting. Had he said something it likely would have discombobulated me and turned into a train wreck. All that to say TOs aren't perfect and it can be really hard as a TO to decide when you should and shouldn't say something because sometimes you can help and sometimes you can hurt.

I started with an 18" 1866. I now have a 20" 1873 and I seem to be more accurate with it while also shooting it faster. Not only does it have 2 inches longer sight radius via the barrel length but the rear sight on the 1873 is probably 2" closer to my face as well so I gained 4" of sight radius for 2" of barrel length.

I'm too new to effectively answer this but I would say at Monthly matches the MD can do whatever he/she wants so long as they are trying to keep everyone happy and safe. This is the entertainment business after all and most of the regulars seem to be aging out. The monthlies I go too aren't very competitive at all and some clubs rarely even hand out earned P's and barely post scores. But when each person is in their own category there doesn't seem to be a lot of point. At bigger matches I think things need to be kept as fair as possible and the more Posses and TOs there are in a single match the less you better deviate from the letter of the law (ie the handbook) because people may become of the opinion that others are being favored when exceptions are made at these larger extra competitive events. Waiting for Phantom now. Where's my popcorn?!

Have you ever been to a match where the shooter was the spotter?! We had some people leave early and we were very short handed. Ended up being my first time ever TO'ing and I was having to spot while doing it!

Isn't Classic Cowboy the only one that requires 40 cal or larger?

45 can be loaded fairly light to the point it likely doesn't matter too much compared to 38. But 45 costs quite a bit more to shoot than 38. 125gr bullets for 38 are $49 per 500 and 160gr bullets for 45 are $65 per 500. Just shooting one 5 stage monthly each month for a year will cost you an extra $40 just for bullets. They use a little more powder as well. Brass costs quite a bit more for that initial buy in and at the moment large pistol primers are a little more expensive than small pistol primers. It all adds up. So you end up paying more for a cartridge that might actually perform worse. All that being said I am shooting 45's...

Come to Idaho Falls then!

Wait you guys don't normally put your targets at 25 yards?!

That's a good idea but AI is getting pretty good at creating fake pictures easily.

With all the fake scam accounts on here a bunch of people have changed their SASS number to have xxx on the end. Now if you contact someone in a PM they can give you the last 3 digits and you can confirm them with SASS HQ to confirm you are talking with the real deal.