Stuck Bullet

[Griff]

Went to a CAS match today, doin' my usual lousy performance when I was helped out with a squib on the 6th of a 10 shot string... Oh well, now I know that particular bullet fits the groove diameter VERY well!

Checked out my son's rifle with the same loads, very accurate, in a rather unscientific test... Was shootin' at the brim of the cowboy's "hat" on the steel.

Not the preferred method to make a HP out of a FP!


Nice rifling:


And in this shot you can see the bulges at the base caused by displacement of lead from the lands:

[JerryB]

Well Griff, it does happen. I have seen alot of them since my grandson and I started shooting with the club up at Salem Arkansaw.With the loads some folks shoot it is hard to tell when they have a squib load, the old cap guns made more noise than they do. Last Saturday my grandson had a squib in his Marlin and the timer was fast enough to stop him from the next shot. We went to the truck and drove it out.That was the second one that I missed that I can remember since I started reloading in 1960. Reckon I need to pay more attention to my loading.

[20cows]

I'm glad you didn't try number seven!

[Nanuk]

Thats why I quit Cowboy shooting. I was using max loads for a 44 and everyone else was shooting the lightest loads they could. So much for "spirit of the game".

[Andrew]

Well, that's one way to slug your barrel. And a fast way to boot.

[Ysabel Kid]

I'm glad you didn't try number seven!

+1

[JimT]

Thats why I quit Cowboy shooting. I was using max loads for a 44 and everyone else was shooting the lightest loads they could. So much for "spirit of the game".

I don't care how light the others are shooting, I shoot my standard loads. I am not so much shooting against them as I am shooting against myself anyway.

I try never to let what others are doing intimidate or ruin my day.

Besides, most of the time, we are our own worst enemies! So I just let the others do what they want. I am gonna have a good time!

[Griff]

Thats why I quit Cowboy shooting. I was using max loads for a 44 and everyone else was shooting the lightest loads they could. So much for "spirit of the game".

Huge difference between a "light load" and a squib. The loads I shot today are very much like my std. loads, 6.5 grains of RedDot behind the pictured 200 grain RFN. Not a stout load by any stretch of the imagination, but adequate to ding steel and punch holes in softer medium. I won't get into to the damage that max loads can do to targets.

I don't care how light the others are shooting, I shoot my standard loads. I am not so much shooting against them as I am shooting against myself anyway.
I try never to let what others are doing intimidate or ruin my day.
Besides, most of the time, we are our own worst enemies! So I just let the others do what they want. I am gonna have a good time!

My loads are generally ANYTHING... BUT light! Sometimes, ya just get to going too fast on the progressive reloader and have a failure to dump. My old 550B doesn't have a powder checker, and when I'm loadin' smokeless, I'm not (but I guess I will from now on) checkin' each round for powder.

Sometimes we fall into bad habits and it takes something like this to give ya a wake up call.

[Nate Kiowa Jones]

Thats why I quit Cowboy shooting. I was using max loads for a 44 and everyone else was shooting the lightest loads they could. So much for "spirit of the game".

There's all sorts of room in the CAS game for light loads.
First off, working on these guns is what I do ,all I do. So I get to talk to the people that play the game all day long almost 24/7. Been doing this for the last 12-14 years. So i have talked to a lot of folks all over the world, now about this game.
The SASS organization has signed up over 80,000 shooters since they began.
At least 80% of the 80 something thousand SASS members have never competed in any kind of gun game before. Many have never even owned a handgun before.

If you go to just about any monthly match you will find the majority of the folks that shoot there have never gone to any shoot above a state level and don't ever plan to. At our local shoot more than a third of our shooters are women folk. You talk to any of them and they will tell you if it wasn't for the dress-up and the easy shooting they wouldn't be there, and you know what, neither would their Hubby's. At least most wouldn't get to shoot. Whatcha thinks gonna happen if we go to big guns and little target. Them lady folks and there hubby's won't be back.

Bottom line is SASS aint about highly competitive testosterone drive extreme gun handling skills.
SASS is structured so everybody can come play, shoot any style you want. Big guns, little guns, smokin gun, non smokin guns, one hand two hands, two guns, real old folks to real young kids and it needs to stay like that because that is why it's the fastest growing gun game ever. Plenty room for most all.
But, not much room for folks that want the game to change into the way they think it ought to be.

[RGS]

We had an incident at the local range a few months ago. One of our more experienced members unintentionally ran a test to see how many 158gr SWCs would fit down the barrel of a 6" Colt Python. He swore they all went bang and felt normal for his 3gr. Bullseye load. Then the gun locked up. He could not budge the cylinder. A companion's range rod stopped about an inch down the barrel and no amount of tapping would budge the bullet.

I saw the gun again this weekend and he out shot me with it... again. Turns out there were 7 bullets in the barrel. He carries some of them around in a baggie for show and tell. The gunsmith had to drill out the barrel and sleeve it a la Dan Wesson. The gun seems to shoot as well or better then ever.

I don't know if he ever solved the mystery of how he under loaded those target loads in the first place.

[Nanuk]

I guess I miss spoke, I meant max load for cowboy loads, 6 gns of titegroup with a 240 LSWC. Right at 1000 FPS out of my 5 1/2" Ruger.

I did not mean to ruffle feathers about the game, it just not my cup of tea.

[piller]

I haven't tried CASS or SASS yet, mostly due to time constraints. I think it sounds fun, and what I have read has emphasized safety. It is sad that there will be people in any event who feel that they must come near to cheating to win. What happened to the spirit of the game? Nanuk, it seems you ran into a few of the wrong kind of people.