El Chapo

What was the basis for that call?

Didn't seem to help anyone at EoT. We'll see with more match data.

If you run a slower powder, you may just have to bump up the load a bit to get enough slide speed. Where you're at isn't the worst choice, but W231 is better suited to 9mm powder capacity than a huge, low pressure case.

This is a forum, not an airport. There's no need to announce your departure.

Blacksmiths are not hitting steel with lead. I have AR500 that has been shot way more than 460 times and it has one ding--from the 20 prac at 3800 fps.

Doubt that is the problem based on the symptom. If you limp wristed it probably would stovepipe. If it ejects, there should be enough energy to feed. The powders you're using are also not ideal for lower velocity .45 Auto, you really should consider using something faster like Clays or something close to it in the burn rate chart if you want to do that, or bumping up the load a bit, it will be more reliable.

If those cartridges fit in your chamber, crimp was not the problem. If imperfections in your powder coat caused failures to return to battery, I suggest shortening your COAL slightly to give yourself more margin for that.

Plenty of us are thrilled about allowing .38 rifles. Count me as one of them. I never shot Wild Bunch and had no intention of buying a bigger rifle just to do it. Now it's become one of my favorite shooting sports. The rule of .40 or larger never made any sense and the power factor means nothing. If anyone took their ball and went home because .38s get to play, there will be plenty to replace them.

Neither are going to do anything to the steel at those velocities. Hundreds of thousands of jacketed 124 grain hollow points at 1400 are going into mild steel poppers and plates every weekend at IPSC, USPSA, and Steel Challenge matches throughout the world every weekend.

But now they got their Classic and we're still talking about it. Even 1/4" and especially 3/8" mild steel will take jacketed bullets at 1400 fps all day long, so that's a non issue. Armored steel will take at least double that depending on distance. I also disagree with you that the pistol is more damaging to steel, it isn't momentum that damages steel, it's velocity. I can blast my AR at AR500 with jacketed bullets at 3200 mv at 50 yards and it has and will take that for years without any major issues. I shot my 20 practical exactly one time at a piece of AR500 at 100 yards, muzzle velocity 3850, bullet weight 39 grains, aka, 150 pf. It left a 3/16" deep divot in the AR500 that's still there to this day. A 55 grain M193 bullet at 3200 is 176 pf. You can blast the steel at half that distance until your barrel is shot out and the only thing that'll happen is it'll chip the paint.

I'm still trying to figure out how a failure to return to battery and a failure to feed are different things in this context. I suppose in this case, if the case still has bell in it because the crimp die hasn't knocked it out, it's both, since a round that doesn't fit in the chamber is never going to "feed." This is a good time to share with the forum that I chamber check all of my ammo, and for wild bunch, my current tool that I use for that is my barrel, taken out of the gun and sometimes in front of the TV. I figure any round that has been in the chamber before is likely to fit in it again.

I don't really understand why there is so much obsession with this issue. No shooter is going to be slower with a 150 pf rifle. It makes no difference. 150 pf is not a lot. No shooter is going to be faster with a .38 at 60 pf. In fact, most of them are probably shooting 100+ pf .38 anyway. If anything, we should be talking about raising the power factor for the pistol. 150pf in .45 Auto is very weak. Factory hardball is 195 pf. Major pf in IDPA and USPSA is 165 and 170 in IPSC outside of the Open division. It is much harder to shoot a pistol fast with one hand at 165+ pf than it is at 150, and much harder to shoot the pistol fast than any rifle at any power factor. If we were serious about power, we'd be mandating 180 or more, which isn't pushing .45 at all.

In USPSA, your gun will be weighed, it has to fit in a box, and the thumb safety has to work. After that, 3 rounds are fired over TWO chronographs, the velocities multiplied by your bullet weight from the round they pull a bullet from, and the power factor is calculated by taking the average and truncating any decimal. If you don't make power factor, they fire three more rounds and average again. If you still don't make power factor, the last of the 8 rounds collected from you, you're given an option. They can pull the bullet and re-calculate the power factor based on that bullet's weight or they can fire it and re-average your numbers and see if you make it. If you don't make major, you're scored minor. If you go sub minor, you shoot for no score. If your gun is overweight or doesn't fit in the official dimensioned box, you get bumped to the Open division, or if it's not offered at that match, you shoot for no score. If your thumb safety doesn't work, that gun is out of the match unless you can fix it. If you have another one and the rangemaster says okay, you shoot that gun. Both the old and new gun have to be chroned if it's safe to fire, but you won't be allowed to holster the gun with the broken thumb safety again. If you refuse or miss chrono somehow, you shoot for no score. And perhaps most importantly of all, if the chrono breaks, fails calibration, or is otherwise unavailable, everyone who was chronoed when the equipment was working gets the results they got, and everyone else gets their declared power factor regardless of the fact that they can't chrono. I've never seen or heard of that happening. The last major match I was at, a guy came all the way from Canada to shoot for no score because his safeties were about .010" too wide to fit in the box. I also shot one years ago where one guy loaded for the whole squad (posse) and all of them went minor, and it wasn't even close, 150-155 when the pf for major is 165. And as Bogus said, chrono is a stage. Everyone has to chrono when it's their time at that stage. Usually it goes quickly so it's nice if it's at lunch time, you'll get a longer break before the squad ahead of you gets done shooting. They also don't have to let you use the 8 rounds you gave them, they can ask for a mag off your belt anytime they want. This is recommended at all state level competitions and required at all regional and national level matches. This procedure isn't perfect but I've never seen someone get screwed by it. Although I barely made it at my last match--I won't go that close again. I'm not one to fly too close to the sun.

Or just rules for the sake of rules. If I won a match because someone's grip safety didn't work, I'd give the real winner the buckle. I still have guilt over a match win I had last year that was caused by a stage DQ for moving with a loaded gun, because even with the miss, the guy probably would have beaten me by something like 20 seconds if it wasn't for that rule.

I wonder why we care if the safeties work if we're not allowed to move with loaded guns or have loaded guns in our holsters. Would you really want to win a Wild Bunch match because your fellow competitor's grip safety didn't work when tested?