Garrison Joe

Up to the MD, in reality. The best time to test is before the match, and then to allow shooter to obtain new ammo and retest. Testing during match and finding a failure, at big matches, there is usually no recovery allowed. Shooter gets a MDQ immediately. Same with gun weight or gun features. Much more friendly to spot any of these problems before any stages are shot, and allow shooter to recover if possible. But, practically speaking, this is not a big problem, because at the last WR WB match, no one failed for power factor problems, from what I heard. It's a problem that at big-match-level, occurs very rarely anymore. Good luck, GJ

Please don't make personal comments a part of commenting on a rule interpretation. It really is not conducive to getting folks to discuss a topic. And it's ad hominem. Let's get back to the discussion instead. ;D A mag follower that jams forward slightly can be resting on a slide release lever (from the inside of mag well), I have found, and that can jostle the release enough to have the slide drop as the mag falls past it. You folks are wanting to make that a failure mode separate from the slide lock not holding the mag. I say you are trying to place a MSV on a shooter when you cannot really tell what the fault was and if the cause was mechanical or operator malfunction. There has to be a simpler way to interpret this rule, and I'm suggesting that we should "No Call" any slide drop while reloading if the slide ever got a stationary slide lock. As well as the condition of the slide lock not holding on last round fired, which the rules already have put in writing, relieving the shooter from the penalty. The penalty of having to see the slide is down and racking the slide seems enough, even when the slide falls at some point after reaching lock but before the mag gets inserted fully. We probably can all see if the slide ever locked back, even temporarily, before shooter inserted a new mag. And we probably can see when slide failed to lock back at all, and the shooter then loaded a mag. I am in support of No Calling either of those two conditions. I think the "loaded mag with slide down" penalty is trying to prevent a true Tactical Reload. Not the accidental loading if the slide happens to fall for any reason on an empty chamber and the shooter continues to to insert the mag and then has to rack the slide. That is something I can call reliably. Why is that call much easier to make? Because the shooter will have to rack the slide and the TO will be able to see EITHER that a live round pops out (in that case, it was Tactical, and "MSV" applies); or that no round is ejected, in which case "No Call." Becomes very simple and easy to watch for and call. And there is physical evidence resting on the ground at the shooter's feet to keep the shooter from saying, "no, there was no round in chamber when I loaded." Good luck, GJ

Well, I would declare that both of you fellers are being proverbial H@@@A@@@@ for the "fault" we are discussing. Looking for a way to award a Minor Safety when it's pretty clear the shooter was trying to do the right thing. The OP said he could NOT see if the shooter pulled the slide release lever down as he dropped the magazine, and now you are wanting to ASSUME he did bump the slide release lever even though mechanical malfunction may have caused slide to drop (facts stated earlier - it only happened that one time in the match, and the shooter believes a borrowed magazine was faulty and did not get a secure slide lock accomplished). A pretty clear case of "looking for something to penalize the shooter on" from what has been stated here. Good luck, GJ

Oops, a typo edit attempt turned into a second reply. Cleaned it up some and deleted the double tap. Applicable rule is: Page 7, WB Shooter's Handbook The only point of contention between you two seems to be that the rules do not fully-enough define "slide lock failure." I would apply a common-sense definition of failure so that it includes what happened to this shooter. In other words, slide lock is supposed to hold the slide back until it is released by the shooter. One part of the slide lock function worked perfectly - it engaged when last round was fired. One function probably failed - it did not stay locked when the shooter ejected the magazine. Or, alternatively, the shooter bumped the lock enough to release it. Since there could have been a failure, I would apply Benefit of Doubt in shooter's favor to this call and would not call that a reload from slide down, AKA "Tactical Reload" Shooter did not gain any time by having things happen this way - it would have been faster if the slide had not fallen, because the shooter had to additionally rack the slide to charge the gun. Give the shooter the benefit, and declare that the slide lock failed to hold the slide, and call it a No Call. And I would wonder why the shooter still brings this up at the next match - let it go. Sometimes calls go your way, sometimes they don't. Don't upset folks by bringing something like that up again at a later match. Get over it. Good luck, GJ

I like state-level WB held separate from the state C'boy match - I can get to each one independently and it does not take a club with both areas of expertise to do the combo. There are very few willing to even TRY the combo. I like regional and bigger event, when I've got to do a lot of traveling and setting up, as an all-together combo. But then, I am devoted to shooting both. This does limit the venues that are competent at doing the combo match, though. A different (maybe better) schedule for EOT this year might have been WB AFTER the C'boy match. Mon-Tues-Wed. And do a separate Awards ceremony Wed afternoon. Good luck, GJ

Specifically examine this recent post: http://sassnet.com/wildbunch/forum/index.php?topic=1810.0 You should find that the rule books are now very close together on the penalties for unfired and fired rounds left in long guns between the Cowboy side and the WB side.

Yep, BD got it right on the head. If you ever have shaved lead while seating, you have pretty well destroyed a rifle bullet. It will still fire, but it won't hit what you want. Plus, the slight step is easier to crimp completely back down than the taper that most expanders put in the mouth. Good luck, GJ

Sounds about like the normal path that one wants to follow while working up cast boolit loads. I too like a neck sizer die, especially if I have just one rifle to load for that cartridge. And a Lyman M die to get minimal belling for case to allow easy seating. I find more accuracy faster when I have a selection of cast boolits to choose from. There is rarely exactly one and only one bullet that shoots well in a particular cartridge, but each gun may have it's own pet. Just was out Sunday shooting my 6.5 Swede. Best so far has been some Reloader 7 and a 150 grain bore riding Lyman bullet. Both 5-shot groups fired with the best load printed 1 1/4 inch at 90 yards. Good for only being the third loading session for that cartridge, but I've got 3 designs I can choose from and a raft of powders. Velocity seems, like most 6.5 Swedes, to want to be about 1500-1600 FPS. Good luck, GJ

Buying because you planned it and tried it and really needed it, is a WHOLE lot better than buying because the seller HAS to get rid of it. None of a seller's reasons matter - if you are looking for using it for YOUR purposes. Sorry, that's just the way of Cowboy competition shooting. Fortunately, there is usually a way for a gun that just doesn't work for you can be converted to something (e.g., another gun) that does work fine. Good luck, GJ

To speak about safety directly, WB rules don't care if your long guns have a safety, don't have one, or the safety is pinned in Fire position. Just no external mods. And, yeah, that 94 is a clunky gun that will occasionally jam up when running it fast. regardless of what smithing is done to it. It runs fine with rifle length chamberings, not with pistol cartridges at the speed we need. Good luck, GJ

Welcome to "the Party with a 1911 in your Hands"! Hope you continue to have a blast!

No requirement for ANY pouches. Come shoot! Put your mags on the table if you want to. Put 'em in a pocket! Put 'em in your back jeans pocket. Just come shoot! If some club wants to be difficult about this while you are getting your gear together, let us know which one so we can give them a rough time about running shooters off! Seriously, though, don't sweat the small stuff. Come out and have fun! Good luck, GJ

Never seen a major match right on a big holiday. They avoid 'em, it seems. Club matches - 4th of July, Labor day usually means a weak turnout. Family comes first for most folks. Good luck, GJ

No, not everyone over there said to do that! I DID NOT recommend doing that! I recommended cutting the dimple deeper or even putting a stronger spring in the tube. give-me-a-break! ;D

It's the hostage taker that hides behind that is hard for me, though.

(sheepishly) which is why I never use a Barney Fife.

Common malfunction clearance on a 1911 often means you jack out a live round (or even knock a round off the top of a mag as you pull it or insert it into receiver). The Barney Fife magazine (from Mayberry fame) gives you a quicker way to shoot one more round than to pull a full mag, shoot the top round, drop the mag and cycle the slide and engage the slide stop. If you never have malfunctions or loading mistakes, you never need one. ;D

Some amount of bragging and implied running down of other matches could be read into that advert. Hopefully it's in good fun. "Big Boy Britches" - well, I believe our costuming rules already keep out the shorts and speedos. :o I believe in the big tent theory. There is room for all kinds of WB matches. As long as the WB rules are followed, spotters stay awake, shooters enjoy it and it runs smoothly, I'll shoot what is out on the bays. It's nice to have a heads up that targets may be set to emphasize accuracy over speed, but I like shooting both kinds. I've found I do better at the accuracy matches recently, but I love Bordertown's WB "side" match, too, and it's all speed. I'm still trying to learn how to set my "expected shooting cadence" clock to properly match the targets. The more variety, the more chances to tune my clock.

So, you make your self your own darn check weight! Stop by a junk yard, pick up a chunk of heavy steel that you can cut down to ABOUT 40 ounces. Perhaps a heavy angle iron or even a short length of i-beam. Just using a bath scale, lop off pieces until you get between 2.5 and 4 pounds. When you go to a big match with a calibrated scale, have them weight your check weight. Write the weight on a label on the chunk. Then, if you get a cheap kitchen scale to do your own weighing, start by weighing your chunk and calibrate scale to read out that weight, and to read 0 when the scale is empty. You will be almost perfectly calibrated to weigh a 1911 then.

Swap out extended safety with standard one. Save a fraction of an ounce. ;D Grind positioning button off the grip safety. Save another fraction of an ounce. ::)

Tight holster will continue to be tight until you adjust it. Lubes are a "coverup" of the problem. Wet holster down well, stick oiled pistol in a good freezer bag, shove it down deep into holster and place in a warm place to reshape the holster to your gun. Couple of days, custom fit to your piece, and you won't be having to lube the leather. Good luck, GJ

Try this link for all ten stages. Let me know if you can't see them. https://plus.google.com/photos/102143975088562546523/albums/6123705287851739905?banner=pwa&authkey=CKeq8_r1mPqlugE

My suggestion for what I thought was a weak point of the match (the arrays of targets to be shot once each with rifle and once or multiple times each with pistol). Spotting that "array" of targets for fast shooters in an accurate manner is almost impossible for the folks we draw to matches. There were several 0,1,and 3 finger displays by spotters at WR for some of our faster shooters. Do away with having to spot those kind of shooter's choice of order target sets, and go to only knockdowns. Shooter can go as fast as they dare, all the spotters do is count the standing targets at the end. The ultimate shooting gallery. Yes, more knockdowns means resetting and higher target costs. But, if we want the game to be getting better as shooters get better, then we have to upgrade our target concepts, too. Good luck, GJ Oh, BTW, I really like 6 stages per day, and would like to return to that. Different strokes for different folks, I guess. And do the side matches and warmup stages on the day before match, perhaps? We didn't turn out many folks for side matches in the afternoon after the 5 main stages this time!

State 3 - per Dan's OP. Round with an indented primer, powder charged and bullet seated. In my book, that is a live round. I have fired at least twenty of those in matches quite successfully over the last year. I have a nasty habit of cycling the lever on 73's before I've gotten to the break point on the trigger. I get a light indent on primer. I load it next stage and it fires fine. For safety purposes, your state 3 HAS to be considered a live round. I can see lots more states for the ammunition than just 3. For example, what state is: round that has no primer but has powder and bullet? round that has a good primer, bullet seated but no powder? and a few more. I understand you want to get to the point of dividing the ammunition into two conditions, "live" and "otherwise". So that you can better understand the rules. Happy Jack's proposal or even mine, to use the common definition, will work, as long as the ammo can be inspected from five feet away and determined to be "live" or "nope, that's not a live round" Because it is the safety of the shooter or posse members that is the basis for establishing MOST of the rules in the WB (or Cowboy) handbooks.

I would NOT include the powder as being a necessary item to make a live round. A primer and bullet are enough for all of our rule-making purposes, and are MUCH easier to check on the firing line than having to disassemble a round to check if the loader put any powder in it or not. I checked all 17 places in the WB shooter's handbook where "live ammunition" is called out, and that is a lot of citations without a definition. It is assumed that the "common man's" definition of live ammo will be well understood. Until someone decides that it is important to include in the definition list, use the common definition and you will get good results. I did the thought-exercise of replacing "round containing a bullet" for all the places where "live ammunition" occurred - it worked for all the rules in WB shooter's handbook. "Live round" is what is used about 5 times in the Cowboy Shooter's Handbook. A "live round" is not defined there either. The common-sense definition of live round has served them pretty well for about 20 years or so. Bottom line - don't look for a definition for "live ammunition" to be added to the WB Shooter's Handbook anytime soon. Good luck, GJ