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Post by mbaneacp on Dec 22, 2009 23:06:34 GMT -5
Jeff, Boge and I are probably kin, but that's because EVERYBODY from Tennessee is "kin," more or less...our gene pool is very shallow...
Michael B
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Post by mbaneacp on Dec 20, 2009 12:51:54 GMT -5
So Jeff...whatdaya think? Had it at the range yesterday, and the people who handled it wanted to buy it on the spot. Wish I had some of that hot sauce of yours to lube it up!
Michael B
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Post by mbaneacp on Dec 19, 2009 9:40:46 GMT -5
Blkhawk73, given your screen name, I'm gonna say you're going to be a happy puppy...
Cabbage patch dolls? I invested in Beenie Babies...
mb
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Post by mbaneacp on Dec 18, 2009 20:29:03 GMT -5
Picked up a bunch of T&E guns on the way home from the airport today...one of the boxes was from Ruger, and when I cracked it open I was overcome with a wave of "cooooooool" Called Ruger and told them I would be keeping that sucker. You know my tastes...similiar to you guys' tastes...you're gonna like this one. January 4 embargo date on our videos...
Seen it yet, Boge?
Michael B
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Post by mbaneacp on Dec 3, 2009 22:36:41 GMT -5
I have one of the Mag-Na-Port versions, and boy, is it a great little gun!
Michael B
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Post by mbaneacp on Dec 3, 2009 22:33:57 GMT -5
You may not want to talk about the internal lock, but I have video of the 329's lock jamming the gun while shooting 240-gr Black Hills JHPs. The internal lock on an ultralight frame is an inherently compromised system. Once the lock was exorcised, however, the 329's a great .44 Special with the ability to fire the boomers when you need it. I will mention that even the Buffalo Bore 255-gr Keith "reduced recoil" .44 Magnum loads designed for the 329 are a handful, but comforting in bear country.
Michael B
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Post by mbaneacp on Nov 28, 2009 13:45:06 GMT -5
Nice looking piece, especially for the price! I have a soft spot for 38-40...my first "big bore" centerfire was a 38-40 Colt New Service with a 7 1/2 inch barrel I confess to hot-rodding the round unmercifully...I shutter to think about some of the loads I put through that gun! And BTW, whomever I swapped it off to, I'd like ti back now, thank you! Hamilton Bowen built me a 38-40 S&W off a like-new .357 Highway Patrolman a few years back for SHOOTING GALLERY. It's eventually going to be my Official BBQ Gun, engraved, ivory grips, etc., as soon as I win the lottery. I load much more moderately these days, an easy load of Unique under a 180-gr lead bullet. It's also a sweet gun with the Black Hills cowboy loads.
Michael B
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Post by mbaneacp on Nov 28, 2009 13:17:23 GMT -5
Never had a sheriff's model without ejector, but am pretty crazy for short-barrelled SAs in general. As I mentioned I have a 4-inch birdshead Vaquero .44 Mag in the works with Hamilton Bowen, and just got one of the really beautiful USFA 3 1/2-inch .44 Special "Double Eagle" bridsheads to go with my Cimarron/Uberti Thunder 3 1/2-inch .44 Special. I give points to the USFA for a Colt-style hammer-mounted firing pin, which isn't nearly as fragile as the Uberti pinned-in pin. Also for the elegant Bisley hammer on the USFA.
Stronly agree with the idea of performing some basic cowboy action shooting mods on a short-barrled SA for carry — widen the rear sight notch and square and groove the front sight blade to give you a better, more quickly acquired sight picture. You'll also probably need an action job/new springs...the USFA has a mainspring that apparently came off a tractor.
Strongly recommend Bob Mernickle's superb PS6 high ride SA holster. Bob's a hardcore SA guy and the PS6 is the best concealed carry holster for a short-barrelled SA I've ever come across. Ted Blocker Holsters also does a really slick concealed carry holster for SAs where the holster basically rides in a loop threaded onto the belt...I do a poor job of describing it, but it is comfortable for all-day carry.
Michael B
Michael B
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Post by mbaneacp on Nov 27, 2009 23:05:14 GMT -5
Have had lots of eye problems over the last couple of years....strongly recommend talking to the eye doctors at DECOT HY-WYD (http://www.sportglasses.com/)...they are shooters and they understand our issues.
Michael B
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Post by mbaneacp on Oct 31, 2009 19:07:19 GMT -5
Not done yet...still percolating through Hamilton Bowen's shop. Will post pixs when it comes home!
mb
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Post by mbaneacp on Oct 31, 2009 18:30:41 GMT -5
The first class was indeed a Ruger event...May's class is a GUNSITE class. Bring what you want. I'll be running my 1956-vintage Dave Clement's Flat Top .357 or maybe my Hamilton Bowen .44 birdshead Ruger Texas Longhorn copy...
Michael B
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Post by mbaneacp on Oct 30, 2009 21:52:15 GMT -5
I play myself — poorly — on television.
mb
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Post by mbaneacp on Oct 11, 2009 17:46:54 GMT -5
Taz...There's nothing problematic about the awards systems...people compete with other people in their class and awards are given accordingly. Some of those classes are age-based; some are based on a style of shooting and/or costuming. Every shooting sport has similar divisions (USPSA, for example, divides by classes A, B, C, D; by age group and by the type of gun shot; I'm still trying to figure out trap). Just as in every sport, people who win in their classes get awards. You may be thinking about prizes — SASS allocates prizes by drawing, a perfectly viable alternative for an amateur sport. USPSA's prize table system has led to a culture of sandbagging ("If I shoot at an A level, but I intentionally dumb down my scores so I win C class and get to go to the prize table earlier than if I was 25th A...") and no end of problems with sponsors. I've been there and I speak from painful experience. What I have seen at SASS matches is numerous cases where "name" shooters win a gun or some other big prize in the drawing, then hands the prize over to a new shooter.
I have a "mea culpa" on the HIGH OVERALL...no shooting sport that I know of, including SASS, WANTS to recognize a high overall. The heads of the sport are adamant that people only compete with others in their class. However, certain "as&^&les" in the media — me first and foremost — insist on knowing "who won?," because it's an easier thing to explain to viewers in a 22 minute show than reading a list of 20 class winners while the viewers sprint for the remote control. Sorry about that!
Don't mean to belabor this, Taz, and hope I haven't given offense...
Michael B
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Post by mbaneacp on Oct 11, 2009 12:55:17 GMT -5
All competitions are what they are...no more, no less. And you can only take from a competition what you bring to it. I often hear about how competitions are sullied by a "win at any cost" attitude among some competitors. Yet as the person who probably attends more competitions for filming than anyone else in the country, and as a lifelong competitor myself, that's not what I see in the field. Rather, I see sports that have evolved in the direction the majority of their participants wanted then to go.
Interestingly enough, I spend a lot of time in shooting classes and with top instructors...it's easy to tell a competition-trained shooter...he/she has a higher level of gun-handling skills, a much greater ability to quickly acquire a target/targets, an ability to "blow past" a jam or firearms failure and, generally, a greater ability to perform under stress than a non-competition shooter. A couple of years ago we did an interesting test...in an advanced concealed carry class, we had 4 shooters — 2 were veteran shooters who practiced at least twice a week, dry-fired in their homes, ran drills against each other and, in short, did everything right but didn't" believe in" competition. The other 2 shooters were "B" and a "C" level USPSA regular competitors. In the standard exercises, all the shooters were par, with the non-competitors a little better in the accuracy department. As the instructor turned up the heat, the non-competitors began to falter...small blips in gun-handling skills began adding up to larger mistakes. The higher the induced stress, the harder the non-competitors struggled. When the instructor induced jams, it was no contest...although the non-competitors had trained extensively, they were not able to train under true time stress, even the artificial stress of competition.
I and a number of other instructors have seen similar patterns for years. The artificial stress of competition — and what type of competition doesn't seem to matter — seems to "inoculate" shooters against higher levels of stress.
My $0.02 worth...your mileage may vary...
MB
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Post by mbaneacp on Oct 9, 2009 18:31:04 GMT -5
SASS eliminated the modern/traditional differentiation a while back, as it was a non-issue. As an active SASS shooter, I would like to take a bit of an issue with your post. SASS was never construed to be a historically accurate reenactment society...rather, it's a sport built around shooting replicas of the guns of the Old West. The sport is broad enough that most people can find whatever niche they're interested in...you want to dress up, you want to race or you want to shoot real old guns, you want to shoot black powder, there's a place for you. If you want to dress up in saloon girl drag and you're a guy...weeeeeeeellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll, maybe not!
In my first column for the COWBOY CHRONICLE, I noted that I am a competitor. I have shot some form of handgun competition since the early 1970s. In SASS I shoot .357 Flat-top Blackhawks...of course, that's not a big surprise...I have been shooting .357 Flat-top Blackhawks since I was 8 years old, which is more than a few years back. The round I shoot mimics the .38 Long Colt, circa 1875. I occasionally shoot .44 Blackhawks (and previously .44 Vaqueros) because I love the .44 Special. I run loads a bit hotter than the .44 Russians (although I'm thinking of getting a .44 Russian cylinders for the Blackhawks and see if it's really as accurate as Hamilton Bowen says, in which case I may ponder a matching pair of Bowen .44 Russian Vaqueros).
I wear cowboy hats and boots, but then again I live in rural Colorado. Everybody wears cowboy hats and boots.
If you want more of an historical accurate sport, I strongly recommend NCOWS, the National Congress of Old West Shootists, who run wonderful matches and, I promise you, you'll never see an adjustable sight!
Thanks for listening!
Michael B
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