THR Handloaders 'Advance'?

[dc.fireman]

So I've been mulling this idea over for the past few months, particularly the last several weeks while at the range...

My wife and her scrapbooking hens have the 'retreats', where they meet someplace neither too near, nor too far and basically scrapbook all day, and all night. I usually end up a scrapbook widow for three weekends a year... which got me thinking - she owes me!

So... Is this something any of you other High Roaders would have an interest in? Not scrapbooking, but a reloading session? I kind of envisioned something along these lines:

- limit it to 12-20 of us, and we pick a popular caliber

- break those 12-20 into 3-4 man teams, with the experience levels spread evenly across the field

- the teams spend one day, and one evening reloading the same caliber

- the next day we have a 'shoot off'.

- the winning team goes home with bragging rights, and some good memories

- the other teams go home with some good memories

- everyone goes home with a little more knowledge about handloading.

Obviously, there are logistics involved here, not normally associated with scrapbooking... like firearms transport, lodging/camping, and picking a location which is near a suitable place to hold the shoot-off...

What say you? Has this been done before? Is there any interest?

 

[LiveLife]

I think it's called pistol/rifle/shot gun matches ...

Sounds good if logistics can be worked out.

 

[dc.fireman]

I was attempting to skirt around the word 'match'... This would be more for the handloading aspects - the shooting is just a bonus...

 

[longdayjake]

The only downside I can see to this is the tendency for people to get lazy when they think someone else might catch their mistakes.

 

[Hondo 60]

Wish I lived closer to you.

If anyone in Wisconsin wants to do that, just let me know.
I'd offer my house as a starting point.
That sounds like fun.

 

[REL1203]

I live in the same city as you, i would be interested in something like this

 

[BullfrogKen]

Be tough to put all those components, bench, presses, and equipment in a car and drive it somewhere. Wouldn't it?

 

[Beak50]

Not a bad Idea.Maybe you could get people together in different part's of the country,Like NE,SW ect..in groups's like you said and have a Shooting Day"s" Event.Then compare the "score's" loading info ect..to the other group's involved.And have a Gun Show,Shoot Off Week or Day's Once a year.But that would be alot of prep and planning.

 

[dc.fireman]

Actually - no. I was in fact thinking I could really make the wife jealous when I showed her just how little 'stuff' I needed to bring to have fun.

I figured this:

1. One guy brings a press - single stage
2. One guy brings some sort of portable table
3. One guy brings dies
4. One guy brings powder dispenser and scale.
5. Everyone brings brass, bullets, calipers and a lb. of powder (or we could arrange to split it up beforehand, so we don't end up with 20+ lbs. of powder)

6. Everyone brings their firearm, chambered in the caliber of the weekend.

Can anyone else think of any other logistics to work out?

 

[dc.fireman]

I live in the same city as you, i would be interested in something like this

OK! So lets get a list then... we could try to pick a location somewhere in the middle of all of the participants...

 

[StrutStopper]

If I still lived in Centreville I'd be interested. If you feel like reloading here in Rhode Island let me know. I'm just getting started in reloading, I just cleaned and deprimed a couple hundred .40s casings.

 

[dc.fireman]

OK. I'll kick it off. In this, the 100th anniversary of the 1911, I'd like to dedicate this 1st gathering to the .45 Auto caliber pistol round.


How about we load 250 rounds. and divide the 250 between us, and shoot for score using the standard NRA Pistol targets?

Edit: I'm in the Mid-Atlantic area - I could travel as far as Ohio & South Carolina in a days time. If we use this method of a days travel time, we could probably get near 10-12 of us to meet up, load, and shoot in 2 days time, leaving the final day for travel home...

 

[LiveLife]

Those of us that are not near you guys could duplicate the bullet/powder/charge and post our targets in "spirit" ...

So, what bullet type/weight/powder/charge and distance to target?


Here's a PDF of 1" square target I use for accuracy testing I can offer to use:

 

[dc.fireman]

Great idea, BDS...

How about a 230 gr. round nose bullet? Powder type, primer type, COL, all left up to the loaders? How would we score that particular target? Measure group sizes, and come up with the average for each teams group?

We could even break it down further - two targets, both slow fire. One at 10 yards, and one at 25 yards?

 

[Bush Pilot]

Can we wear jammies, drink cocoa and talk about girls? What about pillow fights?

 

[dc.fireman]

Can we wear jammies, drink cocoa and talk about girls? What about pillow fights?

If you're into that sort of thing... we'll find you a roommate who shares your "interests"...

 

[Tim the student]

Sounds interesting. Logistically impossible, but interesting.

But honestly, I think I'd rather watch some of the guys here on THR reload. Can you imagine how much a guy could learn from hanging out with RC and some other guys here?

Can we wear jammies, drink cocoa and talk about girls? What about pillow fights?

You can. I'll be in a suit of armor, drinking room temperature Schlitz, following that with shots of Templeton Rye, howling at the moon and shooting roman candles off. After the reloading session of course! (Ok, I wouldn't - but maybe in my younger days I would have done that...)

 

[popper]

Kind of like a streamside fly-tying class. Unfortunatley, I think it waould go against the 'rules' we use. No distractions, don't shoot other's loads, etc. I would think that an organized loading demo with spent primers and dummy powder would be good to educate (help, visual with feedback) is a great help to all of us, that is why THR is soooo good.