Tip for Shooting Competitions on the Road

[FishNM]

Reloading tip for competitive shooters:

I am sure most of you travel with some pieces of equipment.

Make pre charges a few here and there when you have spare time and store them in these glass tubes. Then you dont have to rush and do it all at once. I can have 300 on hand all the time. They travel easy with prepped and primed brass and make it a breeze to load at the competition location! I have all my 50.6 charges of H4350 premade so I don't have to travel with a full blown scale auto dump setup. I travel with a much smaller scale in case changes need to be made to the load. I can dump charges and seat bullets once I get to the next range.

 

[Damfino]

Nice. Very meticulous! Your laboratory setting makes me feel like I'm loading in the back of a barn in the 1890s...

 

[FishNM]

Nice. Very meticulous! Your laboratory setting makes me feel like I'm loading in the back of a barn in the 1890s...

It is a 26' tandem carhauler I built into a competition trailer. My father is elderly and I take him with me so I built it to basically load and do gunwork in while out on the road. I usually haul a Polaris Ranger in it so he has transportation to pits or bathrooms or whatever he needs to do. It has A/C and heat, electric leveling jacks, propane for grill inside and out, DC power, A/C power 30/50 amp or it powers up on twin Honda generators, fully alarmed and GPS tracked.

 

[ClassCat]

We have been doing that in SR BR for several years .

 

[Medic505]

I guess I don't get it. Why not load before you leave the house?

 

[Papa Charlie]

I guess I don't get it. Why not load before you leave the house?

I think he wants to have the ability to change his loads. To me it seems like guess work compared to what I know about precision loading but maybe he knows something I don't. I believe this is popular in the BR competitions. How one would know what or how much to change is beyond me.

What I can tell is, that is one hell of a reloading room. Only thing missing is a coffee pot and a small frig for a cold beverage.

Never mind, I just saw his post about the trailer, looks like it has the coffee pot and the frig.

Very nice set up. I live on a boat and would love to have a portable shop I could do reloading and other work in. Another friend left the construction trade and moved onto his boat. Bought a box truck that he built a shop in with AC and Heat, complete wood working shop, benches, material. Man it is beautiful and of course mobile. He does beautiful work.

 

[chkunz]

For me, a service rifle XTC shooter, loading for the road means getting everything I need for the match, practice, training class, etc. loaded into my vehicle before I pull out of the drive and not forgetting something.

 

[FishNM]

I guess I don't get it. Why not load before you leave the house?

Because you might not have enough brass to load 600. So load 300 and take 300. Plus the atmospheric change from location to location is different. I may want a faster load at low altitude or a slower one at 9000ft. In addition, throat changes occur so seating depth may change. I like to seat on location.

 

[Immike]

I guess I don't get it. Why not load before you leave the house?

The beer tastes better at the range?

 

[memilanuk]

I may want a faster load at low altitude or a slower one at 9000ft.

Curious how that works...?

 

[sdean]

No wonder I shoot so poorly. I don't have that much stuff at home. Very nice rig.

 

[kvd]

I travel with a much smaller scale in case changes need to be made to the load.

That is a very nice mobile setup for sure but I'm not sure I understand your concern for minimizing the size and amount of stuff to haul to a match when you have clearly made exceptional effort and financial investment to be able to pack the equivalent of a small sporting goods store with with you to a match.

Your tip would be more for a guy driving a Ford Fiesta to a match - with the family.

The time savings would be an advantage to anyone who loads at the range. Thank you for posting the photos and tip

 

[Medic505]

I like to seat on location

Ok I'll bite....
What match has a COF of more than 180 rounds?
Where is the range that is 9000' elevation?

I use to seat bullets the night before until I figured out it was a waste of time.

 

[Falfan2017]

Ok I'll bite....
What match has a COF of more than 180 rounds?
Where is the range that is 9000' elevation?

I use to seat bullets the night before until I figured out it was a waste of time.

I've found seating bullets is actually an important part of the reloading process and is not a waste of time.

 

[Jennb]

Why would you seat bullets? I have seen a friend pull a bullet out of his brass because it wasnt seated well, push it in with his fingers, carefully put it in the chamber and shoot an X.

 

[Jennb]

With his trailer he does not have to go home between matches. It would be fun to be able to travel from match to match and have no need to go home and reload.

 

[FishNM]

Ok I'll bite....
What match has a COF of more than 180 rounds?
Where is the range that is 9000' elevation?

I use to seat bullets the night before until I figured out it was a waste of time.

I stay out

With his trailer he does not have to go home between matches. It would be fun to be able to travel from match to match and have no need to go home and reload.

Exactly Jenn

 

[FishNM]

Ok I'll bite....
What match has a COF of more than 180 rounds?
Where is the range that is 9000' elevation?

I use to seat bullets the night before until I figured out it was a waste of time.

Not necessarily compete but plenty of places to shoot and test at elevation above 9000ft here

 

[FishNM]

That is a very nice mobile setup for sure but I'm not sure I understand your concern for minimizing the size and amount of stuff to haul to a match when you have clearly made exceptional effort and financial investment to be able to pack the equivalent of a small sporting goods store with with you to a match.

Your tip would be more for a guy driving a Ford Fiesta to a match - with the family.

The time savings would be an advantage to anyone who loads at the range. Thank you for posting the photos and tip

It is more about not hauling a high end precision scale around and possibly damaging it. Yes I haul spare barrels, bags, rests, wind flags, dogs, electronic targets, drones and everything under the sun. When all said and loaded it is 8k lbs.

 

[Ringostar]

I guess I don't get it. Why not load before you leave the house?

Dean, I have to load at home also. I can't afford a nice mobile shop. However he has a very nicely set up trailer. Come and shoot the NM state match in October, you will be able to check out his trailer. I wish that I could take a variety of gear to test at Capitan vs the local 300yd range.