Had a horrible day today at the range with my Winchester '97s, nasty bastards that they are. I've got 3...guess how many are running? Yep...zippo..
Considering I'm shooting the Wild Bunch World Championships in 2 days, and we're filming for Shooting Gallery, I'd like to have ONE of the damn things work! I was hoping to do well, even if we were filming...Long Hunter is bringing me a spare, thankfully...I finally got one of the '97s to run with Fiocchi target rounds, of which I have 75 of the 100 needed for the match. Gonna start with mine with the Fiocchi, then change to Long Hunter's spare when the wheels come off mine.
Note to new shooters -- this is NOT how to shoot a major match! Did I mention that mt '66 .44 Special clone started FTF'ing about 3 out if 50 rounds? I'm changing to my Legacy M-92 clone, which has never malfunctioned. I need to change out the springs in the '66, but heck...am running out of time. I'm gonna convert the .44 Special to .44. Russian as part of that project.
Will definitely be shooting the C&S Para faux-1911, which was a rocket at the Saturday club match (where, yes, the '97 jammed on every single stage). I was flying with the 1911 & the rifle, but it doesn't matter when the shotgun doesn't work.
My Sweetie CLOBBERED me, BTW, She is going to be a champion. Absolutely!
I recorded the video blog and Down Range Radio today, focusing on the kerflunkle between the New York Times and the Appleseed Project. Please tune in...I think this is an important subject!
I'm shooting sporting clays with Larry Potterfield in a couple of weeks...hope to have the new Ruger O/U by then...I want to get serious about sporting clays over the next couple of years, and I want to settle on one shotgun. Since Ruger is a regular sponsor and I do love their guns, I'd love to settle on the Ruger Red Label Sporting Clays O/U. I've had good luck with the Winchester 101 Clays, and I think the Ruger is a better gun.
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No one, and I mean NO ONE, who is serious about sporting clays shoots a Red Label. Ruger has never made inroads with the serious clay target shooters.
I think few would agree that the RL is better than the new Winchester 101s.
Myself, I would choose the Browning Silver Sporting auto.
There is something inherently wrong with the Red Label for sporting clays. It just doesn't feel right for some reason and I never shoot them well. Best out-of-the box O/U for sporting clays that doesn't break the bank is going to be a Browning. I own or have owned Perazzis & Krieghoffs, yet my favorite SC gun remains my old Browning GTI. As for your '97 woes, you must be cursed. I have an original '97 and a Chinese one, they both run 100%! You should probably just chuck 'em and go with a side x side.
Dude! Perhaps the Laws of IPSC apply to cowboy guns too?
Ahem:
1) Guns love the smell of big-match fear. They will puke and choke and stumble the week before a big match, just to mess with your head. Don't let 'em get to you. Shoot the crap out of 'em.
2) Never, never, never change stuff the week before a match. Springs, loads, holster position, whatever. Just don't do it. It'll probably create more problems than it solves, and it gets in your head (see #1)
3)Remember, accuracy is a wholly unintended byproduct of unrestrained speed. Go as fast as you can, eventually *something* will get a hit
4)don't forget to have fun...
Bruce
Ah Bruce...so true! I started taking apart my Model '66 with the intent of changing just about everything on the inside...then I thought how I'd REALLY REALLY make fun of anyone who told me they'd done such a thing. That's when I decided to go to my back-up rifle...I'll give up speed, but I'll at least have something that goes bang!
JD, I do actually believe that '97s are a pure crap shoot. I have seen originals from the 1920s that are unconditionally bulletproof. Ditto for some of the Chinese guns (especially the current batch).
My Coyote Cap main match gun is super, as long as it's single-fed. But if you're facing a popper/clay pigeon combination and need to put a round in the tube, look out! In the WB side matches, the shotgun is started with the necessary rounds in the tube, so feeding is critical.
I believe (and certainly could be wrong) that when you start running the old guns or even the Chinese copies fast from the tube, you're putting a LOT more stress on the whole system...Bruce, you and I are familiar with that through IPSC...we take guns and subject them to stresses outside their original design parameters, then see what breaks. Which is usually "a lot!"
So JD, for regular CAS shooting I am going to an SxS Stoeger.
Re: the Red Label, I thought the ones I've shot moved and pointed very well, which is all I can base my choices on. Also, remember I live in a world of sponsorship, which I try to be open about. My relationship with my sponsors is more one of friendship than contractual obligation, but it is there nonetheless...
mb
"So JD, for regular CAS shooting I am going to an SxS Stoeger."
There ya go! John Wayne never used a trombone.
'97s should be Wild Bunch only. They ain't cowboy, and it's dumb seeing them loaded two at a time.
RE: The "Red Label";
When I was a kid, I was convinced that I couldn't play baseball well because my thrifty Dad bought me a Bill Tuttle baseball glove and not an Al Kaline (I'm in "Tiger" territory.), or a Mickey Mantle glove. I thought that my glove was inferior, and so went my junior ball playing career; inferior. Then, I had my moment of epiphany! I relized that what "Kid" said in the movie "The Quick and the dead" was the only truth that I needed to know. That was: "The gunfight is in the head and not in the hands"! Go figure. Later, in my more senior ball playing career, I amazed epople that I could hook a line-drive out of the air with my bare hand(!), let alone the gloved one.
So, if all I have to shoot is my old H&R single-shot 20 ga., then I'll still be competitive and often win.
Don't apologize for the Ruger Michael. Just go shoot it and win! Then, just wait to hear the wind whistling through those up-turned noses!
Life Member
"No one, and I mean NO ONE, who is serious about sporting clays shoots a Red Label. "
Who said he was serious? We're talking Michael "Shotguns Hate Me " Bane.
The good thing about a Red Label is that it is soo heavy that it is hard to stop swinging the gun.
Brand / sponsor loyality is justified in this case.
Ratcatcher 55
Mheh.
My SxS Stoeger has yet to fail on me.
And my Uberti Lightning is still running flawlessly, to the shock of everyone around me ( get one in .44-40 or .45LC, and take out the ejectors one at a time and polish them ).
Hi
I'm super interested in how you'd pin the loading block on a 66 Uberti to feed a shorter catridge reliably.
Hopefully you do a show and tell piece about it after you're done.
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