>Al, Some great shooting no matter how you look at it. Were you shooting 7's or 10's. Talking to Mark Taylor and he said tht Randy's 10's made his HBR gun come alive. Do you think you were disadvantaged in any way by shooting the 30 ? Recoil being on the list. SGR <

I agree, for his first group event, I believe Al did well; there IS a difference in strategy between group and score shooting - it takes a little experience to get past the score shooter mentality - especially at the closer yardage, where holding off is a matter of course for score shooting, but undesirable for group shooting . . . .

But my real issue is to pick on Mark Taylor - the ten ogive bullets had nothing to do with his Hunter rig discovering life - THAT was caused by his accepting the coaching that both Mike Bigelow and I had been offering for the last three - four years - simply put, Mark finally reached his "teachable moment"! ;)  Rock Bottom can render some degree of malleability in the most stubborn realms!

Mark decided that MB and I WERE trying to help - and that just possibly, we KNEW a little more about tuning a BR rig than your average HIGH POWER guru at the local club . . it took FOREVER to get Mark past 4064 and a "healthy" jump . . or, a .10" JAM! What we finally convinced Mark to do: ESTABLISH a BASE-LINE seating depth, RECORD THAT, then, perform incremental load developement, altering only one variable at a time . . .it seems so obvious . . but, in defense of Mark, he's not alone on THAT forsaken island. Once he became self-diciplined, the ducklings fell into line - quite ungrudgingly! IT was very rewarding to see Mark become enlightened - and to shoot to very nearly his potential; which, when he shot the "purple gun", was pretty respectable. . . I'd guess the "purple gun" suffered a round of depreciation!

Mark is a good example of a very good shooter who has been handicapped by his inability to TUNE his [very good] rifle to a competitive level . . and it didn't help that he was isolated & surrounded by faulty advice from [probably] mediocre [HIGH POWER mentality]   advisors . . . .

Nothing here is intended to disparage or ridicule Mark, but only to point out that, no matter how helpful we intend to be, some people are just not ready to listen - our job is to learn to recognize the "teachable moment" . . .THAT could save everyone a LOT of frustartion.

Further, my main point is that I do not believe in "magic" bullets - as most know, I have my opinions regarding them, but I also believe that almost any BR quality bullet (one with concentric shank and nose sections) can be tuned to perform in most any BR quality barrel - it may rquire a little time and effort, but good stuff is, well, good stuff . . .

Keep 'em ON the X! R.G.