How many rounds per year before a progressive makes sense?

[Bkreutz]

How much lead do you have on hand? You must run a magma caster?

I shoot plated bullets.

 

[calmex]

Calmex, thanks for the detailed response.

I have fond memories of joining a shooting club on the south side of Guadalajara in around 1964, or so. I was the only kid there, the rest of the members were adult men.

We used to have chicken shoots at 100 meters. We shot .22 rifles, no rest, at an actual chicken, tied to a post. Whoever killed the chicken won that round and got to keep the chicken. Workers cleaned the birds for us. I came home with many Sunday chicken dinners. As a kid they let me shoot on a "si pega, paga" basis. If I hit it, I pay the admission fee. Otherwise, if I misses, my admission fee was free.

The adult members shot live goats with center fire rifles at, I think, 300 meters.

Pigeon shoots involved releasing live pigeons, and shooting them with shotguns.

What a fun and safe gun club that was! I really enjoyed the shooting and the members.

Yeah, they have the metal chickens at our range in Queretaro. They do the live goat shoot quite regularly and the live pigeon every Friday afternoon. It's very popular.

I would not stand out in front of a bunch of guys with shotguns and throw live birds into the air for all the tea in China, but they've had no accidents. I also would not run 30 or 40 yards behind a live goat with a chile stuck up where the sun don't shine (to assure it will run, tethered to a wire) while a bunch of guys 300 meters back bang away at it -- but again, they've had no accidents. It just bothers my Canadian sensibilities to see people moving openly downrange while other people blast away -- often with an open beer or something stronger close at hand.

In the pistol shooting, I have a certain, small amount of absolute control and have stopped the drinking while shooting at our events. After the guns are in their bags and the taco-stand opens up (delicious tacos with all the trimmings at the club!), the cold beer certainly flows. I have never had a problem with that. I'm just too prudish to believe that booze and running around with a loaded gun in an IPSC event is a good thing.

Bulk reloading and intensive shooting is just catching on down here -- right at a time that the civil authorities are doubling-down trying to make sure that supplies like powder and primers are super hard for us to get. Obviously, they cannot stop the cartels, and in many cases have no wish to, so stopping shooting supplies destined for civilian use has become a nifty way to make headlines. Although the actual Mexican law allows reloading, the Army says it is prohibited. So the game is on, as usual.

From the number of people I know who have purchased a progressive -- mainly the Dillon 550 or 650 presses -- in the last couple of years I would say the campaign to stop us from enjoying ourselves has not been all that successful so far, although it is irritating.