2012 Shooting Season Begins Soon, I’ll Be Ready: Weaver Un-Muzzled

Even though it's not quite over yet, you won't hear me griping about that long, hard winter we've had. Except for still being just too dry around here, it's been a pretty darn mild winter so far. So no excuses on why I haven't been out practicing more, other than Christmas eating all my shooting funds. But a wonderful thing happened on the way to the new year, I got a fabulous Christmas present from my bride; a Lee single stage press re-loader. Not fancy, but it works, and I'm finally learning the art of re-loading my own ammunition. And just "pickled tink" I might add. This past weekend after several weeks of gathering everything I needed, assembling the press and setting up a re-loading table, I finally have begun the process of making my own ammo.

The 9mm cartridge pictured below is the first one that would actually work in my Taurus if it was powdered and primed. I'm sure I'll be moaning about all this as the year goes on, but for now it's still very new and fun.  This weekend I hope to finish up on a hundred or so try them for real at the range.

Can't wait!

The cost savings over the coarse of a shooting season can be substantial. I figure I'm producing these for approximately $8 per box of 50.  Which is not a huge savings over the cheap stuff from Walmart or Academy, about $3 is all,  but if I have this figured right, I'm actually making better ammunition, the stuff that usually costs $7 or $8 dollars more per box. So if you start adding up the costs of 4 boxes per match, 2 or more matches per month, plus practice sessions, you can see where the savings add up very quickly.

You may notice I've changed the name of this series of articles from the "Shooters Log" to "Weaver Un-Muzzled". I did it simply because I noticed a while back there's a blogger for Cheaper Than Dirt's website that uses the same title, don't want to step on any toes.

The Texarkana Gun Club is firing up their first meeting of 2012 tonight and there's lots to discus and plan as the new year unfolds, be sure to check back here and see how things are progressing.

As always, if your looking for a great place to shoot in the Ark-La-Tex, a local instructor or some new friends to shoot with, you’ll find it all at TexarkanaGunClub.org.

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