This may not amount to a hill of beans but it's an itch that I can'y scratch.
While watching some YOUTUBE videos of people shooting silhouette I noticed something that I just don't get. At a (I believe) Texas regional match and at the Nationals In Raton, shooters from Texas were loading ammunition one round at a time. Specifically many folks were wearing "Austin Rifle Club" shirts and hats.
The cartridges were being put into the rifles via the loading gates, but one at a time, one round before each shot. So they were being cycled through the action as required. In Pennsylvanian and Maryland where I have shot, five rounds are typically loaded when the "Ready" command is given. I would find fiddling with the rifle prior to every shot distracting.
So my question is.......
Is this a common practice at some clubs or in some areas? Is it a requirement at the Whittington Center or at a range you know of?

Just curious
David

Barrel resonance... Some rifles actually have a huge change in POA/POI with 5 rounds in the mag hanging from the barrel. Rules require round to be chambered from mag, doesn't stipulate all 5 rounds have to be in the mag at the same time. People do the same in HP. Open bolt, snap one round into mag, close bolt loading round from mag into chamber....

I tried it last year and had a couple people giving me hell because they thought I was "single" loading.... I can see the benefit but it is also a little more time consuming...

It also helps to slow you down. I load all 5 at once and almost always shoot my 5 in less than a minute. I should single load but I'm to set in my ways...

Here's another explanation.

If you only push one cartridge into the tube, the spring is not compressed much - the first one is always easy - so why not make every one "the first one". And, by extension, when the fifth one is being pushed in, the spring is becoming quite compressed so the process requires a bit more effort.

Single loading may also be of benefit to those who don't crimp. Because the cartridge is simply being cycled through the action it is never subjected to recoil. If all cartridges are in the magazine tube, all, except the first chambered, could have their OAL altered. Not really a desirable outcome for your carefully assembled match winning cartridges.

49er

I load 1 at a time through the gate. It gives me a chance to set the rifle down and it slows me down as well. I have did this for so long it is just second nature to me. And i am from PA also.
Mike Haynes

Hey Mike!
Good to hear from you. I hope to see you during the 2018 match season.
I shot with you at Bradford, Ridgway and Atglen. It's been a year or two since we've been at a match together. I really want to make the spring match that Al runs.

The main reason for my original post was that everyone in the videos were doing it and I was wondering if it was required.........

i load one at a time through the loading gate. it slows me down and makes me use all of my time. i am that guy that is still shooting his last two shots when others are finish. i have to make myself slow down in smallbore.

I load all five into the magazine if I'm shooting 22lr in smallbore cowboy rifle or 22 mag in pistol cartridge cowboy rifle. I load one at a time through the loading gate and cycle that same round into the chamber if I'm using any centerfire cartridges for pistol cartridge or centerfire cowboy rifle. As others have said, it helps me to slow down and it also helps make sure that the feel of the rifle and point of impact relative to the point of aim is the same. With my 30-30 in centerfire cowboy rifle, the rifle feels a lot different with five rounds in it than it does with one. It also has a slightly different point of impact.

Single loading does two things for me.
1. It slows me down and makes me concentrate on one-shot.
2. It reduces the forward weight of the rifle. I shoot a Teddy Roosevelt commemorative and it has plenty of barrel and weight.
3. Helps me keep count of which target I'm on

Yes, thats 3 - I said I needed help counting.

Michael

DAVIDMAGNUM wrote: ↑Sun Oct 15, 2017 2:24 pm ...(snip)
So my question is.......
Is this a common practice at some clubs or in some areas? Is it a requirement at the Whittington Center or at a range you know of?

Just curious
David

It's not a requirement, but is more common than not, at least in CLA matches and PCCLA matches where someone is shooting anything other than a rim fire caliber (or a centerfire/PC rifle, like a Henry) that loads like a rimfire.

My wife and I are a couple of the several shooters featured in the videos you mentioned, which (at least those featuring the ARC shirts) were shot at Raton during the CLA match, during the Nationals a couple years ago...

Folks load a single round (via the magazine/gate) and fire one round at a time for a few reasons;

#1, Cedestech touched on the affect on barrel resonance and changing possible POI.

#2, Snaketail2 touched on other benefits related to it... Particularly with a light gun mount, the added weight of four 180 to 205gr projectiles in their cartridges stacked in a magazine tube can change the gun's recoil and resultant muzzle rise with each successive shot, changing the POI slightly.

#3, and most significantly for MY guns that I use in CLA/PCCLA... They will not even hold 4-5 rounds in a magazine.

It does slow the pace down and make the shooter be very deliberate in the preshot routine and, at least for me, more focused.

My .02,



- Tim

Here in MT I see most folks loading all 5. I load all 5 at the start as well. I've done some practicing trying to see if my POI changed or recoil changed or anything significant and I never felt/saw it. Probably just means I need to practice more!

I appreciate the responses. I now have an idea of what is going on. As I tell my grandchildren, I am 56 years old, there is plenty of time to learn new things. There was a time I thought the folks using timers on the firing line was a bit......much. I mean, come on, this is not the Olympics! Right?
Then one day I shot a match with someone using a timer. After I was done eating crow, I bought a timer. It slowed me down(well helped to)and put an end to the panic, (I think I am)almost out of time shots. Using a timer wasn't magic or a trick. My scores didn't go up dramatically overnight, but go up they did. Winning a match isn't the objective, shooting to my average, my level of capabilities is. When I am shooting well the fun increases also.
So this spring when I start shooting my new to me 38-55, there may not be a magazine full of long cartridges. My score may not go up dramatically overnight . Yet by then at 57 I may have learned something new.

Thank You All
Hit a chicken for me . I hate chickens!

Dm familiar with the PA shoots but where in MD are the CLA shoots? Charles County was the closest before it shut down several years ago. Thanks

dsa in sudlersville on 3rd sat of the month , October thru march