awesome job Rob, congrats

if you shoot in the upper node, the case is so full that when you seat the bullet it compresses and fattens up to a 30 cal. its all the rage!

it was a great week end, nice to see a good turn out, I think I was more lucky than good,.

Thanks for the hospitality Cal , looking forward to it

short range br is generaly considered to be 100-200 ,

Thanks cal . I will be there

if its for your bag gun Dan, you can fire form the brass in the barrel you put on the gun ,word is the new barrels need 50-70 rounds to settle down anyway,fire form ,load a grid and your good to go.
you might want to get a sizing reamer that matchs your finish reamer from Kiff,buy a die blank and make a sizing die,a little bit of expense but well worth it.if the sizing die's you have are the ones you had in Phoenix at the nationals they may not be optimum.if you Look in Boyers or Ratigans book they explain how to tell if the sizeing die is good ........or scrap.
Hope that helps.
See you at the range

If its for a new barrel Dan ,measure your neck diameter in the chamber, cut your brass to the neck thickness that you like ,Load the brass to be fire formed with your powder and bullets, usually you will only get around 28.2 of 133 in them, seat some bullets and shoot them,if the lot of  brass is good and you have a really good sizing die your brass problems will go away,it will also break in the barrel as well(if it needs it).its quick and easy.most are doing around 20 cases, there are some different theories on how long you run the brass, this again depends largley on your sizing die/chamber fit.weather is getting nice so we should all start getting out to practice

Easy to find out what guys are using Tom .equipment lists are usually posted for all the big ( and small ) shoots.
I've yet to see a Ron smith barrel on an equipment list at a shoot I've attended , again Doesn't mean they won't work just means no ones using them. Lots of krieger and bartlien .

As I understand it Tom the reason barrel makers still lap cut barrels is due to hard spots in the steel , which seems to be the biggest complaint of barrel makers and top bench shooters alike In the last few years( they all complain that the steel is not as good as it used to be ) .it is more pronounced when pulling buttons but still can have an effect on a single point cutter. Twist on a button barrel is never dead consistent the trick is to find the spot where the rifling is either steady or preferably speeding up ,ie a gain. The other big deal for button barrels Is proper stress relieving. Not as big of a problem with cut rifle barrels but some of the top barrel makers in the U.S still stress relieve and lap after the rifling is cut. I think there are many things that go into a top performing barrel . Every barrel maker seems to have their own recipe  , learned from many years of experience. At the end of the day how it shoots in competition is all that counts for us in Benchrest.I have tried barrels from most of the "top" barrel makers in Canada an the U.S and one thing is for certain when you find a truly "hot" barrel cherish it, enjoy it and do your best to look after it because when it finally burns out you will miss it and drive your self crazy looking for another.I have not tried one of Ron's barrels as of yet probably because I have not seen any of them in the short range BR lists.doesn't mean any thing other than no ones probably tried them out yet , I am always on the hunt so would be willing to buy a couple and shoot em to see how they do . By the Best way to get the word out for our barrel makers is to get and compete.everyone wants the stuff that wins !