Last week I asked for some help gathering numbers for improving the loop carrier e-match drill stage. Through no small effort on my part, I forgot to ask folks to record the single most important information item I was hunting for. But before I ask those of you with an unlimited ammo budget of (another) 12 rounds to help me with this again, I’m going to get the gear to the range and then double-check the *written* directions. On a related note in preparation for the drill test, I needed to loosen the tension on the loop ammunition holder’s individual loops. After a lot of testing, I settled on taking a 2-inch strip of cellophane tape, doubling it over on one end by about 1 millimeter, and then wrapping individual tape strips around each of six dummy rounds. Then with the aid of some extremely hot water, I slipped the cellophane-wrapped rounds into the loops, and wet the loops with a sponge. Then I left the loop carrier out in the bright sun to dry for the day. I would give the result a 90% success rate. The dried loops now held the fresh, untaped rounds with enough friction that they would not drop out, but loose enough to offer the rounds quickly when drawn out. For the record, all the shorter-than-2-inch strips didn’t create enough extra give to notably improve the retention/release situation. Alternatively, cellophane tape strips of 2-1/2-inch and 3-inch left the loops too loose and they would no longer reliably retain the rounds. For those curious, once I opened up the loops too much, I simply removed the rounds and rewet the loops with the hot water again. Leaving them out in the sun a second time, they shrunk up again and I was free to try again with the correctly measured cellophane-wrapped rounds.
