With nothing better to do, I decided to strip and clean up a new Ruger Mark IV magazine. When taking it apart, the spring and its metal extension went "sproing" and I heard it hit something metallic. Since this corner of my shop is fairly cluttered, my wife and I started pulling stuff out and looking in all the obvious and not so obvious places. No dice. Among the items stored in that corner is my 30" drop tube with a small aluminum funnel on top. The tube is 3/8" brass tubing. When we were shoving the drop tube back in its corner, I happened to look at the bottom of the tube, and there was the spring sticking out. The spring is about a 5" length of coil just under the inside diameter of the tube. Somehow it hit the funnel just right and fell all the way through the tube. It could easily have gotten stuck in the tube and never found until trying to drop powder.

I couldn't make this happen again if I tried 100 times.

Paul

You clever fellow!

I have crawled around on our living room carpet several times with a magnet. Been successful every time so far.

Be careful. One could put his eye out.

I'm wondering what one uses a 30" drop tube for? That seems seriously long.

Not overly long , the one I made is 38". Some say 24" is long eno
ugh , could be for small 40's & 45's but when dropping 140 grs plus my 38" length is fine. I don t care to bend over much unless there is free brass on the ground. Mb

Correction: the tube is 24" long. Magnum Bob answered the question, another good answer being "It works for me". There are many approaches in shooting, and BPCR has its share. Serious competitors do things that leave many smoke makers and hunters shaking their heads. It's all good, well most of it anyway.

Paul

If that was me, it would be under the bench, as far from me as possible, never easy to find or get to.