You may be interested in this description from a tackle website. The parts list shows only 4 bearings and no centrifugal brake:- A well established low profile casting reel from Masterline, with a lightweight graphite frame, 5 ballbearings, centrifugal and magnetic brakes, super smooth star drag and one piece machine cut alloy spool.

Roy are the centrifugal bakes fitted. These are little plastic blocks. Not always fitted on some reels. these work better than magnets but are not as ajustable.

No, that descripton is wrong in respect of the centrfugal brakes and the No. of bearins. As far as I can make out the only braking occurs when the thumb bar is released and the drag set by the star is engaged. This works well enough if the user is aware of it and doesn't think the tension knob or magnetic brake have any measurable effect. I would love to see how JW himself balances the dead weight of a lure with the drag on the spool as frankly, I think it is impossible.I would like to be proved wrong.

I've rcently purchased a six shooter. Are they any good?

Mates of mine have bought these as first baitcasting reels and had no problems. I rarely use the float to brake my lure reels now (different make...), after a few years you get used to the educated thumb thing.

i`ve recently got one and was a little concerned obout over run on casting but the opposite is the problem i can really belt the lure out and get hardly any distance about 30 feet as there was no instruction manual with it i`m working blind ( second hand)

"i can really belt the lure out"

that could be your problem, take your time on the cast, make it as smooth as possable.

also how heavy is the lure?

the lure is about 40 grams but if i cast smoothly i`ll get a cast of about 6 foot

There shold be a way of slacking of the pressure on the spool. usually a adjustment screw on one side or both. Sounds like this needs slackening off. There should be about half a mil of movement on the spool.

If you cut the line and tape it round the spool. Turn the handle and realese the spool at the same time. How long does it spin for.

thanks sorted now , it`s the knurlded nut as you say that allows the spool to run freely, as for the flipping button i`ve no idea what that does

"Flippin" is a technique used for catching Large Mouth bass.

What the flippin' button does is to put the reel into anti-reverse with no drag when you give a turn to the reel handle.

You take a couple of loops off the reel and swing out the lure underhand. A quick turn the the handle and you are ready to crank as hard as you can.

It's done when you fish in heavy cover.

Very effective indeed.

The time-honoured way of setting these things up is to hold the rod out parallel to the ground and adjust brake so the lure descends in free spool but the spool stops revolving when it hits the ground.

I can't even remember who taught me this - probably Trevor Salmon - but it really helped when I was trying to teach myself to ue a multiplier a few years back.

has anyone got the instructions for one of these reels people seem to have problems with..?

This thread has now gone full circle as it started with an enquiry about setting the drag by a member who had tried the 'drop weight' method and found it was not affected by the knurled knob or the magnetic brake adjustment. There is no instruction book or leaflet supplied or produced as far as I can find out. The end float on the spool seems the same on my reel, even with the knurled knob removed. I have been told that the magnetic brake works by creating drag on the steel spindle but that would not be affected by the clearance between the magnets and the aluminium spool face, which is what the black wheel changes. I agree with the earlier comment that the 'educated thumb' is probably the best bet.

The educated thumb is by far the best method. If you learn to cast with these reels properly you don't need mag brakes at all.

The only answer is plenty of practice.

The mags are helpful though when learning. They are also mainly used when beach casting esecially against a strong wind.

That's no doubt true of a beach casting reel, I think the 'sharpshooter' is rather light weight for that task. Even with the adjustment on max.(VIZ. The white spot on the thumbwheel lined up with the largest spot on the body) the mag brake has no obvious effect compared to setting it to the other extreme. As has been said in previous comments instructions would be very useful but none come with or seem to exist for this particular reel.

Just bought the rod and reel combo ,and yes there are no instuctions which i think is bad.likewise did,nt know what flipping knob was for untill reading the comments.So the black knob on the side is for casting ,so what is the round brass knob for on the handle side?

i have found that if you draw your rod back 90 degrees parallell with ground as lure hits the surface it will eliminate any chance of a birds nest.  For distance draw rod over left shoulder and cast smoothly to the right releasing spool with thumb...can manage about 30 yds with a 35gm lure.. drawing rod to the left again as lure hits surface.. once you get used to them they are a delight to use....the 6ft rod that accompanies this reel is amazing..caught a double on wed..nearly tore my wrist off...

The use of these rods and reels goes back to the war when the yanks brought them over, great fun ,i have about half a dozen of each, but in reality they are for bass fishing ,and not really suitable for big pike.