Shadowrider

Sure. The white putty is the main material and it is J-B Water Weld epoxy putty. I just applied and formed it to my hand with a single layer saran wrap "glove" with the grip mounted on the gun with the backstrap masked off. I used more to patch the voids and smooth it up some, then used regular J-B Weld to fill the smaller voids and make it smoother. Then file and sand until you have it where you want it. To apply the grit I used J-B Weld thinned a little bit with acetone so it will brush on and just dropped 150 grit silicon carbide grit on it from a salt shaker. After a 24 hour cure I used a toothbrush pretty vigorously to brush off any grit that wasn't bonded firmly and amazingly there wasn't much at all that came off. After that I had black duracoat sprayed on the whole thing. Now I wish I had just applied more wax or tung oil to the exposed wood and called it a day. My thinking on the duracoat was that it would encapsulate the grit and keep it there and it does, but I think the look of the uncoated grit is pretty cool and you can't see the wood grain. I like the grit so much I did my M&P 9Pro in it and it's holding up good. One thing about the grit is that you better plant your hand on the draw in the right place, because you ain't moving it, it's very unforgiving in that. It teaches muscle memory which I view as a good thing.

Hearthco clips and Starline brass. Ain't nuthin better. .38 Short Colt groups fine out of my old 686, if you are having accuracy issues with short brass in the long chambers you need to look at the mechanics of your gun. Have a smith check your crane, forcing cone, etc. It seems that Starline is perpetually out of short colt brass but usually have long colt in stock. That's a good compromise and you can trim them to whatever length you want or run them as is. I prefer the short colt because they load faster and use less powder to get where you want to be.

I took Bubber's idea and went nuts. They actually work amazingly well for weak hand too. I had a friend spray black duracoat afterwards. Kinda wish I hadn't done that, they looked better this way.

I just use denatured alcohol from Lowes, HD or Wal Mart. Can't tell the difference from iso and I have to order the high 90% stuff anyway since it's impossible to find here. Much simpler to just run grab that when I need it, and it's handy to have around anyway.

If segregating brass for the gun it looks like one could run fired range brass through a U die on the first loading and then maybe just use regular Dillon/Redding/whatever dies afterwards. Might be a possible workaround?

I'm sure some of the guys running 929s will chime in, but I did the Heartco/Starline thing for my 6 shot 686 until I land an 8 shot gun. So I'm likely to go 627, but there is a 929 in the case at a LGS that is pulling at me pretty hard. I already have a 9mm setup for my Dillon so I could go either way, but I can say that purchasing 2K of Starline sure isn't as bothersome! ETA: Welcome to revo! It's even more addicting.

The thing about moon clips is that you get all your brass back, so if you have to use dedicated brass to your clips it's not a big deal. As far as the gun goes, you will likely be doing the same things to either gun to get it ready to run in matches so it's inconsequential there. Get the gun you want to run with. If you are setup in production you likely already have the reloading stuff on hand? Just food for thought.

My cruising speed on a 650 is around 600-700 rounds per hour. If I really want to haul I can get 800+ but I just don't need to go that fast. I wish I'd went with the 1050 just because of the swaging, but I load 5 calibers on it and conversions are expensive and time consuming, multiple machines aren't an option due to space limitation, and I really can't justify them with my shooting volume anyway. But that swager sure would be nice...

This was setting quietly in the display the other day. When I left it still was.

650 is the way to go. Did the LNL thing and sold it. .223 and .308 load prep is a pain, there's no other way to describe it. I run two toolheads on my 650, one for prep and one for loading. With the Dillon trimmer I can size and trim 1000 cases faster than I can lube them. Seriously... You can run just about as fast as the case feeder will drop them. That alone is worth the 650 right there. The only way to improve the process is a 1050 with it's built-in swager and downstroke priming. But you probably don't want to be changing calibers often on a 1050. It expensive and more time.

I went with Lastpass because if I understand it correctly it encrypts AND decrypts on your local machine. I'm planning on using iCloud Keychain as a backup if I ever figure out how to update it's passwords. If I'm working on the road and I ever have to replace my phone I'm just hosed without iCloud.

What a pain in the ass! I didn't use that password on anything financial but it was a similar scheme but a bit stronger. I said screw it. I installed Lastpass and now ALL my passwords are gibberish. I'll never remember a single one! But they are backed up on a memory stick in an Excel file. This just sucks...

If they are in fact made out of 410 stainless they will likely rust. 410 only has 11.5% chromium, you need to get to 15% or higher for better corrosion resistance. Passivation may indeed help and you may find someone local that can do it. It's just an acid (usually nitric) dip but make damn sure they are in fact stainless, you really won't want to see them if they are a plain carbon steel after coming out of the acid bath. Look for chemical finishing/plating shops that cater to aerospace industry. If you use plain steel wool on them you are just applying some iron on the surface which can make them rust if you don't keep them lubed with something. I just season mine using froglube paste and wipe them clean after cooling. Works pretty good for me.

So did you clean your gun and relube with something else? How cold was it up there today? I was going to shoot a Steel Challenge match today but wussed out. They were forecasting cold, snow and lots of wind. We got lots of wind, no snow and temp was actually kind of nice and into the '40s. Not bad at all so the weatherman bit me again.

How long did the FC take to freeze up? I have an outdoor match tomorrow morning and it's supposed to be cold.... Not long. I put maybe a teaspoon of each in a dixie cup and dropped them in the freezer. An hour later both were frozen. Not much thickness on the gun either and it will cold soak very quick but the real question is the gun. How long will it take to freeze? And in Canada and right now, I'm betting that's not long!

Well just like I thought. Froglube came out of the freezer solid as a rock. Fireclean wasn't quite as bad but was still plenty firm enough to lock up your gun. FC also took considerably less time to thaw. Both of them had the visual appearance of what Johnsons paste wax would be if you froze it. For comparison my my synthetic oil mixed with synthetic wheel bearing grease (NLGI#2) mixed at 2:1 ratio (2 parts oil) would still drop off of a tongue depressor pretty freely. Freezer temp is set at 0 degrees F.

Grumpy that's one of the good things about Froglube, at least with the paste. It does in fact act like some sort of wax that hardens so it just doesn't attract dust. I was also very skeptical about it soaking into the pores of metal, I was a machinist for over 20 years and the only metal I know of that's porous is cast iron, that's why you can't really weld it after it's been in service, you just can't bake the oil out of it. Steels, aluminum, brass, etc. just isn't going to absorb anything. But I did my own corrosion test using a bunch of different lubes and Fireclean and Froglube both did very well. The best one of the bunch was Froglube paste where the surface was heated before application and wiped totally clean after cooling off. It seems to leave a wax coating. I didn't use the heat with Fireclean since they don't mention it. A light coating held off the rust almost as long as either of the Froglube products. For this reason I still use it on the outside of the gun and in the bore, but all other areas I use a synthetic oil.

I did the same thing to my shotgun with Frog Lube. Bought it new, disassembled, degreased the snot out of it and Froglubed it. That was a few months ago. Couple of weeks ago I was playing with it and the action was very "sticky/sluggish" feeling. The FL had really hardened up. Cleaned it all off and used my home brew synthetic oil based stuff on it and it's a vast difference. I also tested my brew by putting it in the freezer. At 0 degrees F, I can't tell any difference from room temp. Try that with FL and you'll pull a pale green brick out of the freezer. I've long suspected that Fire Clean and Froglube use the same base chemical, though I haven't a clue what it might be. Now I'm curious, gotta go throw the FC in the freezer to check it out.

I'll WildAssGuess it at 75mm.

I'd be hard pressed to let my 5" 625-4 go for less than $900. It has ball crane locks, custom FO front sight, chopped hammer and action work. I don't shoot it worth a darn but that ain't the gun's fault, I'll just keep it if that's the going rate.

I only shot MCC once, but I had a lot of fun. Hopefully we can get it back, plus keep Nationals, plus add another.

Are they all the same from the factory? I'm asking about K, L, & N frames. Got a bunch of them and may need to stick one back in my 17 for a little bit. The pile I have seem to be the same but they've came out of all frame sizes.

Not necessarily. I shoot higher scores with my 6 shot 686, running .38 Short Colt than I do with my 625. It's easier to shoot alphas and they come slightly faster. Something to think about.

Don't know if the PC stuff is anything different other than a feature set really, but your overall assessment is spot on in my opinion. I'm under the impression that they don't have ANY of the "old school" hands still on staff. You know, the ones that used to be trade craftsman when everything in the action needed to be hand fitted and checked individually? I'm sure most all of them are retired by now anyway, but one would think that they would have a couple that were at least trained by the old ones or at least were capable 'smiths. After all they still service their older guns that were made that way. But I really think they just have "parts changers" these days. This is a byproduct to the MIM process and to a lesser extent their CNC machining. In the size envelope of these hammers, triggers, etc., the MIM process when done properly is completely capable and can hold well south of .001" tolerance from part to part. The problems I'm seeing like the one depicted in this thread are actual machining issues, and a marked lack of post machining processes like deburring and a general lack of attention to detail such as Bountyhunter has shown. It's just sad really. In case you can't tell I come from a long line of machinists from myself back to my great grandfather. German no less, can you tell? It's also not just S&W. Ruger has had the barrel clocking issue for instance, just as long, if not longer. That is one thing that still has to be fitted, even CNC won't machine to tolerances like that consistently from part to part. At least not a machining process that cuts the metal. But then again Ruger has always been had a "working man's" business model just using good steels. And lots of it!

I'm having a really hard time believing that they even have a "Performance Center" after seeing this. To the O/P, the letter about the tolerancing is correct. But without seeing their blueprints, I'd have a hard time believing that if the "D" in the cylinder measured in tolerance AND the flat on the extractor also measured in tolerance that it would result in that kind of slop. This condition on a $1000+ gun is unacceptable PERIOD! JMO...