phara

Yikes guys, I think we're on to something. I'll try new brass before I begin surgery on my poor little gun. (But it's gonna be hard parting with my cash to buy that brass!). Thanks to all, Paul

George, Yes that is a possibility. I use any old brass I can scrounge at the range. When I am making rounds for a semi-auto I have found it a little disturbing that a significant portion of my rounds do not pass the case guage test after I make them. When making rounds for my 625 I load 30 moons and then drop them into the revolver cylinder (removed from the gun of course!) before a match. So I use the cylinder as a case guage, moonclip checker. The chambers aren't as picky as the case guage. Maybe I need to be pickier. I think I will try case guaging first and then loading up some moons and go practice and see what happens. But that brings up another question - Is it normal for the Dillon 650 not to size 45's perfectly? Or is that an issue with older brass? Thanks again, Paul

Patrick, Doing it by hand with a cylindrical ceramic stone, how do you make sure your taking material out evenly? Thanks, Paul

2 alpha, thanks for the advice. I'm glad to here there is hope. I'll start by measuring the chambers. Spook, sorry I mis-read your post. I do reload the way you described. The problem is that occassionally the cases are so stuck my weakhand thumb won't eject the cases, then I have to resort to popping the ejector with my strong hand palm. It happens about once or twice a match, and it can happen at the beginning or end or in the middle stages of a match. Thanks much for your thoughts, Paul

Travis, Thanks for saving me from myself! I hadn't considered that. And Spook, pulling the empties out with my thumb is always an option, but not a good one to use on a regular basis when every second counts in competition! Thanks, Paul

To amplify bountyhunter's comments a bit: This little tip has saved me a lot of testing time: When you are trying to reduce the trigger pull weight of your 625 (and for all revolvers), the most important weight to consider is at the hammer, not at the trigger. Once you go below your minimal hammer fall weight the gun will misfire. So when adjusting your trigger pull weight always put the trigger scale at the hammer and make sure it does not fall lower than your minimal hammer fall weight. For example, for my particular 625 I found that I can get 100 percent ignition with Federal Primers when my hammer weight does not fall below 2 lbs (first making sure like 2alpha says- primers set deep and no bent moons). I can polish or mess with the mainspring screw as much as I want but if that hammers falls below 2 lbs I will begin to get misfires. After setting your gun to the minimum hammer fall weight, reducing friction (and rebound spring) becomes the most important element in reducing trigger pull weight, so polishing and other friction reducing methods come into play. So find out what your minimum hammer fall is for your gun, and do your trigger job making sure you never go below that minimum poundage. Hope this helps, Paul (Edited by phara at 12:55 pm on Jan. 20, 2003) (Edited by phara at 12:57 pm on Jan. 20, 2003) (Edited by phara at 1:02 pm on Jan. 20, 2003)

Occassionally I have to really punch the empty rounds out of my 625 (putting ring shaped cuts on the palm of my hand) when reloading. With my K frame model 66 I was able to get a honer from Brownells and enlarge the chambers just a bit to take care of this problem. Although I can get a 45 long colt honer from Brownells I can't find one for 45 ACP. I would imagine this is because you could hone down the headspacing ledge inside the chamber so that the cartridge could no longer headspace on the cartridge mouth. I was thinking that since we always use moons in competition, the chamber headspacing ledge isn't important enough to worry about. So I could just go ahead and hone to my heart's content. Any thoughts on this issue would be appreciated. Paul

Shooter Grrl, Someone told me recently about some interviews done with some top skill oriented athletes (Joe Montana included). What all these top athletes had in common was an extremely high tolerance for doing repetitive, boring training activities over and over again. Too bad for us but this may be one of the real secrets for success! Paul

I think one of the most amazing things in Ed's book is when he tells us he shoots by poking the gun forward at each shot. There's even a picture in the book that shows how to do it. Isn't that interesting, that he could shoot fast and accurately doing it that way. Maybe that is the forgotten secret! Anybody out there tried it?

I have been using a bullet (158 gran LRN with a pf of 128) with cannalure and a roll crimp now for about three years. Just the other day I made some rounds with a non-cannalured bullet I didn't change anything on the reloader (I used a roll crimp on these non-cannalured bullets). I went to the slow fire range and shot both types of bullets and noticed no difference in accuracy. Could it be this taper versus roll crimp thing is over rated? Or am I missing something here? Thanks, Paul

What worked for me was to purchase Jerry's trigger job video. I watched it and then purchased the necessary tools. Then I brought a tv and vcr out to the work bench. I would listen and watch Jerry do one thing such as remove the side plate. Then I'd pause the video and do it. Then I'd start the video again and do the next thing. He is very easy to understand and thorough and he tells you when to be careful. The video was a great investment for me and I ended up with a decent trigger job! Paul

I like the Miculek grips for three reasons. 1- I shoot a 625 N frame for USPSA and a 66 K frame for IDPA. The Miculek grips for each gun are exactly the same size! This means I don't have to refamiliarize myself with each gun everytime I switch. 2. The wood grips make dumping the empties in the K frame a less stressful operation because they don't get hung up on the grip like they occasionally did when I was shooting with rubber grips. 3. The smooth wood has less tendency to stick when doing a transfer to weak hand. Occasionally, because rubber is "sticky" the gun jerks a little off axis when my palm slides over the butt of the gun. Paul

Thanks. I was hoping that all I would have to change is the powder measure when switching from major to minor loads. Oh well!

I shoot a 625 for USPSA and have been using 230 grain bullets with Clay's at major power factor. Has anyone had success with using these at the low power factors we can use for IDPA or should I use a smaller grain bullet? Thanks, Paul

I've heard that the percentage classification scores for the Revolver class are computed differently than for other gun classes. If this is true - why? and how are they computed? Thanks, Paul

Bill, or others, You mentioned that there were only 3 or 4 speedloader revolver shooters at the nationals. Just out of curiosity what revolver do most IDPA revolver competitors shoot? Does one gun seem to dominate? Thanks,

Revolver- Rudi Waldinger's my pick!

TK Custom is just now offering full moons for the model 66 and Clark Custom can do the cylinder conversions. http://www.moonclips.com/ If any of you have the conversions done please let us know how you like them!