Boats

Rick thanks, Worked up to 3.2 Clays pushing a 158 gr SWC with good results in my M 28 Smith. Hodgens data shows it at just major. Seems a bit light to me will cronograph it soon. Due weather have been only shooting indoors. Same charge pushing a 125 gr RN is mild in my 2 inch M 10. Same charge same revolver and the 158 gr has sharp recoil. Looks like a good load solution for targets and a mixed lot of .38 revolvers. Amazing how much more a heavy bullet recoils in a light gun. Boats

You might want to take that sharpie paint the bullets nose black and see what is happing when it's in the seating die. It will leave witness marks on your bullet. Boats

Have fired thousands of gas check 30. cals in bolt guns. .30 US, 30/1906 and .308. All with the same 200 gr Gas Check bullet out of a Saeco mold. Using 4579 at about 1600 fps they are easy to load, shoot, and very accurate. You can exceed 1600 fps but it gets a lot more difficult. It is possable to get high velocity but for me dimininishing returns labor vs cost makes me go to Jackted bullets over 1600 ft. Boats

Make sure the seating die is clean inside, Dirt will make for inconsistent OAL as will a burr or miss fit. If precesion is the objective and a box full of 45's it's generaly not, you can fit the seating die stem to suit your bullet. Lap the stem by turning a bullet in a lathe or drill press charged with valve grinding compound, it takes no time to get a nice fit. I look at the stem on seating dies and if I don't like the shape even if it's intended for production runs of pistol cartridges will lap it out. It just makes for a nicer job. Boats

Wally and most other retailers are having cash flow problems, Not from Ammo specifically but all items are selling slow so less cash to re-supply. Plus many have lines of credit that have been restricted so inventory of everything is low. I was looking for some WWB 9's to shoot our Regional IDPA match none to be had anywhere, but thinking it out went to the local gun shop that has been around a long time and well set. He had it in cases, and priced 20% higher than walmart. Welcome to the new economy. Boats

It's just smaller nothing too complicated. C-H 4 D die will make anything you want, as will Lee. Boats

Friend of mine and I were looking for 5 inch M&P's at the same time. He found a Pro while I could only find a 9L. His trigger is a bit better than mine. I could send it out and get it tweaked and think thats probably the best solution. Have not been able to put it down long enough to mail off. Sights are real personal, my 9L has a sight picture that suits me fine. Square with lots of light around the front. Get rid of the white dot's & would like it better. Does the extra inch make a difference ? doubt it but like the inch 5 anyway. Boats

It MAY be possible to shave weight off that 28, I would look at the Grips, lots of difference in density of the various materials, rubber grips are pretty heavy. Some woods could be shaped into a nice grip and be light same time. Question I would have is trouble and cost to modify vs just buying another revolver. Good M 19's and 66's can be had between 400-500 dollars. Local shop has a 686 which is probably the optimal gun for 550. Boats

I use large Pistol primers in my 32/40 & 38/55 Match rifles, both have had the locks tweaked and won't pop rifle primers every time. If some small pistol primers don't show up around here soon will use small rifle for .38 spl for our clubs ICORE match, may have to run the strain screw real tight for reliable ignition. Rule is switch but work up from a bit lower and pay attention to whats happening. Boats

I wonder about those Gunbroker prices, Guy on the S&W forum said 625-3 3 inch went for over 1500, I have one and joked it could be bought for that much if it was real money. Nobody took the offer up. 1500 you could buy a collectible short barrel big bore Smith and a new 625 both. Did the sale at 1500 actually go through ? who knows. Boats

Sort of were you are revolver wise. Mostly shoot SSP with a plastic 9mm. However for fun at some matches I use a M28 with HKS speedloaders. My revolver is well worn and the action is about as slick as I could get. It's never going to make IDPA weight but our clubs matches we don't have a scale and we wink at Revolver rules in order to get more shooters. best it's 2 oz too heavy. On the HKS take your last match results and figure out were you lost your time. Most people it's missed targets or draws. Then look at how many re-loads you did and give the HKS a "slow" factor. Perhaps 1 sec per load. My revolver shooting can account 4 or 5 seconds in a club match to the speedloaders and that's not worth switching. Many more seconds added due to "down" I think but don't know for sure the reliability factor for HKS loaders is pretty good. I never fumble a reload with them. If you shoot club matches enough a good competitive revolver will come up. I got my 625 for 500 bucks. It's a better IDPA revolver than the M 28, but that old Highway Patrol model is still a lot of fun to shoot. Boats

Guy at our club match this week wanted to share with his buddy, both beginners. I loaned them my spare instead. Much easier no switching of holsters and worries about safety changing back and forth. That's the best way to go. Boats

Lee is good about making special stuff, Have had them make a few special size bullet seaters and sizing dies. Bet they would make undersize for the 45 acp too. Boats

From info on this forum I switched my 625 45 ACP from W 231 to Clays with good results. Now I want to switch my 38's to Clays, had always used Unique previous Am loading for a mixed bag of S&W's J's K's and N frame 38/357's Our club runs a revolver match that does not have a power factor and allows 6 inch barrels. Even though they are allowed don't like mouse fart loads. We also shoot IDPA BUG matches again no power factor. What has worked well for me is use the same powder charge, 125 gr LFP for the J's M 36 3 inch and a 342,and a 2 inch M 10, 158 Gr LRN for the 4 inch Victory model and 4 inch M 28. It's real simple to only have two loads that can be identified by the bullet. I do have to keep in mind loads must be safe in all my guns, expect the Victory is weakest. Target loads only don't use them for Self Defence Hogdens data shows 3.1 Gr of Clays for the 158 gr as max with a bit more when using the 125's. Yesterday loaded up 25 of each 125 & 158 using 2.9 gr just to see how they worked. Fine but very light loads both. From this forum it seems lots of guys push the 158's with more powder. I plan go go back with my Cronograph and primed cases, load at the range and work up something suitable. Thinking about 800 FPS is going to be right with the 158's bit faster 125's Is 3.1 Clays max ? Advice in advance is most appreciated. Boats

I don't know about Universal but Unique in the new Plastic can is different than the old powder. Right much. I always re-crono my loads when changing powder. I trust the crono more than lot to lot powder speed. Boats

Memphis agree on the Never practice part. It seemed that a lot of the guys, mostly marksmen, were figuring out were to stow the mag on the job. Will have a look at my Turning Draw splits. Could use a few seconds myself Boats

Ran the Clipboard at our clubs IDPA classifier yesterday. I find this is a real good way to observe. SO has his hands full when the shooter is up but the clipboard is idle until after the shots are fired. Plus you are up close. Here are a few things I saw. My observation only anybody can comment if they like Mag Changes. Most guys make adequate slide lock re-loads. And most are slow on the Tactical load Stage III. The get the mags in and out quick but loose time on the stow. Everybody knows that you can stow on the move to the barrel but few do it. Also seems people make up there mind were to put the mag on the job rather than go quick and smooth to the stow location. Fail to fires. I saw a bunch with all sorts of pistols. Some guys loose substantial time getting it up and running again others Slap rack bang fast. But even the guys that are back in business quick missed frequently on the follow up shots. I think it's better to go back to index and re-mount for the follow up, regain composure rather than rush to make up lost time. One of our better shooters missed the target completely on a stage III FTF recovery. He missed Expert by 4 seconds and it was all on that FTF shot and it's follow up. Friend of mine was shooting his first classifier. He is a good pistol shot using the Weaver Stance. Has had to work hard on the Isosceles position and most important not aiming high and coming down as he aligns the sights. We had trained together last few months. Mixed on what to tell him if anything at all. His hits were very good but probably lost 30 seconds or more on target acquisition. Every shot settled a bit high and came down to alignment. Index push and shoot would be faster for sure but he could start dropping shots. he classifed MM and if 30 seconds faster would have made SS. Boats

Keep it clean but don't make a fetish out of it. All that barrel cleaning stuff is largely a spill over from Boot Camp were it was an instrument of discipline, and very bad for the rifles that were scrubbed to death. You should have seen my boot camp M 1's worn muzzle Let the solvents work and minimize scrubbing is my advice. Boats

Heavy shooting higher scores than light is a general rule, will agree it's how the weight is distributed that's key. One rule is firm and will always stand, when weights are allowed to increase everybody shooting guns that made the old limit need a new one. Thus fueling the equipment race, Have been there and done that in other shooting sports. Would hope IDPA leaves it alone rather than make most of us obsolete just so somebody can use his pet blaster Boats

I have several Comp Tac holsters and mag pouches. Recently bought another with a problem that was likely my fault, Modified BHP with a high front sight. Comp Tac made it right and did not charge me a thing. Am sure others are good too but Comp Tac's customer service and speed filling custom orders sets the standard. Boats

Weight being one of the primary advantages gun to gun, If you have a heavy gun I need one to compete. That's why almost any competition has a weight rule. Boats

200 Gr LFN using Clays in my 625 revolver mimimum charge that burns well and gives acceptable accucary is 3.9 gr Clays. Less groups get larger. This is with a strong crimp, load it for Automatics with taper crimp it may take more powder to get 100 % burn. Boats

What Jason said, Once set with the Dial caliper I have to tweak mine a bit too, am fussy about my revolver crimps. Once rough set I use a small magnifier look close at a finished round and move the seater stem just a bit up or down to suit the excact bullet I am loading. Boats

I don't use a Dillon but switch out dies often in a turret press. Have a mark on the bottom of the press and measure the distance from it to the top of each die with a dial caliper. Little notebook with all the measurements. When putting in a different die refer to the recorded measurement and re-set to it. Same book starting from the back have micrometer powder measure settings for the powders I use most It works fast and easy Boats

Primer shortage we had some years ago I had the same problem. Was shooting a lot of Silhouette and needed to load up 500 rounds of 308 for matches. Used the mag primers but started building loads from scratch reducing charges considerably. Ended up with good shooting loads that used a bit less powder than regular rifle primers. Of course every cartridge is different and in a pistol case primers make up a higher percentage of the total. So yes it can be done but use caution. Boats