Boats

Experienced shooter can agree, I almost never dry fire Silhouette rifles. About the only time is when just stepping up to the line during the sight in period. New to the game it's the fastest way to make gains. Even Tiger Woods takes a few practice swings when teeing up. Boats

Nothing for dry fire have some dummies made up for re-load practice with Moon Clips. I take empties and drill holes all the way through the case then seat a bullet with no primer. Other day was getting my gear out to dry fire and saw a loose loaded moon clip in my range bag. Am very strict with loaded ammo but this one had escaped me. At a quick glance noticed it did not have the holes drilled through. I recommend the holes, this one was not even close but safe is safest doubled up. Boats

Home shop machinist magazine ran a series of articles last year by Steve Acker, one of the best custom gunsmith on just this topic. While the article was on line boring a Ruger the methods were applicable to any revolver. It was 6 of 7 issues most way over my or most other shooters ability. But well worth reading particularly is you are sending a revolver out to someone to have work done. I came away with a better understading of how it all works, fits problem areas etc. Anybody really interested send me a message Boats

Thanks all for the comments, This is what I plan to do. Buy a couple of striker & pin assemblies from S@W just in case I screw something up. Polish up real good looking for minimum drag. Also polish the inside of the slide were the spring rides, something I have not done so far. Run them dry from now on and pay particular attention to keeping the pin and all real clean, blast from air hose every time. I did check Wolf's site, they have lighter striker springs to reduce trigger pull but not stronger ones. They say the factory spring is 5 lbs and offer 4s as an alternative. It could well be ammo but am not changing my ammo routine of WWB & hand loads. WWB is a given and don't know any good way around it. I will pay particular attention to primer seating. Don't think it's a problem but you never know. Hand seat using a Lee tool, if anything feels "off" toss the shell. Boats

Most of the light strikes came from Factory WWB. I also use the exact same hand load and WWBox in a BHPower and never had one fail to fire, of course the mass in that Browning's external hammer is a lot more than the M&P's more modern design. Glock at our club did the same thing couple of matches ago. Shooter was not real experienced with home remedies. Guys took it apart for him and inside the striker was oily with built up brass residue. I am sure running dry is better not allowing residue to build up but the striker works so much smoother when lubed. Anyway have tried both. Running the M&PC Dry and M&P9L lubed but frequently cleaned. 6 light ones in several thousand rounds is not a lot. And may well come from the ammo anyway. My experience has been that heavy hammers and strong springs make cartridges fire every time. I shoot some rifle matches for old Military rifles, never had a 03 Springfield or Trapdoor 45/70 fail to fire. But who would shoot targets with those heavy hammers unless the match is restricted to similar guns. Remington 700's with internal strikers will fail to fire surplus 308 frequently. I was selling one to a guy that had a Titanium pin once. He tested it with cheap surplus ammo misfired half the time, put the factory pin back and it popped most of the time. Don't like to rule out something that I have not considered or seen but am pretty convinced it needs a stronger striker spring. Boats

Agree with Joe, Charts are indicators only. Actual burn rate will vary according to how the powder is loaded. Some respond to bullet weight, crimp, loading density and case neck pull more than others. and then there is temperature which affects different powders different ways. I have also seen differences in lots of powder of the same brand and name. While no doubt they can be tested under the exact same condition when they get to "real world" loading conditions things are not exactly the same anymore. I can see a couple on that chart I have used and would flip flop the rates in my loadings slightly. The key word on the charts header is APPROXIMATIONS Boats

Am about 6 months into a couple of M&P's one a 9L other 9C plus my shooting buddy has a 9Pro. Between us we have had about half a dozen light strikes that failed to ignite the primer. This is all club IDPA shooting. No telling how many rounds it took to get 6 light ones, thousands I guess. My guns use WWhite Box for matches and my own reloads for practice, although lately because Wal Mart has been out of WWB have used the reloads for match work. Have taken the strikers out cleaned. ran with and without oil on the firing pin and striker too. No burrs or hangs on any of the moving parts. While all ammo can fail at times and dirty strikers will cause problems. Have come to the conclusion the M&P is a light strike gun. Am familiar with fast hammers and light strikers, my Single Shot Target Rifles are speed locked with light hammers and tweaked springs. One fails and it's not a negative in those matches plenty of time to re-load. IDPA it cost to have a FTF and is not acceptable. The mechanics are not real complicated either a heavier pin or stronger spring ought to cure the problem. I may have missed something but don't think so. I should also say have seen Glocks do the same thing light strike and FTF but have never taken one apart or worked on a Glock. I think the striker design is similar both pistols. Anybody sell aftermarket striker springs for M&P's ? I can't see any way to tweak the pin itself. Boats

CRiver If I was serious about revolvers would probably look for another outfit but like the old Smiths. SSP class regular IDPA go state of the art and the club follows the rules to the letter. It's just we were not getting many revolver shooters so set up a rev only match with rules that are not so strict equipment wise. Always avoided the Colt revolvers, don't need any new addictions and get my Colt fix with a couple of Goverment models. Am shooting a M 10-2 inch round butt in our club BUG match tomorrow. For grins soon will shoot a Victory model with a Tyler T grip lanyard ring and all. Asked a guy at our match last week about his High tec speedloaders. 25 bucks each !!! With me all set up HKS 4 or 5 of each for 10's J's 38 cal N's and 45 LC N's it's not in the cards. The HKS loaders rarely miss a beat it's just a slow one. Boats P/S agree on visiting the post office not a good idea. It's a old scale a sits in my shop. Real useful for figuring out how much of some loading component you have on hand.

Agree the weight quotes for 28's are inconsistent. I weighed mine on an old postage scale which may or may not be accurate it's about 3 oz over. No problem as we shoot a Quasi-IDPA-ICORE revolver only match at our club and nobody cares. I have a couple of K's too but weight is your friend double action and they are pretty light. It's a toss up fast re-loads or fast 2nd shots. Ideal is a 686 no doubt. Boats

They are popular in other shooting sports, Silhouette it's the In a row pins. Our club matches many guys shoot exclusively for 5 or 10 straight. One guy figured out he shot best 2nd or 3rd bank and always squaded to favor the "critter" he was working on. I got into that myself some years ago looking for 10 straights. It became an obsession all my training was focused on the one I never got, even thought about changing rifles to suit the Rams. Thinking back it was not a bad thing to have a goal that was difficult and something to focus on. I may even dust off the rifle this summer and give it another go, who knows ? Boats

Most of my shooting is SSP do shoot couple of revolvers for fun though. My M 28 with a Tyler T grip leather holster using HKS Speedloaders is pretty retro. But works just fine. It is too heavy for the class though, our club revolver matches we never worry about weight. If serious and plan big matches that will check equipment it's not the right outfit. Boats

Never thought about hat mounted for IDPA. I fish at night a lot and never go without one Usualy keep it on a neck lanyard dropped inside my shirt front. It does not take long to get one going. Some Surefires have a hat clip. Might try one in a match & see what happens. If the match does have have specific rules anything goes. Last one guy had a big maglite in his back pocket. Buzzer goes off he clicks it on and lays it on top of the barrel to light up the targets. Shot normal two handed hold never held the light at all. Boats

After reading this post thought I might have been missing something, went out and bought a package of Surefire rings. They work pretty good, you can keep the light on your index finger while changing mags. Fip it up and down for either neck indexed flashlight strong hand only pistol or two hand pistol and light married hold. Only thing I find is my left hand does not want to get high on the pistol with the flashlight on the ring. Am shooting some groups normal two hand and with the Surefire light and ring daylight on a bulls eye target to see if it makes a difference accucary wise. Boats

My experience is you can get about any gun to shoot cast bullets. Fool around with alloy, size, lube, barrels throat and more. Question is is it worth the trouble. I don't cast my Revolver bullets and expect the gun to shoot what I buy at the local gun shop. Offhand match rifles I go to great lengths to get plain base cast bullets to work well. But only shoot a thousand or so per year. If you are inclined to keep trying bullets size makes the most difference. Larger will probably work better. Next would be the bullets alloy, contrary to what you would think softer leads less than hard. The expand up to bore size most times if cast 1/25 with no antimony. Then try a good soft lube. SPG can't be beat at revolver velocities. Boats

I like 1911's and have always owned one or two. Most reliable one I ever had was a GI Remington Rand 1911A1 without any modifications. Changes to Government models have been fun and probably improved match performance but nothing any gunsmith ever did to my guns made them more reliable than that one. Boats

I am long on Snubbes and for our clubs occasional BUG match take my pick. One I pick most often is a M 10 2 inch with Tyler T grips. If I had a M66 2 1/2 would think thats perfect. Sometimes shoot a 36 3 inch too. Next weekend's Match however will shoot my everyday carry gun, just to prove they can be shot. 342 Ti Cylinder. Boats

Several friends have used Mahovsky's Metalife with good results. Thinking about sending a well worn BHPower to him now. ron@mahovskysmetalife.com Metallfe is not exactly hard chrome though. It's much harder or so I am told. Mahovsky has a real following among Black Powder Cartridge rifle shooters. Tough strands up to corrosion but looks like aged Nickle plate if he blast the action. Finish depends on the metal prep high or low shine. Carmoney, should I trust his disassembly/reassembly ? Everybody I know sends a stripped action. Boats

I am not top level but at our club matches 1 sec often means 2 or 3 places in final ranking. Even middle of the pack it could move you up a couple of slots. Boats

Thanks you guys just saved me, lets see, about a second total in most matches. Boats

For years when reloading a revolver always closed the Cylinder then rotated with my left hand until the stop engaged the notch. Wondering why. Pull the trigger and the hand rotates it anyway. Speed loading & shooting is there any reason to line things up before the next shot ? Boats

Our club shoots indoor and runs a lot of dark stages, We almost always start flashlight in hand for saftey reasons. Draw both pistol and light same time when it's dark is hard for the SO to monitor. Any hand held light is ok with the club. Some guys use a big mag lite and the Marine corps method. Personaly I like the click on switch on a Surefire, If I have to re-load during a stage just put the light under my strong side armpit & pull it back out when done. It says on during the reload. Boats

Blue Ridge agree with you the 3 inch gives up very little to 4 inches. The mechanical accuracy difference is probably too slight to measure. Sight radius is a bit less but for action shooting events grip, index, and trigger pull are far more important anyway. You use the sights to confirm rather than align. At the absolute top level against strong competition every little thing counts but at my level 3 inches just makes me work a bit harder to make sure I break good shots. And that’s a positive result. Shots I dropped in that classifier were ALL due to trigger pull and saw every blamed one of them go off. I find I shoot the M&P 9 Compact just as well in matches as the longer M&P 9 L IDPA is supposed to be a sport that shoots your carry gun anyway. Enjoyed working with the 625 and appreceate all the help you guys gave me getting it up and running. Thats all from me unless something else comes up. Boats

2nd Ranch products great people to deal with, clips are good too, Boats

Blueridge I agree the short barrel is very little handicap. In fact our club rarely runs distances in matches as long as III of the classifier and thats were the sights are more important. You know for years I shot largely on my eyesight. Now I have to pay particular attention to grip and positon. If I knew what I know now then no telling what I could have done. Holding the gun exactly the same everytime is one of the two or three keys. I may be able to shoot the 635-3 into Sharpshooter, but my failing is shooting too many guns, now want to classify in SSR. I have a couple of revolvers to chose from, none perfect for the job. My idea is to classify with all 5 guns, so when match day comes up I can shoot whatever I feel like. Now the 625 is ready for anything with a plus, now classified in ESR I can shoot my 25-5 4 inch .45 LC in matches. It's the card not the gun. Boats

Thats it ESR, Fine I guess, Stage III is hard for me, my over 60 eyes don't see the front sight very well. I only dropped a few Stage I and II ,stage III slowed way down trying to make hits based on hold and grip mostly. Classified Marksman which considering I rarely shoot revolver is not too bad. Cub has a BUG match next month, am going to shoot the 625. Will be able to drop the power factor some for that match too. Boats