Classic_jon

I have shot 124, 130, and 147 and in my M&P pro 5", and with N320 powder the 147's seemed to work best. In some other combinations of gun/powder/bullet the 124's may work better. As some others have said the 124's will be cheaper to run over the long haul in two guns but the best thing to do in my opinion is to get a pack of 100 bullets in the 124 and 147 weight and try them out and see how they work in *your gun.* The 124's may be a little snappier but they may be more accurate than the 147's...it could also be the 147's are more accurate...it all depends on the combination of how it all works in your gun/powder/bullet combination. Do not be afraid to experement a bit :-)

I would say to pick up Steve Anderson's books on dryfire that our host Enos sells. I took a class from him and also have the books. They are very good and come with exercises as well. http://www.brianenos.com/pages/reviews.html#steve

*boggle* Powder valley had a 4# for 104.50 + Hazmat...and I bought it for that when they had it two weeks or so ago :-)

Check and make sure the plastic fitting on the end of the tube does not have a burr or wear on it. Check the return spring on the primer feed arm, Check the feed arm itself to make sure the primer feed cup is clean and does not have any burrs or damage and the shaft it sits on is not broken or the spring has gone bad. I had the shaft on the cup break from use but the spring held it in place and that cause all sorts of odd issues, then the tip on the primer feed tube just had a lot of wear and needed to be replaced. When in doubt check everything that is related :-)

Try some red or yellow tinted Eye-protection. That can bring the contrast up quite a bit on Fiber optic sights.

Just shoot a revolver and the real fun will begin to "plan your reload points" ;-P (I have a lot of fun shooting my 686 and beating a bunch of the semi auto shooters with it ;-D )

I would suggest setting it on vertically and see how it shoots first and then decide form there. On my rifle it is vertical and I found no need to clock it or change anything from stock. If you want to clock it, get a different sized crush washer or add a peel washer and then clock it that way. Past that Here is a "how to" from Jesse Tischauser off of brownells website if you feel frisky with a drill. http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/lid=14873/guntechdetail/Custom-Tuning-the-Rolling-Thunder-Compensator

I shoot both.... I think of it this way 1) It gives me another excuse to get to the range and shoot and 2) You learn things from one sport that can be applied to the other so... why not give yourself another chance to learn and practice your skills? ;-) Past that they are both "games"... so go have fun!

As GOF said overall cocking the hammer just eats time and really does not make things much more accurate. I find that with a revolver a good smooth DA trigger pull is just as accurate and a lot faster.

I work in IT and have friends in the Game industry and overall, I am going to wait. Friend of mine has a PS4 and with the current gen of games there really is no reason to upgrade, yet.... There are plusses and minuses to both systems currently IMO and I think waiting to let other people find the early bugs and kinks before buying one is the best answer right now. Full disclosure, I have a PS3 right now and I see no compelling reason to upgrade. It works as my bluray player as well *shrug* I have an Xbox and a Wii as well. I don't play the Xbox much and the Wii is mainly for when friends kids and my Niece come over.

I would say the "usual suspects" of Titegroup, Universal, solo 1000, HP38, WST, etc. I used 3.2gr of plain Clays at one point and it worked well but you really need to pay attention as plain Clays is hot and you can double charge it and still have a lot of case left over if you do not look in each case.

Guy I shoot with went from MM to Master with an XDm 5.25 in .45

On the act of shooting they are the same, the major differences are in the reload process with revolvers and thinking in 6 rounds and not 10 or more. Past that I will let others that are better revolver people than I chime in but a good place to start is Jerry Miculek's DVD. Youtube also has a lot of info on strong hand, weak hand, and "stressfire" reload methods. http://www.midwayusa.com/product/289660/gun-video-ultimate-advanced-revolver-with-jerry-miculek-dvd

Another vote for Armadillo Concealment with the mesh back. They support the sport and the quality is great!

I have a SIG 522 and have had no issues at all with two black dog and the mag that came with it with any ammo I can lay my hands on. Mine is about a year old now. I put a cheap red dot on it and never looked back

A good video on this subject from a "security expert" Some of the info is 2 years old but the "advice" he gives on how to do it is still valid. http://deviating.net/firearms/packing/ More info is here including individual airlines "report cards" on this: http://www.itstactical.com/intellicom/physical-security/flying-with-a-firearm-and-airline-travel-tips-by-deviant-ollam/

At the Lone Star Sanctioned IDPA match I shot a 35 yard target that had the lower -1 zone covered with a steel plate. 5 hits, and was only 5 down total. (a -3, two -1's, and two -0's) Took me 9.12 seconds. I think that is pretty acceptable accuracy. I cleaned the cylinders out very well before the match and shot all 12 stages and did not have a single "gunk" issue. I actually have shot the gun on purpose without cleaning to see when it would start gumming up and it takes around 300+ rounds for it to start showing up using that load.

I tried Clays and then went to my standby of N320 but on a whim I tried the Tinstar N32C cowboy action powder and really like it for the 160gr .38 spc Bayou bullets. Vey clean, very consistent, stupidly soft, and I make over 125 power factor no problem even with the base load of 4.2 gr. I especially like it because it takes up more case volume than Clays or N320 and is a greyish-white color that is easy to see when you are loading them. Tinstar is between N320 and N330 in burn rate.

Steve Andersons books are pretty much exactly the "organized drills" you are looking for. Our host Brian Enos sells them too, so they must be good ;-) http://www.brianenos.com/pages/reviews.html#steve http://www.andersonshooting.com/reviews/

Unlike the above, My pro 5" likes 147 gr bullets. On mine the sights were low no matter what ammo I shot in it from 115 to 147's. I called S&W and told them what factory ammo I had used to test and how low it was with each and they had me send it in. They fixed the issue with a new sight and sent it back to me with a mag for my trouble inside of two weeks. My suggestion is to try different ammo and then call S&W with that information, include a copy of what the issues are with the gun, and then ship it to them to fix it. Also, Like MarkCO said, there are several discussions on this issue on the board that echo what has been said above. Good luck and give S&W a call and see what they will do for you.

<joke> I want each bullet individually packaged in a hermetically sealed pouch that has a tamper proof seal. That way I can tell if someone has tampered with them or not. On a serious note... as long as they get to me... they could be in one box/bag or 5, or 15....

From the new rulebook: (page 45) "8.6.3.5. Two speed loaders/moon clips may be worn directly in front of the holster. The speed loaders/moon clips worn in front of the holster must be within 1” of each other, and the speed loader/moon clip nearest the holster must be within 1” of the holster. 8.6.3.6. The shooter may wear additional speed loaders/moon clips behind the hipbone on the weak side or behind the holster."

Check your crimp and measure the diameter of your old bullets v the new ones.

I agree totally that the targets are what gets scored. I miss is a miss and a hit is a hit no matter what and who you are. The question on equipment and skill to the OP is an observation I have noticed that people with open guns and red dots generally have tighter groups on the targets and that as the skill level of the shooters goes up their groups also get tighter. Overall, If there is not a hit on the target, it is a miss no matter what they are shooting be it a slingshot or a 15k race gun. As an aside, I am currently saving up for a .40 open gun :-D The red dots and comps are calling me! lol! I am trying to figure out how that matters...at all? We aren't scoring gear, right? Pretty sure that doesn't matter either. We score the targets. We have to score the target, not what we think should/might have happened.

This is something of a tech question: Are you using the driver for the video card from the manufacturer or is it one that windows installed with windows update? The reason I am asking is that windows installs "default compatibility drivers" that just work but do not enable the "full functionality" of the card like the manufacturers drivers do. When you do some things the "windows default drivers" can cause artifacting (what you are seeing) and quite a few other things that you will not see in normal day to day windows use. The only other thing I could think of is that if that is an integrated intel video chip then it could be having issues or there could be bad video memory that is only showing up when you stress out the card doing 3d things in 3d mode. Most of the time windows does not use the full functionality of the 3d mode of the card. If it were me, I would update the video card drivers to the latest version from the manufacturer first and then see if the problem continues. If you have a Dell or a laptop check theirsite as they sometimes "tweak" the drivers for their specific install method and you have to use their version.