Northern Xtreme

I am trying to figure out what gun to get for my Son to shoot USPSA with. He is going to be 10 and weighs about 90 pounds. I am thinking it should be single stack or at least have a small enough grip that he can work the controls easily. I think it should probably have a safety but it also needs to have a light enough trigger pull that he can fire it without disrupting the sights to much from pulling to hard. It probably needs to be somewhat light so he isnt struggling to hold it up. I know this will probably mean dealing with more recoil but you cant have everything. Right now he has been shooting a Ruger 22/45 with a short 4" barrel, and is doing very well with it. The grip is no problem, and I put a Volquartsen trigger in it. He can shoot down a rack of plates at 20 yards with no misses, and he has good safe gun handling skills. I was thinking production division, but maybe Limited 10 minor with a single stack 9mm would be the way to go. Anyone got any good ideas for me, or any experience starting a youngster out in the sport?

Shoot their 8 shot optic mounted revolver only for catagory placement? What does that mean? Are you going to feel good about beating a guy shooting a six shot iron sighted revolver with a full blown 8 shot race revolver?" But please dont spoil revolver division! Just to clean it up a bit. I did not say an 8 shot WITH optic. The bold print above will clarify that. The original post once again only asked about optics being introduced into the revo as possibly a category. Someone shot me an email inquiring about it, I spoke with some revo shooters who suggested I post something on Enos. As I have, the thread has drifted off the original topic. Im not looking to spoil the revo division or water it down. I just asked a question, its been answered rather well, by many sources on this forum. I hope this clears up any misunderstanding, thanks, H! So your suggestion was to have an eight shot revolver division, an optic revolver devision, as well as the current revolver division? Might as well add a speedloader division and another one for compensated revolvers, a snub nose division, and then an open revolver division for people wanting to shoot any combination of them. If we are lucky we might even get two guys in the same division at a match. Not trying to be a dick, this is said with tongue in cheek, but I am trying to illustrate where this is going when you start splitting an already small division. Like I said, I do understand the desire to play with your open revolvers, and I dont begrudge you that, I wish I had an eight shot 38 super, but I wouldnt expect to shoot it in the revolver division, I'd like to go to the local matches and see how many open guys I could beat with it, like Vic Picket does.

Shoot their 8 shot optic mounted revolver only for catagory placement? What does that mean? Are you going to feel good about beating a guy shooting a six shot iron sighted revolver with a full blown 8 shot race revolver?" I understand that it would be fun to shoot your race revolver in a match, and nobody is preventing you from doing that, and if you have a buddy that has one also then the two of you can shoot and see who comes out on top in the open catagory. But I really think it is selfish to ask everyone to change the rules to allow you an obvious competitive advantage, and to disrupt a division that is already struggling. You might get a few guys that already have V-8's to shoot a USPSA match with them, but you will loose more of the established revolver guys in the process. If you want to play with your race revolver be my guest, thats what I like about USPSA everyone can shoot their favorite gun, it might not be the most advantagious gun for a division but you can still play the game. Then if you want to try to win a division there are several to choose from where you do not need an expensive gun to have an equal chance with everyone, Production, Single Stack, and Revolver are some of those divisions. Let open division be the place where the big dollar guns play, people can try to buy a competitive advantage there. But please dont spoil revolver division!

Heres a test for you: Do an el prez on four targets instead of three. Use an eight shot revolver shooting minor for one run and a six shot revolver shooting major for another run. Which gun is going to score a better hit factor? Unfortunately most matches around here do use the eight shot per target array, they do not set up courses to be revolver nuetral, in fact I dont think revolvers ever even enter into their thinking when designing courses.

The fact of the matter is if you cant be competitive with a revolver under the current rules, you are probably just shooting for fun anyhow. Even if you change the rules to make yourself more competitive, it wont work, because whatever advantage you gain using an eight shot or optics, or compensated revolvers etc, will not be an advantage when everyone else throws down all of the same money and gets the same equipment so you'll be back in the same boat anyhow. Just go shoot whatever you have and enjoy yourself. If you have an eight shot revolver you can shoot 6 shots and reload, you still have an advantage, if your gun doesnt go bang you can strike the 7th round. Or go whip some bottom feeders and take pleasure in that.

I have a senior friend that has been shooting revolver for many years, lately the recoil of major was bothering him so he has been shooting his eight shot 38 super in production division and is having fun doing it. I do not agree with messing with the revolver division rules, I think for every revolver shooter you gain you will lose at least one. I.M.O. the comparison between single stack minor 10 shots/ major 8 shots, is not the valid, since revolvers take longer to load, and accuracy is already a premium for revolver shooters, the 8 shot would be a serious advantage and I do not believe the 6 shot guns would be able to compete at the highest levels. I like the division the way it is, and I think allowing 8 shots would spoil it. I dont think revolver division is ever going to carry the numbers of other divisions because shooting a revolver well is a different skill set than autos and most people use the more modern autos in everyday life and are not willing to put the time and energy into being competitive with a revolver.

What is the diameter of that inner X ring circle?

If anyone here is doing 2.0 second reloads or better consistantly and you are not classified at least Master, then you probably need to practice your accuracy more!

Wow I never heard that one before. Power Factor of 125 is pretty mild. My cup gun was built on a 681 L frame, I had 50,000 rounds on that before I sold it and its still going strong today. I knew several people that ran K frames for years without any problems. It must depend on the barrel.

I have found Winchester primers to be the next softest after Federals. You will probably have to get a slightly longer strain screw if your gun was fully tuned for Federals.

I'm sorry, no offence but seeing that revolver really pisses me off! We'd better never let it come down to that here in the USA.

Congrats, sounds like a fun three weeks to me!

It takes a damn good auto to match the accuracy of a revolver at 50 yards.

Yeah, I agree, the neck hold only works well with an airstocrat rib or something with an adjustable front sight. You have to be able to bring the front sight way up, and then you have to be able to get it back to where it was for the rest of the shooting. With your gun I might be inclined to bring the rear sight up a few clicks when going to the 50 yard line, but only if I knew exactly how many clicks from sighting in at that distance. Other than that, just hold it a few inches high. If you can shoot a decent group even if its centered in the 9 ring it should be a good score.

In IDPA all of your reloads have to be done behind cover, so that pretty much takes the thought out it for you, therefore I shoot the gun dry before reloading since it takes more time to try to put away the unfired rounds. But in USPSA like Bubber said, if you can reload on the move the reload hasnt added any time to your stage. If you are heading from a four shot array to a six shot array, it only makes sense to reload while moving to the six shot array so you can shoot it as soon as you arrive without doing a time consuming standing reload. If you are heading from a four shot aray to an 8 shot array, then you might want to just run there shoot the two shots left, and then do a standing reload which you will have to do anyways. Sometimes it is easier to break a stage down in reverse order from finish to start. Usually whatever gives you the fewest standing reloads will be the quickest way to run the stage, especially with a revolver.

Let us know how you do, I will be curious.

I assume you are reffering to the PPC course of fire. Are you using a stock gun or one with an aristocract rib? You probably dont have time to sight in for this, but the way they shoot the 50 yard line is to sight your gun in using a neck hold at 50 yards, it gives you a much smaller aiming point to put the head on top of the front sight, so you sight the gun in to hit about a foot low, or whatever the distance is, it has been so many years since I have done this I cant remember. You also need to plumb bob the target because if it is hanging a little crooked the group will miss the 10 ring. I know it doesnt sound very practical and sounds like cheating but thats how its done! Other than that, just take your time and lay the shots in, most people dont use all of the time, if you can shoot next to someone that is good, pace yourself off of them.

There is that too. I always hate that. I am shooting my game. They are shooting theirs. I really don't want to deride them in any way and I hope they feel the same way. Although I did have a shooter approach me at a recent match and say "So you are that old guy with a revolver who keeps beating me!" That cracked me up. -ld See you dont really hate it, you actually like it! You should have replied, "Oh, so you are that old guy with an auto that I keep beating with my revolver!"

Found this on another forum: Early J frame serial numbers For models 36, 37, 38, 49, 50 and pre model number versions. 1950 = start at 1 1952 = 7369 - 21342 1953 = 28916 1955 = 55050 - 75000 1957 = 117770 - 125000 1962 = starts at 295000 1969 = ends at 786544 J serial Prefix serial numbers. For models 36, 37, 38, 49, 50. 1969-1970 = J1 - J99999 1971-1972 = 1J1 - 999J99 1973-1974 = J100000 - J250000 1975-1976 = J250001 - J370000 1976-1977 = J370001 - J610000 1977-1978 = J610001 - J670000 1979-1980 = J670001 - J760000 1981 = J760001 - J915400 1982 = J915401 - 1J18600 1983 = 1J18601 - 1JXXXX 1955 - 4 screw side plate ends 1957 - stamping of model number at 125000 1966 - flat latch ends 1968 - diamond grips end 1975 - heavy barrel standard

Then theres the satisfaction of beating the bottom feeders!

I am very happy that you like the 617. I am sure I will regret selling it. It has the aluminum cylinder, I dont know if thats the difference from the sticky chambers or not.

I had an upper with a rifle length gas system and a barrel that was cut down to 16", stock rifle length buffer and spring.. It would not cycle Wolf ammo, the bolt would not go back past the magazine to pick up the next round, it would cycle fine with XM193's.

I'm sure the Speedsec is a fast holster, but I am concerned about retention. It makes me nervous not to have some sort of muzzle platform.

Does your 6" holster have the cup on the bottom or the button?

I didnt mean to imply that everyone had to be of a certain rank to matter, I was just hoping for good numbers of revolver shooters. I have seen some of our Area 7 championships go off with only a few.