Carmoney

I've never heard "muzzle" or "finger" yelled by any well-known, experienced, nationals-level range officer--and I shoot a lot of big matches. As a previous post indicated, it's almost always done by new ROs who have recently transitioned over from a different game that uses different commands. As a wheelgunner, I routinely have to plan my stage approach in ways that come pretty close to the 180 line, in order to maximize my effectiveness with only 6 rounds in the gun at a time. I won't cross the 180 line, so unless I commit a true safety violation as defined under the rulebook, I expect the ROs to keep quiet during my run.

I'm not sure if Jerry talked with Cliff or not, but I know he was part of the standing ovation when Cliff was called to the podium.

Better be careful with the advance trash talk, there, Squirt! That sounds an awful lot like the time Dan Carden threatened to feed us all "shit sandwiches" at the Sunflower Classic a few years ago.....

That's actually not true. Cliff did not know where he stood--there was plenty of misinformation and misconception being spread (all unintentional, I'm sure) regarding the standings by that time. Cliff ignored all that, and was smart enough not to try to burn anything down. He simply shot his game the same way he did throughout the entire three days of the match. His run was solid, but not any kind of burner. At the beginning of day three, there were six of us within 60 match points of each other, and 645 points left to go. Literally any of us could have pulled it off. I was at the bottom end of that group, due to penalties I had suffered during my first few stages when I was still transitioning back to the revolver after shooting the production nats. So I knew I had to burn down some stages, and I went for it. I did well on Stage 2, putting myself nicely ahead of the others on the super squad....and then I crashed and burned from that point on. As Cliff acknowledged later on, I wasn't trying to preserve a spot at the prize table, on day three I was still trying to keep myself in contention to win the match. Oh well, there's always next year, right? Nice to see there are so many good wheelgunners out there. It's going to be very interesting from this point forward.

Seriously, now........ Cliff shot a truly great match, and managed to commit very few mistakes over three days of tough competition on demanding stages. As Cliff has pointed out here before, it usually comes down to who makes the fewest mistakes. Knowing there was a tight race underway, Cliff also managed the pressure on day three better than anyone else, stuck with his game and shot the remainder of the match fast and clean. I'm extremely proud of him. Congratulations, El Conquistador!!

Having the match near Las Vegas was a great idea, and in my opinion added a tremendous appeal to the event--not only can you shoot a premiere match but you are also in a premiere destination city with tons of stuff to do (whether or not you're a gambler)! I thought the staff did a great job overall, the stats were handled quickly and efficiently, and I thought the overall administration of the match was excellent. On the downside, the stages were disappointing. The facilities were more than adequate to set up interesting and imaginative "nationals-quality" stages--and I'm not talking about the kind of stuff you can only do with a bunch of expensive gimmickry. It just felt like the stage designers were tired of thinking up new stuff. The previous poster who referred to them as mostly "shuffle" stages had it exactly right--and shuffling around is not my idea of freestyle, not my idea of good USPSA stage design, and not my idea of fun. Anyway, you get my point. One other big negative for me--during the awards distribution following the L/L10/R event, I was really distracted by the constant din of people chatting loudly all across the back of the room, while speakers were on the podium trying to talk. I thought it was really disrespectful to the speakers, and everyone who was trying to listen. All that said, I had a great time at this year's event, just like I always do at the USPSA Nationals every year! Thanks to everyone who contributed to the match.

I agree with Dave that the .45 ACP can be useful for hunting--my old pin load, 255-gr. LSWC at 1050 fps, would certainly be a reasonable cartridge for hunting stuff the size of whitetail deer, anyway. I disagree with his concern over the frame-mounted firing pin. The purists don't like them, but the factory frame-mounted firing pins have proven themselves quite reliable. Both systems will have failures--hammer noses break, too--but these are rare. For ignition reliability, all other things being equal, the frame-mounted firing pin is actually slightly better in terms of transmitting energy through to the primer.

Y'know, I thought about shooting my revo for this match, I even thought about shooting my 625 in Open Division just for kicks and to see how many of those clowns I could beat! But upon reflection I sorta felt that having a virtual practice run with the same equipment platform would give me an unfair advantage (real or perceived) over the other guys, and I didn't want that. Jerry does this for a living, so I guess I don't begrudge him the need to play all the angles--just like when he asks for a target to be pulled when he has a "perfect double" on a 20-yard swinger or whatever. So I'm having fun with my XD for a few days--fist time I've shot the USPSA Nationals in any division other than Revo. What the heck--it's sorta fun to switch it up now and then!

I'm enjoying shooting Production, but not shooting terribly well. Oh well, I'm in Vegas so it's all good. VEGAS!! Unfortunately, the stages I've seen so far kinda suck. Not much movement, very few activators, not at all what I was hoping for at a National-level match. Not only that, there are only 16 stages, most with relatively low round count. I would sure rather have a bunch of big 32-round field courses to run 'n' gun. Despite not having a personal trainer, I tend to make up ground on the big stages.....

Yeah, that's actually how most of us do it. I always smile and shake my head when I see people trying to imitate Jerry's shooting techniques, fingertip on the trigger and all that jazz. Jerry can do things that nobody else can do, and all it does is screw people up trying to do the same stuff. Or so it seems to me.

The other difference in the JM version is a serrated trigger. I don't like serrated triggers at all personally, but some guys like them. That's one of those personal preference things. I'm running a 6.5" barreled 25-2 this year, and Steve Irish tells me there are at least three more here at Nats. I can't say there's any big advantage over a 5" 625 though.

A 610 can make a really nice competition revolver, but its primary advantage is ammo compatibility for those already heavily committed to handloading for .40 caliber. For USPSA Revo division, I would strongly recommend finding a 5" 625, or one of the older blued 25-2s in .45 ACP. When the Revo Super Squad convenes at the USPSA Nationals later on in the week, virtually all of us will have S&W .45 ACP wheelguns in our holsters. That should tell you everything you need to know.

Happy Birthday, Dave! Thanks for everything you've done to help other shooters, including me and Sam, over all those many, many years.

Untrue. They only made 100 of the Bangers 27-7 that I use as my main 8 shooter. If you were here, I would take off a glove and slap you with it.

For the life of me, I couldn't get my little netbook thing to sign on with the wi-fi in the coffee shop, it kept connecting, then giving me a message that said "limited or no connectibility" or some such crap. I finally gave up and paid the $12.95. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong? The 6 Asian kids sitting around me were all signed on and clicking away......

Wow, you are really going out on a limb there, Jon.

Vegas, baby!! I arrived today, and it's a beautiful 72 degrees here.......in my room. It got up to about 104 outside. I'm here to shoot the Production Nats with my XD9 and get myself acclimated to the heat. The big show is nearly here!

It's funny, I've never really been all that excited about the .38 Super revolvers either, but the guys at the IRC seem to just love them. Look around at that match, I swear you'd see half the 627-4s in existence walking around in people's holsters.....

I have one of those in my safe. It rarely gets used because I don't really enjoy shooting it with major loads on an extended basis--too snappy for my liking. Once in a while I think about maybe selling it, but each time I remember how much fun it is to shoot (with minor loads) and I decide to hang onto it. My son Sam shot the 646 for a year or so when he was about 12 or 13--it was a perfect transition gun between his Model 10 .38 and the 25-2 he shoots now. It's also a very nice carry gun. Every now and then I carry it under a light jacket, using a Blade-Tech holster and those moonclip holders that hold the moons by two rounds. Very practical rig, despite Bill Wilson's decrees to the contrary.

D-frame triggers tend to pinch my finger, for some reason.

All at once??

Thanks Mike, I was hoping you would provide your load data as I thought you were shooting a 6 1/2" barrel, for experimental purposes I will load a few jacketed tomorrow and run them thru the Chrono for comparative purposes. Have you had your loads chronographed at higher elevations? I am trying to get an idea what effects the higher air density and humidity from near sea level will do to my loads. No, I'm afraid here in Iowa I don't have much opportunity to test loads at different elevations! I think I could easily drop my load by a tenth of a grain or two for my 25-2 and make major comfortably. Of course, I'm using the old gun as my back-up, and I know it's loose and slow, so I figure I better be sure my load makes major through it on the off-chance I wind up shooting it at Nats. On the other hand, if I wind up switching to a back-up gun, something fairly drastic has probably happened and going minor probably won't matter much..... Funny thing, though, my 179-181 p.f. loads (as chronoed at Area 3 and the Illinois Sectional) are pretty comfortable to shoot out of the 25-2. I do think maybe that longer barrel softens up the perceived recoil impulse, to at least some extent.

Is that a hammer spur on the gun in that rig?

Every gun is an individual. You really can't go by somebody else's chrono results. I need to use 4.3 grains of Clays under a jacketed (not plated) 230-gr. to comfortably make major 172-174 p.f. out of my old 25-2 that my kid shoots. My own 25-2 gives me 179 p.f. with that load, but that's what I've been shooting all year and that's what I'll be shooting at Nationals--at least I won't have to sweat the chrono, right?

Very nice heater! I've always wanted to like the Colt D-frames, and have owned several over the years, but I can never quite warm up to them. For me, they're just on the wrong side of being too big for deep concealment in a pants pocket or belly band, which I think is the correct role for the snubby. For me, an airweight or airlite J-frame works much better. If I'm going to carry a belt gun, it might as well be something with more power and/or capacity.