Carmoney

Yeah, the 5" 610s are pretty sweet, in my view the best of the bunch for what we do. However, there really aren't all that many of them out there. I did see a really nice looking one on Gunbroker a week or two ago with a buy-it-now price of $900. Given the state of the industry right now, that might not be all that bad. I picked one up in a deal awhile back and then sold it off, can't remember now what it brought but it wasn't a whole lot less.

Yeah, as long as I can get an order placed before they're gone. I have several people on the list who want them, and I'll probably snag one for myself while I'm at it. My guy at Bangers is supposed to let me know when they're in stock.

Most of you guys won't remember this, but I was actually a bona fide gunwriter, back in the early '90s. I even had a masthead editorial title in one of the gun rags for awhile! I published a number of articles in American Handgunner, American Rifleman, Gun World, Police Marksman, Women & Guns, and even several chapters in some of those big paperback DBI Books. It was fun for a little while, then it really started to feel like work. Plus at that time period in my life I really wanted to focus my efforts on improving my competitive shooting game, and didn't want to be distracted by having to write articles on the matches I was attending. I'll tell you who could write a really good book on revolver shooting from a highly knowledgeable perspective--Patrick Sweeney. If he did a wheelgun version of the books he's done on the 1911, Glock, and AR15, it would be a great read and a valuable resource!

Alan, when I owned a 627-4 I discovered it definitely needed moonclips in order to function correctly.

Peakbagr, if you want to know what's going on at S&W, you generally will not find out by calling their customer service department. We have been told by our sales rep friend from Bangers (the distributor that originally released the 627-4 in .38 Super) that they have reached a deal with S&W to release another production run of those guns. So if you really want an 8-shot .38 Super, stay tuned, you should have an opportunity to get one in the next couple months.

I have the perfect title: "Carmoney on Revolvers." Now all I need is a ghost-writer.

I don't think the difference is all that huge. If you have everything else all set up for .40, the 610 might make a lot of sense for you.

Makes sense to me. Take it down until it's flush like the old one and you should be good to go.

I always wear tennis shoes, the kind with fairly aggressive tread.

Thanks David, but we don't want our shooters to feel like they are coming here to work. We'll ask everybody to help tape targets and set steel, of course, but that's never a problem with revolver guys anyway. You will not be asked to tear down stages afterward or any of that crap.....we'll handle the work......you are our guests! We already have some experienced local shooters (non-revolver guys) who have offered their help, so we should be in good shape. Our stats guy will be shooting the match with us, so we will need to let him shoot through and get going on the scores. Overall, the goal is keep the procedural aspects of the match relatively informal and simple, particularly for our first year. Dave and Cliff will be in attendance, and it certainly seems fitting to reinstate the FL Grudge event. Is Secure Firearm Products by any chance offering to creatively sponsor that event as it did at the IA B2B match? (hint, hint...)

It's all good, Tom! I can pretty much guarantee that everybody will enjoy this event. We have an absolutely great group of shooters coming in from all over, including lots of folks from right here on the forum.

Maybe someday we will have a range available in central Iowa that is designed for practical handgun competition. It would be great to have something like they have at LaCrosse or Milan, with bunches of smaller bays, but that just doesn't exist here currently in this area. We make up for it with good stage design.

I think we're supposed to use the term "Thug-Americans."

Tom, it makes perfect sense, but first you have to understand how our range is laid out. We have three fairly large bays. Each bay will have 2 or 3 stages on it (plus we'll probably put one stage down through the woods below the bays). We can only have one squad shooting on each bay, for safety reasons. Be assured that we have significant experience running major matches on this range (multiple IA Sectionals and the historic PSS/Revo Back-to-Back matches), and we have figured out how to make it run with reasonable efficiency. This is one of the reasons why we limited the match to 45 shooters, of course. Anybody else have concerns? Let's get them out of the way now!

On Sunday, you can shoot any ammo you want, as long as it runs through a 6-shot revolver of minimum .40 caliber. We will have plenty of steel, and it will be calibrated to fall at minor/ICORE (120) power factor, so bear that in mind. Everybody will be scored major. Most of us will be shooting our regular major USPSA ammo. Basically, if you're not a kid or a female shooter and you're running pussy loads through your 625, be prepared to take some flak. From me, for starters!!

Give me a break here. Jerry practices those standards plenty. We've all heard him discuss how he sets it up on his practice range, and how he's managed to clean it a few times with all X-ring hits in practice, and all that stuff.

We can take about 4 more shooters, then we'll have to go to a waiting list.

Keep in mind that even if the front sight appears to be machined as part of the barrel, it probably is not. Most of them were in fact pinned, although they do the polishing and finishing after the sight is pinned in place, making the pin hard to see--sometimes nearly impossible to find. For example, the Model 25-2 (like RGS's blued gun pictured directly above) had a pinned front sight. If your 19 has a pinned sight, and you can find the pin and drift it out, it will allow you to install an aftermarket front sight (the SDM fiber/optic, for example) with simple hand tools if you're a little handy, rather than sending the gun out for machine work.

I just sent everybody on my sign-up list a confirmation email, which contains additional information about the event. If you mailed me an entry form, but have not received this recent email, please drop me a line. Thanks!

I just sent everybody on my sign-up list a confirmation email, which contains additional information about the event. If you mailed me an entry form, but have not received this recent email, please drop me a line. Thanks!

Since I've been pretty vocal about the topic of the standards stage at the IRC, I want to make sure that my opinion (and the opinions of those who may agree with me) is not misunderstood. For the record, I don't "dislike" the Far and Near Standards. Hell, it wouldn't bother me if you added a 100-yard string and cut the par times in half. Make it easier, make it tougher, whatever. What I dislike is the fact that it's always been the same stage, year after year, and that has allowed some people to artificially groove themselves in by setting up the stage way in advance at their home range, and shooting it over and over and over and over and over and over in practice. As a result, the IRC has become somewhat predominated by performance on this one stage, which to a significant extends rewards rote memory on one particular narrow task, rather than reward all-around multi-disciplinaty shooting skill. Or so it seems to me. So for having the guts to change things up and try something different, even in a relatively minor way, I think we should all wholeheartedly applaud Nelson and the IRC.

If long-standing tradition holds again this year, the stages will be no more than 24 rounds. There will be a standards with strong/weak hand shooting. There will be one stage that is all steel. The stages will all be 8-round-friendly, and fairly simple--you won't have to do a whole lot of thinking to analyze them. (This is actually my least favorite aspect of the match. I wish they would set up more challenging field stages that would allow multiple avenues of attack, instead of dumbing it down to make it easy to shoot with an 8-rounder.)

I'll say it again: I think they should have a standards stage at every IRC, but vary it up each year and not reveal all the details ahead of time. That would make it more of a real test of true shooting ability under match pressure, and less of a function of how many times you have run the damn thing over and over on the practice range. I have the same criticism of Steel Challenge and Bianchi. I think shooting matches should be about shooting skill, not about "muscle memory." Just my opinion.

Yep, that's the idea. I'm cutting way back on my "fly-in" shooting trips this year. With one kid starting college in the fall and the other kid just two years behind her, I need to keep my recreational costs under control.

I messed around with some of those newest factory pins over the weekend. They actually have a tip that is flattened somewhat. They seemed to work quite well. The more I mess with various firing pins, the more convinced I am that the shape of the tip makes more difference than the length of the pin (which makes perfect sense if you think about it).