Carmoney

If it was at all breezy out there, that could certainly explain the horizontal stringing. Otherwise, it certainly looks like you're well on your way, Pat. I don't think I'd get too concerned about staying within published loads, after all you're shooting them out of a revolver made with modern metallurgical technology that has been tested with .357 proof loads, not some old rickety top-break H&R, right? If you don't get crazy with it, you should be able to bump your load up to a comfortable power factor with no problem, I would think.

Good luck finding 625s of any variety right now. You can still get 4" 625JMs, but dealer price on those has taken yet another jump, and is now pushing $700. Pure craziness.

Probably just different. Triggers on S&W J-frames are nothing to write home about anyway. Who cares though, it's a belly gun, right?

I generally use very fine grit wet/dry paper and white ceramic stones (which do not require oil or water). I've found that MIM parts can be worked the same as forged parts--the only difference is that I usually grind off the sprue marks from the sides when polishing up a hammer. That's purely a cosmetic issue, but I much prefer a gun that looks good and shoots good!

Probably have to get one of these. I'm glad to see there's still some effort to innovate in the DA revolver world.

It might have been just a freak incident. If the price of plated bullets ever comes back down, I would probably give them another try. Like Pat was saying, though, at this point they're no cheaper than jacketed....

I probably overstated the issue with plated bullets. I actually had pretty decent accuracy with Rainiers in my 625. But when one of the bullets came apart in the barrel of my gun at the Summer Blast last year, spraying three close targets full of tiny little shrapnel holes, I decided not to trust plated bullets for match use anymore. I shot up what I had left and switched to Zeros for major matches and RNL for local matches.

Another good reason to thin the flocks of nuisance resident geese that hang around most of our citites these days shitting all over everything.... So how hard can it really be to engineer a jet engine that's goose-proof, for chrissakes?

Yeah, and I really don't think you're going to get the best accuracy from plated bullets, Pat. It took me awhile to figure it out, but plated bullets really kinda suck. I always got really good results using cast lead 125 RNs over Titegroup at minor P.F. in Short Colt brass. In all my guns. Good enough to convince me that bullet jump is not a real issue.

My thoughts: If you really want a little less weight towards the front (and are you sure about that?), and you can't locate a PC 625, you could simply remove some or all of the underlug from the 5" 625 you already own. The forged trigger/hammer components are not really an issue--the MIM parts are every bit as conducive to a great action job as the forged parts. And the stock action with the MIM stuff will probably be smoother out of the box, actually.

Congratulations my friend! (I had two cute little babies once upon a time.....but both of them grew up into teenagers!)

Yep, that's how I figured it, too! By coincidence, my top finish at the SSC in the past few years was 31st place, shooting a .45. (On second thought, maybe it's not a coincidence after all!) And Matt is exactly right--this particular match is definitely not the place to shoot minor, every year they make sure everything is 8+1 friendly. I never benefitted from those extra couple rounds. But I knew that going in, I just wanted to see how well I could do with my Super against the toughest competition I could find. Now I know. I still maintain that there are still a couple matches every year where the minor Single Stack may give a slight advantage--those matches would be the ones that happen to have several stages that allow the 10+1 guns to avoid having to make standing reloads, and so forth. But other than those rare circumstances, major Single Stack is the way to fly.

It always reminds me of this ad campaign (which I am old enough to remember):

Hey Mike, you're still younger than several of the top revolver shooters, including the one true grandmaster of the revo, Jerry Miculek! If you're a little slower on your feet than you used to be, start looking for efficiencies in movement and ways to increase smoothness--they mean more than raw blistering speed anyway. Funny thing--everybody thinks that revolver shooters are "slower" on a stage--but every time we have a revover squad get together at a major match, we wind up waiting around for the squad of bottomfeeders in front of us to finish. Why? For starters, we have a whole bag of loaded moonclips along, enough to get through the day, and so we're not dinking around constantly with hi-cap mags and all that crap, and the stage gets re-set faster for the next shooter. Second, we tend not to spend 30-45 seconds per stage going through some elaborate ritualistic rehearsal, like some of those Limited and Open prima donnas insist upon doing. We simply load, holster, and take the starting position--that's it. You might get a little teasing from the guys at the local matches at first. That will go away when you start beating them on a stage here and there--then the teasing turns into respect. This past year I shot one of our local USPSA matches and managed to win the whole match outright, even beating those using Limited and Open guns, with my good ol' 625. That was a good day.....

I started this discussion, and frankly I would like to end it with this--the bottom line: If you simply use the stock strain screw at a length that creates the correct amount of tension with whatever mainspring you're using, apply a little bit of blue loctite to the threads and then tighten it down as hard as possible with a screwdriver that fits properly, and you don't dick around with it, that screw will remain tight indefinitely. There will be no appreciable change in the mainspring tension, and your action should remain reliable for years and years and years.

Thank you, Alan, for defending my 40th place finish at the 2008 Single Stack Nationals. I'm still waiting for the "Top Minor" trophy I earned with my .38 Super Kimber single stack! It was fun, but this year I'm planning to switch back to major power factor. The way the scoring system works, it is nearly always a benefit to be scored major.

Instead of using your press, you could use a hand primer seating tool. Done correctly, the risk of a detonation from hand-seating primers is virtually non-existant.

I like the new FBI chick! And with my new HD big-screen, I can see every freckle.

Don't worry, I keep a screwdriver in my shooting bag to help you guys out when your revolvers start misfiring during the match.....and with any luck you'll only blow one stage.

No prize table but every shooter does get a nice gift just for showing up. In the past they have received a Surefire flashlight the next year a really cool Kershaw knife and last year a really cool cleaning kit. Isn't that better then a prize table where you get a package of springs or some shock buffs. If I remember right Springfield gave away about 20 guns. Plus we are still the Nationals with the lowest entry fee. Yeah, well, I can do the math on $200 X 360 in my head. That's an awful lot of money for no prize table. Anybody care to explain where all that cash goes??

Excellent advice from Pat and Tom.

Good thing we shoot pins at 25 feet, huh John?

Depends on how much force you're talking about, though. You would have to reach a certain threshold impact level before there's any real risk of distortion/cracking/tearing--as least in the real world, right? 1911 pistols don't generate nearly as much impact force as most people think. If they did, those little plastic buffers would never survive more than one shot. Not to mention the fact that you couldn't hang onto the gun to shoot it. If you really think about it, the fact that a plastic or fiber buffer can even survive for awhile is the strongest argument that they don't serve any real protective purpose.

Not as bad as you might think, actually. Even with the light-contoured 8-3/8" Model 27 I always used for pins, it's pretty controllable, all things considered. Thought you had a heavy barreled 7 shooter? Naw, my main pin gun is a plain ol' stock 27 with a Baummanize cylinder. I shot it for both Pin and Stock main events, including the year I fiinished 2nd overall. I do have a heavy-barreled 25-2 (made by John Nowlin) that I shot in the main events for a couple years before switching over to the .357, then I shot it only in the 8-pin side event.

Not as bad as you might think, actually. Even with the light-contoured 8-3/8" Model 27 I always used for pins, it's pretty controllable, all things considered.