Carmoney

Yes, I agree completely with Doug (my personal handloading guru). I shoot a lot of cast lead bullets--I use them at most local matches, and even some majors. With the right loads, and if the gun is set up right, you should be able to make it easily through an entire major match without having to stop by the safe area to brush out the gun. Sometimes it gets a little smoky (depending on the lighting conditions, wind, and humidity), but usually not to the point that it becomes a major problem. As Doug points out, shooting lead bullets does necessitate more frequent cleaning, but that's OK because revolvers really should be cleaned fairly frequently anyway.

Order up some of those 230-gr. "Lincoln Log" .357 bullets from GAT Bullets (Gary Thibodaux, 985.446.0093) and load them up with Blue Dot or Unique in .38 Special brass (be careful working up your load, though, and don't mess with any other powders). Run them up to 950+ fps and they're absolutely phenomenal on pins.

With heavy bullets and careful powder selection, you can easily achieve major PF with .38 Spl. brass. My favorite pin load is a 230-gr. flat-nose bullet sized .357 loaded in mixed .38 Special brass to 1050 fps....to say it makes major is a bit of an understatement!

Ordering direct from Bladetech can be frustrating, they can sometimes take forever. See if they have your holster in stock at www.shootersconnection.com first.

My advice: 1. For best results, use Starline .38 Short Colt brass in Hearthco moonclips. These moons will also work perfectly for Starline .38 Special brass. 2. Use plenty of crimp on your revolver ammo. This will help ease reloads, ensure a complete powder burn, and prevent bullets from being pulled forward by inertia under recoil. 3. I can't offer much help here--I'm between loads right now, as my favorite bullet for .38 Short Colt is no longer in production. 4. I use Bladetech and CR Speed holsters, the North Mountain moonclip holder, a Prudhome mooning tool and Brownells screwdriver-style demooner. I also use the Millett rear sight, a fiber optic front sight (SDM or EGW), and the Hogue cylinder latch. 5. You can shoot major with .38/.357 in Revo division, although it is not an ideal choice. Although some have tried it (mostly Europeans), I would not recommend trying to make major with Short Colt brass.

Dave, if you don't want Cliff to play around on your BE forum account, you might want to consider changing your password from "hardblackmouthpiece" to something a little less obvious.

Is that why Darren rides his bike?? I think Darren and I could travel on an airline without creating any undue concern (as long as I pretended to be the Federal Marshal escorting him).

Maybe. It all depends on the weekend. I have a really heavy work schedule this year and won't be doing as much traveling to matches as I ordinarily do. Sure hope it works out, though!

The Des Moines medical community currently has a Dr. Dick (and yes, he is a urologist) and a Dr. Bahls. They do not practice together, unfortunately. In our federal court system, we also have retired judges with the unusual last names Fagg and Longstaff. We also have a whole slew of attorneys with the last name Lawyer!

Sounds like that would be rough.

On the Kimber, the parts for the Schwartz safety system can simply be removed. The rear sight has to be taken off first, but it's an easy job. I did it to my own Kimber. On the Colt/Para system, when the equivalent parts are removed, a spacer needs to be installed. That's probably what your friend was thinking of. I agree that these parts are unnecessary. Mike (your friendly neighborhood lawyer)

I agree with your assessment, Bob. You know how to make sure your Federal primers are well-seated (i.e. crush seated to below flush and starting to flatten). Superb ammo allows the revolversmith's work to shine 100% of the time!

I've said it here before, and I'll say it again: You'll have a lot less hassle with this kind of thing if you keep your appearance clean-cut. If you made the decision to grow the crazy beard and get the tattoo on the side of your neck, better plan on a little extra time to answer some questions. That might not be fair, but it's reality.

Dry-fire it as fast as you can cycle the action. If it ever feels weird like it's maybe skipping a chamber now and then, the cylinder stop and spring need replaced. If you know how to disassemble the gun, the new MIM stops are almost always a drop-in part, even on the older guns. They flatten out a little from use. I wouldn't worry about it, other than I guess it is a sign that the gun has been shot a fair bit.

I would agree with the hole all the way through, but I personally would not want the sight ramped. I would want a .100" wide serrated post .300" high set up for the thin fiber-optic rod. If they could be marketed for about the same price as the SDM and EGW products, I'd buy them and install them on all my guns.

Nice photo Steve. I hope the photography session didn't get too out of hand.

That's exactly correct. If I bottom out the strain screw and tighten it down hard (i.e. as tight as I can get it without twisting the screw head off), it will never loosen up even with no loctite. I did that for years, in fact. As Toolguy says, the loctite is merely a bit of extra insurance.

Perfect!!

Nice gesture, Toolguy! But I have to agree with the others--if you could bring that product into production, there is a market for it!!

.....but it hurts so good!!

Well, based on what I've seen, plenty of revolver shooters seem to be willing to accept occasional misfires. So I guess if you're one of those guys, feel free to ignore my advice! I just don't want any of my competition to have an "equipment excuse" when I whip up on them!

Yes. As long as it's the 627 Pro Series with the slab-sided barrel, it will be all set to run with moonclips.

Using loc-tite is better than nothing, I suppose. But there's always that lingering doubt about whether the screw is moving over time. Plus every time you take the gun apart (which admittedly should not be very often), I guess you'd have to count exactly how many turns it takes to remove the strain screw and then try to screw it in the same number of turns upon reassembly, right? Hence the title of this thread. If you get the tension set so it's correct with the screw bottomed out (and I always use blue loctite even though I have the screw tightened down hard), the action will stay reliable indefinitely. And if you do have to take the gun apart and put it back together, the mainspring tension stays exactly the same when the strain screw is returned to its original tightened position.

There seems to be a widely-spread misconception that the way to adjust the mainspring tension on a S&W revolver is to simply back out the strain screw a few turns and call it good. About half the used guns I handle have their strain screws backed out, and there have been multiple references on this sub-forum recently indicating that shooters are loosening up their strain screws as a matter of routine. This is a bad idea, people. Unless the strain screw is bottomed out and locked down hard, it will eventually loosen and cause misfires. I have seen several shooters first-hand (including a couple who should know better) experience this at major matches. To lighten the mainspring tension, you can replace the spring with an aftermarket spring, bend or thin the stock spring, or shorten the strain screw (just watch out for knuckling problems if you take the latter option too far), or some combination of the above. Another option is to drill and tap the frame for a set screw to hold the strain screw in place after it's been adjusted. In every case, when you're done, the scrain screw needs to be locked down so it can't move. Period.

Well, you guys all know my opinion on this subject!