Carmoney

What in the world are you talking about?? The fact that Open shooters have small wieners, or what???

Et tu, Snert?? Et tu??

What did I ever do to deserve this??? Dave???

The problem with that plan is that melting the F/O rod along its length (and not just at the ends) can negatively affect the light transfer that makes the sight work, and more importantly can weaken the integrity of the rod, making it more likely to break quickly.

That'll work. The SDM sights are not particularly hard. They're pretty easy to drill.

As the F/O rod breaks or darkens to an unacceptable level on my SDM sights, I've been drilling them through so the F/O is easily replaceable. If you use a Starrett punch to carefully create a centered dimple on the front of the sight, it's pretty easy to drill the sight from the front with a hand drill, so you don't even have to remove the sight from the barrel. Then you can melt both ends of the F/O properly. Also, I've been using more EGW sights lately.

Hey Cliff, To help with your question, Randy Lee told me that a light hammer doesn't work with rimfire like it does with centerfire. He said don't take weight off the hammer. I backed off the strain screw and thinned the rebound spring on my 617, its better but no where where near my ICORE gun. I've heard the same thing about taking weight off the hammer not working well with rimfires. But for the life of me I can't figure out why that would be. One of these days I need to experiment with that. But for now, the hammer on my 617 is unaltered and the trigger pull is smooth but fairly heavy.

BadShot recently got one with the aluminum cylinder, and has already shot several steel matches with it. Looks to me like it's working just fine.

Steve, if you want to get your 625 set up for competition use, drop me a PM or email me at carmoney4@aol.com and we can talk over the options. Or if you decide to work on the gun yourself, I'll be happy to lend you my copy of Jerry's DVD--it's an excellent starting point for learning basic revolver action work. Either way, the DA trigger pull on the typical stock S&W revolver is awfully heavy and can be tremendously improved with a little judicious effort. You mentioned you need moonclip holders--here's what most of the serious revo guys are using these days: http://www.twotandogs.com/

Yep, a bunch of us around this area (central Iowa) are shooting 617s at our local steel matches. Now that colder weather is here, we're also shooting "pin top" (heads cut off bowling pins) matches at the indoor range. Fun stuff! The Model 617 is a K-frame with a 10-shot cylinder. I like the 4" version personally, but you see quite a few 6" guns around. Mine has an action job and aftermarket sights (Millett target rear and SDM fiber-optic front)--that's it. The other accessory that is a must-have for the 10-shot .22 revolvers is a set of the great DS-10 speedloaders made by Dave Skrzela: http://www.msnusers.com/speedloader These things work great, and make the whole experience of using the 617 about ten times more fun! Years ago, long before the S&W "hi-cap" .22 revolvers were available, I shot a lot of steel matches with an old Hi-Standard Sentinel 9-shot revolver. Although a little primitive compared to a 617, it worked surprisingly well.

One more thing to keep in mind: Your general liability coverage (included as part of your homeowners policy) and your personal umbrella policy will NOT cover liability involving your business interests. Anything you're doing to make money as part of a business venture, no matter how small it might be, will require a commercial general liability policy (and perhaps a commercial umbrella policy) in order to provide coverage.

Every umbrella policy I've seen requires that you maintain a certain level of underlying liability coverage for both your auto and homeowners, usually more than the "standard" (but in my opinion, insufficient) 100,000/300,000 limits. Umbrella policies are designed and underwritten to be excess coverage that will only kick in when a catastrophic claim situation arises.

You'll need to read your policy to figure out where you stand. If the policy language is hard to translate, it might be worth an hour's consultation with an attorney in your state who is informed about CCW matters and (more importantly) who is experienced in insurance policy coverage interpretation and litigation. Here's the short answer--if somebody (or somebody's estate) sues you for shooting him, whether or not your insurance company will afford you a defense (and perhaps indemnification in the event you lose the case) will probably depend not so much on the facts of the incident, but more on how the plaintiff's lawyer pleads the case in the petition/summons. Smart plaintiff's attorneys know how to plead the case into standard liability coverage--most of the time, they want to have insurance coverage in place because they have a better chance of settling and collecting. When in doubt, most insurers will at least provide a legal defense (which often is the biggest issue anyway) under a reservation of rights letter while they try to sort out the coverage. Also, keep in mind that policy language which is deemed ambiguous is going to be construed in favor of the insured, so as long as a legitimate coverage question remains, you're probably going to be competently defended. And most of the time, you will be much better off with an experienced insurance defense lawyer selected by your carrier than some ham 'n' eggs small-timer you happen to know from the poker room or the diner.

I defend insurance-referred liability lawsuits for a living. My opinion is that even if you're broke at the moment and you think you're pretty well judgment proof, with the cost of medical treatment these days the absolute minimum liability coverage you should consider is $1 million. A million-dollar umbrella policy is cheap--well worth the peace of mind. Every day I deal with clients who wish they had more coverage....even in a defense-friendly litigation climate like Iowa. While you're buying your umbrella policy, tell the agent you want to raise your uninsured/underinsured (UM/UIM) limits up to a million bucks also--for the reasons Neomet cites. If you ever get hurt badly by somebody who doesn't have enough coverage (and most people don't have enough), you'll be glad you got it.

OK, I get it. You guys figure if I'm busy at my workbench I won't be bothering you with more of my usual annoying forum posts. Very clever.

Probably the same guys who say it's not a timing problem, it's a FCU (failure to carry up). Unfortunately, the guys at S&W have been pretty much out of touch for awhile now......

Time to get rid of the entire class system perhaps??

As a matter of fact, yes. Perhaps he had a death wish. Or now that I think about it, maybe just a couple of teenage kids and a pre-menopausal wife driving him frickin' crazy!!!! (uh-oh, did I say that out loud?)

I saw this post and figured Bob Perdue had invented a new specialty revolver product called the "Devon Penrod"....perhaps a writing instrument that could also be used to check cylinder alignment, or some such thing. (Just kidding, Devon--some people still think I'm in the automobile loan business....) Congrats!

I always love handloading mishap stories that start this way!! It's good to keep things in perspective. Alchohol enhanced stupidity. I used to know a guy that did virtually all his handloading with a lit cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth.

I always love handloading mishap stories that start this way!!

The Hearthco moons do not bend easily at all....I think they might be made out of spring steel, not 100% sure. In my experience, the best of all possible set-ups for 8-shot is Hearthco moonclips made for Starline brass, and minor loads in .38 Short Colt (Starline) brass. Those cartridges fit nice and tight in the moonclips (in fact, you really need to use a remooning tool), and with a little chamfer done to the chamber mouths, they drop right in really well. Reloads with that combination are nearly as fast as you can get with a 625.

Take a primed but otherwise empty case. Take your hand priming tool and try to get it to go bang. Yeah, Les, I know some folks worry about setting off the primer on a loaded round that way, and although I suppose it is theoretically possible, I believe the chances of it happening are infinitesimally small. I know I have reseated the primers on many thousands of rounds over the years with no loud noises--I hand reseat all my match ammo because I just don't trust my old press to properly crush-seat the primers to below flush. That said, I would not reseat primers--or perform any sort of shooting or reloading activities--without wearing glasses. A round going off outside the chamber of a firearm ordinarily does not present any grave danger to life or limb, but it could certainly create serious eye injury if shrapnel were to go in the eyes. Bottom line--a steady squeeze with the hand priming tool does not create any real hazard, in my opinion. But everybody needs to make his own decision, I guess.

Good points RePete and Houngan. In fact, there was a 4" 625 in a package deal with all the goodies listed recently on the forum, and it was somewhere in the price range Houngan mentioned.

In addition to playing around in Production, the other great thing about 8-shooters is they're great for steel matches. And of course ICORE if any of those matches are available in your area.