Carmoney

Let's limit the discussion to revolvers, in order to avoid a bunch of controversy with the Slide Glide devotees, OK? In revolvers, grease has a tendency to attract dirt which can act as an abrasive compound inside the action, accelerating wear. Grease also will create unnecessary and unwanted sluggishness in the revolver's functioning, particularly under colder weather conditions. If the revolver is set up correctly, it should not need grease to function smoothly. A good synthetic oil designed to flow and lubricate under a wide temperature span is what you want. I've tried them all, and nothing works better than synthetic engine oil (such as Mobil 1). It stays where you put it, whereas most gun oils will dry up and disappear under moderate use. It's not uncommon for me to receive a revolver with the action all glopped up with grease. There are some well-intentioned but poorly-informed people on some other internet forums who call this the "poor man's action job." The first thing I do when I receive one of these guns is to douche out all the accumulated greasy crap. Then I hone the action and apply only a very small amount of synthetic oil to the friction points. Revolvers need very little oil. A few drops in strategic places is all you need. Once the gun is set up, the only place you need to regularly add oil is the yoke barrel. Anyway, that's my theory. And I consider it pretty well proven at this point!

Doug, let me understand......are we talking about a 25-2? Or a 625 with a 25-2 barrel installed on it? Do we have Ransom Rest inserts for a RB N-frame in that box of inserts?

Yes, the real hazard of lead exposure comes not from the bullets, but from inhaling the vaporized lead syphnate that is generated from the primers. Regular shooting on an indoor range is not a terribly healthy thing to do. All that black crap you blow out of your nose after an indoor match should be telling you something.....

It's probably not the recoil. If the gap is right on the razor's edge of insufficiency, heat expansion from shooting a few rounds in quick succession can be enough to make it drag. A few seconds later the dragging will be gone only to return when you heat up the gun again. Seen it plenty. The benefit of using the Power endshake bearings is they create a better bearing surface which dramatically slows down the yoke wear that causes the problem in the first place. Add a couple drops of Mobil 1 (never use grease on a handgun) to the end of the yoke and you may never have to re-do the job.

Yeah, it sounds like it needs an endshake bearing installed--common problem, fortunately it's easily resolved. (You'd be surprised at how many new S&Ws I'm seeing that have insufficient cylinder/barrel clearance right from the factory.)

I have found lead bullets to work pretty well for outdoor matches, but I also live out here in the midwestern plains where we almost always have at least a light breeze blowing. I even shot the USPSA Nationals with cast bullets one year, and it went fine, although I specifically remember one stage where the combination of lighting and humidity made the smoke very bothersome. Currently, I'm shooting mostly lead at local matches and mostly jacketed at big matches.

OK, I will admit that I own an earlier Performance Center 627 (one of the original Lew Horton run, I believe) that has a heavy action, but seems to be put together pretty well. So I'm willing to acknowledge that some of the older PC wheels actually had some hand-fitting.

'zactly! Except the part about "practice session." Practicing is unethical.

Doug, it really sounds like you need to send your cylinder off to be cryo-treated.

Sorry, but I have to laugh when I see a website largely dedicated to the mission of accurizing single-action revolvers for cowboy action shooting. Nothing against that game, I'm sure it's fun for those who like to dress up and all that, but from what I've seen it has very little to do with high levels of accuracy. I guess some people remain convinced that shooting improvement is something that can be purchased.

Lead bullets will lead the barrel. No big deal--you can shoot the leading right out of the barrel with a cylinder full of jacketed ammo at the end of each shooting session. Yes, you may have seen internet folklore about this being bad for the gun, etc., etc. Forget all that hand-wringing from the little old ladies, it's all a load of crap. Jacketed ammo cleans the lead right out. I've been doing it for 20 years, and I know tons of other experienced shooters who do the same.

OK, I gotta step in here. If you think a S&W revolver has had every part "hand fitted" because it comes from the Performance Center, you're going to be sorely disappointed. The fitting on the Performance Center revolvers I have seen over the past few years has been absolutely abysmal--worse, in fact, that the fitting on the stock revolvers from the production line with the MIM internals. I think all the little old men who sat on three-legged stools and knew how to hand fit regular forged parts on S&W revolvers must have retired.

Yes, in competent hands a revolver can load pretty fast with speedloaders. And Bubber is the best at it I've seen. HOWEVER--let's be realistic here, people: Other things being equal, a moonclip reload is always going to be faster because it requires less movement and less fine alignment. If you hit a Comp III reload absolutely perfectly (and you won't much of the time), it's going to be very close to the same speed as a good moonclip reload.....but not quite. And when a speedloader reload goes bad, with loose rounds and brass flying around it can turn into a total trainwreck real quick. Reloading a .45 ACP revolver with moonclips offers the fastest possible reload with a revolver--this is why the 625 is the overwhelming choice among the top USPSA shooters. There may be other things you like about shooting a K- or L-frame .38/.357 that justify using one of those options instead, just recognize you are handicapping yourself at the get-go.

....As funny as it may seem, Some people get their kicks, Stompin' on a dream.....

Nicely put, Craig, I have to admit. You've become so diplomatic ever since you turned pro!

You must not have shot in Missouri.

You want to really find out what's going on, use my Ransom Rest. I know you can shoot, Doug, but with iron sights it's hard for anybody to dial in consistently at longer ranges.

Just for fun, run a google search on "taylor throating" with the safesearch feature turned off. Yowza! (Not you, LittleFFL or CJDoubletap...you guys check out www.disney.com instead.)

How bad were the flyers? What kind of overall group size are we talking? Shoot any targets at 50 yards?

Are you using sandbags? Or my Ransom Rest?

You know how we could make that happen? Have a stand-alone USPSA Revolver Nationals. Rob Leatham and Shannon Smith and all those guys know how to shoot wheelguns. Hell, I watched Todd Jarrett walk over and buy a North Mountain Moonclip Holder from Bob Perdue! The problem under the current structure is a whole bunch of the most dedicated USPSA shooters in the country are already committed to shooting a different match while we're having our Revolver Nationals. Make it a stand-alone match, and tons of people will show.

And yet oddly enough, we are seeing huge inflation in the USPSA Revolver classifications, even though some of the classifiers appear to be nearly impossible to run efficiently with a revolver. I don't know what they're doing with that crazy computer in Sedro Woolley, but everybody and his frickin' brother is hitting M and GM these days....

Naw, the only thing I said about Far and Near is that I don't think the same damn stage (regardless of what stage it happens to be) should be included in the IRC year after year after year. I only said they should mix it up and have a different standards from year to year, so that people who try to "groove it in" don't gain so much of an advantage. Change the distances, par times, whatever--shake them boys up a little. Otherwise, I like the course fine, and I'm actually fairly decent at it.

Yeah, nobody go posting this news on a public computer forum or anything like that, right Bob??

You guys are dreaming. Nobody reloads a wheelgun in 1 or 1.5 seconds shot-to-shot in a real match situation. Not even Jerry.