Carmoney

Eye of the tiger.

For those who do their own gun work, an excellent lightened hammer can be fashioned from the stock hammer:

I don't doubt there are a few people who have tinkered around and managed to get marginally acceptable reliability using 9mm ammo in 10-round .38 Super mags.....but I really don't think it's all that viable for most shooters. The real problem is the tapered design of the 9mm cartridge--they're wider at the back--by the time you stack that 10th round in the mag, it's pointing far enough downward that there are inherent feed problems. Lots of people have played with this, most have abandoned the concept. There's a reason why everybody's 10-round 9mm 1911 mag design (Wilson, Metalform, Tripp, you name it) remains on the drawing board.

The Randy hammer is an excellent product, both in concept and execution. People do need to understand that simply installing it in the gun will not lower the trigger pull weight in any meaningful way. But all other things being equal, a lightened hammer will allow the springs to be adjusted for a significantly lighter DA pull and still have good primer ignition. Careful, though--over the past year and a half, I have seen too many revolvers with super-light actions go "click" in the middle of a big match. Might be the ammo, might be the gun getting dirty, might be lots of things--but if you ride too close to the edge of reliability, you can start to have problems....

I've been using a 13# spring (and no buffer) for IPSC major loads for the last year or so, with excellent results.

Years ago, one of the hallmarks of an Andy Cannon action job was a band of mirror polish around the rear of the cylinder. Frankly, I think it was mostly cosmetic, although I have owned several older S&Ws that needed light polishing in the cylinder stop notch lead-in ramps. You can polish the ball of the cylinder stop a little, but be sure not to reduce its width or round it off too much. The newer MIM cylinder stops are very smooth from the start, and generally drop in with no fitting. To reduce friction when the gun is being fired, make sure the crane/yoke are in perfect alignment. Brownells sells a tool for checking this--when the pin freely drops into the centerpin hole in the frame, all is well. To make the cylinder "whir" when it's open, make sure the ejector rod is perfectly straight. Then make sure it's very clean inside there. Personally, I'd clean all that Tetra crap out of it. There is no grease in the world that belongs inside a S&W revolver, in my opinion. A small amount of Mobil 1 motor oil on the yoke is the perfect lubrication for creating that "whir" you're looking for.

To help out those who are driving in the morning of the match, we have decided to start shooting each morning at 9:00 AM. Shooters should be at the range no later than 8:30 AM for a brief shooters meeting. Slots are still available!

To help out those who are driving in the morning of the match, we have decided to start shooting each morning at 9:00 AM. Shooters should be at the range no later than 8:30 AM for a brief shooters meeting. We have more than 20 revolvers on board with a month to go! I'd love to see it hit 30 or 40! Not too late to sign up.

Alright, back in the water, everybody!! Don't expect anything too artistic for the T-shirts this year. The shirt orders did not hit the minimum necessary to change the art-work, so they will be a variation on the OOPS shirts from past years. Nice shirts, but nothing particularly special. Next year hopefully more people will order shirts and we can do something really cool. Careful, you're gonna get Cliff all excited.

Pretty cool news.......I have coaxed one of the original masters of the wheel back to the game in order to participate in this match with us! I'm keeping his identity secret for now, but I know this guy well and I'll guarantee that he will do what it takes to get tuned up over the next month and be a factor. This is gonna be great!

Yeah, those revolver-only guys are just a bunch of goddam bigots.

Dude, if you're going to try shooting minor in SS, you really need to get a .38 Super, not a 9mm. The whole idea is to have a couple extra rounds to offset the scoring disadvantage, and you can only get 9+1 in a 9mm. You can get 10+1 in a Super. Actually, it's the other way around. At the Single Stack Classic (Nationals), they have thought about this exact issue, and they make sure nobody would get a big advantage by going minor. Remember, it's all about stage round count and where the reloads fall. At many "regular" major USPSA matches, on the other hand, you could save a number of reloads over the course of the match by going minor at 10+1. Looking back at my match books from last year, I saw one major match where a single-stacker with a .38 Super could have saved six reloads over a shooter with a .45 single-stack. That will not happen at the SSC, though.

www.apextactical.com You can PM him here. He uses the novel name "Randy Lee"!

OOPS website: http://www.ioweb.com/oops/ A couple stages have been changed very slightly from the diagrams to conform with NROI's requirements. It will add slightly to the round count (which is right around 200 rounds minimum). The match is now approved and fully sanctioned by USPSA. We are on the radar! Guys, I'm excited about this one. Also a little apprehensive, as it is my first effort at helping build and organize a big match! The best thing you can do to help me out is SIGN UP if you haven't already done so already! We want this to be a great pair of back-to-back old-school matches. We're finalizing the plaque order this Sunday, so if you haven't sent in your entry but you know you're shooting the match(es) for sure, PM or email me right away so I can include you in the count. Plaques will be based on the number of entries received as of 7 a.m. Sunday. Please don't wait until the last minute. (But even if you do, we'll do our best to take ya!)

Brett, it's there! Click the link at the top to view the match info, then scroll down for another link to the stage designs. OOPS website: http://www.ioweb.com/oops/ A couple stages have been changed very slightly to conform with NROI's requirements. It will add slightly to the round count (which is right around 200 rounds minimum). The match is now approved and fully sanctioned by USPSA. We are on the radar! Guys, I'm excited about this one. Also a little apprehensive, as it is my first effort at helping build and organize a big match! The best thing you can do to help me out is SIGN UP if you haven't already done so already! I would love it if the Revolver entries out-number the Single-Stack entries. Right now it's just about dead even. We're finalizing the plaque order this Sunday, so if you haven't sent in your entry but you know you're shooting the match(es) for sure, PM or email me right away so I can include you in the count. Plaques will be based on the number of entries received as of 7 a.m. Sunday. Please don't wait until the last minute. (But even if you do, we'll do our best to take ya!) We will have wheelgunners from across the spectrum, in terms of experience and skill, ranging from guys shooting their very first match with a revolver (I am lending two sets of equipment to two friends who've been wanting to try revo), to several master-class shooters. I'm fairly certain at least one GM will be in attendance as well!

In any other division, major p.f. is the only way to fly. In Single-Stack, where the scoring difference is offset by an extra two rounds available, it will all depend on the stages at a particular match. (See my comments in the thread referenced by Flexmoney above.)

Sometimes you get lucky and the floating hands are fine. But most of the time, they play hell with getting a nice smooth action. The problems with the 625-2 are vivid in my memory. I lived in NH at the time, and shot with Ayoob all the time. Reviving the .45 ACP wheelgun was a pet project of his, but we were sorely disappointed when it finally came to fruition. Fortunately, everything worked out OK in the end.

I have this little theory that all moonclips (except Hearthco clips) are made by Ranch Products. I know Brownells doesn't make them.... I know Wilson doesn't make them.... I know TK Custom doesn't make them.... Can anyone disprove my notion? Is there anyone else out there stamping these little puppies out?

Enough is enough....... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGITcQUmbBI

That match (not Kentucky, the other one) had a very experienced staff running the show at the top levels. But if I'm not mistaken, many of the local folks--which undoubtedly includes quite a few of the volunteer RO staff--have fairly recently transitioned from IDPA to USPSA. That could explain some of what happened. My guess is by the time the more experienced USPSA staff folks knew what was going on, a number of shooters had already gone through the stage, and the decision was made to keep it the same for everyone. I'll bet it won't be a problem next year. And as all of you have acknowledged, it was a very nice match overall.

On the other hand, a 5" 625 is a great gun for USPSA/IPSC competition, and that's where the big wheels roll!

This thread started because of the way one particular stage at one particular match was administered. I happened to shoot that match. I agree the RO wasn't correct, but I didn't get too worried about it, as I saw very little real advantage to having my foot a couple inches further to the right, up on the wood. (Plus it was pretty obvious everybody was getting the same routine.) I'll admit I had to suppress laughter when I was also told by the same RO where my shoulders needed to be, how my head needed to be positioned, and even where my eyes needed to be focused (on the orange clay target placed downrange), before he would say "Are you ready?" About the only thing he didn't tell me was what I needed to be thinking prior to the buzzer! Ah well, I'm sure they meant well.

Tell me about it! After you get back, you can counsel him on what constitutes decent hair length. Keep yourself safe over there in the meantime.

Sounds like your gun is probably just fine!

I don't know the specs, but let me put it this way.....if there was a problem, you'd know it when you try to do a speed reload if you've ever done any speed reloads with any other S&W .45 revolver. With a 25-2 or a newer 625, the moonclips just drop right in easily, even when the gun is dirty. With a 625-2 and its tighter chambers, the reloads get sticky right away and you wind up pushing them down with your thumb just to get the cylinder closed. Back in the day, the gunsmiths included the cylinder ream as part of the package on the 625-2. I assume they just used a standard Clymer .45 ACP chamber reamer and went to it. Awhile after the 625-2 came out, Tommy Campbell quietly admitted that S&W didn't have a single full-moon-clip at the factory when they set up the tooling on the cylinder. I'll give them credit, though, they fixed the problem instead of shitcanning the whole project. Al, if your gun reloads fine, don't worry about it. Many of these have already been fixed, maybe yours is one of those.