Carmoney

Exactly....the last thing in the world I'd worry about is some guy with a sluggy ol' PPC gun. The more this gets discussed, the more I wish you guys had never started the conversation at all. I shot a lot of major matches last year, and never once was there an equipment controversy in the Revo ranks. Never once! So why the hell are we starting one now??

Dick, if you're putting Jerry and me in the "East of the Mississippi" category, you better break out the atlas!! (But just for the record, the way you have the teams aligned, the "east" team would win decisively. Guar-on-tee!)

Thanks Chris....but everybody remember now, I'm the one who pointed out that Jerry is the ONLY member of the wheelgunning contingency who truly justifies the title Grandmaster....at least at the present time. And I think Jerry is GREAT for our sport and our division in every way (other than I think he could lean harder on his employer to do more to support us out here in the trenches!!) OK, here's another cool idea, while we're brainstorming....how about some sort of multi-gun GM, where you have to prove competence (in real major matches, not some local club circle jerk) in ALL recognized USPSA divisions!! Think those hot-rocks Open kids could handle it?

There are a number of other excellent wheelgunners out there who keep a slightly lower profile than us "Amigos" (not that it's hard to do that!) and are just emerging on the national scene now. This is a great thing because it will allow the serious Revo competitors to keep pushing each other to greater heights. Jerry has not been beaten often in the past with a revolver, but it has happened. And I am sure it will happen again, somewhere, sometime. We are continuing to push closer and closer! Maybe what somebody needs to do is set up a special revolver match with 10 (or better yet, 20!) USPSA classifiers, sign up some real sponsors, and pay out real prize money, and we all shoot heads up. Since there's real money on the table, the shooters will behave like it's a real match, and not simply try to burn every classifier off at ridiculously unrealistic speeds, right? We make sure all the top wheels are there, even our international revolver brethren, and particularly Jerry. The top score on each stage becomes the actual high hit factor that everybody else is measured against on that classifier from that point on. And we keep on repeating this match year after year until we've shot all the classifiers in the book! Good idea, huh?? How about it, Smith & Wesson--are you up for sponsoring this big event??

Ah hell, Jeff, I'll bet it's way more than that......how many USPSA-affiliated clubs are there? Most of them have at least one or two shooters who are regular wheelgunners, don't you think? We've shown we can round up between 30 and 40 wheels between two sectional matches (KS and MS) on the same weekend. We've got 30 or so signed up for the Summer Blast already. Think of all the local guys who don't travel beyond their own club. I can think of a couple at my own local club who love shooting revolver, but only at our weekend matches. I'll bet there's at least a couple hundred practicing USPSA roundgunners out there.....and the field's growing.

Gary, the answer is 879 (per the USPSA website).

Angus won. I don't think Sevigny shot Area 3 this year.

Brett, this will be a sanctioned match, so you will need to be a member of USPSA to participate. Hope it works out that you can join us--should be a fun match for the "old-school" divisions!

Several of my friends have suggested that we need more GMs in the Revolver division of USPSA. (Right now there are 16 "earned" Masters in Revo--about half of whom are actually active on the match circuit--plus our lone GM, the big guy himself, Jerry Miculek.) Now conceptually I agree it would be great to have more GMs, but I'm concerned about the way it's likely to happen under the current classification system. Think about it--the next guy who makes GM in Revolver is probably not going to be somebody who can truly compete at a GM level--it'll be some shooter from a 9-person club in Alaska (I'm picking that state purely arbitrarily since I can't think of any Alaska wheelgunners off the top of my head--no offense intended to anyone in particular), who shoots and re-shoots and re-shoots local club match classifiers until he finally turns a run and sends it through to Sedro. This shooter might be the guy who selects the classifiers (choosing only the six-round-neutral stages from the 03-series), and he might even be the club's statistician for all we know. Of course, we'll never see him at a major match. OK, fine, you say, we all know there are "paper GMs" in the other divisions. True. Then again, we all know the difference between the paper GMs and those who can truly compete at the highest levels of national-level competition. The guys who shoot to win. The guys who (with a bit of practice and transition time) could still be competitive at the GM (or at least high M) level shooting pretty much any gun in pretty much any division. Well, I would submit that right now we have exactly one of those guys in Revo, and that guy is Miculek. He's a bona fide GM, as he has repeatedly proven in the past. In fact, Revo might be the only division right now where we actually have it right--where the GM title is appropriately awarded, and not watered down by a faulty system. I've also heard some people comment that Jerry should not be factored into the Revo classification system, since he is a "freak of nature." Now don't get me wrong, he is undoubtedly the best revolver shooter of all time, and he is truly gifted. But he's also probably put more rounds downrange through his revolvers over the past 25 years than anybody else on this planet. He's the best example I can think of where raw talent has met sheer long-term effort, and produced a true Grandmaster of the game. On the other hand, Jerry is also the only shooter in our division who has been given the privilege and luxury of being a professional shooter over a period of years. It should not be all that shocking that many of the best shooters in the various divisions are those who can truly shoot for a living (Leatham, Sevigny, and the Army boys are examples that come to mind). Of course, there's a big downside potential in trying to make your sport and hobby into a job, but that's a whole 'nother discussion.... Anyway, this is all just some food for thought, and I don't mean to sound absolutist on any of this stuff. I do like the idea of more Revo GMs, but I'd like to have it really mean something when and if it happens. There are a number of dedicated revolver shooters who continue to make progress in Jerry's direction, so the next few years should be pretty interesting!

If you are shooting a stock 625 or 25-2 with a chamfer and a nice action, and somebody is beating you, it is NOT because he has a "trick gun." Every effort to modify the basic package comes with an offsetting cost of some sort. Lighten up the action too much and you get poor trigger rebound and occasional light primer hits. Put on a Ti cylinder to slightly reduce torque and you get slightly more recoil because the whole gun's lighter. Lighten the barrel to improve handling and you increase felt recoil. Make the barrel heavier to reduce muzzle flip and now it's sluggish in transitions. For IPSC/USPSA shooting, there is nothing that works better (so far) than a basic 625 or 25-2 that you can buy for $500 or less. Once you accept this, you're no longer concerned about people trying all the various "trick" stuff and you're just glad they're there to shoot with!

....not to mention the fact that he won high overall in Limited Division at both Area 1 and Area 3 in the same weekend!

I like to chuck the ejector rod in an unplugged drill for loosening and tightening purposes. If you're careful, you can avoid the knurling and not mar the rod (which is all too easy to do with a vise or vise grips...)

Paul, Rob gave you excellent advice, I would just add a couple of other options: Ranch Products (Malinta, OH) is the original and still most cost-effective source of moonclips. The various plated bullets work well in .45 revolvers, and are less expensive than jacketed. If you like a longer barrel, look for a nice used 6" or 6.5" 25-2 (they made both). If you're patient, you should be able to find one for about the same money as a new 625. Good luck and welcome aboard!

We will have an entry form available shortly. Keep an eye open here and on the USPSA website calendar. The provisional Single-Stack 1911 match will be October 7 and the Revolver match will be October 8, just as planned. USPSA division rules will apply (6 rounds between reloads, no ports/comps, no scopes). Here's some good news--the price will be $30 for each match, or $50 to shoot both. T-shirts will be available at extra cost. Each match will be limited to 60 shooters--I'd be surprised if it doesn't sell out, so when the entry form hits the web, get signed up fast!

Thanks guys!

Dave--see my post above. Would not that handle the problem??

Remember--the more detailed the rule, the more potential ambiguity might be unintentionally written into it. Take a look at the US Revo Division rules at US Appendix D10 in the rulebook. My proposal is pretty simple: Eliminate Special Conditions 18 and 19 altogether. Leave everything else alone. Does anybody see any problem with that?

Tom, thanks for those nice comments about Sammy. He was gunning for you, that's for sure! One thing that really has helped him develop as a shooter was taking some formal instruction from Emanuel Bragg back in the spring. Over a weekend, Sam shot something like 1800 rounds under EB's watchful eye, along with a small group of our shooting friends. (I actually stayed away so as not to distract any of them with my own ingrained bad habits!) I was on the computer yesterday and noticed that Sam had emailed EB to tell him about the Northern Illinois Sectional, and giving him a lot of the credit for his continuing improvement. Truth is, Sam's just one of those people who's wired up for this stuff. In addition to his physical coordination and coachability, he's got the best set of match nerves I've ever seen on anyone of any age. (You can probably tell I'm really proud of the kid.) That match meant a lot to him, Tom. He knows you're one of the top wheelgunners out there, and he knows his performance was an accomplishment. He also knows you're rolling up your sleeves and coming after him next time with a real vengeance!! As always, we enjoyed shooting with you and Jim, and of course our honorary revolver super squad member, good ol' Norm!

As long as they're not blended with any of that potato salad! Great shooting with you again, Jim! See you at A-5.

Finally old enough to run for President, eh??

Well, it should work, but it would not be a common scenario where the frame would be shot, and the cylinder and barrel would be good enough to transfer over to a different gun. Dan's situation, where he busted off the hammer stud from a billion dry-fire cycles, is perhaps the exception to the rule.... Even then, Dan's gun could have been fixed--S&W just told him the whole gun was getting so worn it might not be worth throwing money at. I don't know, though....you can keep an N-frame going an awfully long time, and they still shoot pretty good even when they get loose. My old 25-2 has a whole bunch of rounds through it, and it's still working just mighty fine.

Why yes, Walt, I think it's entirely possible you are the missing link. But that's beside the point. Here you go: http://maps.yahoo.com/maps_result?addr=721...ew=1&name=&qty=

Solid revolver turn-out for A-7 this year.....14 wheels is enough to have a real shootin' match! Nice shooting John, good job everybody!

I remember that article. In addition to some of the names mentioned, Ayoob references a Jerry Moran, apparently a gunsmith who did a great Python action. By the time the article was published, Moran had already dropped out of sight. I've never heard of him re-surfacing.

Tom, registration is from 7 to 7:45, shooting starts at 8. See you tomorrow!