Carmoney

I have seen S&Ws that are shootable right out of the box. I have also seen some that are so awful, so heavy, so gritty and ratchety, that I suspect even Ricardo would have trouble shooting them decently. Note also that I said a "slick" action is important--I didn't say a "super-light" action is necessary.

A slick action and chamfer is important, but all that other stuff is purely optional. In addition to the $450 I paid for each gun, my 625s have SDM and Millett sights, and Ed Brown cylinder releases installed on them. That's it. Everything else I did myself at zero cost. And if a desk jockey like me can work on these guns, you guys can too. I also think the rules are fine just how they are, and wish people would quit worrying about this stuff and just shoot. We have never had any sort of significant controversy since I started shooting in this division. For God's sake, let's not start one ourselves!!

The results are up here: http://www.ioweb.com/oops/ It was a really fun match!

Results are here: http://www.ioweb.com/oops/ (killarbb: future match info also at this website...)

Congratulations goes out to Dan Carden, the overall division winner at the 2006 Iowa Sectional, for the 2nd year in a row. This year it was a close race, at halftime I was a little ahead of him, but Dan kicked in the afterburners and shot very strong the last 4 stages and took me down to 98.8%. Keith Ulfers rounded out the trifecta, with Dave Williams a strong 4th and Sam Carmoney a solid 5th (out of 9 wheels total). Everybody seemed to be in agreement that this was an excellent match, well-organized with challenging and fun stages--keep this one in mind for next year! Note this facility (and the same people) will be hosting the new Iowa Revolver-Only Championships in October, the day after the big Iowa Single Stack match. Stay tuned in for more info over the coming weeks/months. Congratulations Dan, all the other division and class winners, and everybody who came out and shot this great match!

Rover, thanks for the excellent information. (Not bad for his first post, huh guys??)

Thank you! This is one key advantage of the Spook/Dan style reload, where the gun stays in the shooting hand the whole time. This reload style may feel more natural to a shooter who is already fast with a semi-auto mag change--something to think about, Merlin. Personally, I have found that I can transition much more easily between my wheelguns and my auto-pistols since I switched away from the Jerry/Cliff/Hop method.

Waltermitty is right. The law cannot possibly predict every situation that will arise. Neither can the USPSA rulebook. In the law, the courts have adopted certain rules of construction which can sometimes help resolve the conflicts of interpretation that come up. There are instances where the USPSA rules are ambiguous (i.e. suscpetible to two differing, yet both reasonable, interpretations). This same thing also happens frequently when two parties attempt to enter into a contractual relationship with one another. In the legal realm, the doctrine of "contra proferentum" holds that whenever a contract term is ambiguous, that term should always be strictly construed against the drafter of the contract. Applying this logic, in those instances where the USPSA rules can be interpreted two different ways, the shooter (who did not prepare the rules) should always get the benefit of the doubt. Particularly when it don't frickin' matter.

Yep, I do that too. Some of the little old ladies on the various gun forums fret and worry about this, but I've found it to be an easy and effective way of getting rid of mild barrel leading. Been doing it for years, never created any sort of problem. I try to run at least a cylinder-full of jacketed stuff down the barrel right at the end of each lead shooting session, it shoots the leading right out of there. I do not believe the old story about how it "irons the lead into the pores." If that were really true, I'd know it by now. Some of my old pin guns have tons of mileage, and they still shoot just fine, never have replaced or "shot out" a barrel on any of them.

Can we please call it a "Melvin" instead???

Yeah......don't worry about it. Lots of us switch back and forth as a matter of routine.

Gotta agree with Gary on this! About the only RO you'll see at major matches who regularly competes in Revo division is Jeff LaFave. And he's a total gamer (Gary needs to remember this is only a bad word in IDPA and a rather high compliment in USPSA ) who runs around with a brace of fancy-ass titanium-cylinder California-style custom wheelguns. Your fellow revolver competitors will NOT whine (except maybe in a joking-around way) about stuff like holes through your underlug--I'll guarantee that. And that is because, just like that little shiny spot under a certain Production shooter's trigger guard, it doesn't frickin' matter. I know Rob V. has spoken personally with Amidon about revolver barrels, and was told pretty much anything goes. So the truth is, right now it's all just inconsistent conjecture. And the last thing we need is to start arguing about the equipment in our division, where winning matches is most definitely NOT about the equipment. Know what I'm saying? My preference would be for Flex to edit away this whole thread, you guys keep right on shooting your trick barrels, and we all act like this conversation never happened!

OK, a couple questions: (1) Who told you your gun is not USPSA legal? Lots of people have opinions on things, but that doesn't mean those opinions are correct. (2) The picture is pretty fuzzy--do those holes in the barrel actually penetrate through to the bore? If so, it's pretty obvious they would be considered porting, and porting has never been allowed in Revo division. If not, I don't see any problem with them. Now, to act as devil's advocate here, and at the risk of frustrating you further, why did you bother doing that to your gun in the first place? One ounce can't possibly make any meaningful difference in the handling of the thing. I can see where taking off the whole underlug would change the dynamics some, but even then all you guys are accomplishing with all this effort is to approximate the handling of a 5" 610 or 625 or a 6.5" 25-2. I know that 5" 610s have become godawful expensive, so I understand the effort to avoid that cost. But are you really that married to the idea of shooting .40/10mm? I mean, it's kinda cool to be different, I suppose, but other than that can anybody articulate one single reason to insist on shooting a 10mm revo in USPSA when the .45 ACP can do everything just as well (and some things better), and you can find the guns for $500 or less all day long?

I primarily shoot the Revo division, but occasionally have shot Production with my 8-round 627-4 .38 Super (loaded with 9mm factory stuff) and a kydex belt rig, and everything scooted back behind the hipbones. It's pretty fun, I can usually put myself in the middle of the pack at local matches with this set-up.

Sorta like what I do with Keith's moonclip?

Yep. You can have fun with the other guns, but if you're serious about IPSC/USPSA shooting, the .45 ACP wheelgun is definitely the way to go. On our paired revolver squads at the Kansas match, I saw one .357 L-frame (Bubber's), one 25-2, and everybody else had a 625. The good news: A nice 625 is not real expensive (my pair cost $450 each slightly used, both gun show purchases), and it needs only an action job and a chamfer to be completely competitive on the national level.

Yes it does. Reloading a wheelgun quickly and consistently is very much a visual thing. Even when running, the shooter should look down and watch the moonclip go in. Just another example of how important "seeing" is to this game of ours.

There's just something vaguely disturbing about that unidentified hand reaching in, down at the lower right-hand corner of the pic......

Absolutely. From the steak dinner he organized for us on Friday night (where Dan had Cliff's Silver Bullet waiting for him in a little ice bucket just as El Conquistador requested) to the special prizes he built especially for the wheelgunners, Dave did a great job of helping make Kansas a real destination match this year. I thought the match was very well done, good combination of shooting challenges, pretty much fun across the board. And thanks to all the revolver shooters who traveled in from many states away to make this a quality match, particularly those who sprung for plane tickets. I was impressed with the quality of revo shooting across the board, Doug and I talked about it on the way back home, and we agreed there were absolutely no "scrubs" on the revolver squads, literally everybody shooting a wheelgun was pretty dang proficient. And as always, we were perpetually the fastest squads getting through the stages, to the ROs' amazement and delight!

I only got a quick look at the results, Bubber, but I remembered you being in 3rd place overall, with Mike L. in 4th place I think. I have to admit to being a little frustrated at the final results not being posted yet. The complete official results for the MS match were on the USPSA website within a couple hours.... The only explanation I can think of is that Cliff and Dan chipped in and paid off the statistician to "lose" the results.....

I've heard that Bill makes them lighter, but leaves in the "stacky" feel. Hell, the guns are already glassy smooth, might as well just throw in a spring kit and call it good, if that's what you want. The key is to get the gun to somebody who understands how to adjust the geometry of the springs in a way to get rid of the stacking.

Keeping in mind, of course, that 50 is approximately 93% of all the revolvers presently in Europe.

Yes, I meant to mention that also. Randy donated two valuable certificates to the prize table, and they went quickly. Shooters should remember to patronize those businesses who step up and support our sport like that.

Reeves Jungkind from Texas was always considered the master of the Python action. He's retired law enforcement. He knows how to take out the staginess that S&W shooters dislike.

Nice job, Sam! Good to see you back in the game!