Carmoney

That's the Ed Brown. I used a stock release until I switched to the Spook/Dan style reload. DO IT!!

Hmmmm....interesting....just did a mapquest and it's not quite as far from here as I originally thought.... Is this an indoor or outdoor match? How many stages?

Yeah, Jim, they'll email you with a PIN you can use to squad yourself after they get your check and entry form. Mine only took a couple days, must be pretty efficient folks running the show!

Here's the hammer out of the gun: And here's the hammer in my 625: This was actually part of my thesis project when I earned my M.A. Degree in Dremology from RGI.

Jim, Saturday shooting is for staff only, Sunday is match day for the rest of us. Whenever possible, I like to arrive the day before in time to check out the range and sneak a peek at the stages, so I'll probably try to get up there by mid-afternoon on Saturday and wander around. Guys, feel free to jump on Squad 16 with me if you want--that can be our unofficial revolver squad. For those who prefer not to shoot with all the other wheels, that's perfectly OK too. The important thing is to get everybody there who can possibly make it--should be a great match! Mike

Haras, got one. I'm sending you a PM.

WI Sectional: Squad 16!!

Hop, Congratulations--I know you'll make a great ORC. Mike

What does CRO stand for??

As I see it, the whole point to this exercise is to get the lightest possible mainspring tension that is still 100% reliable with properly-seated Federal primers, right? Because mainspring tension is one of the key elements (but by no means the only one) in determining the eventual DA trigger pull weight that the shooter will have to overcome. It's not just a matter of energy transfer. Primers ignite more readily and more reliably with a fast slap (within reasonable boundaries obviously) than a slow blow--even if the actual energy transfer is the same. The lighter hammer can speed up lock-time to a meaningful degree, meaning the more optimal fast slap can do its thing. You can therefore reduce the amount of stored energy in the mainspring (i.e. reduce its tension) to some degree and still get 100% ignition. The little feature in AH does a lousy job of explaining this, but everybody needs to understand that nobody's saying that simply installing the Randy hammer, or some skeletonized version of a factory hammer, will lower the gun's DA pull weight to any meaningful degree, in and of itself. Installing the lightened hammer, however, will allow the DA pull to be tuned to a lower weight (i.e. reducing mainspring tension a bit further than you could otherwise get away with) and still remain reliable. Heh-heh! Now I've just gone and made it all complicated again!! (Actually the "fast slap beats slow crushing blow" is a line I stole from you anyway, so you deserve the real credit for being clear and concise after all!) (Furthermore, I think we'd all agree that there are other realms of life in which a slow blow is much better than a fast slap....)

This was the old-school line of thinking, but it has been soundly disproved now for several decades. To boil down Randy's engineering perspective to common parlance, fast slap always beats slow crushing blow. Take a S&W revolver, new or old, either firing pin type, and adjust the action down to the bare edge of reliability (wherever that might be on that particular gun). Now cut all unnecessary weight off the hammer, like this: Or this: You will find that you can then take down the mainspring tension even further and still maintain full ignition reliability. That's empirical proof. It's also not a new concept. My skeletonized hammer shown in the second picture was largely copied from a picture from a 25-year-old book I have here on my shelf. There's a reason why my revos don't wear spurs, fellas. It ain't just to make 'em look cool.

....and so it begins.

Just sent in my application for the Wisconsin USPSA Section Match, to be held near LaCrosse, WI on April 23. Of course I circled Revolver on the entry form. Sam and I are also planning to shoot Area 5 at the same range in August. Online registration is available for that match currently. So who else is in? They'll be using the self-squadding feature on the USPSA website for both of these matches, so let's put together some wheelgun squads! Mike

Tactical 1: C'mon now. April 1st is almost three months away........

Cuz, not sure what Jerry uses, but my own favorites are the 6x1/2x1/2 white ceramic stone, the spyderco 3-stone ceramic set (with square, round, triangle profiles), and the great little safe-edged file in the Kart EZ-fit barrel tool kit. All available from our friends (friends who strongly support the competitive handgunning sports, by the way) at Brownells. Mike

Happy New Year Brother Walt! My 625 pulls at about 5.25 pounds, give or take.

Spook, my kid shot this gun in several matches (including the USPSA-sanctioned Iowa Shoot for Life Charity Match) using the original 9mm top end and Winchester white box ammo, and it worked just fine--zero malfunctions. I also shot it at a local Steel Challenge format match with absolutely no problems. We used a Safariland 012 I found in a close-out sale at holsters.com for $75 (in keeping with the el-cheapo tone of this project!) and it all worked slick as can be. I built the .40 top-end with an Armscor slide and the Kart EZ-fit. It all went together beautifully, with a really nice tight fit between slide and frame (got lucky on that). I've shot a bunch of various .40 ammo through it, and it seems to gobble it all up. My USPSA major load for this gun is a 180-gr. cast TC over 4.5 gr. of V-V320 at 1.170", for 960 fps and 172.8 power factor. I've shot about 500 rounds of that stuff through it, absolutely no problems. Very pleasant shooting so far. This has been a fun little project, and I'm rewarded with a pretty nice and completely functional competitive shooting set-up in two calibers--one for steel, one for IPSC/USPSA Limited--for about the retail price of a new Glock. I'm very pleased with how it all turned out! Mike

OK, here's the finished project! The top ends switch out simply by pulling the slide stop--takes about five seconds to switch it from 9mm to .40! Runs 100% and shoots great in either caliber. (I used a Kart EZ-fit barrel in the .40.)

Sluggish trigger rebound is usually caused by reducing the tension of the rebound spring without also reducing tension of the mainspring. For a competition gun, these spring tensions can be reduced quite a lot, but they must be lowered in balance with one another. I must disagree with the statement that rebound springs should not be cut. I have had uniformly excellent results over many years and many S&W action jobs by cutting the rebound spring and bending the stock factory mainspring to the desired tension. (Like almost everything else in life, these spring adjustments can be done incorrectly.) I have never found a spring kit that gives me quite the feel I want in a competition wheelgun. Mike

Happy New Year, everybody--2006 has arrived! I'd like to initiate a discussion as to what USPSA can do (or perhaps, is planning to do?) to make the Point Series viable. Personally, I think the Point Series is a great concept. I mention it now and then at the office, and my non-shooting friends say, "Cool, just like NASCAR!" I believe USPSA should continue to try to figure out a system that people find interesting, compelling, and fun. The changes made for 2005 seemed pretty good at the time, but things obviously did not work out as everyone had hoped. Participation turned out to be pretty dismal in 2005, with only 64 shooters enrolled in the Series across all five divisions, way down from the two previous years. I have heard that changes are being made to the program for 2006. If anyone can fill me in on those changes, I'd sure appreciate it! If not, then perhaps we can brainstorm it here for the benefit of the BOD. I'll start the discussion with a couple of fairly simple issues: 1. The match calendar shaping up for 2006 seems to include very few "other" matches. Two of the most popular "other" matches in previous years, the Florida Open and the Missouri Fall Classic, are no longer considered "other" matches for Point Series purposes. I believe we need to eliminate the "other" category from the point series calculations and just roll it in with the state/sectional matches, since there is no practical difference anyway. 2. USPSA needs a more reliable mechanism of ensuring that the results of major matches which are part of the Point Series actually get properly reported to Sedro. I can think of one major match in 2005, which was set up and advertised as a Point Series match, where the match director never bothered to upload the scores to the USPSA website--despite repeated reminders from shooters and eventually the Area Director. Hopefully, nobody needed any of the points they should have earned at that match, because to this day those results have never reached headquarters. Again, I really hope we can get the Point Series on track. It would be a real shame to ashcan the whole concept if it just needs some adjustments. Thoughts? Mike

In my opinion, a pocket rig is not a place where you want tight, high-quality, hand-boned leather. You want something that helps break up the outline of the gun, lets it come out fast and easy, and protects the gun from sweat. I have used the original Bob Mika Pocket Holster for many years. Mika's own website calls them "ugly but effective." http://www.frontiernet.net/~akim/ They used to be $7 apiece, but I see they're now up to $16. (Dang inflation.) For .38 Spl., I carry the old 110-gr. +P+ Treasury loads from my stash. My current J-frame is a 340SC, and it gets Federal .357 125-gr. JHP.

http://www.sassnet.com/EoT/results/05/Matc...5MatchFinal.pdf

Alex, I believe you have been misinformed. Holy Terror finished fifth place overall. http://www.sassnet.com/EoT/results/05/Matc...5MatchFinal.pdf (....still an outstanding performance considering there were around 800 shooters participating in that match....)

I can think of a couple non-name shooters on whom I would bet to compete favorably against every name on both lists, given the multi-gun semi-surprise format of this match. Except one--I would never ever bet against Miculek at a match like this.

You guys are all describing scenarios where there is at least some notable weight/mass/momentum/energy transfer involved. This post is about an empty casing supposedly setting off a round in an ammo box sitting on the bench. Sure sounds like a million to one situation to me. I'd be willing to bet a guy could stand there for a week and never manage to replicate it as described. What if we were talking about an oak leaf drifting into the box? A rubber ear plug falling onto the ammo? A falling cotton ball bumping the primer and setting off a loose round? That would be almost impossible, right? My point is, there's gotta be a threshold where there just simply isn't enough energy transmitted to light off the primer. A falling piece of empty brass doesn't transmit much energy.