Carmoney

I'm driving a van-load of Iowa shooters over for this match, then we're heading north to Minnesota that night so we can shoot the Minnesota Sectional on Sunday! (Good thing we're a bunch of tough farmers....) BTW, a couple of us are shooting Revolver, and we're hoping to see plenty of wheelguns at both these matches. Should be a great time! Mike

My own effort in "taking the short bus": 145-gr. .357 Bushwacker RNL over 3.2 gr of Titegroup, loaded out pretty long (calipers are buried somewhere on the bench). Easy in, easy out, every time. Round 25-yard groups around 3" or 3.5", BUT that was arms resting on a plastic trash bin on wheels, in fading light, after fighting with other lawyers all day..... I think this load is more accurate than that, and standing up I had no trouble hitting the small plate every time at 35-40 yards slow-fire. A little more lead build-up on the cylinder face than I get with full-length .38 Spl. loads, might be better with a recut forcing cone, otherwise this load seems nice and clean. Loaded and shot 100 rounds or so and eveything kept working nicely and cleaned up good afterward. Averaged 844 fps over the chrono for 122 p.f., which is about what I wanted for plates and ICORE. Drops in nice and quick, which to my mind is the whole reason for the short brass. I'll report back after next week's steel match in Osceola. Mike

Happy now, Tom??? I just wish we had enough wheelgunners participating that the class thing actually came into play somehow......every match I've ever shot (including nationals), it wound up being heads-up competition between all the revos. Which is OK with me, actually it's probably one of the reasons we get along better than the other divisions--'cause playing the class game gets you nowhere.

Robo's got a 625 and accessories up for trade on the Classifieds sub-forum right now......

Is a person who performs this sort of treatment called a "cryopractor"? Mike

Thanks guys. I guess I must be an over-achiever.

So whatever happened to the Steel Challenge 2004 video presentation that was going to become available for purchase? Any news on that? Mike

My kid shoots a 646 in the Revolver division, with minor loads, but that's only because it still fits him better than an N-frame. You don't want a 646 for USPSA, because you're gonna want to shoot major, and they're a handful in that platform. A 625 or 25-2 is probably the best way to go, although since you're already loading .40 and components are cheap, a 610 sure wouldn't be a bad choice for you. You could probably use the same ammo you're already shooting in your XD, just switch to federal primers so you can lighten up the action on the wheelgun. Might not reload quite as fast as a 625, but with practice it would be very close. I hear 610s are discontinued, but there are still a few in the pipeline, plus used guns do become available. Either way, it would be great to have you shoot wheelies with us! Mike

John, check with Badshot here on the forum...he might have one laying around.

On the national level: Revolver participation in USPSA is clearly on the rise. Revolver participation in IDPA is clearly on the decline. Mike

I've noticed that skeet and sporting clays shooters and bird hunters seem to do comparatively well on Texas Stars and various other moving targets, because they have been conditioned to incorporate the necessary lead. I've also noticed that the worst shooters on moving targets are those young dudes who initially learned to shoot on video games, where the lead is completely factored out.

Maybe I'm the only one this has happened to, but when I try to use moonclips that have rounds fitting tightly, I will periodically have one that doesn't quite want to drop down against the cylinder face--turn it around a different way and maybe it will go in OK, maybe not. I have especially experienced this with the 627. Even with nice flat moonclips and good ammo, if the rounds fit so tightly they cannot be readily turned by hand while in the moonclip, they will occasionally bind. In a drastic case, the clip won't bottom, and the gun won't close, or if it does, it takes a 50-pound pull to turn the cylinder. I don't want them too sloppy and floppy, but I definitely want them loose enough you can snap the rounds in by hand, sans tools, and then spin them around in place. Tighter than that and I get downright claustrophobic. My only problem at Nationals was not bobbling reloads, or anything else related to gun-handling speed--it was having misses on several stages, i.e. pulling the trigger when the front sight was not where it should have been! Fortunately it didn't happen too terribly often, but I've decided that even one miss in a match is one miss too many.

I use a 230-gr. RNL over 4.1 of Clays in my 625. I've discovered I can make it through a full-day match without brushing, and no stickiness problem at all. All other things being equal, using a jacketed bullet will force you to use a bit higher powder charge to make the power factor, which means a bit more felt recoil. I use jacketed stuff to strip the lead out of my barrel every now and then, and that's about it. Mike

I'm sorry but I can't see charging people $7 or $8 for any moonclip. Plus, in my experience, tight moonclips are exactly what you don't want in a 627. With those long rounds, you need a little wobble or you will really be struggling halfway through the match as the gun starts to get dirty. Mike

Bob, thank you for the follow-up. Mike

UPDATE: After another email from me inquiring on the status of my unanswered email a week ago, today I did receive a response from the club secretary. He says he thought the club president had sent the order on to the plaque supplier, along with the recipients' addresses so the plaques could be mailed out directly. He asked the club president to follow up and let me know. So that's where it stands for now. I'll post again when I hear back from them. Personally, and for the record: I accepted the apologies that were eventually extended by the club officers following the match and its unhappy aftermath. I believed (and still do believe) those apologies were genuine. In fact, I went ahead and sent in Fall Classic entry forms for Sam and me without cashing in the "cops bucks" that were mailed out, so we will definitely be there to shoot. Last year's Fall Classic was a superb match all around, and I expect to have a great time again in Rolla this October. But I do expect the club to follow through on the promise to get the plaques made and mailed out--that was part of the deal, after all. And I remain hopeful that it will be handled somewhat promptly. The rest of it is water under the bridge. Mike

Understood. Hell, I don't even like being called an Iowan myself, and I've lived here for 16 years..... Glad to see you're helping bring Jerry V into the fold!

Truegent2004, this breaks my heart........where did I lose you??

Wow, what an odd coincidence! When Dedicated Dan flew out here to shoot the Iowa Sectional with me earlier in the summer, he just happened to have a miss on CM 99-11. He explained it as a simple mistake -- shot too fast or something....

How heartwarming.

Must have been the classifier.

My daughter Jill was told she would receive a plaque for finishing top Junior. I waited until about a week ago, then sent a polite email to all three of the contact people at COPS to inquire about her plaque. I have received no response. This is a big deal to a 13-year-old. So I really hope they take care of it. Mike

Well Jerry, I'm at least glad somebody's there to keep ol' Danbagger honest. I'm momentarily leading the Revo point series, and didn't like seeing him pick up 100 freebie points just for showing up totally unopposed at that dang Northern Cal Section match! I suspect he shot one stage and then went back home to his garage where he could practice his reloads without being bothered.

I agree. I've had good experiences ordering stuff from TK. Tom's an old wheelgunner from way back.

Patrick, Exactamundo. Mike