Carmoney

I love Wolf .45 ball. Shot it at the 2005 Single Stack Classic, worked absolutely flawlessly, chronoed at 167 p.f. (just like it did at home). Perfect match ammo for 1911s if you ask me, especially for those "lost brass" matches! Mike

I tried a few moonclips that DougC gave me in my 627 and I'll guar-on-tee they drop in faster and easier on the reload. Significantly so.

Dan, your long-lost cuz DougC. has some pretty good knowledge on the topic of .38 Short Colt......you might want to drop him an email or PM.

Sam's skinny and he uses a small (26"-30" waist) Gilmore belt and liner. We ordered it through Brownells and it's worked very well for him. A little softer than I prefer, not sure the CR holsters would work well on it, but the Safariland holsters are fine.

Dave, that's great that you're starting your son in the shooting sports....I have had a great time shooting with my own two kids, Sam (12) and Jill (almost 14) over the past year and a half! I'm a big believer that the revolver is an excellent place for kids to start out. Safe and simple, and really forces a motivated kid to learn the basic fundamentals of successful shooting: sight picture and trigger control. The kid can easily transition to any other type of handgun later on. Trust me on that. Others' views may vary, but I would only go the open/optics route if the kid is getting discouraged. Here's Sam at the 2005 USPSA Nationals:

I tried shooting a couple mags full of .45 GAP through one of my 1911s, and it fed and functioned perfectly fine. Which is exactly what I expected, because despite what many people think, the 1911 headspaces the cartridge on the extractor hook, not the case mouth. Mike

Sam, watching your conversation with MR Norman over on the other page makes me all the more convinced that a sanctioned USPSA revolver-only match is the way to go. Think about how many more revo shooters we could have had at Nationals if (a) everybody could have signed up without having to jump on that waiting list at exactly the stroke of midnight, and ( there weren't the largest Limited and Production match in the country going on at exactly the same time! Many (if not most) of your better IPSC shooters own and are capable of shooting a wheelgun. We might be surprised who would show up if a truly good revolver-only match (with nice prize table and/or meaningful cash payback) were set up on a weekend with no other major matches around the country. Just a thought.....

Which game???

Yep, SDB's is where it's at. Bought mine in 1988 and loaded a ton of ammo on it. When the 650 came out I had to have one, was quickly disappointed that it was no faster, and took it back to the local dealer. Last year I got another SDB so I could load .40 and .45 both without tearing anything apart. They're right next to each other on the bench, don't take up much room at all. Coudn't ask for anything better. In my opinion, 550s blow, in a big way. I cannot imagine not having auto-indexing on a progressive press. Mike

Left to right.

Dan, last year I shot SC with my 627 and a 122-gr. TC (sized .357) over 3.6 gr. of Bullseye, finished 4th limited revolver behind Pettitt, Tanita, and Bagakis. That load is not real fast, takes a little time getting to the steel (but that never bothered me much), but really minimal recoil (which I really like). Last SC match I shot was in Rolla, MO back in June and I used AE 158-gr. RNL factory ammo, finished second revo. I'll shoot the same stuff again this weekend at the sold-out first annual Big Dawg falling steel match here in Iowa. Mike

Thanks for the info guys. Keith, you'll love the Florida Open. It's a little expensive, but the stages are great and it's a very well-run match. Just remember, you're on El Conquistador's home turf down there....

John, good luck at Area 2, but be warned it's not going to be easy if Dan and Keith are entered! I'm not sure there is any reliable way to get slots for next year's nationals in our division. An Area win is supposed to do the trick, but will they deem it "valid" if no grandmaster (OK, that means Jerry) is shooting at the match? It sure looks to me that they have treated the area results differently in terms of classification depending on whether Jerry's there, not sure what effect that would have on slots. Pat, Sam K., and I are hoping to pick up slots for our performance at the OH Sectional (of course, Sam might already have one from Area 4) since there were the requisite 20 shooters in the division, but who knows what they will do. We better all just be ready to jump on the waiting list at the stroke of midnight on the day they open it up next year, to ensure that all the wheelgunners who want to shoot the match have the opportunity. 50 participants is not unreasonable if we put half an effort into this. In the meantime, I'm curious--who received a slot for the 2005 Nationals for shooting Revolver, and what did you have to do to get it?? Mike

One more thought....let's get a good PR program going here! I know that Bill Nesbitt was planning to write an article about the Ohio Sectional (and its 20 wheelgunners) for Front Sight. Certainly as a bona fide member of both the national and international revo super squads, gunwriter Patrick Sweeney is uniquely qualified to report on the subject! I'm doing my part by posting all the photos to whet everyone's appetite for next year. Sam's in the process of organizing a major revolver-only match for 2006. I'm sure many others are making similar effort, let's make sure we're being seen.

I do think it was an honest mistake on Mike Voigt's part that only Jerry's trophy got awarded in front of the group. The other plaques (2nd through 4th) were laying right there on the table, and when I asked about them, both Mike V. and the lady helping him expressed their apologies and asked me to pass them on to the others they had overlooked. I accepted. I don't have a problem with them only recognizing the top 4 (if they had remembered to do so, of course), since there were only 20 participants. I think they also should have given plaques out to the class winners, regardless of how many entrees appeared in a class. (At the 2005 Area 3 in Kansas City, if there were three entries in a class, the winner got a plaque, a medal, and a gun!) And I don't think it would have killed them to recognize our junior shooter. Sam was last in line to the prize table, and that was it (he likes the stuff he picked up, though, so what the hell). My suggestion is that we keep things positive, and focus on campaigning our section coordinators and area directors for increased revolver recognition locally (Emanuel Bragg is our Area 3 Director, and I know he shot a wheelgun at a section match last year, and he made a point of writing up that nice article about Sam in the junior column of Front Sight awhile back). If we work hard to keep on recruiting more wheelgunners to our ranks by showing them how much fun we're having at this, the division will continue to grow and receive more of the recognition it deserves. Or so it seems to me. Mike

I don't know if Jerry is online, but I bumped into his brother Donnie on one of the other shooting forums awhile back.

I'm new at this ipsick stuff (have I mentioned that before?) but I was at Second Chance the year Jerry shot thte main events with a rather elaborate .45 autoloading comp gun. It was back in the early '90s, and S&W had just disbanded TSW (Team Smith & Wesson), and Jerry was mad enough at them he wasn't going to shoot their stuff any more than absolutely necessary. As I recall, he shot pretty well, but not to his normal revolver potential. Later he (and he alone) was hired back, and the next year he was in uniform (although he must have negotiated a clause in the new contract that allowed him to wear blue jeans instead of the silly multi-color clown pants that always sorta embarrassed him), with his trademark long-barreled .357. (Funny how the best shooters often hate to wear the very clothing that all the new guys go out of their way to purchase and wear!) Today's shooters associate Jerry more with the 625, but I will always think of him with that 8-3/8" M27 in his hands. Mike

Carlos, excellent post. I have noticed that many experienced and otherwise knowledgeable shooters, including some ROs, don't seem to be familiar with this rule. Mike

Cliff, it's on the house this time..... I just seem to be in a sensitive, sentimental mood tonight, for some reason....earlier I saw a douche commercial on TV and immediately burst into tears. I think I need to switch back to scotch.

Just so everybody knows I'm kidding at the end of my last post, a few comments about El Conquistador: Those results don't lie...right now Cliff is the best revolver IPSC shooter out there, with the singular exception of Jerry Miculek. If you look back at old match results over the past year, you see just how good this guy shoots in every match he enters. He was the oddsmakers' favorite for 2nd spot at the Nationals, and performed up to expectation, although Dan certainly made him sweat. Most of the rest of us had moments of glory, but Cliff truly understands this game and really knows how to get the job done in the final analysis. I have no doubt that Cliff will do extremely well in Ecuador, and although there are a couple of talented wheelgunners from other parts of the world, I believe Team USA will make it clear that the revolver is a uniquely American institution! Furthermore, Cliff's also a really great guy--I might have mentioned this on here before, but when I was in a panic trying to make sure I got signed up in time for the Florida Open last winter, Cliff went over to Frank's range and paid my entry fee up front--spotting me the money--just to make sure I'd make it in. And at that point, I was just some shooter that Cliff had never met (although my buddy Sam K. might have vouched for me a little). I'll always be grateful for that act of consideration. El Conquistador, go kick some ass at World Shoot XIV!! Mike

All kidding aside (but for only a second), this experience was really great for Sam and me. As much fun as we've had messing with each other all along, nobody took it over the line. If I didn't already know a bunch of these guys beforehand, I never would have believed a squad of competitors at this level would be so open, helpful, and supportive at a national match. Over the last year, Sam and I have made some really great friends at these matches, here at home and around the country, and I can't wait until the next time we can all get together, hopefully with many more of you guys out there, and do it all again! While at this point I'm not sure the powers-that-be in USPSA remember that there is a Revolver division, if we showed up next year with enough fast waiting-list entries to fill 2 or 3 big fun squads, that would maybe start to get their attention!! But no matter, it's not about recognition from outside, it's not about prize tables and trophies, and it's not about whether Barry gets hot and humid in the summertime--it's about having a great experience for 2-1/2 days with some of the highest-quality people you could ever hope to meet. And Cliff also.

Unfortunately this shot of Sweeney came out a little blurry, but you can see the distinctive profile of his classic non-625 even through the haze! Long live the 25-2!

Tom Mainus, with his trademark leather glove on his right hand. He'll tell you it's to keep from burning himself as he reaches through the cylinder opening to do his left-handed reloads, but if that's the case, why does he wear it 24/7 ???? When Sam and I went to visit him at the Ice House we heard the song "Billy Jean" emanating loudly from Tom's room and there was a lot of rustling around inside. Frankly we were both a little freaked out by this, so we went straight to the car, locked the doors, and drove back to Quincy. In retrospect, I'm sure Tom was merely practicing his reloads, and everything would have been fine....

Another picture of Serpico: