Carmoney

It doesn't take much to get those little old hens on the S&W Forum to start clucking. ;-)

Bayou and Two Alpha are both fine companies. If you're looking for coated bullets, you can't go wrong with either of those choices. John at Two Alpha does an awful lot to support the practical shooting sports around here. Between the product he donates to the prize tables and the physical labor he contributes to the matches, he always seems to come through when we need him.

Looks just fine to me, Lee. No reason to chamfer them any further.

Sweet gentle jeezus.....what a frickin' mess. DON'T do anything like this. Way overboard. Good candidate for the dremel hall of shame.

I will let other people argue the fine points of the rules, but the other problem is that you have a Nazi RO on your hands. If your club hosts any bigger matches, make sure you put him on stats or Mr. Fix-It or somewhere else where he does not have direct interaction with the competitors.

I think 8 is a great age for safe and mature kids to start shooting steel challenge style matches, where everything is done from a static position where the adult supervisor can stand close and physically control the situation if necessary. But 8 is too young for disciplines where the competitor draws the gun from a holster and moves through the stage, like USPSA or IDPA. No matter how good a kid you might have, an 8-year-old has simply not yet developed the judgment necessary for those games. My son began shooting at a very young age, but I did not encourage him (and he did not ask) to compete in IDPA and USPSA matches until he was 11 or 12. By then he was ready. My position on this is well staked out here on BE. Invariably, somebody will now post Youtube clips of some 5-year-old in the Philippines struggling and flinching his way horribly through an IPSC match, and point out how cute it is. Most of us will cringe. Here's the bottom line--if you take an 8-year-old to a USPSA match, you will be making some people very uncomfortable. Some might say something to you (hopefully not to the kid), and some will not. If you keep attending and shooting with your 8-year-old, you may notice that some other people stop attending those matches--that's because they are uncomfortable with the idea of trusting a small child with that level of deadly responsibility. They also know it won't be long before they can return to the matches, because kids who are way over their head quickly become discouraged and decide to quit. Most of them never come back to it, and frankly, it's the adult who pushed them too hard, too soon, who are to blame for that. I know this is blunt. No offense is intended toward anyone.

Dremel.

I would recommend getting him an 5.25" XDM just like yours. Of the choices you laid out, it's the one best set up for competition shooting anyway. Plus, you don't want to create the perception that he is being provided gear that is inferior to yours, right? And, your guns can serve as back-up guns to each other at matches, in the event that one of you has a gun problem--same holster, mags, ammo, etc. I do not like the idea of handing an EAA Witness, or any other gun that requires the hammer to be manually lowered, to a brand new junior shooter. I started my son out in USPSA when he was 11 with a S&W Model 10 revolver. This is probably not the ideal choice for most junior shooters, but it worked out great for Sam. He's now 20 and an A-class shooter, even though he never practices--nice to be young and fast and still have good eyes.

Appendix carry for competition? You might want to check in with Kerby Smith. He can tell you what a God-awful idea that is.

Hearthco moonclips are awesome for the 8-shot gun, but Ranch moons are fine for .45.

Love the BMT mooner! But save your money and go with Ranch Moonclips for .45acp

Not sure I have any suggestions that Warren hasn't covered. Kind of a strange problem. Maybe check the center-pin hole in the frame to see if it's egged out. Plated bullets with no exposed lead?

I'm just going to smile and shake my head. ;-)

Nothing wrong with that plan, if you actually wind up wearing out your 627 cylinder. There is presumably nothing inherently better about the metallurgy in the 627 cylinders, but I don't believe I have heard of 627s with worn out stop notches the way we have seen on 625s. My own personal 627 has been shot quite a lot, and while there is some visible peening, the gun has never exhibited any tendency to skip. I cannot say the same of my main 625--although I am fairly gentle in the way I handle it, the notches got damaged enough that I finally had to replace the cylinder. Has anybody here had severe peening issues with a 627 cylinder--to the point that it creates functional troubles?

So what are you trying to accomplish with a Ti cylinder in an 8-shot? The peening problems that we see with the stainless 6-shot revolvers do not tend to appear on the 8-shot guns--at least nowhere nearly as often. I say spend your money on primers or whatever.

I'm going to be shooting the Montana Gold 142s for the next couple years. I decided that life is too short to use non-jacketed bullets.

My first thought is the sear.

I have a strong feeling that they will make the match mostly 6-shot neutral. Although I will probably bring both platforms and be ready to go with either one, my default mode will be 6-major for the stand-alone Nats.

This has been my exact same experience also.

Onagoth, by any chance do you take a "wide stance" in the stall? ;-)

Congratulations on your accomplishment! Now you get to enjoy the pay-off from all the hard work and and educational rigor that you have imposed on yourself during those past years.

Personally, I shoot all steel matches with loads that make minor. But then my steel match schedule includes falling steel and Pro-Am matches, and you can't use loads that are ridiculously light in those games. All other factors being equal, a lighter bullet at the same velocity will generally hit the target lower at 25 yards. It may or may not be enough to matter. Don't be afraid to adjust your sights....just figure out how many clicks you're moving it up and down.

The first time I did an action job on a .500 S&W, the owner gave me 50 rounds of factory ammo to run through it to test ignition reliability. I shot them all in one session, and it wasn't bad at all. These guns are really big and heavy. Somewhere around here is a link to a dude shooting his .500 S&W on a USPSA stage....surprised nobody has posted it in this thread.....

There is much to be learned from Ayoob. He is an excellent shooter.

What a crazy coincidence that this incident would happen just as we're discussing it here! Sick as it sounds, this incident is probably on videotape also. From what I've seen on Youtube, there's a certain class of low-lifes who apparently think it's funny to hand a heavy-recoiling handgun to a woman and then videotape the gun bouncing off her forehead.