Carmoney

For the 617, I recommend the stock hammer at full weight (i.e. nothing bobbed), and..... [brace yourselves] .....the C&S extended firing pin. But if you go with the extended pin, keep in mind you will damage the chamber edges if you dry-fire without snap-caps or empties. Based on personal experience with a whole bunch of 617s, this is what I found worked the best. Oh yeah, I also recommend CCI Min-Mags, Standards, or Blazer ammo for 617s with lightened actions.

Yes, sorry.....I used the editor to fix my mistake. Guess I'm just too excited about this awesome historical event that we have coming up next month!! The 2013 USPSA Revo Nationals is truly going to be the BIG SHOW!

Kathy told me today we're at 118. The only two from the "Tough 17" who shot Nationals last year but are not yet entered in the 2013 match are Chad Rausch and Frank Bray. Anybody who has contact info for those guys, let's see if we can get them to sign up! (We might be able to go a little beyond 120.....)

I totally agree. Dry-fire is no substitute for the real thing.

The trick is to switch the original sear over to the new hammer--that usually solves the problem and the gun will function just fine.

Yep, it should work. They switched to the MIM hammer (for frame-mounted FP) with the 686-5 variant.

Yeah, I'm gonna take issue with NicVerAZ's assessment. I have known several people who have developed serious lead exposure issues with no (other) occupational exposure, and the one thing they all had in common was significant amounts of time spent on indoor ranges. We can argue whether it's caused by poor personal habits, the lead-borne dust all over the place, or the vaporized lead styphnate in the air, but regardless--it's a problem. Indoor ranges are bad for your health.

They have some stuff in stock. Not the most popular items, of course. I was able to order some .45 230-gr. FMJ the other day.

They're already allowed to play. And very few of them have any interest in playing a game that's already really difficult with a moonclip gun. We could try to promote USPSA to the 6-minor crowd, but it's never going to have much appeal. IDPA SSR or ICORE Classic make so much more sense for that type of gun, due to the restrictions on stage design in those disciplines (which are supposed to be revolver-neutral). I don't think it's about the type of gun people already have. People will always acquire the equipment if they want to compete. By making Revolver Division more fun for more people, we should attract more participation. Trying to run a 6-shot revolver in this game means you are constantly running against the flow of the stages. Constantly beating your head against the wall. Yes, a few hardy wheelgunners are attracted to that kind of masochistic challenge. But most people try it a few times and switch to something else, because they just don't find it all that enjoyable.

Funny you shoud quote that......I actually shot last Tuesday's local USPSA match with my 625 loaded with 230 LRN handloads! Given the cost and availability issues we are experiencing today, all bets are off. I still have plenty of jacketed bullets for the big matches, though.....

I own a couple of revolvers that have been hard-chromed. One of them is a 625 that I had chromed as an experiment to see if it would solve the cylinder peening issue (it didn't). Hard chrome is an excellent finish for handguns. I have never found that it chances the tolerances of a revolver in any material way. If anything, it might make it run a little smoother than before after the initial wear-in. A brushed or bright hard-chrome job will make the gun somewhat easier to clean.

I actually found the first 53 seconds more entertaining!

Not gonna work, I'm afraid. The old S&W revolvers like the 1917 have extractors with standard threading--those on the newer guns are reverse threaded, to help keep the extractor rods from unscrewing during use. No reason why something couldn't be fabricated or welded up, though, as long as an appropriate relief cut is made under the barrel to create clearance.

Thank you, Cheryl. I realize that nobody intended to detract from the MCC, and that the rules conversation just happens to be a really hot topic right now. Anyway, now we can all get back to Sam's non-stop stream of promotional MCC posts!

I reload that way also, and have filed off the sharp edges at the end of the extractors on my 625s, which at least lessens the "apple corer" effect on my left palm. It would be nice to have something different to push on, but I'm not aware of anything on the market. Somewhere along the way I believe I have seen somebody's open ICORE gun with a bigger knob out on the end of the extractor, but I can't remember where I saw that. It wouldn't be real hard to make one.

Stop and think about it: If the equipment rules made any frickin' sense at all, we would have two divisions--revolver and semi-auto--with production, limited, and open categories within those two divisions.

I wasn't implying anything, I was just trying to figure out what the heck you were talking about, Cheryl. None of us who regularly attend the MCC are being paid to shoot. This is not a match with a deep prize table--it's designed to be a charity match and Sam has done a very nice job with that mission. If you care about how you perform (as most of us do), the results are going to be posted afterward, right? I'm certain that at the very least, Sam will make sure the results indicate which platform people are using--otherwise there will be no data to compare and that's the whole idea of allowing the 8-minor option this time around. I'm not real happy about people using Sam's match as an opportunity to try to make their political points in a passive/aggressive manner on the division rules thing. Go over to my thread on that subject if you have something negative to say.

Exactly what were you hoping to shoot for, Cheryl, if not for the fun of it?

Both my 625s still have stainless cylinders, if that is any indicator of how I look at the issue.

Gosh, I have to admit I don't remember how to take the Sentinel apart. Sorry--there is probably some online source that might help you out. For home refinishing, the flat black baking lacquer is the way to go. Make sure you have a good degreaser on hand, and an open kitchen window near the oven, to let out the fumes!

Yep, I've done triggers on a couple Sentinels. Twenty years ago, in the pre-S&W617 days, I shot my 9-shot Sentinel Deluxe quite successfully at the local steel plate rack matches. I sold that gun when I got my 617, but regretted it enough I bought another one a couple years ago just for sentimental purposes. You can slick up the innards on a Sentinel, but the main goal is to reduce the mainspring tension without reducing it too far. The mainspring is a coil spring that rides on a strut. If you cut the spring down too far and start getting misfires, you can stack washers on the strut to increase the spring tension again. That's my tip for the day.

John, the harder metal of the Ti cylinder basically eliminates the peening problem.

Just put duct tape over the porting.

Chris, even if the MCC has no impact on your classification, it's still one of the best opportunities to shoot your 625 against a bunch of other guys with 625s--regardless of the 8-shot experiment. Who care about classes--we're all shooting heads-up in Revo Division! Anyway, I look forward to seeing you in Barry in a couple months.

Javier, I understand what you're saying. I just wish there were more people who wanted to play the game by the current division rules, and then there would be no need to mess with it. But unless this year proves to be different (and it might, given the major change in our National Championship), we need to mix it up somehow and hope it attracts more participation.