Carmoney

Mike Plaxco used to say, "The reason the Good Lord gave you a left thumb was to drop the slide on a .45" Obviously, he was talking about using the left thumb to operate the slide stop, and I think his observation extrapolates out to various other calibers and pistol platforms.

Strange. Are you getting the screw cap good and tight? I'm wondering if the release may be twisting slightly because it's loosening under vibration. Try putting counterclockwise finger pressure on the release as you tighten it with the clockwise force of your screwdriver. This will help keep it straight while you put plenty of torque on the screwdriver. Worth a try anyway.

I understand there may be times that an RO can and should issue reasonable safety warnings to the shooter. It appears to me that 8.6.1 is a very general catch-all rule that allows the RO to deal with unanticipated issues as appropriate to maintain human safety, under pretty isolated instances that can't really be quantified. Did you bother to read the rest of my post, though? Do you really disagree with the thrust of my comments? I do not want to hear the RO yelling "muzzle" at me during a stage just because he sees me swinging out to the side to shoot a target that is near the 180 line. Either I broke the 180 or I didn't. Either DQ my ass or keep quiet and let me shoot my stage! Let's be straight about this--the truth is the word "muzzle" is often used when the command should really be "STOP!--unload and show clear" by ROs who don't have the heart to issue DQs when the violation is not terribly blatant. I do want to point out this is almost never a problem with well-seasoned Nationals-level ROs.

Sounds great, John Z. I'll take you up on both the shooting match and the after-match bullets the next time I'm in your neck of the woods.

As I have pointed out previously, USPSA does not employ the "muzzle" warning. Many times (and particularly at a match like this one!) shooters need to be able to use the full range of the 180 in order to most effectively attack the stage. They should be permitted to do so without the distraction and interference of an RO who thinks he can anticipate that a 180 violation is about to occur and decides to yell out a warning in advance of that violation. A shooter who violates a safe gun handling rule should be immediately stopped and DQ'd. Otherwise, the RO should keep quiet.

That's totally goofy! Last year everybody who finished at 95%+ got administratively moved straight to GM. Why would this year be different? See what I mean, folks? Total inconsistency in the system.

Well, John Z., I was not picking on anyone in particular. And this is not the first time I have raised this issue. Ask Dave Parker, I'm sure he feels like I've been on his ass for the exact same thing ever since he made instant GM several years ago! And I completely agree that it would be totally unfair to criticize Dave P., your friend at Caswell, or anyone else who made instant GM by shooting the correct classifiers (as long as they didn't intentionally control and manipulate the process in order to Grandbag, of course). My criticism is against the inconsistency of the classification system as currently operated. Until the 03-series classifiers came out, Jerry was the only GM and it was almost impossible for anybody else to even make Master. The high hit factors were artificially high, because they were figured as some arbitrary percentage of those calculated in Limited. They were too hard. Then all of a sudden, the 03-series classifiers hit, then the 06s, and so on, and it appears that every generation of classifiers has lower and lower high hit factors for Revo. Blammo--people started making GM literally overnight--and some of them were clearly not even in the same league as the top A and M Revo shooters, much less capable of running with Jerry. Many of the newer classifiers are now too easy. That's what I mean when I refer to "class inflation" in this division. If you want to be a GM in Revolver and you have pretty decent basic wheelgun skills, all you have to do is shoot the right classifiers (those that are 6-round-neutral from the 03-series and up), get decent runs, and you're probably going to make it GM. But--if you can't perform at a true GM level at major matches, how meaningful is it really? Let me go on record here, before I say anything else: Dave Parker is a good guy, and he deserves props for winning two stages at the technically-toughest and hardest-fought USPSA Nationals ever. That's enough to satisfy any lingering doubt in my mind about whether he deserves the GM rank. Josh Lentz (the topic of this thread) is one hell of a revolver shooter, and unquestionably worthy of the title GM, assuming they bump him up as the others got bumped last year. I'm glad I beat him in Memphis last year, because I may not be able to beat him ever again! I've never seen your Caswell friend shoot. If he's the real deal, we'll see that in his performance at major matches soon enough. If he doesn't shoot major matches, he can prove his capability by beating most of the Limited and Open shooters at local matches, like many of the top Revolver guys do pretty routinely. If it turns out that your Caswell friend isn't up to that level yet, then he is the victim of a classification system that has him improperly ranked--it would certainly not be the first time, and it would certainly not be his fault. I hope this clarifies my views on this topic. The bottom line, I guess, is this: It's not personal. I was really only trying to give Josh the credit he deserves. I hope this whole sideline discussion doesn't take anything away from that.

Remember, Phil's suggestion was not to "mix in" Revolver or anything else. The suggestion was to shoot the SS Nationals, then run a Revolver match in back-to-back fashion immediately afterward on Sunday. Everybody who wanted could shoot both formats in the same weekend!

Yeah, we were talking quite a bit about how the revolver guys all have their special trademark...... Dan had the pith helmet. Cliff has his skirts and thongs. Matt has the dandy straw hat. I suggested to John Bagakis that since people are starting to forget the bucket incident (which occurred several years back when Josh was still in junior high) he should think about wearing a greek fisherman's cap while he shoots.

Despite the class inflation we have seen recently in Revolver Division (some people have obviously figured out how to hand-select the "right" classifiers and shoot and/or reshoot them in order to make themselves instant GMs), Josh can legitimately lay claim to the title of Grand Master. Josh shot a great match, and finished Nationals at over 95% of Jerry's winning score. That's the best way to make GM, in my book. Way to go!

Steve got a little tangled up opening a door from the wrong side and got called for a 180 violation. Congratulations to Jerry for a hard-fought victory. I think it's now safe to say that from here on out, the Revolver Nationals is going to be a real battle every year. People are no longer content to shoot for second place. It was great seeing everybody again!

I would recommend shooting only minor loads in your revolver. I don't know of a Taurus .38 that I would expect to hold up for any length of time shooting major loads.

Very interesting idea--a back-to-back SS/Revo Nationals would encourage lots of additional shooters to try their hand at Revo. And I'll bet you're exactly right, Phil--if it didn't fill up the first year, it would the second! Many of the top SS shooters are very handy with the wheelguns, also. Don't forget that Rob Leatham showed up and won Limited at the IRC a few years ago. There would be no need to alter the stages. The vast majority of the USPSA Revolver crowd would not want the match set up to be "6-round-neutral." We're in this game because we like shooting big stages with lots of options! Frankly, my only hesitation about this concept is that the stages for the SS Nationals have typically been somewhat short and boring compared to the stuff we normally shoot at the other National matches. I would really miss running those big 32-round field courses that make this whole game so fun. Maybe it's time to get away from the 8-shot arrays and 24-round max that have always been the tradition at the Single Stack Classic, and do a true back-to-back SS/Revo Nationals with true nationals-level stages!

Factory S&W firing pins are made of Ti. The best are the earlier round-tip factory Ti FPs that measure about .495". These are far superior to the shorter and pointier FPs currently being used, supposedly to meet California drop test requirements. The aftermarket firing pins (C&S and Apex) are steel.

Looks like a total abortion to me!

I'm tellin' ya.....I see it all the time on the dang tight-chambered cylinders from 625-8s! The pilot on the chamfering reamer won't fit in there until the chambers themselves have been reamed. Next question......?

If the chamfer cutter won't hit the chamber edge, things are too tight in there. Again, you probably need the chambers reamed. Lemme guess, it's a 625-8, right?

I nominate this sentence for the line of the month. Brian should send you a book or something.

Prepping a single-action trigger is different than staging a double-action trigger. In most instances, revo shooters are better off rolling the trigger right on through without any conscious thought to staging it.

My personal home defense gun is a S&W M-13 loaded with .357 Mag Federal 125-gr. JHP. They don't call that round the "King of the Street" for nothin'.

I have a whole can of .38 Special ammo I made up for bowling pin matches that can accomplish 225+ p.f.! I wouldn't use it for anything other than pins (or perhaps hunting), but it certainly would more than make USPSA major.

I would add there is no reason to chamfer "lightly." The guns that utilize moonclips benefit from a fairly heavy chamfer. (Remove the extractor first, though, so you don't adversely alter the timing.)

Very common scenario. Typically means your chambers are too tight, which is an epidemic problem on 625-2s and 625-8s. You'll need to ream the chambers to correct SAAMI spec, then your chamfering reamer will work just fine.

Yes, I'm signed up for the Fall Classic on Sat. Send me a reminder to bring the rest, OK?

Not sure, actually. I think it's back in my basement. You gotta watch that Doug C, he'll just keep stuff until you ask for it back! My 11-87 slug gun went missing for several years once, until I finally thought to ask Doug whether he had it. Sure enough, there it was, right there in his safe!