matteekay

Just curious. I'm typically the only revolver at my local matches so I don't get much of a read from the rest of the community, lol. I've been using my 627 for USPSA but I've decided to give the 629 a go tonight - I'm a lot more accurate with it and the trigger is sooooo much nicer. Plus, my .44 Special loads are actually pretty comfortable to shoot and make a 172 PF. My hesitation to use it has stemmed from our classifiers - we've had more than a few that were 8 shots before reloading and I don't think major PF would overcome the extra reload.

Sorry to bring up an old topic but I'm interested in trying a similar setup. Why is the taller front sight needed? Is it due to the rear sight being lifted by the Warne base? Edit: After looking at pictures of the base installed, I can see why now. I wonder if anyone is making custom front sights - I think that's a pretty cool (if a little ugly) setup.

I'll echo the above. SpeedBeez also makes an N-Frame specific holster that I've found to be quite nice and comes with a variety of attachments. For a middle-ground moonclip, look at Revolver Supply Co's. Not quite as nice as TK's, but close, and significantly cheaper. I also like their moonclip holders (2 clips will fit on one "tall" post). You didn't ask about this specifically, but I've used a variety of mooning tools: - RSC Ultimate Moonclip Tool: It's a little overcomplicated but definitely works the best with the RSC-brand moons - Original Moonclip Tool: Simple, and works. I have it set up for my .44 right now. - BMT Mooner: I use this one with my K-frames and looooove it. It does take some wrist and elbow strength to use the 8-shooter variant, lol. For a demooner, any of them are fine. Or take a golf club, cut it down, and notch it.

What do you think it is - a new S&W Performance Center revolver?! But nah, based on boresighter, the problem exists between the floor and the trigger.

Little update - I did a bunch of dry fire and shot a few more mags last night. I noticed that the front sight does, in fact, drift left at the very end of my press. This was worse when my support thumb was on top of the slide release rather than under it, but I also had more control over recoil when my thumb was riding on the release. In live fire, I could get closer to center with very, very slow deliberate presses, but still only had two bullseyes out of 50 shots. Even then, those came when I cheated the front sight to the right. Good ole' Kentucky windage... I did try changing firing positions a few times to see if light had an effect. No noticeable difference. Now come the excuses, lol. I really, really dislike the 3-dot system. I'm finding that I'm having a hell of a time picking up enough of the rear sight to grasp my front sight placement. I know it's a copout but I might wind up swapping them for a traditional notch rear and a fiber optic front since that's what I have on 6 other guns (and the seventh has a notch and a painted patridge). Thanks for the advice, all!

Woah now - I'm middling at best, lol. Literally, I'm a C / 51% . I'm going to try changing a few things grip-wise and see if I can get it back to center.... Interesting! I'm going to see if I can fix it by technique but yeah, I might end up adjusting the sight if nothing else works.

Thanks, Jack! I'll put a piece of electrical tape over the rear dots and try the other side of the range (I mostly shoot indoors). I mentioned it before, but the funny thing is I shoot my brother-in-law's CZ-pattern gun the exact same way (and I've done it at three different ranges). I'm literally always 2" left. Must be something about how that frame fits my hand.

Sometimes, this necessitates getting creative, lol. But yes, it'd be tough to rig this at your run-of-the-mill indoor range. I'm fortunate in that mine's a club and I'm typically the only one there.

Well, if my weak-hand shooting from last month's match holds true, you'll find bullets in the target frame... and the floor... and the ceiling... I'll give it a whirl next time I'm at the range.

That's the funny thing - if it was an adjustable sight gun, I would have just moved the rear two or three clicks and never thought twice about it, lol. I'll shoot it off a rest, but to me that's only a partial data point. I always zero on a rest and then adjust for how I shoot a gun when held freestyle (aka, how it will be shot 99.999999999% of the time). Typically that's just an elevation tweak, though.

Hi there! In order: - Offhand - Freestyle / two handed - Deliberate. Revo shooter, so I'm used to being very deliberate with my trigger pulls - This gun has three dots. Most of my revos are notch rear and dot front - Indoors with muffs - Pretty similar to the size of a group I can pull with the competition wheelguns when I'm deliberate with my shots. Speeding up with those starts to dip my shots low but generally centered.

I finally got to try out my new SP-01 Tactical tonight. It shoots well, and I'm pretty pleased with this 10 yard, 20-shot group considering I've shot nothing but revolvers for over a year: Now, obviously I'd like that clump of holes to be in the center instead of to 2" the left. I checked with a boresighter and, based on that, the sights are dead-on. So I guess it's me? I'm pressing carefully and not jerking the trigger (I don't think I could group decently if I was) but clearly something is off. Should I just drift the rear until the POA and POI line up and ignore the boresighter? The funny thing is the EXACT same thing happens when I shoot my brother-in-law's Tanfoglio Witness. The boresighter is straight, but I shoot a tight group that's about 2" to the left.

I'm a coated bullet fan so this looks pretty awesome.

231 and HP-38 are the same; or at least, are now the same. I have some old manuals with different charge weights.

Soo... that's gonna be a little bit different. Not to mention, it's a 929, so there's a fairly high chance that what works in your gun won't in another 929, lol.

In a .38 Special case or in a 9mm?

You're right on all counts. To satiate my curiosity and/or as a testament to my stubbornness, I'm going to keep upping the HP-38 until I get a clean burn or overpressure indicators at some point. That occurred to me after this test. Another thing to try! I will say that my usual process is bore scrubber, then boresnake with a little oil before the wide "tail" so I think most of the oil gets pulled out. It certainly wouldn't help, though.

For the folks keeping score at home, a final(?) update: I brought several handloads to the range to try in a sequence. All were moonclipped. 158gr Hornady XTP over AutoComp (max charge) 158gr Missouri Bullet Co. coated lead SWC over AutoComp (max charge) 148gr Eggleston coated LRN over Trail Boss (4.4 - 4.5gr; based on case volume, I believe this is a max charge, but I had to ballpark it based on data for heavier bullets) 160gr BBI coated LRN over 3.7gr HP-38 (supposedly a max charge, but very, very dirty. I think the bullet was seated high enough to add room in the case, effectively lowering the pressure) Here was the process (I scrubbed the cylinder between firing moons): Cleaned the gun thoroughly: Hoppe's Bore Scrubber with a bronze brush in a power drill, dried with patches, then cleaned again with patches coated with Hoppe's gun oil Test fired with the XTP/AC first, then dropped in one of each moonclip to see if it would stick. I got a little sticking with all of them. That was unexpected since this was the AutoComp charge, but it wasn't nearly as bad as the glue I was getting with HP-38. Tried with the Eggleston/TB load. Drop it one of each moon, NO STICKING. Hi-fived myself. Tried the MBC/AC load, dropped in one of each moon, and again got some light sticking. Tried the BBI/HP-38 load, dropped in one of each moon, and they froze completely (as expected) Ran several of the Eggleston/TB loads, then dropped in one of each moon. No sticking. Gave myself a second high-five. People looked at me funny. So, final thoughts... I think a combination of things is the cause of the issue. One, the charge holes might be a little narrow and could probably stand to be reamed. Two, TB is the hottest powder of the three I tried so anything but a total burn is leaving at least a little residue. Three, using moonclips exacerbates everything since a little friction on each cartridge x 8 = a lot of friction on the moon. I probably need to go a bit above max on the coated lead charges. I've been told that this is common as coated lead builds less pressure than bare lead Trail Boss solves all!!!1! (or at the very least, is a good choice for lead). So jhgtyre's sentiment holds true - this particular revolver has a powder preference that others might not, lol. It doesn't surprise me as it's been a little b**** ever since I bought it (Performance Center "quality"). Interestingly, I didn't have these issues when using 700-X, which is also a fast-burner. So, hot powders going forward.

That's a good thought. The one thing worth mentioning is that I had this issue occur with this same load in three different guns, one of which wasn't even using moons. So I've tried: - Cleaning the everloving crap out of the cylinder - Upping the charge - Changing bullets (all coated, though) - Changing guns And I still get sticking after firing even one cylinder's worth of ammo. The only thing left to try is changing the powder - I've used coated lead bullets with AutoComp and Trail Boss and never had this issue before. Sent from my STV100-1 using Tapatalk

Okay... starting to think that HP-38 is just dirty, Or at least this batch is. - I cleaned the cylinder thoroughly - Tried changing bullets - now using the Eggleston 148gr coated lead roundnose - Loaded close to max charge (4.4gr). There's no data for this bullet so I had to use a very similar 146gr LRN, which is listed at 4.5gr max of HP-38 or 5.0gr of 231 (weird, I know) I loaded 16 rounds into two moons and took them to the range to shoot. The first moon of 8 dropped straight in and shot well - no signs of overpressure and no excess powder on the crane or front of the cylinder. Went to load the next moon... and it stuck. Same place as before, when it's nearly fully-seated. So I'm sort of at a loss. One shot per charge hole was enough to gum it up badly enough to stop the next moon from loading all the way? I could see it if the rounds were still spewing melted powder but these seemed to light off clean. Maybe I've just discovered the perfect concoction of unburnt powder, heat, and coated bullets to create instant glue in the cylinder. I'm going to try changing powders to something with a faster burn... maybe Titegroup or even Trail Boss. Open to other suggestions as well.

HOW DARE YOU, lol. It's a running gag at my local club - every stage someone asks me "How many reloads is this for you?" and I always reply "All of them. All of the reloads.". I am sorta liking the idea of trying it with a 9mm though. Right, I think that's the main reason to go major. Even one or two C's can be a huge difference with major scoring. I'll let you know once I'm done setting up my S&W 629 for Revo Major, lol. Also really good feedback. I don't want to get into the dot game just yet but it's something to consider. Thanks again, everyone!

Thanks, I started there but they don't have a bullet that's close to this one. Aside from the afore-mentioned HBWC, all they have is a 146 JHP - I don't think I should use that load data to throw lead. For the record though, the max they list is closer to the HP-38 measurement about. It's also saying it's a slower velocity.

Howdy! I just picked up some Eggleston Munitions 147gr LRN bullets to use in .38 Special cases. It's been hard to find load data for this weight and case; there's a lot of 148, but it's all for hollow base wadcutters (which require a unique load due to the bullet skirt and the extra room in the case). Lo and behold, though, I was going through my "load book" (that's basically a photocopy of a bunch of manuals - you know the one) and found a Lyman lead bullet that's nearly identical. It even has load data for my preferred powder, HP-38/231. However... Looking at the lower chart, the two show different charge weights and max charges. This is probably from a very old manual... does anyone know which would be more accurate for today's iteration of HP-38?

Can you fit those with a base pad? I like the idea of 10-rounders due to the ability to go between SS, L10, and bowling pins without changing out mags.

At this rate, I'll wind up in SASS before the end of the thread, ahaha.