My revolver progression

[J_Allen]

First off, the only point of this thread is that I thought is would be fun to chronicle my journey in USPSA revolver division. Maybe add weekly updates in terms of things learned, or skills practiced. It might not be a great read for a while, but perhaps if I can keep on task, then in a year or two it might contain some pearls of wisdom in a somewhat natural progression that another new revolver shooter can use.

 

Background: This is my second year of USPSA, and I am a D class shooter, 33%. This basically means I’m at the bottom of the totem pole, and there is nowhere to go but up. I’ve been running a S&W 625 shooting major power factor. However, I recently picked up a race ready S&W 627 on the classifieds. I think this will help with the longer field courses, but honestly probably wouldn’t have helped with my classifiers (obviously depends on the specific classifier, and we’ll test that theory in the next couple of weeks). 

 

My first year was devoted to going slow, and getting comfortable. I have been experimenting this year with pushing the pace (still slow, but at the razor’s edge of my own personal comfort level). The main thing I have learned this second year is to shoot comfortably, but do everything else at warp speed. In other words, RUN between arrays!

 

Brian’s book was a good read, but some of that stuff went over my head. I understand the theory of why you should call your shots, but I’m not at a level yet where I could start doing it. I think of all the possible skills, this is the one I am most excited to be eventually learn.

 

Finally, I am not going to improve until I have a dry fire routine - this is critical in moving up the ranks, and it’s starting now.

 

Thanks for any words of encouragement, I hope this goes well!

 

Jason

 

EDIT: I originally posted this in the revolver forum, and funny enough, discovered the range diary 15 min after opening this thread. I’ll have the mods move it.

Edited July 10, 2018 by J_Allen

[fcrsocial]

Jason,

Keep at it! We need as many revolver shooters as possible. In fact, bring a friend to a match!

Glad you are making progress. It's all about practice, practice, practice.

Good luck out there!

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[J_Allen]

Thanks for the early encouragement!

 

In order to make this revolver specific, I thought I’d add one more post regarding how my reloading technique has progressed already.

 

When I started, I was inspired (and in awe of) YouTube videos of Jerry doing his strong hand reload (switch revolver to weak hand with strong hand handling the moon clip). I had read that if you set the revolver on a table and just pick it up to load, then whichever hand picked up the moon clip should dictate your technique. Since at a static range I would always transfer hands off the table, I decided this was the way for me. Despite practicing it (but probably not THAT much), I was always fumbling the rounds into the cylinder. This was perhaps because the cylinder was pointed slightly away from me, which I could remedy by twisting my left wrist towards me. Nevertheless, this year I switched to weak hand reloads (keeping strong hand anchored on grip, and using my weak/left hand to handle moon clip). This was a much more fluid process (for me) and allowed more muzzle control, especially back on target after closing the cylinder without adjusting the shooting grip.

 

Now obviously, everybody is different, and will gravitate towards their own personal reloading technique. For me, it just happens to be weak hand, so that is what I will continue to practice. But additionally, I intend to practice strong hand a little too, just to have it in my quiver.

 

Jason

 

LESSON LEARNED: Try a bunch of different techniques to see what works for you.

Edited July 9, 2018 by J_Allen

[pskys2]

Everyone is different.  For new Revolero's I've always recommended what you stated also, but then suggest they try both methods.

Your experience proves that what seems right, may not be best.

How are you progressing?  Getting any others interested with you?

Good Luck!

[perttime]

Revolver can be great fun, and great frustration. Maybe that is why I keep switching between (IPSC) Revolver, Classic and Production.... Just last year, I switched to reloading with the weak hand. My main reason was that I couldn't get consistent ejection with weak hand thumb only, but keeping the strong hand grip now makes sense to me too.

[J_Allen]

Week #1:

 

Didn’t get much time in this week. Spent about 30 min/day x 5 days working on USPSA activities, but 3 of those were related to organization/reloading. Of the two days I dry fired, I was mostly working on general skills. Steve Anderson’s dry fire drills 1-14 and draw/index. Also learning to use my par timer. So not much progress, but we’ll keep at it. In the meantime, I’m trying to decide where to concentrate the rest of the summer: Revolver vs Production vs Limited. I like the revolvers the best, but still accumulating gear for reloading 38 short colt, and by the time I work up a good load I don’t know how much trigger time I will have before my two level 2 matches. I have one more classifier and I should hit C-class in Production, so that’s the agenda this week.

[UpYoursPal]

As a fellow new revolero, I'm going to be watching this thread!

[J_Allen]

Week #2:

 

A little disappointing. Had one day of draws/reloads, and a couple of days monkeying around Getting my press ready for 38 short colt. Otherwise pretty quiet. Am thinking of finishing up the season with the semi, and switching focus back to revolver sometime in the fall.

[fcrsocial]

It can be frustrating but keep working at it! If you decide to stop competing with a revolver this season, at least maintain your dry practice.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[J_Allen]

Week #3:

 

Not getting frustrated with revolver, rather getting frustrated by myself and lack of time to put in. I did get one day of draws in last week, but pretty minimal. I spent most of my free time reorganizing my  reloading room, and I do finally have my press set up for 38 short colt. I had been waiting on a 9mm crimp die, which finally came in. So next I have to work up some loads, but luckily this should be pretty quick since I already have some good advice from the previous owner in terms of what made power factor. The argument I have floating around in my head is whether I have enough time in the next month to get my load figured out and adjust to a new rig. That is why I am thinking of finishing up this season with my bottom loader, and then dedicating next season (along with off season training) to my 627. Since I am still in D class, the jump from 6 shot to 8 shot should help, as well as fall/winter/spring dry fire practice. End of summer is getting busy with kids activities, etc (can’t believe it is going so fast)!

[J_Allen]

Week #4:

 

Got my 38 short colt load dialed in. Made it to the range once, but was mostly working with the chronograph, rather than on any particular skills. At least now that’s done, so can move on to other stuff. I know this is a boring diary right now, but it’s serving the purpose of keeping me on task. I have about a month before my last match of the year (level 2 out of state), so I could work specifically on reloads, and if I can get comfortable with them, I think I’ll run in the revolver division, rather than production. However, at my weekly match this week, and possibly another level 2 in a couple weeks, I’ll probably still run the auto just for fun. Then I’ll start getting serious!

[J_Allen]

Week #5:

 

I’m getting a dry fire routine set up. Got Stoeger’s dry fire book, and already had Anderson’s book as well. So between those two, I hopefully should be good for the next year. I hit my goal for the year, and that was C class. Granted, it was in Production and not Revolver, so maybe doesn’t fit well into this diary entry. I have too many interests and not the time to pursue them all. Anyway, I am looking at only a few matches left this year (live in a cold climate), so as I start thinking about goals for next year (which would be my third):

 

Year 1 - D class, Revolver

Year 2 - C class, Production

Year 3 - A class, Limited

 

Yes, for a goal I skipped right past B class. Is this realistic? I don’t know right now. In all honesty, B class is a long way off for me. However, I haven’t really done a consistent dry fire program, so I know there are gains to be had. Anyway, I think I’ll let this diary die a quick death right now, but may resurrect it in the future as I gravitate back to the wheel gun. Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to read these entries. Hopefully I can get better at general skills that will cross over between the divisions.

 

[swordfish]

revos are hard. But you're sure to improve your ranking now that you have an 8 shot.

Are you actually a 33%? I mean classifier scores don't matter a whole lot, unless you're only interested in the piece of paper. Matches are where it helps, and you gotta shoot against other revos. Again, the 8shot should help. And 99% of the revo guys I know shoot for accuracy and sorta leave speed to all the dudes running guns that allow for makeup shots, so if you focus on accuracy you should be good. Not sure shooting other guns is gonna help with revo scores because it's almost an entirely different game with wheelguns.

What area of the country are you in?

[J_Allen]

Resurrecting the thread from the dead, but since it’s my diary, I figure that’s ok. So I switched to Limited last fall and been having a lot of fun going fast. However, I haven’t given up on the Revo yet. Unfortunately, my dry fire routine this winter never panned out, so I haven’t exactly been making major strides. I’m a solid middle of the road (50%) C limited shooter, both on paper and at matches. It’s almost embarrassing reading my prior threads, thinking I could make so much progress in so little time... but live and learn I guess.

 

So this is where I’m at: I have learned a little bit of pushing myself to go faster, which I am going to try applying this week by bringing the revolver and seeing how I do against Production or Single Stack shooters. I know it’s not a thing, but I’ll be the only wheel gun, so I figure I have to compare to somebody. I’ll also get a crack at a classifier with an 8 shot, so we’ll see how that goes. Given how some of the prior classifiers went with the 6 shot (think multiple standing reloads with arrays of 8 shots followed by mandatory reload and another 8 shots!), I am hopeful for a big jump in performance. 

[J_Allen]

This week’s match was cancelled due to weather, and I’m probably going to have to miss next week as well. So it will be a couple weeks before I see where I’m at.

 

Swordfish, I didn’t mean to ignore your last post, it just happened to come after I took a break from updating this thread. I am in Minnesota, where we are limited to outdoor shooting from April to September. Indoor stuff does happen, but is much more limited, and essentially nonexistent for me.

 

Been working on reloads this week a little bit, and I think I’ll stick with the weak hand technique. For reloading between arrays, it seems to work best if I clear the moon clip from the cylinder, and then wrap my trigger finger through the frame while holding the gun sideways, cylinder down. That way I can move fast without worrying about the cylinder flapping around in the breeze, and have complete muzzle control (like I would hold a semi auto). As I (try to) explode out of one shooting position my weak hand comes down and grabs the next moon clip, and while I’m running will brings it up to the cylinder. I can’t reload on the move yet, but at least I am ready to reload as soon as I hit the next position. Hopefully with practice I’ll make this a more fluid process, but right now just trying to break down the mechanics to conserve as much wasted motion as possible. I’m hoping these changes put me in solid C class territory, which would make low B class my new goal this year (I think that would be reasonable). I realize Classifiers are not the be all end all, but it’s pretty much all we have to compare progress to up here. I feel like I’m taking baby steps, but having certain bench marks is nice to strive for.

[J_Allen]

After a month of cancelled matches due to inclement weather and holiday, I finally had a chance to break out the revolver for a club match this year. Overall it went pretty well, although I did end up zeroing the classifier. Put two into hard cover and another into a no-shoot. They weren’t that far off the mark, but I probably got a little too jumpy and didn’t wait for a clean sight picture. The longer courses went a lot better, one of which I really felt I did a solid job on (beat 50% of the field). I was probably at my best, so I cannot extrapolate it out to my overall level right now, but it does show me what I am capable of and if I work hard to consistently perform at that level I would be super pleased. I only have one more match before our Sectionals, so there is no way I can move up to C class by then, but I really think I can do it if I hit decent back-to-back Classifiers. Don’t even have to burn them down, just avoid penalties. So that’s my goal by the end of the summer.

[J_Allen]

Well, I didn’t reach C class in Revo this year, but did get close - am currently 39.5% overall, with the next classifier to drop being a 24.4%. So barring a disasterous run (anything below a 28%) I should make it. My last classifier (09-02) was a 59.2% run with the 627 (no reloads were required). I have been dry firing the semi-autos this fall, and was averaging 4x/week for about 3 months leading up to Thanksgiving, but the holiday season has really taken a beating to my free time. I am hopeful to get back into it for 2020, and have been kicking around the idea of making my New Years resolution to be putting in some serious Revo time. Only time will tell, but there is an A class Revo guy at the club I’m looking at going to be shooting matches at next year, so that is motivation to have someone better than me to follow.

 

Jason

[perttime]

I've been shooting Classic (IPSC version of SS). Whatever I shoot during the winter will be with the revolver. Might stick with that for the upcoming season. Not expecting to win anything....

[MikeyScuba]

We do the opposite due to very few ICORE matches.  Bring out the 2011 and SD2 and shoot IPSC in winter.

 

but honestly we don’t care as much as before as it was all so new we’d drive everywhere to shoot a L1.  Now we are more picky and shoot with people and clubs we like

[perttime]

Shooting revolver in winter keeps me from losing as much brass in the snow (or mud if the conditions are nasty).