Help with my reload? (With video)

[ysrracer]

Since I've got nothing but free time, I'm trying to get some practice in.

 

S&W 627, empties in the chamber, round nose bullets, no powder, fired primers in the moon clip.

 

Par time is 3.5 seconds. Where can I go faster?

 

 

Edited April 22, 2020 by ysrracer

[Toolguy]

Use round nose bullets if you aren't already, can't tell from the video. Not truncated cone or round nose flat point. Full radius nose. I'm using Bayou Bullets 160 grn polymer coated bullets. At least get something that profile.

 

Get the gun pointed more downward when loading and drop the ammo on the cylinder from about 1/4' to 1/2" above and it will find it's way in. It looks like you are having to push the shell into the chambers. They should drop freely by their own weight. If they don't, something is wrong with the ammo, moonclips, chambers, etc. Once you get that sorted, practice moving faster.

Edited April 22, 2020 by Toolguy

[old558]

1 hour ago, Toolguy said:

Use round nose bullets if you aren't already, can't tell from the video. Not truncated cone or round nose flat point. Full radius nose. I'm using Bayou Bullets 160 grn polymer coated bullets. At least get something that profile.

 

Get the gun pointed more downward when loading and drop the ammo on the cylinder from about 1/4' to 1/2" above and it will find it's way in. It looks like you are having to push the shell into the chambers. They should drop freely by their own weight. If they don't, something is wrong with the ammo, moonclips, chambers, etc. Once you get that sorted, practice moving faster.

Toolguy thank you for the info. I shoot mostly steel challenge so I rarely need to reload but I tried to do it as you recommended and found it to work very well for me even though I use 38 special brass in ranch moon clips and do not sort my brass Pointing downward is key Thanks again.

[MikeBurgess]

it looks like your first action on the reload is moving the gun to waist level, a lot of time passes before you hit the cylinder release, try prioritizing opening the cylinder as thing one, moving to where your going to finish the reload is secondary as it happens while you are ejecting and grabbing moons

 

[Makicjf]

Something to think about: your muzzle is very close to the vertical 180 when you are ejecting.  

As already stated, make sure your gear is tight, eject on the way down and move your hands quick.  I tend to focusu eyes and point my index finger at the 11:00 o'clock hole, one fine point of focus and a tactile index 

The vertical 180 can bite you, I've been warned on it at the 2018 IRC 

Good luck!

Jason

[MRBerg]

I'm just starting so everyone's input is helpful and I'm sure glad you are your dressed in this video lol

Edited April 22, 2020 by MRBerg

[MikeyScuba]

No expert but my strong hand thumb sits on the Houge Short cyl release as my normal grip.  For my reload I tip/rotate the gun to the left- pull my hand back against the release-while my support hand comes around and my fingers push the cylinder out while the thumb hits the ejector rod.  After that it depends.  I’ve found 2-3 ways to reload.

 

leaving the gun up and slightly tip down

wagon wheel the gun around to be level with posts on the left of my belt

or bring the gun to be level with the middle posts 

[RangerMcFadden]

You might find moons fall in easier if your gun pointed down more and less angled. I know that since you’re doing a strong hand reload you need to “get over” the grip and you point the muzzle to your left so you have more of a straight line your hand can travel from your server to your cylinder. However, this forces you to spend more time aligning the moon with x, y, and z coordinates. Since you’re loading at such an angle you it looks like you can’t just let the moons fall it. If you have the gun more or less straight up and down you’ll only need to worry about the x, y coordinates in aligning the moon.

 

Beyond specific pointers it may be helpful for you to break down and isolate skills on your reload. When I was working on my reload I noticed my hand was slow going to the speed loaders so I just practiced moving my hand as quickly as a could going from the gun to my loader.

[alecmc]

I'm personally not a fan of the strong hand reload, but if you're going to practice that, look at shooters like Michael Poggie, Rich Wolfe, Jerry Mickulek, as they are really the fastest guys with that style of reload.

 

Tips:

-Bring the gun to your eyes, dont bring your eyes to the gun. ( raise up the gun when shooting , turtle heading a little bit is fine, but that just looks painful ) 

-Your first action should be starting to open the cylinder to eject WHILE you are bringing the gun to your waist to insert a moonclip.

-Go faster, I know this seems like a " Duh, no sh*t sherlock", but seriously - You need to be 1000% more aggressive with your actions in order to cover ground here. Snap that gun in FAST, raise it up fast, get your thumb on the cylinder release as soon you here the beep.

 

 

 

[RangerMcFadden]

30 minutes ago, alecmc said:

Go faster, I know this seems like a " Duh, no sh*t sherlock", but seriously - You need to be 1000% more aggressive with your actions in order to cover ground here. Snap that gun in FAST, raise it up fast, get your thumb on the cylinder release as soon you here the beep.

Agreed. You’ll certainly be real sloppy the first few reps but once you know you can do something in 2 seconds when it used to take 3, you can smoothing things out. Don’t be discouraged by how sloppy those first few runs are.

[MikeyScuba]

I went frame by frame on that video and figured out (best I could) how he does it.  Which wasn't easy as its a fast as **** reload!

[GMM50]

alec is fast.  Jerry is also fast.  Watch him and compare 

Both are more 'violent' in their actions.

 

 

Edited April 23, 2020 by GMM50
additions

[pskys2]

Jerry always said let gravity do the reload. 

I thumb the cylinder release as I switch hands & rotate as the cylinder is opened.  Then release the moon clip above the cylinder.

1) Use HearthCo or TK tight moon clips & Starline 38 short colt brass.  

2) Make sure the edges of the cylinder holes are smooth not sharp.

3) Forget the timer until you feel like your reload is smooth, with no hesitation, & you feel it flows.

 

I got some funny responses but when I do a reload I want to feel as if I'm dancing, it's almost a constant, fluid motion almost like a ballet.  There is a rhythym to it.  

Then check your times at the range with live ammo, focusing on fluid & smooth movements.  Don't Push it at this point.

When your reloads feel like that, then set a par time under your best live fire times and dry fire until your arms feel like lead.

Always focusing on smoothness NOT speed, but yeah you have to push it too.

 

Remember it's best to have fluid reloads with no fumbles every time,  than a blazing reload one time with a fumble the next.

[MWP]

Do everything faster. Light the gun on fire if you have to. That’s the only way to get faster at anything in this game.
 

Smoothness is not important in going fast. That doesn’t mean you throw consistency out the door- but smoothness has no place in this game.  

[PatJones]

Watch this. The second half is in slow-mo

Yes it's Jerry, but look at the details. Look how fast the revolver is pulled into the body. Note how he breaks at the waist so he can get the gun more vertical. The moonclip is waiting as soon as the revolver is pointed down.

You can't put the moonclip into the cylinder while you're holding onto it, your finger tips are in the way. Watch how Jerry drops the moonclip and moves his hand to the grip before it has finished going into the cylinder.

You need to work on things one at a time. For you the lowest hanging fruit is hand speed. Moving from the shooting position to your waist there is no reason to not move your hands faster, especially your right hand. You should already have the moonclip in your hand when the gun gets to your waist.

You have video set up this is good. Watch Jerry and then look at yourself reload. Pick out one thing that looks different, use a 30k foot view. Practice that until it looks better then work on something else.

I watched that video last year and saw Jerry move his hand before the moon dropped into the cylinder. I dry fired for an hour that night on just that. It was worth 2 tenths on my reload. You have a better than a second to shave, good news is most of that is the easy stuff.

--
Pat Jones
Firestone CO
USPSA #A79592

[ysrracer]

Thanks guys, all good info.

[MRBerg]

Yes he is good but if you look he started with 4 full moons in his rack he shoots then he has none left in it never the less he is unbelievable 

[SGT_Schultz]

I can't add anything useful to the reloading discussion because I suck too.

 

But the one thing I do know, from personal experience, is that the hunchback tactical turtle posture has got to go.  There's a reason why many high level USPSA shooters that are or have been members of military special forces do not use it.

[MikeyScuba]

Thanks for the video Pat.

 

Listen @ the 5:29 mark.

[Makicjf]

Perhaps "intended" to be .355?

 

[ysrracer]

2 hours ago, SGT_Schultz said:

I can't add anything useful to the reloading discussion because I suck too.

 

But the one thing I do know, from personal experience, is that the hunchback tactical turtle posture has got to go.  There's a reason why many high level USPSA shooters that are or have been members of military special forces do not use it.

 

Hey, I used to be 6'2" tall, but years of being married to a Filipina has ground me down

[SGT_Schultz]

3 minutes ago, ysrracer said:

 

Hey, I used to be 6'2" tall, but years of being married to a Filipina has ground me down

 

LOL, but they cook real good!

[shoots100]

One thing I've noticed when practicing reloads with moon's loaded with dummy rounds , is that you need to practice with some type of padding on the floor for the moons to fall onto, as they do get damaged when dropping on a hard floor and don't work good afterwards.

I've gotten away from using dummy rounds and just use over sized brass, so I can practice ejecting how it happens at a match(ejecting empty brass) and the over sized brass is easy to load back into the cylinder and won't get banged up as much when hitting the floor.

Otherwise, try not to miss and you won't need to reload as much !!!!

SJC  

[MikeyScuba]

I have 3/4” thick recycled tire mats on my floor.  Using .04 DAA moons I do have to rebend the moons occasionally but they have held up remarkably well.  I use Berrys 159gr .358.  The coated rounds I shoot didn’t last long as dryfire rounds.  Plus using only copper plated for dryfire is an extra layer of safety.

[PatJones]

One thing I've noticed when practicing reloads with moon's loaded with dummy rounds , is that you need to practice with some type of padding on the floor for the moons to fall onto, as they do get damaged when dropping on a hard floor and don't work good afterwards.
I've gotten away from using dummy rounds and just use over sized brass, so I can practice ejecting how it happens at a match(ejecting empty brass) and the over sized brass is easy to load back into the cylinder and won't get banged up as much when hitting the floor.
Otherwise, try not to miss and you won't need to reload as much !!!![emoji106]
SJC  

I only drop a moonclip a few times a practice session to make sure I'm being honest about ejecting them. You'll do a lot more reloads in practice if you're not bending over to pick them up.

It is hard on moonclips. I use ones that someone stepped on and straighten them out best I can. I never use them for live fire after dry firing, but your bent up old dry fire moons are the most important ones you own. It is useful to have one loaded with fired brass for ejecting.

--
Pat Jones
Firestone CO
USPSA #A79592