New Revolver, At Least For Me.

[mcb]

Well the local Gander Mountain found me a fairly nice Smith and Wesson 610 with a 6.5 inch barrel. I was very surprised they were able to find one, so I snatched it up. I was going to get a new 625 but I like the idea of using a 610 since I can use the 40 S&W I am already reloading for my XD-40 in a S&W 610.

Now what I really need is to get the rest of the gear I will need. I would love to hear suggestions for the best moon clips (none came with the gun), moon clip belt holders, and a good holster to create a good USPSA setup. Any other suggestions for gear, tweaks and other stuff would be great too. I am really looking forward to giving this a try at a match but I have to get the rest of the proper gear and some practice in. Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

A few pictures of my new 610

Right

Left

Thanks

mcb

Edited October 17, 2005 by mcb

[Carmoney]

mcb, read down through this sub-forum and all your questions will be answered very thoroughly!

A quick summary of my own personal choices: CR Speed holster, shoot-the-moon style holders of various vintage, moonclips from TKCustom.com, EGW/SDM fiber-optic front sight, Millett rear sight (plain black), rubber Hogues, way-bobbed hammer spur and DA-only action job at about 5.25 pounds and smooth, mixed brass, Federal primers, and lots of nice cheap smoky lead bullets!

welcome to our roundgun world!

Mike

[Airedale]

mcb,

Carmoney's setup is excellent and his advice is too.

My setup differs slightly. I use a Garcia Extreme holster, Miculek grips, and moonclips from Ranch products. Mrs. Airedale used to shoot a 610 and I had a fistful of Ranch clips for it. The clips from TK may be a bit better but are much more expensive. I didn't see any advantage (with the 610 or 625) to spend the money on TK when I could spend 1/4 of the $ for Ranch.

Have fun with the new "blaster".

Dave

[robopup]

Don't forget the Ed Brown oversized cylinder latch.

[Carmoney]

Dave, good point on the moonclips....actually, my 625 moons are a complete mixture, I'm really not brand-loyal on that item.

Robopup, I knew I was forgetting something when describing my kit....the Ed Brown latch. I never wanted it when I was transferring my gun to the weak hand, but now that I've adopted the Spook/Dan reload, keeping the gun in my strong hand the whole time, I've found the Ed Brown latch to be a must-have.

[Revorbaro]

Dave, good point on the moonclips....actually, my 625 moons are a complete mixture, I'm really not brand-loyal on that item.

Robopup, I knew I was forgetting something when describing my kit....the Ed Brown latch.  I never wanted it when I was transferring my gun to the weak hand, but now that I've adopted the Spook/Dan reload, keeping the gun in my strong hand the whole time, I've found the Ed Brown latch to be a must-have.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi guys

I have mount in my two 625 one type of big cylinder release made in Germany.

My hands are very little but with this article is impossible miss the release

Is possible buy in internet at Euro 59,00 + shipment http://merkle-tuning.de/baseportal/the_sit.../P_detail&ID=11

Best, Igor

[10mmdave]

Here's another cylinder release for your review....

Can be purchased here ... http://www.pinnacle-guns.com/parts.php

For me, I never got used to the extended releases, what I did was recontour the

orig latch and re-do the checkering to just sharp enough to almost draw blood

[Jerry V]

Hey nice revolver

Being that my only IPSC gun is a 610, Imay be able to help you some.

For bullets: Berry's plated 180gr RN, these have been working great and the price is also great. Just order directly from the factory, shipping is included in the price.

As far as a cylinder latch: I really like the new one from SDM (the angled one), the checkering is deep & sharp and really grabs your thumb. I use a weak hand reload also and found (for me) the Ed Brown sets too far back and the factory one is too slick.

For moonclips, I've used RIMZ, the 610 version are made of a denser/stiffer material than the ones for the 25/625. I've had quite a few stepped on and I've only had to throw away two and they are inexpensive: 5 @ $6 through Brownells. I recently got some clips from Hearthco which I'll try out when my shoulder heals, but they have a good fit and should work out well.

You'll like the 610, it's a great revolver, up until my last match (2 1/2 weeks ago) I was going to get a 625. Now I'm going to stick with the 610 and I'm looking for a second one, perferably a 5" fluted, but would get another 4". With practice, my reloads have smoothed out and though the 625 maybe faster to reload, probably not enough to make a difference. Just practice your ass off and you'll be fine with it. But make sure you get RN bullets and chamber the charge holes, this is very important with the 610.

Good luck and have fun

Jerry

[mcb]

Thanks guys for all the great suggestions. I ordered some moonclips from Ranch Products this morning. They are a fellow Ohio company so I thought I would give them my business per the recommendations here. I also order a set of shoot the moon clip holder from Dillon (I also needed some reloading stuff too).

At present I am using Berry's 180 RS in my XD-40. Hopefully the moonclip will get here by this weekend and I can give'em a try in my 610.

Have any of you tried the Twin Moon Clip holders that TK Custom carries? They look pretty cool but was not sure how well they would work.

Thanks a bunch

mcb

[Round_Gun_Shooter]

Have any of you tried the Twin Moon Clip holders that TK Custom carries?  They look pretty cool but was not sure how well they would work.

Thanks a bunch

mcb

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I use the double for my 625 but found that with the 610, the rounds tended to strip out of the clip leaving my reloads to 5 rounds at times. I gave them away and wrote to Tom about them. The shoot the moon holders seem to work the best for me.

Regards,

Gary

[Carmoney]

The twin moonclip holders TK sells are made by Blade-Tech.

They work just fine, but you do need to tune them a bit so they have the correct release tension. Takes only a couple minutes with a hairdryer. I have several of these for my 646.

[mcb]

Moderately Dumb question to ensue.

Is it OK to shoot 10mm Auto in the 610 without moonclips? I know you need the moonclips to shoot the 40S&W in it since there is nothing for it to headspace against. My intuition is that it is safe to shoot the 610 using 10mm Auto without moonclips but I figured it would not hurt to ask to make sure.

I realize that I will have manually pick out the empty cases since the ejector won't work without the moonclips but having this 610 in the gun cabinet having not gotten to shoot it yet is killing me. I have some free time this evening and I figured I could at least put a box of 10mm thru it while I wait for my Moonclips to arrive from Ranch.

A quick reply would be good since I will be leaving for the range in about 3 hours.

Thanks a bunch

mcb

[Jerry V]

Yes, you can shoot 10mm without clips, the only problem might extracting them. But you'll at least be able to shoot 6

Take a short dowel with you, so you can knock the empties out.

Have fun

Edited October 14, 2005 by Jerry V

[mcb]

Thanks Jerry V,

I was pretty sure it would be OK but its always good to double check.

Thanks for the quick reply.

mcb

[mcb]

Well it turned out I didn't have to worry about the moonclips. My Dillon order was there when I got home and there was 10 moonclips in the order along with two 'shoot the moon' moonclip holders.

As for the 610 all I can say is WOW. The trigger is really smooth and the gun just seemed to shoot were I pointed it. Even with 10mm Hydro-Shoks the recoil was very controllable. With my 40S&W reloads that I have been using in my XD-40 Tactical for L-10 the gun shoot very smooth and still had good accuracy. The two targets below are shot with my 180 grain Berry's TC bullets loaded over 4.5 grains of Titegroup, Federal Match Primers.

The first target was shot at twenty-five feet, slow fire, double action

The second target was shot at fifty feet, slow fire, double action.

In all I put about 150 rounds of 40S&W and about 60 rounda of 10mm through it. It ran flawlessly and seemed to shoot all the various ammo I feed it very well. To say the lest I am very please with my new gun. Know I have to start working on those reloads, moonclips are not quite as easy as my XD magazines, not yet at least.

Thanks again for all the help. I am really looking forward to shoot some competitions with it.

mcb

[Bill Nesbitt]

Come to Rayners tomorrow and I'll shoot revolver with you.

[Steve Moneypenny]

and here i was looking forward to shooting against bill in production LoL

[rwmagnus]

mcb

Lots of good advise here. Give the RIMZ moonclip a try order a 5 pack or call for some samples to see how you like them. Their 610 clip is one of the best in their lineup. No tools are are required to load and unload. Most all the retailers sell them. Just google RIMZ or log onto the companies website http://www.beckhamdesign.com/html/ccp51/cgi-bin/cp-app.cgi

Grips,sights and holsters are a personal thing. You may find adjusting your favorite load from your XD is necessary as the revolver will loose some velocity not being an enclosed chamber.

That's a great find in the longer barrell length. Looks to be plenty accurate as well.

Let us know how things work out for you.

[mcb]

Sorry guys I did not realize the picture link in my very first post were not working. I figured it out when I got my web site report that showed the file failures. I have fixed the links to the pictures.

Sorry about that

mcb