New to USPSA revolver—tips and resources for a newcomer?

[Cuz]

On 7/22/2020 at 1:55 PM, ysrracer said:

How often do you guys change your moon clips? I use mine once or twice and them toss them out...

 

...April fools

 

Damn, for a second, I thought I was on to a cheap source...

Reading this thread has me thinking it's time to break out the revolver and start playing with it.  I had gotten an Alchin mount to put a dot on it but haven't gotten around to it yet..

[GMM50]

Stack your moon clips like poker chips.  The flat ones will have NO light between them.  The bent ones will show light shining through.

When you see light you won't know if the bent one is above or below the light.

Move to flat surface and see how bent the clip is. 

You can try to straighten or just set aside.

 

Good Luck.

[Lesliet]

Great thread for newbie info!  I'm in a similar boat as the OP, putting together a revo to go fast with, and it's growing on me.  Thinking I may switch over and do revo as my main thing. Currently shooting a 1990's vintage 625-4, which has its limits ( parts are not very available, 6 round capacity) but it should be reasonably competitive for ICORE limited-6. I will likely try a USPSA match with it, one regains a bit from the lower capacity with major scoring, and I'm still fairly new to USPSA, so it will be a while before I'm fighting for tenths of a second at the top *grin*  .  

    Already thinking about that next gun... either a 929 or a 627. 

 

  Anyone know of a good parts source for older S&W guns? ( firing pin on hammer nose vintage)  I'd love to find a bobbed hammer for this thing, can't bring myself to mill the original. I guess most of the springs are interchangeable with the newer 625's?  

[alecmc]

15 minutes ago, Lesliet said:

Great thread for newbie info!  I'm in a similar boat as the OP, putting together a revo to go fast with, and it's growing on me.  Thinking I may switch over and do revo as my main thing. Currently shooting a 1990's vintage 625-4, which has its limits ( parts are not very available, 6 round capacity) but it should be reasonably competitive for ICORE limited-6. I will likely try a USPSA match with it, one regains a bit from the lower capacity with major scoring, and I'm still fairly new to USPSA, so it will be a while before I'm fighting for tenths of a second at the top *grin*  .  

    Already thinking about that next gun... either a 929 or a 627. 

 

  Anyone know of a good parts source for older S&W guns? ( firing pin on hammer nose vintage)  I'd love to find a bobbed hammer for this thing, can't bring myself to mill the original. I guess most of the springs are interchangeable with the newer 625's?  

 

[Lesliet]

[Bosshoss]

Springs interchange. 

Apex and TK custom make bobbed aftermarket hammers. 

Power Custom makes some parts like a replacement firing pin for hammers with pin on nose. 

[Lesliet]

I looked at the Apex ones, but I thought those only fit the newer style. ( no firing pin on the hammer) I'll check out TK, thanks for the tip!

[Mcfoto]

You’re first instinct is correct. Buy a 627 or 929 for competition. Save the fire pin hammer gat for your guilty pleasure on solo range days.

[pskys2]

14 hours ago, Lesliet said:

I looked at the Apex ones, but I thought those only fit the newer style. ( no firing pin on the hammer) I'll check out TK, thanks for the tip!

I had an apex reduced hammer on my 625 for several years, when I went to my 627's I left the spur on.  

Then I got a 325 TR for EDC and swapped the hammer from the 625 into it, makes sense for an EDC, and put a original hammer w/spur back in the 625. 

FWIW I've found very little difference in the spur vs no spur Revo's.  My 627's & my 625 are both at 5.5 to 6 lbs with no light strikes.  I had Apex do the original action job on the 625 in 2006 and it was at 4.5 lbs, or a bit less, and I just never liked it.  Then after a season it started getting light strikes.  Upped it myself to 5.5 lbs and have been very happy.

So unless you are trying to get under 5.5 lbs I'd leave the spur on until you know you need it.

The one caveat is if the spur hits the web of your hand.  I don't have beefy hands and with short fingers I am not comfortable with my web over the hump.  So the hammer spur rarely hits me.  Some have a real problem with it though.

[Lesliet]

My reasoning on the hammer spur has more to do with reloads, than anything else. First off, I'm a leftie, so my reloads are going to probably be different than most people's. I'm coming over the top with my right hand, hitting the cylinder release, right index pushes the cylinder out and locks it open, right middle hits the ejector while left is bringing up the fresh moon. The issue ( and I may be able to just keep working around it) is just that the hammer spur is kind of in the way of where I'd like to be gripping with the right, and I'm currently having to tape the thumb on the right hand where it hits the hammer spur. It is also possible that not having the spur would give me LESS control, and be a bad thing. I do grip really high. 

   The action on mine is reasonable to me, without having put the trigger scale on it.  Not too hard to keep the sights aligned in DA, but still sets off everything including CCI magnum primers. Probably means I could go lighter, but I hate to give up reliability, when Federal primers are in short supply. 

   Thinking I'll save up that war chest until I can afford a 627 to play with, and then I won't feel too deprived while it gets sent off to the gunsmith for action work, since I can still use this one. 

[Fishbreath]

I've kept the hammer spur myself, in part because, on a Ruger, I have another way to fix light strikes (filing at the hammer lip), and in part because it's comforting to know I have the option of a single-action pull if I ever want one. (There are places where it might have been faster than blasting away DA, but I don't want to get into a bad habit there.)

If I could get a second hammer to play with, I might try it on that one, but they're marked as 'requires factory fitting' in the Super GP100 manual, and I don't know if they'll sell me one on its own.

[PatJones]

I left the spur on my 627 for years. When I got the Dillon 550 I started to get intermittent light strikes unless I seated my primers with a hand tool. After a couple years that got old, so last year I fit an apex hammer. Now to be fair, I've started to be really picky about getting the shell plate on the 550 as tight as possible, but I do think the lighter hammer is good for a little added insurance.

--
Pat Jones
Firestone CO
USPSA #A79592

[Makicjf]

22 hours ago, pskys2 said:

I had an apex reduced hammer on my 625 for several years, when I went to my 627's I left the spur on.  

Then I got a 325 TR for EDC and swapped the hammer from the 625 into it, makes sense for an EDC, and put a original hammer w/spur back in the 625. 

FWIW I've found very little difference in the spur vs no spur Revo's.  My 627's & my 625 are both at 5.5 to 6 lbs with no light strikes.  I had Apex do the original action job on the 625 in 2006 and it was at 4.5 lbs, or a bit less, and I just never liked it.  Then after a season it started getting light strikes.  Upped it myself to 5.5 lbs and have been very happy.

So unless you are trying to get under 5.5 lbs I'd leave the spur on until you know you need it.

The one caveat is if the spur hits the web of your hand.  I don't have beefy hands and with short fingers I am not comfortable with my web over the hump.  So the hammer spur rarely hits me.  Some have a real problem with it though.

I've got to dehorn all of mine, or the hammer pokes the meat of my hands as it strokes back. Its disconcerting, irritating and disrupts the sight picture just as the hammer breaks!   

Jason

[pskys2]

8 hours ago, Makicjf said:

I've got to dehorn all of mine, or the hammer pokes the meat of my hands as it strokes back. Its disconcerting, irritating and disrupts the sight picture just as the hammer breaks!   

Jason

Yes IMHO that is the biggest value of losing the spur.

[Fishbreath]

Here's one for the peanut gallery: I just ordered some .38 Short Colt brass from Starline, after a brief and unsuccessful experiment with trimmed .38 Special, and am planning out what kind of load I want to do up for it. Up until now, I've been using 158gr bullets with reasonable success—SNS casting's coated round nose, and Xtreme and Berry's plated. The Berry's ones have the best shape I've come across so far, and I have about a thousand on hand.

Is 158gr out of .38 Short Colt a reasonable load for the long term, or would it be easier to step down to 147gr once I've gotten through my existing stock and use more 9mm-esque loadings?

[MikeBurgess]

5 minutes ago, Fishbreath said:

Here's one for the peanut gallery: I just ordered some .38 Short Colt brass from Starline, after a brief and unsuccessful experiment with trimmed .38 Special, and am planning out what kind of load I want to do up for it. Up until now, I've been using 158gr bullets with reasonable success—SNS casting's coated round nose, and Xtreme and Berry's plated. The Berry's ones have the best shape I've come across so far, and I have about a thousand on hand.

Is 158gr out of .38 Short Colt a reasonable load for the long term, or would it be easier to step down to 147gr once I've gotten through my existing stock and use more 9mm-esque loadings?

nothing wrong with 158GR bullet weight in Short Colts Plenty of us run 160 -170gr bullets, the big thing is most 158 grain bullets have a crappy profile for reloads, it looks like the Berrys is a good shape but is expensive compared to coated bullets. 

I have had good success with .358dia coated bullets in my 627s and Super GP100 lately I have been using Ibejiheads 165gr and 130gr but have also used Blue bullets 147s and Eggleston 147s

 

[RangerMcFadden]

1 hour ago, Fishbreath said:

Here's one for the peanut gallery: I just ordered some .38 Short Colt brass from Starline, after a brief and unsuccessful experiment with trimmed .38 Special, and am planning out what kind of load I want to do up for it. Up until now, I've been using 158gr bullets with reasonable success—SNS casting's coated round nose, and Xtreme and Berry's plated. The Berry's ones have the best shape I've come across so far, and I have about a thousand on hand.

Is 158gr out of .38 Short Colt a reasonable load for the long term, or would it be easier to step down to 147gr once I've gotten through my existing stock and use more 9mm-esque loadings?

I would also like to +1 what Mike said. 160s work all the time so 158s will too. But 158s have crummy profiles (re: lots are flat points).

[GMM50]

1 hour ago, Fishbreath said:

Here's one for the peanut gallery: I just ordered some .38 Short Colt brass from Starline, after a brief and unsuccessful experiment with trimmed .38 Special, and am planning out what kind of load I want to do up for it. Up until now, I've been using 158gr bullets with reasonable success—SNS casting's coated round nose, and Xtreme and Berry's plated. The Berry's ones have the best shape I've come across so far, and I have about a thousand on hand.

Is 158gr out of .38 Short Colt a reasonable load for the long term, or would it be easier to step down to 147gr once I've gotten through my existing stock and use more 9mm-esque loadings?

I've tried 155g, 145g and 160g RN NoLubeGroove in 38 Short Colt Brass.  160g have no recoil.  Settled on 145g cause I get some feedback that the shots been fired.  Bang and Clang has these bullets in stock.

[Fishbreath]

I kind of like Eggleston's choose-your-own-adventure colors, in that around-145gr space, but I had a hard time getting my press to seat my SNS Casting coated bullets without shaving.

For coated bullets without a crimp groove or plated without a cannelure, are you guys doing a taper crimp, or just a light roll? I have the .38 and 9mm Lee factory crimp dies, so I have options.

[RangerMcFadden]

32 minutes ago, Fishbreath said:

I kind of like Eggleston's choose-your-own-adventure colors, in that around-145gr space, but I had a hard time getting my press to seat my SNS Casting coated bullets without shaving.

For coated bullets without a crimp groove or plated without a cannelure, are you guys doing a taper crimp, or just a light roll? I have the .38 and 9mm Lee factory crimp dies, so I have options.

I have been having shaving issues but I’m buying one of those uniquetek .358 funnels later today to try and fix that issue. But even with shaving I’ve seen no performance drop off.
 

Taper crimp the 160 gr (with lube grove) on both 38 and 9mm. No issues with either. I ran an experiment and shot 5 357s with one of my tapered 38s in the 6th chamber. After shooting the COAL didn’t change. 
 

Some will roll crimp them to help with reload. I don’t think either is wrong. The gun will tell you want works best.

[Fishbreath]

I've been roll crimping so far, but that's because the Super GP100's chamber mouths are pretty tight. Once I have it chamfered over the winter, I might have more of an option.

I wonder if there's a Lee equivalent to that funnel, or maybe if my other die height changes have rendered the problem irrelevant. Maybe I'll order a batch of the Bayou 160gr and see—it sure would be nice not to have to pay for plated.

[mchapman]

1 hour ago, Fishbreath said:

I've been roll crimping so far, but that's because the Super GP100's chamber mouths are pretty tight. Once I have it chamfered over the winter, I might have more of an option.

I wonder if there's a Lee equivalent to that funnel, or maybe if my other die height changes have rendered the problem irrelevant. Maybe I'll order a batch of the Bayou 160gr and see—it sure would be nice not to have to pay for plated.

Good luck on ordering, Bayou, and Blue bullets have a 8 to 12 week lead time. Bang and Clang 145's are in stock now.

[pskys2]

I'm using the Bayou 160 coated, perfect profile, for USPSA.  Then I bought some 150 coated from Precision, perfect profile only come in Black though but the Bayous are green or cherry, and using the same powder load for ICORE.  The 150's are showing a slight advantage in accuracy.  But that could change.

Have settled on a Taper Crimp, did extensive testing with both Roll & Taper and couldn't see any consistent advantage for either.  So the Taper works with everything from Jacketed w/out cannelure, Plated & Coated w/out a cannelure.

[revoman]

4 hours ago, mchapman said:

Good luck on ordering, Bayou, and Blue bullets have a 8 to 12 week lead time. Bang and Clang 145's are in stock now.

Try 2 Alpha Bullets out of Burlington IA. I shoot both the Bayou and 2 Alpha 160 grain profile is the same. Let John know what size you want and tell him Dean Gomez sent you. You won’t get a better price for mentioning my name but he might charge you more

[Lesliet]

On the shaving lead issue, I finally got that sorted out on my press. Using the Redding neck sizer/beller and their competition bullet seater, I am able to get all the coated bullets and my own handcast ones to seat without any shaving. I was having all sorts of issues getting .45 acp to load right in anything but plated, including shaving the coating off, and bulging the cases so bad that they wouldn't fit the gauge. Between the nice profile in the case mouth that their expander makes, and the concentric seating from the seater, it's working great, now... almost no gauge fails, (maybe 1 in 750?) and they drop right into my 625 chamber. Speaking of which, I should probably go load for the match Saturday...