Confession time.
There was one more reason I decided to shoot wheel guns this year besides those listed in the original post. Because I can't make good hits with my J frame.
It's been that way since I inherited it from my grandfather. In the past I always chalked it up to a heavy trigger, crappy sights, and not being an experienced wheel gun shooter. So I preferred carrying something else (even my LCP) to a J frame I knew I couldn't shoot well.
Fast forward a few years, and I decide it's time to master how to shoot it. And since I'm struggling with trigger control/follow through in competitions anyway, the idea of shooting wheel guns for a year was born.
After a couple months of shooting the 627, Model 10, 586, 66....I went back to working a bit on shooting the J frame back in March. You'll notice I haven't put up any video of me doing that yet, and haven't talked much about my J frame experience.
It's because I still wasn't making good hits with it.
Back in December, I started this whole year off by sending the J frame off to a local smith I know to improve the trigger, and he did. So when I started shooting it again in March, I did so KNOWING that I am more than capable of making good hits with a revolver DA trigger, based on my experiences with my 627 and Model 10. Years ago before I had taken any classes, before I shot any competitions, before I even thought about things like dry fire practice, it was easy to attribute my inability to make hits with this gun to just being a bad shooter. But that excuse doesn't fly any more. So what gives? I thought maybe I was just a recoil wimp, and ordered some wadcutters.
And I still wasn't hitting worth a damn with the J frame, even with easy to shoot wadcutters.
So I've spent the last couple of months starting range sessions (admittedly, there have been far too few of them) by shooting the J frame with a different type of ammo every trip. 158 gr LRN, 130 gr JHP, 148 gr wadcutters. Every range trip, I have gotten the same results, no matter the load.
Just to verify, this past weekend I went to the range with my J frame and a bunch of different ammo and experimented. Holding the front post flush against the left side of the rear notch, and aiming at the intersection of the C/D zones on the left shoulder of the target, I was finally able to get consistent center A zone hits with my J frame with every single type of ammo.
I now suspect my 637 came out of the factory with a misaligned front sight/barrel. I've contacted S&W and will be sending the gun back.
In the meantime, given that I've had very good luck with my new production 66 and 627....I decided to be dumb, throw good money after bad, and order another J frame.
So this Performance Center 642 will be replacing the 637 for now. Hopefully it shoots POA/POI and I can shoot some steel challenge with it this summer.
It is both a relief to discover I wasn't (all of) the problem, and disturbing to know there were times I was foolish enough to carry and trust my life to a gun that did not hit even remotely POA/POI...and I wasn't a good enough shooter to know that the gun was at fault, not me.
I wonder how many more people are out there still doing the same thing my idiotic self did.