Switching to wheel guns this year

[boxermoose]

Just picked up a nifty Kimber K6 for pocket and cross draw carry. Sweet little wheelie

Those are nice looking guns. Which version did you get?

The base model and added the Hogue G10 grips as they provide 3/8” longer grip..pinky rest.

Once you get used to the trigger it is surprising accurate, and a read blast to shoot.

357 wasnt to bad to shoot but 38+p is a pussycat

[The Annoyed Man]

Just picked up a nifty Kimber K6 for pocket and cross draw carry. Sweet little wheelie

Those are nice looking guns. Which version did you get?

The base model and added the Hogue G10 grips as they provide 3/8” longer grip..pinky rest.

Once you get used to the trigger it is surprising accurate, and a read blast to shoot.

357 wasnt to bad to shoot but 38+p is a pussycat

I read on their website that it has a “no stack” trigger. I take that to mean that it doesn’t stack up before the break? That reminds me of our old Kahr pistols.

[boxermoose]

Just picked up a nifty Kimber K6 for pocket and cross draw carry. Sweet little wheelie

Those are nice looking guns. Which version did you get?

The base model and added the Hogue G10 grips as they provide 3/8” longer grip..pinky rest.

Once you get used to the trigger it is surprising accurate, and a read blast to shoot.

357 wasnt to bad to shoot but 38+p is a pussycat

I read on their website that it has a “no stack” trigger. I take that to mean that it doesn’t stack up before the break? That reminds me of our old Kahr pistols.

Trigger is very linear, of course as it’s DAO it’s not light but is predictable

[74novaman]

I was the only revolver shooter today.

Finished 14th out of 16 shooters, so I beat a couple of bottom feeders.

Even finished 5th overall on one stage, but taking 10+ seconds to clear a case that slipped under the star on another stage will eat up some time, as will a few hits to hard cover instead of the target.

I finished stronger than I started though (my 5th overall stage run was the last stage of the day for me), so I'm happy with improvements throughout, and I got better each stage. First match in a few months, first match ever with a revolver. It'll be a good benchmark to compare to in a year and see what I've improved on.

I'll edit/upload video tomorrow.

[74novaman]

Funny story from the match: I had a nice, ~13ish second reload on the first stage of the match yesterday. It was on my SECOND reshoot of that stage. First time through, the swinging no shoot target fell off. Second time, the activator steel popper for the swinger took a solid hit and failed to fall, so we stopped and had to reset. Every case extracted perfectly on both of those runs. But on the third run, when the stage equipment was all finally working right, one case got stuck under the star. And of course, I cut my fingernails yesterday. So I've got next to no nail to get under the damn rim and I'm sitting there for 10 or more seconds trying to first get the case out of the cylinder, then get it past the star before I can reload.

It couldn't have happened on either of the runs that didn't count, naturally. This is the kind of luck I tend to have.

Video time, so we can all analyze my failures together.



Some things I noticed:

1) On the very first cylinder through the gun, I short stroked the trigger and rotated the cylinder without moving the hammer. Trying to "ride the reset" on a revolver is a really bad idea. Thankfully, it's the only time I did that all day.
2) You need more "space" to reload revolvers than semis. On stage 5, I bonked the barrel wall when moving the gun from muzzle up to eject cases to muzzle down to reload it. This is not something I've had to worry about before shooting semis. It also showed up again on stage 6 when I got too close to a wall and had to bring the gun into my chest to get around it. I need to give myself more distance around barriers, mostly for reloads but also just to eliminate unnecessary movement when transitioning around them like on stage 6.
3) There were a couple of times I missed the ejector rod with my index finger during the reload and had to try again. Since I'd like to stick with the weak hand reload for now, I think I'm going to practice hitting the rod with two fingers on my weak hand instead of just one to give me a little more room for error. Inexperienced revolver shooter problems.
4) Round counts, round counts, round counts. How hard is it to count to 6? Pretty hard, apparently. Multiple times I pulled the trigger a 7th time for a click instead of a bang, wasting time. I need to continue working on my stage planning and my awareness of what I've already shot so I'm not surprised as often by an empty gun.
5) on a camera note, I like the new GoPro but I need to angle it down a bit more so I can hopefully get my reloads on film in the future as well. They're a big part of the revolver shooting game and if I can't see them I don't know what I need to improve on with them.

To give myself a few kudos as well so this isn't just a self stomp fest: Despite two reshoots and a 13 second reload when a case got stuck under the star on stage 1, I actually improved steadily throughout the rest of the match. Usually I shoot on a bit of a bell curve, with my first stage being slightly suboptimum, 2-3 or 4 being decent, and 5-6 and beyond going down hill as I become mentally fatigued. I've been working not just on dry fires and reloads but my mental game as well, and I think it is starting to show. My best stage of the day was the very last stage I shot. That's new, and I like it.

I'm also throwing up a quick comparison video of my first cylinder on stage 1 and my first cylinder on stage 6. I think there's a noticeable difference in my confidence with the DA trigger in matches in just a few stages. First cylinder had a lot of hesitation and trigger staging that was gone by the end of the match. Hoping to see that improvement continue.

[The Annoyed Man]

74novaman, a trio of questions since it was difficult to see what you were doing during reloads....

1. I assume you were using speedloaders and not moon clips?

2. When you dump the spent brass, are you shucking it onto the ground, or into a pouch of some kind?

3. If you’re shucking that brass onto the ground, are you permitted to walk back through the course of fire and retrieve your brass, or is brass just “a cost of doing business”?

[74novaman]

Yeah, new camera to blame here. I need to adjust the angle and see if I can get the reloads in the picture too.

I was using Safariland Comp3 speedloaders. They're great loaders, like them a lot.

I'll be using moon clips in USPSA with the 627, but it's easier to shoot IDPA with a 6 shot since you're limited to 6 rounds in the gun no matter how many it holds, so I bought that used Model 10 specifically for IDPA. Those lovely low profile gutter and post sights make the long shots extra fun.

I'm dropping both the cases and the speedloaders on the ground. Whether or not you can collect brass depends on the match/range you shoot at, and people are going to get grumpy if you're busy exclusively being a brass squirrel instead of helping score/tape/reset during the match, but as long as you're helping out the squad in between shooters most places don't seem to care if you collect brass.

ETA: Moon clips are a bit of a different deal. You can bet I'm collecting every single moon clip on every single stage. Stupid things are too expensive to just abandon.

[74novaman]

Trying out some VZ grips on the 627. I've always liked them on my 1911s and CZs. Like them so far on the wheel gun too.



This is the steel match I'm shooting on Saturday.



I forgot there are 9 shot arrays sometimes. That should be fun with an 8 shot wheel gun.

[74novaman]

Shot a falling steel match this weekend with the 627. It was below freezing and raining, so not a lot of folks came out. We had 18 shooters. I finished 13th, and was the only revolver shooter.

First match with this gun. Like my first match with the M10 from earlier, everything got smoother on later stages than it was on early stages. Less misses, less clicks on an empty cylinder, etc.

Match was 3 stages, with each stage being run twice. The first time, you have a 30 second par time. Every piece of steel left up at the end of 30 seconds adds 2 seconds to your time. Then you repeat all 3 stages with no par time, but every piece of steel left up at the end adds 5 seconds to your time.

There were also several 9 shot arrays at this match, which is fun with an 8 shot wheel gun. That forced some different stage planning. For the 30 second par time stages, there were several times it was beneficial to shoot 8, reload while moving to the next position, and keep shooting rather than waste time on a static reload to clear one more target that was only adding two seconds. However, since standing steel added 5 seconds in the no par time stages, that wasn't worth it and forced some reloads at awkward times and positions. That's really obvious on the 2nd and 5th stages (blue targets had to be engaged in blue box, yellow in yellow, both 9 shot arrays). The par time run, I shot 8 in each box, reloaded on the move and left targets standing once one cylinder was done. It forced weird reloads in the no par time stage though, because shooting 8 and moving would have added 10 seconds minimum to my stage time for those two standing targets (and that's being optimistic about shooting the other 8
clean).

I still had a few times where I couldn't count to 8, but they were more often at the beginning of the match than the end, which I'll take as a positive. One interesting thing to note was that I missed my count several times on the moving targets, even at the end. Humans are poor multitaskers, and when I was concentrating on the moving targets, I lost track of rounds fired.

Moonclips are easier than speed loaders, but my reloads still need some work.

Honestly, I was under prepared for this match. I had been doing some dryfire/reload work at home, but I haven't been to the range since I shot an IDPA match two weeks ago. I've got lots of excuses (7 month old at home so limited free time, and what free time I do have I'm mostly using to run because I'm signed up for a half marathon in April and my fat ass isn't in shape for it, etc), but the lack of range time is evident in the video. Nothing is as smooth as it should be, because I haven't invested the practice time.

I'm making some plans/arrangements to free up a little more time to at least get to the range once a week in addition to upping my dry fire time. It's not ideal, but unfortunately getting better at shooting isn't my only responsibility right now. Still happy to have this as a benchmark to compare match video from late this year/early next year to and see what progress I've made.