Tag: Revolvers

Side note

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Now what do you think this was all about?

More clues.

I had not shot .38 Spl in a while. I grabbed the big ole box of UMC and assumed that I was firing all factory ammo. When I looked at the spent rounds, though, the primers were different colors. I suspect that I had topped off one of the factory boxes with some hand loads.

I told you that snubbies are snappy, right? Evidently the recoil from one round was sufficient to unseat a (poorly) seated bullet enough that it partially launched forward. You can see the powder burn on the side of the bullet closest to the forcing cone’s blast. And those are just scrape marks on the side of the bullet, not rifling marks.

And apropos of nothing, did you know that Colt and S&W have opposite revolving cylinders? And that the cylinder latches release in the opposite direction?
And who cares? Well, if you want your hammer cocking to advance the cylinder to a particular bullet, you’ll need to know what direction it revolves. Try it at the range – you’ll see what I mean. The reason I knew I had a malfunction was that the cylinder would not rotate into position. For an obvious reason, once I looked.

Next, midrange calibers for semi-auto new(er) shooters.

Back in the saddle

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Ok, sekrit mission over (plus a couple of lazy days).

When last we visited our (no longer) Beginner and Boomsticks, we were looking at intermediate handgun calibers. Brief aside:

This is the old S&W Model 10 knockoff I’ve been shooting. Isn’t that a beautiful holster? It was a Christmas gift from my BIL some 50 years ago. BUT, before he could buy it (in the People’s Democratic Republic of New Yorkistan), he had to give them the serial number of the gun (at that time in Fort Campbell, Kentucky). RYFKM?

I think we left it on a remonstration that you should not have your sweetie get a snubbie in .38 Special, even though it would fit in her purse nicely. Let’s tale a look.

The lower is a Colt snake gun (Cobra? I’m feeling lazy), with a 2” barrel. The original tiny wooden grips have been replaced with Hougues. It shoots the same .38 Special round. But compared to the larger, heavier gun, it is way more snappy. And accuracy suffers.

Snubbie on the right. Even in my Trump-like beautiful hands, it is not particularly comfortable to shoot. And, it has a really small sight radius (distance from front to rear sight), making accuracy difficult. Why burden your sweetie with all the negatives just so it will fit in her purse? You want her to enjoy shooting so she will practice and get competent.

Rotating back to Revolvers

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By now, our aspiring Bangstick Beginner has expended numerous rounds through .22 rifles, pistols, and revolvers. They may have dabbled in shotguns (against previous advice). What is the next step?

Let’s get back to handguns. What is a good progression from .22 in a revolver? How about .38 Special? This is a S&W Model 10 Air Crew revolver knockoff by Taurus. It, too, was purchased just off Ft. Campbell grounds about a half century ago. It came in blued and chromed.

I replaced the original skinny wooden grips with Hogue grips ages ago. They give a much firmer and hand-rounded grip when firing. Nonetheless, this has always shot a bit left of target. I compensated automatically.

Warm-up shots. Let’s see if I can do better.

.38 Special is a mild recoiling round, and was a police standard for ages. A new shooter might want this as an intermediate step before going on in size. Such as .357 Magnum. Why the big leap? Well, .38s fire in .357 just fine. You can have an awesome defensive revolver in .357, but shoot .38s in it for practice. Note the difference in size. The .357 is an eighth of an inch larger and will not fully seat in a .38. Great safety factor.

Tomorrow we will discuss why you do not get your new shooter a .38 “snubbie”. No.

Bad juju!

So, I went to the range today

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Fully intending to shoot some .22 handguns. Of course, I left them on the inside garage steps, being distracted by putting all my range stuff back in the car following vacation – sorry, secret mission.

I’ll probably remember them tomorrow, but let’s take a look at the next step for beginners – the .22 revolver. Why, an obsolete firearm design that can only hold six rounds? Because it teaches Single Action, Double Action, Double Action Only, all concepts carried over to semi auto hand guns. It also forces slow fire, gun fundamentals, and sight alignment. It also teaches about changing grip – the gas escaping around the forcing cone will definitely hurt, so be aware.

Let’s take a look:

I bought this just south of Fort Campbell on 41 A at a local hardware/convenience store in 1975 for less than 20 bucks. It’s a German-made “RG”. RG had an abysmal reputation – some parts made of pot metal, etc. It was said that there were only two types of RGs – complete junk, or OK. I evidently got the latter. It is still reliable a half century later.

There are three hammer positions – quarter cock, safe like a 1911 cocked and locked; half cocked, for spinning the cylinder and loading; and full cock, for shooting (and where does the phrase, “Going off half-cocked” come from?).

Half-cocked, and loading gate open. I find that having new shooters have a limited amount of ammo makes them concentrate more on fundamentals. There is a time and place for semi autos, but not for a beginner.

“Safe”, so you can carry six rounds, without worrying about having the hammer riding on an empty cylinder.

Ready to go. And understanding that Single Action means manual cocking, and that the only action of the trigger is to release the hammer to fire the round.

Later, instruction on modern revolvers where Double Action means that the trigger first cocks the hammer, then releases it to fire. And then later instruction about SA/DA where you have the choice of either. Finally, Double Action Only, where the trigger pull is required to cock the hammer and release it in order to fire.

So what kind of trigger action is a 1911? Or a Glock?