After the match report

This past 4th of July weekend, I shot my first IDPA match with my new S&W 625, which was a very education experience.  On the very first stage I shot, I completely forgot I was shooting a revolver, so my first six shots sounded like “bangbang-bangbang-bangbang-click-@*&#!”, which the RO found pretty humorous.  I ended up not finishing too poorly, ending up second out of the wheelgun shooters.

Pros:

1. Reloads were generally pretty good actually – the time I’d spent slinging moonclips at the cylinder paid off for the most part.  The worst reload I had was when a moonclip bound up on the grip.
2. Target transitions weren’t too bad either.  The 625 weighs approximately 1 million pounds, but the nice thing about that all that weight is that it swings pretty fast once you get it going.

Cons:

1. My trigger control was pretty rough.  There were more than a couple shots where I could tell that I didn’t have an even press through the trigger and that resulted in bullets not going where I wanted them to go.
2. Sights.  It was slightly overcast on Saturday (and actually started raining), and the “black on black” sight picture was actually pretty hard to pick up.  I need to either a) buy a punch from Brownells, or b) just take the rig to a gunsmith and have them put that new HiViz sight on the gun.

The biggest thing that I need to do is practice with the gun.  Certain actions that are “automatic” with a 1911 haven’t yet reached that point with a revolver, including reloads.  That stuff is just a matter of time and practice though, because since August of last year I’ve fired over 50,000 rounds through semi-automatic pistols and done countless reload and presentation drills.  The advantage of the wheelgun over the semi-auto in the “practice” arena is that I can simulate everything about a course of fire except for recoil all the comfort of my own home.  I see lots of dry firing in my future.