revolvers/USPSA

Major vs. Minor Scoring in USPSA Revolver Division

Posted on by Caleb

The promised post on Major/Minor scoring in the USPSA Revolver division is here!  I’ve talked in the past about how I think it would be cool if USPSA allowed revolvers shooting minor to have 7 or 8 rounds, making the 686+ and the 627 viable USPSA Competition options.  However, as that doesn’t look very likely for now, I did want to look at the possible advantages to  scoring minor in USPSA revolver division.

For those not familiar with the Major/Minor scoring, USPSA targets are divided in to 4 zones, each worth a certain number of points.  Guns scoring Major meet a power factor of 165 (bullet weight x velocity/1000) and guns scoring Minor are in between 125 and 165.  The four USPSA zones are A, B, C, and D, with the following point breakdowns.

  • A Zone: 5 points for Major and Minor
  • B & C: 4 points for Major, 3 points for Minor
  • D: 2 points for Major, 1 point for Minor

The reason the points are important is because USPSA score is calculated in what’s called a hit factor, which is really just points per second.  So for example, if you have a stage worth 120 points, and you shoot 118 points in 12 seconds, your hit factor would be  9.833.  The person with the highest hit factor “wins” the stage and thus wins all the stage points for that stage.  So if you have the highest hit factor on a stage worth 120 points, you are awarded 120 Stage Points.  Stage points are allocated to other shooters based on what percentage their hit factor is of yours.  Clear as mud, right?

Now, we get on to the Major/Minor scoring factor in revolver division.  Basically everyone in revo division shoots a 625, with a couple of outliers running 610s.  You will even occasionally see a 686 in .38 Super loaded up to Major, but those are rare.  What you very rarely see are guys running .38 Specials loaded to make minor power factor.  Now as a general rule, I don’t believe in trying to reinvent the wheel when it comes to established wisdom, but I’ve found that when shooting a 686 that makes Minor, my splits are faster and I have fewer points down (in IDPA) than I do when shooting my 625 in .45 ACP that makes Major.  Of course, that in and of itself isn’t a reason to switch over; and in fact if you can handle the recoil of the .45 ACP (or .40) in a revolver, then you should in fact probably shoot major and go for the extra points.

But shooting minor isn’t that bad.  Unlike Limited or Open Division, where it simply doesn’t make sense to shoot Minor, everyone in revo is going comparatively slow.  It’s extremely important to shoot good hits, because reloading for a make up shot is never going to be worth the time it takes to perform the reload.  With a Limited or Open gun, if your last shot on a stage is bad, you can fire 3 or 4 more without incurring too severe of a time penalty.  With a revolver, my last shot on a stage is quite often the last shot in my gun; I don’t have the luxury of reloading.

Which brings us to the concept of shooting minor.  Assuming all other factors such as draw and reload times are equal, could shooting with a revolver actually be an advantage?  You have to shoot your “A zone” hits as fast as the major PF guys, and your C hits must be done in 3/4ths the time of a shooter making major to not get behind on the curve.  Because revolver is so focused on shooting good points, this could be one division where you might see a “minor revolution”.

IDPA

IDPA Nationals

Posted on by Caleb

IDPA Nationals start today. A couple of days worth of shooting and we’ll have crowned new champions in IDPA’s 5 divisions. As always I’m most interested in the winners of IDPA’s 2 revolver divisions, Stock Service Revolver and Enhanced Service Revolver. Because of the shorter courses of fire and revolver neutral rules, IDPA is one of the largest wheelgun matches out there, and it should be fun to see!

revolvers

Dammit NCIS: LA

Posted on by Caleb

Last night at an entirely too late hour I was watching the season premiere of NCIS: Los Angeles (now with 50% more running LL Cool J) which you can watch at CBS’s website.  It’s called Human Traffic, and as episodes of the lesser NCIS go, it wasn’t too bad.  Except for one scene.  One part made me facepalm myself clean out of my chair.  If you watched it, and you’re a fan of this blog you can probably guess which scene.

Linda Hunt, who plays the local boss (and who I will always cherish for her magnificent performance in Silverado as Stella) is on the NCIS firing range practicing with what appears to be her carry gun.  It’s either a small frame revolver, and while I didn’t get too good a look at it, it appears to be a fairly generic J-frame.  Guess what she does for every shot – that’s right, she ears back the hammer and fires the gun in single action mode.  I was borderline shouting at my monitor “YOU PAID EXTRA FOR DOUBLE ACTION“.  Seriously, how many times have I talked about that on Gun Nuts?  It’s a serious pet peeve of mine, especially in compact, defensive revolvers.  Then, at the end of the scene, what does she do after reloading her gun?  She flicks her wrist to snap the cylinder closed…which is really hard on the crane of the revolver and done enough times will break your gun.

Now, interestingly enough though that particular clip demonstrates two of my favorite points.  Number 1 being obviously that you should shoot your DA carry revolvers in DA mode; but the second one is my other big revolver pet peeve.  That of course is that small frame, compact revolvers are terrible guns for women shooters.  Let’s take Linda Hunt as an example.  According to Wikipedia, she’s 4’9, is 65 years old, and I am willing to venture possesses less than 1/3 of my upper body strength.  I have a S&W Model 60 that I carry and has been tuned up a bit; even on that gun the double action trigger pull is over 10 lbs.  It is not an insignificant amount of weight, and extended dry-fire sessions will rapidly induce forearm fatigue.  In the hands of someone with reduced upper body and arm strength, that trigger becomes a tremendous chore to manage for even the five shots in the gun.  Every time I see someone recommend a snub-nosed revolver for a first gun for any shooter, but especially a female shooter it makes my head spin right off my shoulders.  And I say this as a devoted revolver shooter.

That does wrap up my rant, but seriously – shoot your defensive revolvers double action, and stop recommending snubbies for first carry guns.  It’s just good sense.

revolvers/Smith & Wesson

Smith & Wesson 686 SSR

Posted on by Caleb

One of my Facebook friends recently picked up a Smith & Wesson 686SSR, which is part of S&W’s Pro Series line of revolvers.  I am a huge fan of this revolver, and I’ve actually been spending a bit of time with mine in preparation for the Stock Service Revolver part of the Quest for Master Class.  In its factory configuration, the 686 SSR is pretty good, but a little bit of attention from a gunsmith and some new parts make it great.  That’s my personal 686 SSR at the right; since the first time I took a picture of it in a similar pose, it has undergone some upgrades.

First thing that went was the single action notch off the hammer.  I had to retain the hammer spur itself, because I intend to shoot this in Bianchi Cup Production Division, so the modification was purely internal.  This gun is now how DA revolvers were intended to be…double action only.

An action job on a revolver is more than just lightening the trigger though.  The 686 SSR has the advantage of having a forged trigger and hammer, which (apparently) are better to work on than MIM parts.  Also, the action job polishes up the bearing surfaces and cleans up any odd kinks – for example, the hand would drag just a little bit on the star of my gun creating an odd hitch in the trigger.  That’s gone now.

Obviously as I mentioned yesterday, I changed the sights.  Gone is the orange ramped front sight and the narrow notched rear, in their place I have an SDM gold bead and a Cylinder and Slide Extreme Duty rear sight.  The C&S rear is pretty awesome; it’s a fast competition or combat sight.  The only downside (as I discovered last night) is that it’s regulated for 158 grain bullets, which means that my preferred load of a 125 grain bullet at 1050 or 1100 FPS means the gun shoots about 6 inches low at 20 yards.  That’s actually not as big a problem as you might think, because I know where the gun shoots at 5, 7, 10, 15, and 20 yards.  We’ll see how it plays out in competition though; if I end up really not liking it I’ll switch the rear to a Bowen Rough Country adjustable like I have on my 625.

For someone looking to get started in revolver shooting, this is a hard gun to beat.  It’s got enough goodies thrown in from the factory that you can shoot it stock and have a blast, or you can spend a couple of extra bucks and really have it tuned up.  For IDPA Stock Service Revolver, ICORE Retro, or even USPSA if you don’t mind scoring minor (which I have some thoughts on) you really wouldn’t be doing yourself a disservice by purchasing one of these.  Or two.  Or six.  Plus, the benefit of the L-frame is that with a good holster, you can even carry this gun, although it helps if you’re a bigger dude.  It’s a little large for my 5’6 frame, but not completely unmanageable.

self defense

Deep and wide

Posted on by Caleb

there’s a fountain flowing…what are you looking at, don’t tell me you didn’t sing that song in Sunday school.

But that’s not the subject of today’s post – no, today we’re talking about sights.  Specifically, handgun sights.  Some companies put decent sights on their semi-automatic pistols.  The factory sights on S&W M&Ps, the Springfield XDM, and the FNH FNP and FNX pistols are generally decent. Even Taurus has pistols from the factory that come with Heinie or Novak sights. However, even the guns with better than fair factory sights can stand to have their sights upgraded; and some guns practically require it. Glock, for everything they do right with a pistol, probably has the most insultingly bad factory sights on the market. The front sight is huge and wide, the rear notch is narrow and shallow, and what that leads to is a sight that’s difficult to acquire at high speed, and difficult to use for shots past 15 yards or so on tight targets.

I blame revolvers for this – the defensive revolver’s gutter sight really is quite embarrassing as an aiming apparatus, and yet was the law enforcement standard for decades. When the world switched over to semi-auto pistols, did anyone say “hey, let’s widen up that rear notch a bit and let some more light around that front post”. No, but they did put two distracting white dots on the rear post! Factory sights on revolvers haven’t really improved. Another guilty party of the too-fat front sight coupled with a too narrow rear sight is Smith & Wesson’s entire line of adjustable sighted revolvers. While they’re excellent for target shooting, the factory sights aren’t really that great for high-speed sight acquisition, which is why this guy replaces them with a Bowen rear sight. My IDPA gun also wears a Bowen rear, which is deeper and wider (hence the title) than the standard S&W notch. I’ve even discussed revolver rear sights in the past, but haven’t spent time on what makes a sight good or not, in my opinion.

The secret is light.  Light shining around the front post is what allows you to get that stark contrast between front sight and rear sight; which is then what allows you to see the front sight with proper relation to the target.  At the right, my 686 is wearing a Cylinder and Slide Extreme Duty rear sight and the front sight is an SDM Gold Bead.  This arrangement gives me good contrast on the front and rear sights, plus as you can see allows a good amount of light to fall around the front sight.

Quality aftermarket sights are one of the things I recommend everyone buy for their firearms.  I’m just not a fan of most factory pistol sights, because even the best factory sights such as the ones on the M&P line of pistols can be improved by switching them to Warren Tactical sights.  Your sights are what allow you to hit the target quickly in a defensive situation – perhaps one of the most critical components of a defensive firearm are the sights, so why would you settle for less?  Like Brian Enos said – “Yes it’s the Indian and not the arrow, but who wants a crappy bow?”

Uncategorized

Three tiers

Posted on by Caleb

In the post below this, Robb makes a good point:

However, don’t give up on someone who might not like the idea [of concealed carry] at first. Those are the people we should be targeting, not running away from because they find guns icky.

I agree, but I also feel like there are three different levels of “finding guns icky” and whatever level the person is at should determine your next step.  Back to our hypothetical situation, your date has accidentally discovered your carry gun, you’ve explained it, now it’s reaction time.  We’re not going to discuss positive reactions here, but rather only the levels of negative reaction.  If she says “Oh, what are you carrying, I have a 1911 in a CTAC” then you should just propose on the spot.  Just sayin’.

Anyway, on to the negative reactions.

  1. Mild shock and curiosity: this usually comes with more questions, such as “why are you carrying a gun, is that safe, are you trained, etc etc”.  While not the time to launch in to your prepared speech on the glory of the 2nd Amendment and the wisdom of our Founding Fathers, this type of negative reaction really isn’t that bad.  You can be an ambassador for the shooting sports in this situation and help break down whatever media-induced negative stereotype your date has of gun owners.  What you do, don’t go all “SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED”.
  2. Moderate shock and distaste: This manifests itself as “I don’t like guns very much” or “I never had guns”.  The person is likely fearful of firearms due to lack of experience, but doesn’t necessarily think you’re a whacko.  Tread cautiously.  A person like this will have a lot more mental barriers before they get to “curious”, and pushing the issue too hard will drive them in to the third and final tier, which is
  3. Outright revulsion and emotional reaction: “I hate guns, I can’t believe you’d carry a dangerous weapon around like that, what are you some kind of murder crazy psycho?”  This person likely cannot be reasoned with; and nothing you will say in that moment will change their mind.  All you can do is courteously and politely extricate yourself from the situation, and go about your business.

The guiding star when dealing with any of these three people is to be polite, respectful, and courteous.  Don’t preach, don’t sermonize, don’t lecture, and don’t refer to yourself as a “sheepdog”.  Now that I think about it, don’t use the word “sheeple” either.  Ever.  In any circumstances, but especially in this type of situation.  Be polite, be articulate, and if you’re not making any headway simply disengage.

self defense

Hug my holster

Posted on by Caleb

I started to write a post on how to deal with the “problem” of people hugging you and accidentally bumping your holster.

I realized after approximately 300 words that it was the stupidest thing I’ve ever written.  Here’s my new post on the subject: stop worrying about it.  If someone hugs you and bumps your rig and asks about it, just tell them “that’s my holster for my defensive firearm, I am licensed by the state to carry a firearm for personal protection”.  If they flip out, they weren’t dating material anyway.

Apparently, Monday is a “slow content” day.

self defense/shooting

Your toolbox is full of junk

Posted on by Caleb

From Pistol-Training.Com are thoughts on learning new techniques that may or may not actually have value.  The guiding star of any new technique or skill:

  • Does it work?
  • Is it necessary?
  • Can I do it under stress?

Three simple questions that you can apply with a critical eye for all the things that you may or may not be practicing.  For example, if you’re a private citizen and you spend a significant portion of your practice time on skills that you’ll likely never have to use in a gunfight (like Todd’s example of shooting over your shoulder in a car) then you’re probably just putting junk in your toolbox.  My favorite example of “junk in the toolbox” would be shooting your defensive DA revolver in single action mode.  It creates another step that your mind must cycle through in stress instead of it going straight to “smooth DA press”.

Uncategorized

Come get involved

Posted on by Caleb

This Saturday and Sunday, I’ll be at Wholesale Sports Outdoor Outfitters in Federal Way, WA talking to people about the upcoming election and getting folks involved in the fight to preserve our right to keep and bear arms.  Here’s the store’s address:

1405 S 348th St
Federal Way, WA 98003
Tel: (253) 835-4100
Fax: (253) 835-4101

I’ll have Don’t Tread of my Gun Rights yard signs, volunteer info, bumper stickers, and lots of information on how you can get involved in getting pro-gun politicians elected in Washington, so come by this weekend to say “hi” and get involved!