revolvers/Smith & Wesson

Fixed rear sight for Smith & Wesson revolvers

Posted on by Caleb

Last night I installed the Bowen Rough Country adjustable sight on my Smith & Wesson 625.  The installation was a piece of cake – simple unscrew the tang screw in the factory sight, slide it out, slide the new sight in, tighten the two screws down and you’re done.  I need to take it to the range now and get it sighted in for 230 grain FMJ, but other than that it’s done.

The big difference between the Rough Country Sight and the standard S&W revolver rear sight is the windage adjustment, which on the Rough Country is performed by backing out one screw and then tightening the other – contrasted to the factory sight which is a single “click adjustment” screw.  Bowen recommends using blue LocTite on the screws once you’ve established point of impact/point of aim so that they don’t move around, which got me thinking about fixed rear sights.

The Smith & Wesson Night Guard revolvers use the Cylinder and Slide Extreme Duty fixed rear sight, which brings the revolver rear sight into the 21st Century.  No more shallow grooves carved into the top strap of your wheelgun, the Extreme Duty rear sight gives a revolver a sight picture inspired by the excellent sights on many 1911 style pistols.  I think this is a great thing personally, and plan on ordering one for my 686 to be paired with a HiViz fiber optic front.  I don’t view a fixed rear sight as a disadvantage – once I figure out what bullet weight it likes and where point of aim/point of impact is, I’m good to go.  I like knowing that I can drop my gun directly on the rear sight blade and it won’t affect the point of impact.

I’m testing a lot of theories – I bought and paid for the Bowen sights, and they are excellent.  Wider and deeper than the factory notch, the afford a great view of the HiViz front on my 625, and I’m very interested to see how the C&S Extreme Duty sights compare to the Bowen sights and the factory S&W notch.

Disclaimer: all products mentioned were purchased with my own money and were not provided for review purposes.

Uncategorized

Gun Nuts Radio is BACK!

Posted on by Caleb

That’s right – the number one shooting sports and firearms show on the BlogTalkRadio network returns tonight for its third year!  Gun Nuts Radio is back after a month long hiatus, and it’s better than ever.  In the third year you’re going to hear a new focus on the guns, gear, and people that really drive the shooting sports and firearms industry.  We’re going to be talking to everyone from local competitors, top trainers, and of course politicians.  On the first episode back, we’re pleased to welcome Todd Green of Pistol-Training.Com in a return visit to Gun Nuts Radio.  Todd will be joining the show at 9pm Eastern time to discuss the FAST Charity shoot and the HK45 that he’s currently shooting.  This is not a show that you want to miss!

Join us tonight at 9pm Eastern at www.blogtalkradio.com/gunnuts – we’re talking HKs, shooting for charity, and much, much more!

Smith & Wesson

The champion's guns

Posted on by Caleb

The guns of all-galaxy shooter Jerry Miculek.  My favorite out of those is (of course) his IDPA revolver, a 4 inch Smith & Wesson 625.

Picture from Bang-inc.com

Jerry’s IDPA revolver is wearing his signature grips, a green HiViz front sight, Bowen white outline rear sights, and of course has the hammer bobbed.  This is essentially what I want my 625 to look like when I get done with everything.  I’ve already got the fiber optic front sight, and I just installed the Bowen sights last night to give the gun a much better sight picture.  In fact, mine is basically done – I just haven’t had the hammer bobbed yet, which isn’t mission critical anyway.

One of things you can tell when you look at Jerry’s guns is how obviously experienced his guns – beware the man with only one gun, right?  Even though Jerry has to have multiple guns for multiple games, if you look at them closely all of Jerry’s guns are set up to essentially be the same as the others.

news/USPSA

USPSA Area 6 Championship Results

Posted on by Caleb

As mentioned below, the USPSA Area 6 Championship wrapped up this weekend.  The match had been referred to as a “mini-nationals” by a lot of the shooters, and the final standings also looked like what you’d expect at a Nationals.  See the final scores at USPSA’s website.  Here’s a breakdown of the big winners and some special categories.

  • Limited: Bob Vogel
  • Limited Lady: Lisa M.
  • Limited-10: Tod L.
  • Open: Max Michel
  • Open Lady: Jessie Abbate
  • Production: Dave Sevigny
  • Production Lady: Randi Rogers
  • Revolver: Jerry Miculek
  • Single Stack: Cliff B.
  • Single Stack Lady: Julie Golob

Congratulations to all the winners from the match and to all the shooters as well.  The results breakdown is interesting when you look at it, there are fascinating tidbits in the whole match.  Bob Vogel, one of the top Production shooters in the world blew the field away in Limited shooting a Glock 24 that put him at a 1-2 round disadvantage with his magazines; that didn’t seem to slow him down at all.

However, the biggest news from this match is Jessie Abbate leaving Team Glock and the speculation on where she’s going to land.  Sig has been making major moves on shooters lately and is building a serious team, she could end up with the Yankees Team S&W (I kid S&W), it’s a wide open game. But Jessie wasn’t the only female shooter making waves this weekend – as Paul noted at the Downrange.TV blog, Julie Golob used the match to warm up for the upcoming Single Stack Nationals using her new Pete Single S&W Pro Series 9mm 1911.  That 9mm means minor powerfactor scoring in Single Stack, and yet Julie finished as the High Lady in Single Stack and most impressively 5th overall in Single Stack division, shooting 94% of the match winner’s score.

Big thanks to Paul Erhardt from DownRange.TV for his live coverage of the match which kept me up to speed all weekend!

news/shooting

FAST-ing for charity

Posted on by Caleb

No, you don’t have to give up your favorite food – you have to shoot to benefit St. Jude Children’s Hospital.  Pistol-Training.Com is sponsoring a charity shoot at the Rangemaster Tactical Conference using a modified version of the FAST Test.  Todd says:

The match will cost $5 per entry and will give the competitor three chances to shoot the F.A.S.T. drill. Of course, it’s not just the F.A.S.T. drill…

There will be three targets set up for the F.A.S.T., each with an eight inch circle and a 3×5 card. The 3×5 card on all three targets will be surrounded by twenty dollar bills. Each $20 bill that gets shot will cost the competitor $20. All money raised (both the entry fees and the $20’s) will be donated to St. Jude in the name of the competitor with the best F.A.S.T. score. pistol-training.com will be adding the initial twelve $20s to the pot, too!

That’s awesome!  It’s great to see the shooting sports not just helping one another become better shots, but reaching out in to the mainstream and helping other people as well.  If you’re going to be down in the Tulsa area next weekend, see if you can attend the side match and shoot for St. Jude Children’s Hospital.  It’s a win win situation because even if you shoot poorly, that money helps kids!