Ridiculous Fun and the Lessons Learned.

So about two weeks ago I got the bright idea to shoot a snubnosed revolver in a falling steel shoot. This was an idea born out of necessity, because I let my components run down and had several revolvers out of action due to cylinders being fitted for custom moonclips.  So in a stroke of utter brilliance I decided to shoot my K-frame 2" Model 10. I was not going to give up the revolver division without a fight...or atleast amusement of my fellow competitors. The first problem I encountered was not having any speedloader holders....in IDPA I always ran them out of a pocket....so I called up a friend and asked to borrow his. This turned out to be a gold mine of gear. I recieved seven speedloader holders, 5 comp 3's and two holsters to choose from. The holster issue turned up because my holster was in use by my girlfriend who was shooting my...err her 646...long story. I chose a Fobus GP-100 holster which although sized for the Ruger GP-100 worked really well for the little snubby. With all my gear now set the last problem to attend to was ammo, which I fortunately had some 250 rounds loaded up of 158gr minor loads. So after some speedloader practice and dryfire I set off for the match. 

Stage two was about the point where I really figured out just where the gun was shooting. In a stroke of genius I had forgotten that this particular gun liked the 125gr bullets and shot monstrously high with 158's. Oh well a nice shotgun point hold cured this and got me back in the game. I went on to become a little over confident and ended up missing the plates when I should have connected.

Stage Four was a decent stage for me, but I went slowly and deliberately trying to avoid extra reloads as it was such a speed shoot. I accomplished what I came to do and got through it clean. Not pretty, but clean.

Stage Five was my best stage except for the misses I had to make up. I was happy to clean the poppers and be on to the next stage. If you listen carefully you can hear the spectator saying "Run Forrest!" I got a decent chuckle out of that after the course was complete. The extra shots cost me here but not enough to cost the division win. I ended up first in revolver division by sheer luck and determination...skill obviously wasn't present this time.

The lessons I learned here were: Bullet weight matters a lot in fixed sight guns....always shoot the gun load combination ahead of time...steel is unforgiving.  Speedloaders are a pain in high round count matches because they must be reloaded often, picking up the brass is time consuming, and dropping live rounds is even less fun. Smaller sight radius guns are just as accurate as larger sight radius guns, however they do not give as much indication of movement so be on your best behavior....no lazy technique! I'd do it all again, but not with speedloaders, I'd opt for moonclips next time.