Hmmmm, an interesting thought to ponder. Is it possible that revolvers might just be superior to autoloaders? I think I'm beginning to side up with the old wheel shooters.
My weekends of late have been spent working up loads for the .38 special. What an absoultely wonderful old cartridge, it's just a joy to shoot, and very easy to reload. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed it.
It's been several years since I have shot this cartridge, or for that matter, having shot reolvers in general. Like so many, I'd been bitten by the flash of XD's, Berettas, SIG's, etc, etc.
All this began several months ago, as the weather began to permit shooting again. I had just fitted a match barrel to my 1911 mil spec and wanted to work up a very accurate load for it. The first shots out of the barrel grouped into 1 hole at 25 yards, with 1 "flyer" about 1/2" away. That was the best I was to do out of the pistol for the next 4 shooting sessions. A lot of the groups I shot wouldn't best 2 1/2", and I began to wonder if it was me or the gun. So I decided to take out the Smith model 52 .38 master, which I had not yet fired (the clerk at the gun shop looked at me funny when I bought the gun, "your'e not going to actually fire that are you"? These guns were required to shoot 2" or less at 50 yards, so we were going to find out if it was just me that couldn't shoot.
So anyway, off we went to the range with several boxes of load work-ups, and for comparison, along came the 6" Security-Six. The comparison was an interesting eye opener.
To begin with the M-52 shot admirably, 1" to 2" groups at 25 yards (I did find out that I am the cause of larger groups, that's another story). What was interesting was how well the wheelgun performed by comparison.
My loads chrongraphed consistantly about 50 fps higher from the Security-Six, I had really expected the opposite, given the BC gap on the revolver, but this was not the case. The accuracy from my $212 Security-Six was every bit as good as the Smith target pistol, and perhaps a bit less fussy about the loads.
As I re-acquainted with revolvers after years of shooting autoloaders, several things occured to me about how superior they are:
1 Out of the box they are considerably more accurate than most autoloaders, and more forgiving of load.
2 They will shoot heavy loads, and light loads without ever having to worry about which recoil spring is installed. Will it function the action? Not to worry, if there's powder and a primer, she'll go bang.
3 No FTF's, FTE's, Stovepipes, etc.
4 Not too many autoloaders that can go toe to toe with the revolver on power.
5 You know when it's loaded.
6 The revolver is ideal to introduce the new shooter, clearing, loading, and shooting are so much less complicated.
7 You can easily see that it's loaded.
8 If you reload, your brass is really really easy to find.
9 "Glock Leg" much less likely to happen
10 And you gotta just love watching the cylinder turn.
Yup, I almost forgot how much I enjoyed em.
My weekends of late have been spent working up loads for the .38 special. What an absoultely wonderful old cartridge, it's just a joy to shoot, and very easy to reload. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed it.
It's been several years since I have shot this cartridge, or for that matter, having shot reolvers in general. Like so many, I'd been bitten by the flash of XD's, Berettas, SIG's, etc, etc.
All this began several months ago, as the weather began to permit shooting again. I had just fitted a match barrel to my 1911 mil spec and wanted to work up a very accurate load for it. The first shots out of the barrel grouped into 1 hole at 25 yards, with 1 "flyer" about 1/2" away. That was the best I was to do out of the pistol for the next 4 shooting sessions. A lot of the groups I shot wouldn't best 2 1/2", and I began to wonder if it was me or the gun. So I decided to take out the Smith model 52 .38 master, which I had not yet fired (the clerk at the gun shop looked at me funny when I bought the gun, "your'e not going to actually fire that are you"? These guns were required to shoot 2" or less at 50 yards, so we were going to find out if it was just me that couldn't shoot.
So anyway, off we went to the range with several boxes of load work-ups, and for comparison, along came the 6" Security-Six. The comparison was an interesting eye opener.
To begin with the M-52 shot admirably, 1" to 2" groups at 25 yards (I did find out that I am the cause of larger groups, that's another story). What was interesting was how well the wheelgun performed by comparison.
My loads chrongraphed consistantly about 50 fps higher from the Security-Six, I had really expected the opposite, given the BC gap on the revolver, but this was not the case. The accuracy from my $212 Security-Six was every bit as good as the Smith target pistol, and perhaps a bit less fussy about the loads.
As I re-acquainted with revolvers after years of shooting autoloaders, several things occured to me about how superior they are:
1 Out of the box they are considerably more accurate than most autoloaders, and more forgiving of load.
2 They will shoot heavy loads, and light loads without ever having to worry about which recoil spring is installed. Will it function the action? Not to worry, if there's powder and a primer, she'll go bang.
3 No FTF's, FTE's, Stovepipes, etc.
4 Not too many autoloaders that can go toe to toe with the revolver on power.
5 You know when it's loaded.
6 The revolver is ideal to introduce the new shooter, clearing, loading, and shooting are so much less complicated.
7 You can easily see that it's loaded.
8 If you reload, your brass is really really easy to find.
9 "Glock Leg" much less likely to happen
10 And you gotta just love watching the cylinder turn.
Yup, I almost forgot how much I enjoyed em.
