Coin test fail

[Skribs]

I got a LCR in .38, and I'm trying the coin test but failing. What happens is this:

I put a penny on top of the rear sights (usually fairly forward, so right above or in front of the cylinder). I pull the trigger, the coin jumps straight up maybe 1/2 inch to an inch as if it's been flipped, hits the gun on the way down, and bounces off to the side (as the result of spinning in the air).

My question is this: is this a failure in trigger discipline on my part, or is this normal for a 13.5 oz gun with an 8-9 pound trigger pull?

 

[rcmodel]

Normal for a 13.5 oz gun with an 8-9 pound trigger pull.

Rest the gun hard on a wood bench and try it so you can't move the gun.

Bet it still flips its lid from the vibration though the frame.

rc

 

[Hk Dan]

I'm with him. It's still gonna jump due to the strike I'll wager. Unless you're flinching horribly, abysmally the coin doesn't jump, it drops.

 

[Madcap_Magician]

I don't think the coin drill is practical on most handguns, much less a small DA revolver. The vibration from the hammer drop is enough on most DA pistols or revolvers to knock a coin off. The striker-fired guns all have such wide, flat slide tops that the coin isn't going anywhere unless you really jerk the gun badly when shooting.

 

[MrBorland]

The vibration from the hammer drop is enough on most DA pistols or revolvers to knock a coin off.

Au contraire. The hammer drop on medium+ revolvers is soft enough to keep the coin there, at least when it's laid flat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nES4A0rd1ak


The hammer drop on radically bobbed revolvers barely affects the gun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmy5mkjpUNI

As to the LCR being too light for the coin drill, it's certainly possible, though I'd have to give it a whirl before making a conclusion.

 

[Skribs]

rcmodel has spoken.

His answer says it's not my fault.

I like his answer.

 

[mikemyers]

Not sure if this helps any, but on my S&W 357 Highway Patrolman, placing a dime on the front sight (which is what I read I was supposed to do) resulted in the dime falling of almost every time I dry fired at first - but after religiously following all the suggestions from Jerrry Miculek and others, the dime now stays put.

Before, not only did the dime fall of, but I could visibly see that the front sight was moving around when the hammer fell. The weight of the Highway Patrolman probably helps, but gripping the gun tightly, pulling the trigger smoothly, and being surprised by when the hammer dropped, made a much bigger difference.

 

[BobWright]

A penny? A penny??

Years ago it was a dime, now probably a silver dollar!


Bob Wright

 

[ArchAngelCD]

A penny ain't worth 2 cents today, I would go with a nickel... lol

 

[mikemyers]

The lighter the coin, the less likely it's going to hop off at the first sign of movement....

 

[Madcap_Magician]

Au contraire. The hammer drop on medium+ revolvers is soft enough to keep the coin there, at least when it's laid flat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nES4A0rd1ak


The hammer drop on radically bobbed revolvers barely affects the gun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmy5mkjpUNI

As to the LCR being too light for the coin drill, it's certainly possible, though I'd have to give it a whirl before making a conclusion.

I stand corrected.

With the LCR I'd say it's still probably too difficult to be of any training value.

 

[tuna]

Add it to your live range program.

Coin on the revolver, fire a round, use the next round to hit it in the air.

 

[arspeukinen]

Put the coin on the front sight. When it doesn't drop your pull was clean.

 

[CLP]

You know since '82 they're mostly zinc and weigh less. Try a pre-'82 penny.

 

[marv]

I tried it on my LCR on the rear sight and on the barrel. It tossed the coin every time. With my bobbed hammer 4" M10 I could do triple taps and keep the penny on the gun.

 

[iajtywu]

I was able to keep a penny on my 357 LCR. It does a little hop, but not enough to fall off. I was holding on tight!

 

[Confederate]

The best idea is putting your penny in your pocket and have fun shooting, especially if it didn't work the first 28 times you tried it. I really wanted an LCR, but Ruger screwed mine up then told me they weren't going to be doing another run on them for months. I got a new SP-101 out of the deal, and though it's a more expensive gun and I made out pretty well with it, I wanted something light that would fire .357, but it just wasn't to be.

Someone is smoking something at Ruger to put a 1.82-inch barrel on a gun that powerful. No pistol, in my view, should leave the factory with less than a 2.5-inch barrel. Especially since the barrel doesn't add that much weight. I've never been a prude about short barrel lengths, but there's a point when too much is too much. And at some point a .357 is going to start acting more like a +P than a magnum. In my earlier years I fought the same battle on the other end. That's when gun hacks wrote that a .357 really wasn't a "magnum" in anything less than a 6-inch barrel. (Anyone remember that one?) Meanwhile, the 4-inchers were putting down bear, deer and bad guys just as though they had been launched from the longer barrels.

Anyway, at some point I just canceled my gun magazines which, in the words of one sage, had one whore less than Babylon in its heyday, and has only gotten worse! And I began to enjoy life. At one point, I was dropping 125 JHP bullets into the chambers of my revolvers to see how many actually stuck, which seemed like a good idea at the time. Now, as I've passed the age of 60, I've begun to realize that "my" guns are going to someday, probably before I know it, be in someone else's safe and be theirs. Either that or I can have them buried with me. That way I can find out how long a stainless steel Ruger Security-Six can really go without rusting!

 

[mikemyers]

.........Now, as I've passed the age of 60, I've begun to realize that "my" guns are going to someday, probably before I know it, be in someone else's safe and be theirs. Either that or I can have them buried with me. That way I can find out how long a stainless steel Ruger Security-Six can really go without rusting!

I've enjoyed placing a dime on the front sight, and most of the time, dry-firing at a simulated target, it stays put. It never did before, but following all the advice from people in forums, videos, books, etc., corrected enough bad habits that I was finally able to do this. It helps that my gun is big and heavy....

Confederate, I know what you mean, but heck, I'm now 70, which makes you just a young kid, and maybe I'm looking at 80 the way you're looking at 70.. I dunno, but look at it this way - youngsters have youth and stamina going for them, but you've got age and experience. If shooting is still fun, enjoy it!