Chilibreath
Member
I own several (actually more than I should!) revolvers, but my "dream" revolvers are the few I have that were custom made for PPC shooting. When I started into the sport (back in the early 70s) I went to my first match with my trusty LAPD issue stock K-38… maybe not so stock because back then there was a shooting incident wherein one of our cops had an "accidental" shooting because he had his revolver cocked in S/A mode pointing at a suspect, and the damn thing went of "accidentally." As a result of this unfortunate incident, and the ensuing lawsuit shortly afterwards, all LAPD duty revolvers were made to fire D/A only. Many (many!) old school LAPD cops cried like babies but in the end there was nothing they could do, and a few of us actually learned to shoot D/A quite well. Long story short after a few years on the job I got hooked on PPC shooting, and my first "match" gun was my duty K-Frame 6-inch revolver, and was happy as a clam because I learned to control my shots shooting D/A even at 50-yards. As an aside one of my mentors during this time was an old bullseye shooter by the name of John Hurst, he was also a custom grip maker and a one-time shooter in the International Olympics, and he was shooting D/A even before it was mandatory. I would be lying if I didn't say this man had a strong influence on my shooting from the beginning, but it took awhile before the light came on re using D/A from up close and personal all the way back to 50-yards.
Long story short, after my first few PPC outings I knew I needed to upgrade my hardware from a stock K-38 to a custom revolver with a bull barrel. And even though my new gun was both S/A and D/A, I opened to learn how to shoot D/A all the way through the course and I have never looked back. So to answer the original question, my go-to gun for accuracy, dependability and all-around performance is one of my custom made PPC guns built on the S&W K-Frame. These pistols also have quality after-market bull barrels, sight ribs, custom grips and their internal clockwork has been gone over for both smoothness and dependability. Today there are a number of gunsmiths that can produce one of these quality revolvers, and without a doubt if I had to go on the firing line to shoot for speed and accuracy I would definitely grab one of my custom revolvers... and (here's the kicker) I would shoot D/A all the way through even at the 50-yard positions. Truth be known I stepped away from competition shooting a number of years ago (and as a result I'm still married), but I have an old dusty trophy in the garage for winning the Practical Event at the 1982 Bianchi Cup, I did it shooting a PPC revolver D/A standing upright rather than hitting the deck like a sack of potatoes when the horn sounded… which is to say revolvers are (and can be) a heck of a gun if you know what you're doing and you have good equipment. Dream guns indeed in the hands of a shooter who knows how to use one.
