Just curious, do you think practicing with completely different gun/trigger (M617) and with less recoil will help with being mote accurate with a primary SD or competition revolver?
Absolutely. The first goal is to establish strong fundamentals. That's sight picture, trigger control and lots of quality practice
*.
Shootin's shootin', and without a strong foundation, you'll struggle in everything you do. Conversely, if your fundamentals are strong, the shooting world's your oyster. When I started competing, I was already able to shoot 25 yard double action cloverleafs, and that early focus on the fundamentals has paid dividends many times over.
For most, a good .22 in the same platform makes that practice cheaper. A 617 is an excellent understudy, but you'd still need to practice relevant drills with your primary revolver. I'd take my 686 and 617 to every practice session, and I put a lot of rounds through both.
For IDPA revo a 625 is the way to go for sure
Depends, IMO. I shoot an L-frame better than an N-frame, so I opted for a speedloader-fed 686. And we need to keep in mind that while some gear can handicap you, it's really the shooter that's fast or slow. In USPSA, where the round counts are higher, and reloads more numerous, a speedloader-fed gun is definitely a handicap, but in IDPA, the difference isn't that big, so between moonclipped- and speedloader-equipped shooters, the better shooter will generally win.
* I came to shooting late in life, but when the bug bit, it bit hard. I spent the first 1 - 1.5 years exclusively shooting .22LR out of a CZ 452 rifle and my 617. Nothing but sight picture and trigger control. Pretty boring stuff, but I was fortunate to be too naive to know that
. Anyhow, I kept all my brass, and at one point dumped it all into a box and weighed it. IIRC, I estimated there are about 35,000 cases in that box. In retrospect, I was the wisest 35,000 rounds I've ever shot.