Carryover from a 22LR target pistol to a defensive revolver?

It's amazing what a tiny amount of live-fire practice that says he does. I don't remember exactly without reviewing the video, but something like three boxes of ammo actually fired between two big matches that were probably weeks or months apart. And presumably he gets his ammo from Uncle Sam, so it's not like he's saving his money.

Mitlov said:

Still on the fence, no decisions made yet.

Click to expand...

Seems to me that you are a revolver guy. A 22lr revolver sounds fun.

I own a sp101 22lr and multtiple ruger MK series and S&W 41's.... BUY a target grade .22lr and shoot her! You will shoot her more- have more fun and you will learn more about shooting overall than you will with a defensive snub nose... and you will get better at aligning the sights and shooting the snubby... I think about every shooter- pistiol shooter anyhow should own a nice target grade - at least a ruger mk series with adjustable sights or the equivalent... The sp101 is tougher to shoot and I consider it more of an advanced type gun due to the harder to shoot nature of it being lighter ,smaller and harder trigger pulls... worth having but not instead of a good target type 22lr... if you were set on getting a revolver to augment you revolver training I would seek a good smith 17-617 or maybe even a gp100 in .22lr... but it is only my opinion based on 40 years of shooting the gums mentioned and selling for a few years at a gun shop n setting buds up- and watching others at the ranges.

My main game these days is IDPA with some USPSA; shot with centerfire autos, usually 1911 pattern.
For painless and economical practice, I have a Colt Service Model ACE .22 and recently added a Nelson Conversion.
They are great for draw, acquire target, fire, transition to another target practice. I don't double tap with the .22, it might give me funny ideas about recoil control.

There is a device which fits the magazine well of a Glock or Plastic M&P (XD in the works) with a spring loaded lever that resets the striker so that you can do sequences of dry fire; click, click, click, click as easily as you can with a revolver. I don't see how they could do that with a 1911, more's the pity.

If anyone is interested in this, the "peak times" which are the standards used to classify shooters in Steel Challenge are different for each kind of gun. For example, the peak time total for iron sight revolver is 103 seconds for all 8 stages of SCSA. In comparison, the peak time for iron sight rimfire pistol is 84.5 seconds, a huge difference. These peak times are developed based in part in the winning scores in the World Speed Shoot winners. These are the best shooters generally in the world, Grand Masters in their specific gun. There is basically no comparison (speed/accuracy) between a single action rimfire pistol and a iron sight DA center fire revolver. However a rimfire pistol is prolly not on most of our carry gun lists either. So for a good result in a defensive situation one needs to spend time training with a centerfire carry gun. Having said that like almost everyone here I have and shoot rimfire, centerfire, auto-loaders and revolvers. They are all fun.

Many different opinions are being exposed here. My sister bought a Ruger SP-101 and it's terrible. It's way too heavy, like many Ruger revolvers are these days and the action is horrendous. I have no idea why Ruger is making its revolvers like they are; all of them require new third party spring kits. The company no longer is the innovative company Bill Ruger founded, though it's still making the finest .22LR automatic pistols (Mark series) and rifles (10/22) in the world. And far too many people dismiss the defensive potential of the .22LR round. In other posts I've told the story of a fellow I knew who was shot by a single round of .22LR from a mile away and almost died. At the time he didn't know what hit him, but he described it as the worst wasp sting he'd ever felt. The culprits were two kids who were test firing what witnesses said was a .22LR pistol. They fired several rounds at a sign and then left. My point is that when one can fire ten shots rapid fire into an armed intruder, people shouldn't dismiss it as a defensive round! Or only two or three rounds!

I have perfect confidence in the .22LR round as a self defense round. When I read newspaper accounts of successful self defense shootings, I'm nearly always amazed at the success of the .22LR round (and frankly, the .25ACP round).

The Ruger Mark 4 is a remarkable gun, as were its predecessors. I love them all, and even the AMT Lightening, which added adjustable sights, stainless steel (when Ruger was still pumping out only the blued versions), a target trigger, wrap-around rubber grips and things I've probably forgotten! I also have a Jennings J-22, a S&W 617 and a Rossi 511, a poor man's S&W 63. I think everyone should have at least one Ruger Mark-series. And a 10/22. You can't go wrong with the .22LR!


A light weight S&W 617 kit gun. Great
gun, but expensive.


AMT Lightning, an out of the box custom Ruger!


Beretta 70S, with hard chrome finish.
The 70S and the Ruger Mark-series were
two of the most used assasin handguns
by the Israeli intelligence service. They
were chosen because of their reliable,
rapid fire ability and their accuracy.


Rossi 511, a very nice .22LR for the money. Just
as accurate as my S&W 63, which was stolen from
my apartment. I got two of these for the price of
my 63! Great handgun. Rossi isn't as good these
days, alas.

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