My Revolver Skills (or lack thereof)...

[StrikeFire83]

Okay, so I purchased my first revolver last month, a Ruger SP-101, the 2 ¼” 357 mag version. I’ve only been shooting for two years, and almost exclusively auto pistols.

Here is my latest silhouette, 20 rounds .357 magnum at 3 yards, 9 feet. Shots were fired DA at a good swift clip.


If you’d believe, this is after 250 rounds of practice ammo through the gun. And this is an improvement over my original accuracy.

The irony is that I can routinely put 50 bullets in the CENTER of one of those Birchwood Casey targets at 15 Yards with my Glock 17 or Kahr.

Any thoughts?

 

[RyanM]

You were shooting too fast. Slow down and concentrate on keeping the sights lined up all the way through the trigger pull. Dry-fire practice until you can balance a dime on the front sight (or top of the barrel or whatever) and pull the trigger DA, without disturbing the dime. Preferrably 10 times in a row.

After you can do smooth DA pulls slow, speed up a little. Learning DA revolver shooting isn't something you can rush.

 

[Whirlwind06]

When I was taking my NRA pistol class somebody had a S&W .357. She was having a similar problem. After we had all fired about 15 rounds into our target. The instructor took her target and held it up to his chest all but about 4 of her shots would have made the BG stop what he was doing.

I look at your target and think the same thing, if you held that target up to your chest all but 2 or 3 would count.

 

[Sport45]

Dry-fire practice until you can balance a dime on the front sight (or top of the barrel or whatever) and pull the trigger DA, without disturbing the dime.

Sounds good, but can anybody actually do this? I tried, and I couldn't even balance a dime on my desk.

 

[Ron Brooks]

Quote:
Dry-fire practice until you can balance a dime on the front sight (or top of the barrel or whatever) and pull the trigger DA, without disturbing the dime.


Sounds good, but can anybody actually do this? I tried, and I couldn't even balance a dime on my desk

I believe what he meant was to lay the dime flat on the front sight.

 

[MCgunner]

I've got this picture of him trying to stand the dime on edge and cussing a lot. ROFLMAO!!!!!!

 

[Logan5]

Without watching you shoot, I can't really tell, but the two low and left might indicate a little trouble still with tightening your whole hand during trigger squeeze instead of only your index finger, and the three shots high in the 7 ring are likely fatigue/anticipating trigger break. It's a nice target, and I don't doubt you can get it up to where you're at with your autos with a bit more trigger time on your revolver. Looks like you're transitioning well, but remember that it isn't a trivial transition, and give it some time.

 

[XavierBreath]

StrikeFire,
As you have found out, accurately shooting a double action revolver double action is a learned skill. The key for me is trigger control. Concentrate on a smooth, even, relatively rapid trigger pull straight to the rear. Of course you want to keep your sights aligned on target, but until you develop that ability to pull the DA revolver trigger smoothly and surely, your sights will wander. Do not try to stage the trigger, just develop a clean smooth pull to the rear without allowing your other fingers to tighten on the gun.

I recommend the balancing act of a penny or a cartridge on the barrel, assuming the revolver has a sight rail that is flat. For a round top barrelled revolver, it is next to impossible.

The real benefit to learning to shoot the DA revolver accurately is that the trigger skills will transfer over to everything you shoot. You will become more accurate with your Glock and Kahr.

Actually, for someone who has only had 250 rounds of practice, and with .357 magnum at that, your target looks pretty darned good. I would recommend that you drop down to a .38 special target round while you develop that trigger skill.

Another thing to think about......smaller targets often make for smaller groups. We often subconciously shoot just as good as we need to. Try a smaller target.....and some .38 special ammo.

 

[Deanimator]

1. You're using a 2" revolver.
2. You're shooting double action.
3. You're shooting magnums.
4. You have relatively little DA revolver experience.

As somebody else pointed out, you're doing pretty well, all considered.

Remember, Jack Lord could only hit a car, in the tire, going 70mph, at full deflection, with his Chief's Special using 158gr. LRN, fired double action, from the hip ON TELEVISION!!!

The suggestion of using light .38 Special loads to develop your technique is an excellent one. If you were teaching your kid to swim, would you dump him in the English Channel and tell him to just swim until somebody surrendered to him?

You seem to be progressing nicely. Stick with it. Just don't judge yourself too harshly by unrealistic standards.

 

[antediluvianist]

"Remember, Jack Lord could only hit a car, in the tire, going 70mph, at full deflection, with his Chief's Special using 158gr. LRN, fired double action, from the hip ON TELEVISION!!!"

I saw that episode. It was in the middle of a howling Hawaii typhoon, too, at a distance of 500 yards, on a moonless night. Next episode he did it again.

 

[Brian Williams]

Try painting the front some brite color and the back sight a flat black

 

[Nhsport]

As others have said-you are shooting a snubby with magnum loads!
Keep going like you have been,or take it easy on your hand and use target 38's.
If you really want to teach yourself dig up a S&W 686 or a model 10. There are shooting guns and there are carry guns,one wants there to be some overlap but there is only so much you can do with a snubby with a small grip,heavy trigger,chunky sights and a magnum bark and bite. I like my sp101 but it can be a challange to shoot like a target gun

 

[miko]

I look at your target and think the same thing, if you held that target up to your chest all but 2 or 3 would count.

Of course if you had to shoot in anger rather than at a range, none of the 5 shots might have made it - provided there was time to fire them all.

I'd say, hide those 357s, buy a pack of snap caps, a crate of 38 specials and practice, practice, practice.

miko

 

[Vern Humphrey]

When practicing combat or defensive shooting, these are your priorities:

1. Safety. Don't do anything else until you can make a safe presentation.

2. Accuracy. Defensive shooting accuracy is considerably less stringent than target shooting, but be aware that in a real confrontation you will not be able to match your performance against paper targets.

3. Speed. If you can draw safely and shoot with reasonable accuracy, then you can work on speed.

 

[Paperpunchr]

Ball and dummy drill

You might also try having a range partner load the gun for you with a couple of snap caps mixed into each load, at random positions, or a couple of live rounds mixed in with mostly snap caps. See if what you're doing involves anticipating or flinching from those hefty .357's. Pretend theyr'e all snap caps and let yourself be surprised when you get a bang, and see if you're doing anything differently.

Doug

 

[rnovi]

For me:

Local Indoor Gun Range. The Gun: S&W 625JM Revolver (stock and unmodded except for Hogue rubber grip), moonclipped, shooting 170 power .45 ACP 230gr. Lead RN's.

Nine Targets (Five paper targets - IPSC Torso's, Four Steel floor standing popers)

At 7 yards (21 feet), From a low ready position (ie: two hand hold, gun pointed low below the waist), I can put nine rounds into nine separate targets (Paper targets hit in center zone) in under 8 seconds consistently with a reload.

My personal best is 6.98 seconds with a reload.

And to be frank, I suck compared to the experts out there. Good ole Jerry Miculek holds the record on this at under 3 seconds.

So the answer is yes. You can shoot a double action revolver quickly, accurately, and in a highly controlled manner. It just takes practice. In my case I put some 5-6000 rounds downrange last year in my 625 alone, plus another 3k in my GP100.

Do a lot of practicing and dry firing and you will be just fine.

 

[gezzer]

Lokks good to me all center chest shots. In the real world every one was a stopper.

 

[_N4Z_]

a 2.25" sp101 with magnums? not shabby at all, and if you'd been in a tight spot as gezzer said, you'd have no doubt put a nasty hurtin' on anyone wanting to do you or yours harm.

i personally don't enjoy shooting mags thru my sp. it gets .38's and +p's, the gp eats the magnums.

dry firing with a coin and practicing live, all good stuff to improve by.