New to Wheelguns

[Janitor]

Hi guys.

Ok. I confess. My entire safe is filled with pistols. Not a single revolver on any shelf. Oh - I had a revolver in there for a while. A very good friend had loaned me his PC 640 (http://www.olegvolk.net/gallery/RS-Armory/j_frame_13) to 'play' with for a while. And while I never really got to be a very good shot with that boot gun, I _really_ fell in love with it. How could I not?

So assuming a normal morning today, the 4" 686 I ordered Monday should get to the shop and I'll pick it up at lunch. After a night's fondling and trying to figure out where I'd carry something like that and possibly some picture taking, I hope to take it to it's first range trip at lunch tomorrow.

Anyway - there you have it. A new wheelgun shooter.

I am SO looking forward to shooting this thing.

 

[Shear_stress]

And it begins . . .

I am sure you will be pleased with your 686. Those are fine shooters.

 

[Old Dude]

I have a 686 6" (not for carry, obviously) which I love. I was at a trade show at a local gun shop/range and I got to try the 686. My wife was watching as I pulled back the hammer and put a bullet less than an inch from the center at 7 yards. My wife later told me she said, out loud, "Oh sh*t, he's gonna buy it." I did, and I couldn't be happier.

 

[Janitor]

And it begins . . .

You know ... this is *exactly* the kind of thing that scares me about this.

My wife was watching as I pulled back the hammer and put a bullet less than an inch from the center at 7 yards. My wife later told me she said, out loud, "Oh sh*t, he's gonna buy it."

Too funny.

When I got home yesterday, I had been to the bank. I threw the deposit slip on the counter and my wife noticed that I had stuck a bit more than usual into the account we pay Visa from. She said ... "You bought another gun ... didn't you?".



--

 

[Old Dude]

I had previously owned a revolver (Ruger), but, for some reason, I just wasn't ready for a wheelgun then. Sold it to a friend.

A couple months back I rented a Beretta Stampede (.45 Colt) from my local range. My wife was shooting next to me and said that the first thing she heard was a "Boom" followed by "Whoooooaaaa" from me. I think that's next. Revolvers are wayyyyyyyyy fun, and it's nice to discover new fun things at my age!

 

[Janitor]

Too funny.

I got to take the 686 out yesterday at lunch. My goodness.

Even knowing this ahead of time:

...a "Boom" followed by "Whoooooaaaa" from me.

I "said" the exact same thing the first time I fired it yesterday. Huge smiles right out of the chute. One of my friends who was with me tried it out. I was watching him shoot and saw the column of flame leap out the muzzle (shooting .357 Hydrashock). Amazing - there is nobody who could be downrange from this thing who would have much doubt they were being shot at.

I love this sidearm. I mean really.

While it doesn't _really_ count, shooting it in single action was pretty neat. I'm not at all a good shot, and I so often find myself jealous of a lot of you guys as I read your reviews on first shootings of this pistol or that revolver.

I may have finally found mine. At long last, I find myself able to say (at least shooting single action) that at < 10 yards this revolver simply puts each round in the same hole. Simply amazing. And speaking of amazing - that single action trigger pull is almost abstract. It feels like zero creep, zero overtravel. I can't even really get my arms around how 'hard' it is to pull - need to check it out with a scale. But it really feels like the trigger doesn't even really move at all in single action. Never felt anything quite like it.

But ... single action is (imo) for screwing around on the range. For my purposes, this is a double action sidearm. The double action pull is long, and somewhat hard. I'm not calibrated so I've no idea what it is. But it's clear I need to shoot this a lot more to get used to it. Very smooth, fwiw. And it's such a joy to shoot I've no doubt I'll be used to the double action pull in no time at all.

This is the nicest gun I've _ever_ owned. Period. I'm afraid that I'm already in trouble over it. Had to stop on the way home and look at the used gun cabinet at Gander to see what wheel guns may be laying about in there.

I got home and was cleaning out the range bag last night. Now that I'm shooting a revolver I can save my brass more easily. Took out the baggie of about 150 rounds of mixed .38 & .357 of different brands/loads and thought to myself "Neat. No FTFs, no FTEs. This gun is stone cold reliable straight out of the box." <grin>

--

 

[Frandy]

Congratulations and the best of success with your new Smith. Get yourself six snap-caps or equivalent and dry fire the heck out of it. Then take it to the range and go Whoooooooaaaaaaaaaaa!