Shot the new Secondary Weapon Course...

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copaup

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I went out to the academy today and shot the new Secondary Weapon Course. Loads of fun. 350 rounds of +P 38 out of an Airlite J frame. It was actually a pretty good course, if rough on the hands, and it is nice that the BUGs are now officially approved. The bad news is that until we have used up the stockpile both training and issue ammo for the BUGs is the duty ammo from when we still carried model 10 revolvers (91-92 was the changeover). It is a 125 gr +P SJHP and seems a little on the warm side, with a huge muzzle flash. Manufacturer is Zero and the brass is nickle plated and has our agency headstamp. Does anyone know anything about this ammunition? It shoots accurate enough out to the 25 yard line and surely beats harsh language, but I don't like carrying a load I know nothing about. Especially 20 year old unknown ammo.
 
Which J frame do you have? Was the qual course difficult with it? I got a 442 that Im going to try and qualify with in a couple weeks and am a little concerned about the 25 yard shots with the heavy DA trigger. Im probably going to have to just practice with it more. I just qualified with a perfect score with my G22 but the snub is a completely different story.
 
I've got a 642. Because of the large number of rounds we fired during the 8 hour course (350, all +P) I put a Pachmayr grip on the gun and shot with gloves to limit the damage to my hand. Some people didn't, despite the suggestions from range staff, and there were some bloody guns by the end of the day. I can put about 50 rds through the gun without a problem, but the web of my hand starts getting pretty beat up by 100. With the bigger grip and gloves I ended up with just a small nick on my thumb where I got careless and got nipped by the cylinder latch. Contrast that with my partner who went to the class a couple of weeks ago, was too manly for gloves on a wee little gun, and ended up with a swollen right hand with no skin between thumb and fore finger.
Our actual qual course with the snubby is 50 rds from 3 to 25 yards with a minimum passing score of 80. 80% of the shots are fired from 15 and in with some one handed shooting with each hand and a timed reload. Suprisingly, I shot the snub better than I usually shoot my duty weapon, probably due to taking more time on each shot. I shot a 96, missing one round at the 5 (got in a hurry with 5 rounds in 5 seconds, strong hand only) and don't have a clue where the other one was, except that I missed it sometime before I left the 15 yard line.
The fun part was the one handed reloading drill, shooting from odd positions on the ground, and 50 rds we shot at contact distance with clothed dummies. It was one of the better classes my department has put on. Incidentally drawing right handed from a left side pocket is almost as hard as reloading a snub with only one hand. Almost.
 
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