Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Boomsticks: Practice pays off...

When folks look at little snubnose revolvers like the J-frame Smiths or the Taurus 85, it's not uncommon to hear "Oh, you can't hit anything with those little things..." I'd tell them about my former boss, who'd ding pie plates at almost fifty yards shooting double action with his little Bodyguard Airweight, but you could tell they didn't really believe it.

He was, of course, "staging" the double action trigger, which is kind of a no-no if you want to really get good with one. For myself, I was happy when all that trigger time paid off yesterday with some pretty righteous shooting with my little 2" Model 34. Rapping out a steady stream of shots in double action mode (*bangbangbangbangbangbang*) I was keeping them all in nice little two-inch clusters in the upper and lower A-zones at a modest seven yards. I'm sure I could have gotten it under an inch in slowfire and maybe even tighter shooting single action, but that wasn't really the point of the exercise.

This doesn't make me any Kay Clark Miculek, but it'll do for what needs doing. Remember that next time you hear someone saying you can't hit anything with a snubbie.

8 comments:

Porta's Cat said...

I dig...

http://portascat.blogspot.com/2007/01/range-trip-sunday.html

http://portascat.blogspot.com/2006/09/smith-and-wesson-642-airweight-range.html

accurate enough.

Porta's Cat said...

aw, hell.

just suffice it to say I shot some pretty tite groups, offhand, with both a S&W 642 and a Charter Arms Pug in .44 special.

Anonymous said...

A number of years ago I won a modest supply of adult beverages with a nicely tuned Model 60, a full box of ammunition and a 12"X24" steel plate at 300 yards. Avoided dehydration with the "ping" on round #48. Not that skill wasn't involved, but given the gun/ammo/distance combination luck was a larger factor.

Since then I've experimented with what one can do with 2" snubbies, and if one has the time - both for practice, and during the actual accuracy trials - one can hit remarkably small things at remarkably long distances.

T'ain't at all what they're made for, but it's nice to know that one has a reasonable chance of holing a paper plate at 50 yards with one or two of the five if pressed and circumstances are favorable. Add some speed, and as Tam testifies, five for five across the width of the room is quite achievable. Trigger control, concentration and lots of practice is all one needs.

Mr. Fixit said...

I believe it was Bob Mundan who used a Chiefs Special to break dinner plates at 100 yards. 'Course he did shoot it single action.

Those 'lil guns are more than acurate enoough. More so than most folks can shoot them.

Tam said...

I tell folks that all it takes is enough barrel to get the bullet spinning; the rest is up to the shooter...

Matt G said...

There was a nice, slightly overcast Saturday, about 20 years ago, when my father, my uncle, and I were shooting a M-37 kit gun at clay pigeons set on a wet clay hillock below us. I was just out of junior high football, and felt that I had a pretty good idea of what one hundred yards looked like. That's what we called it.

Even if I was off by 25 yards (which I doubt), there are those that would say it simply cannot be done, to shott a 4.5" target with a 2" .22 LR revolver.

We had a might good time doing it, though.

Matt G said...

Beg pardon. It was a M32 kit gun. Steel.

Rivrdog said...

Did I detect a slight aura of snark when mentioning "staging" a DA revolver trigger?

Pardon me, ma'am, but I've been shooting DA revolvers, mostly Rugers, for 34 years, and on Year One I learned staging for accuracy during slow or timed fire.

Early on, I was not a crack shot with a revolver, but about halfway through my police career, I made some changes in stance (along with putting the gun in the proper hand, I had been shooting lefty, but my master eye is right), and I achieved my first Master of Revolver rating with a 2" Ruger SP101. By staging the trigger on the slow and timed fire parts of the Tactical Revolver Course, I would usually wind up with a 96-99X12x.

I still stage triggers. In all of my milsurp rifles, the triggers are two-stage, and are MEANT to be staged for aimed fire.

I've heard rangemasters say that a good shooter has a good hold and breath control, and can't tell when the round is going to go off. A great shooter has all of the above, but his/her trigger staging is so consistent that he/she DOES know when the round is going to go off, and the weapon is always perfectly aimed when it does.