686+ loaders.

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Felenari

New member
What does the SD term stand for? I looked at some firearms like the trr8 or vcomp from s&w but I couldn't justify spending the money on a firearm that was supposed to be for gunsmithing school. All the 8 shot revolvers were already performance center models and most of the 6 shot models didn't appeal to my bravado.

Lol to be honest the deciding factor was that lucky Luke, a character from my favorite comics, also has a 7 shot revolver to give him the one up in a shootout. Stupid deciding factor but worth it. :p I'm making a four leaf clover lucky Luke grip for it. When I get my 8 shot I'll make a 5 leaf clover grip for it.
 
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Don P

New member
SD is short for self defense. As for 6, 7, 8 shot revolvers. For the competition in ICORE which is a revolver discipline 6 shot is in the classic division using speed loaders. 7 shot would also be in classic division BUT you can only load 6 rounds. 8 shot would be in the limited division using moon Clips to load the gun with in replacing the speedloaders
 
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Jim Watson

New member
I've been shooting a bit of Steel Challenge lately.
There is no capacity limit in Revolver.
Can you hit five plates in seven tries?
If so, there is a home for your Plus.
 
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Felenari

New member
@Don P, thanks for the clarification. As is another field I need perpetual improvement in.

@Jim Watson, depends on the size of the plate and where it's at. :p I can do a 6 inch at 20 yards 6 out of 7 with a 20 min warmup and no time limit. I've tried using the splits app but it's hit or miss with the app for time. I've been shooting for about ish years and I'm 500 ish rounds shy of 10.000 total rounds. About half of those were 22 from a lever action. I'm still pretty green.
 
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HiBC

New member
Once you learn how to run a mill and a lathe you won't be limited to what someone else makes.
To save time/effort,cannibalize the small parts you can from an available speed loader.
Some gunsmiths remove and replace available parts.

Some gunsmiths make parts that are unavailable.

Developing machining skills takes time and experience.

If you gain experience and confidence on your speed loader,you will have experience that will be useful if you ever work on a revolver cylinder.

If you make a rookie mistake,the aluminum nubbins you scrounge from the stock rack are a lot better to start over with than a Colt,Ruger,or S+W cylinder..
It actually sounds like a good,low risk project . If you only have an X-Y manual mill,you can trig out all the locations.
Or,if you have access to a dividing head with a chuck,or a rotary table,its great setup experience.

If you have access to something like an EZ Trak CNC Bridgeport,its "piece of cake" canned bolt circle routines.

Once you grow those skills,its a whole nuther way of looking at things.
 
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Felenari

New member
Thanks HiBC, I'm hoping to learn everything under the sun involving manufacturing techniques. I actually grew up around lathes and mills. My dad is the physics and engineering teacher at the hogeschool in Antwerp Belgium. I have great spacial reasoning but almost no experience on the machines other than watching my dad make high end paintball guns in teflon back in the day. I'm teaching myself Autocad atm to get a head start on cnc machining. In trinidad I'll be learning basic machining for gunsmithing but I'm also taking all of their other machining courses as well. I've got about 120lbs of block 6160 and other aluminum to practice on from my days as a sheet metal worker. Also have about 80pbs of block titanoum to play with. Haven't decided if I want to forge that or make some fancy gun parts yet. Probably both. I know titanium isn't great for most gun parts because of the work hardening and the flammability factor but titanium hammers would be cool or a ti trigger perhaps.

So far with my speedloader I've noticed that the short 38 spcl feeds much easier because of the shorter case. I've gotten better practicing with snap caps but I still yank out a round or two every once and a while. The thumb rest of my grip almost touched the cylinder when open so when I make my other grip I'm going to thin or alter that section and see if it helps with feeding. I'm making the first grip out of scarp just to get the shape right.
 
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MrBorland

New member
Felenari said:
I've gotten better practicing with snap caps but I still yank out a round or two every once and a while.
Click to expand...

Snaps caps are really too light to practice reloads with, IMO. Dummy rounds (just re-sized brass and crimped-in roundnose bullet) in a speedloader (or moonclip) and empty non-resized cases in the gun are the best for reloading practice. If you don't reload, try sweet-talking another revolver shooter who does into making you a few dummy rounds.
 
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Felenari

New member
Why empty non resized cases? Nvm. For extracting practice right?

Now for dummy rounds, I like snap caps because of the soft primer material that won't wear out your firing pin. I imagine the brass primer is replaced by something on the dummy rounds?

The only other shooter I know in the bay area just moved out of state and my other shooting buddies pretty much use my firearms and buy me bullets. I could drill out the front of my snap caps and refill them with some scrap lead I have. I've even got some spare Tungsten laying around.
 
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MrBorland

New member
Felenari said:
Now for dummy rounds, I like snap caps because of the soft primer material that won't wear out your firing pin. I imagine the brass primer is replaced by something on the dummy rounds?
Click to expand...

Whether the firing pin actually needs something to hit to prevent damage is a contentious topic among revolver shooters, and would likely fill a multi-page thread on it's own ;). My personal take is 1) frame-mounted firing pins may be a bit more resilient than the older hammer-mounted pins (and they're much easier to replace if they do break) and 2) the amount of dry firing you'd do practicing your reloads is likely to be minimal compared to competitive shooters who dry fire extensively. Those guys have tens of thousands of dry fires on their guns (generally newer variants with a frame-mounted pin) without anything in the gun and largely without issue (one exception are tuned guns fitted with aftermarket extended firing pins).

If you're concerned, and want to use dummy rounds, an old trick is to fit and glue small pencil erasers into the primer pockets.
 
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Felenari

New member
@Huntinaz, thanks I'm going to check those out. I checked them out on YouTube and they do seem to have more clearance than the bks loader.

@MrBorland, I'll try the eraser tip trick thank you.
 
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Felenari

New member
Got the 5 star. Loads like a charm and has plenty of clearance from the grip. Not too expensive either. Got it in zombie green because why not.

I'm still going to look into another firearm for competition practice but now at least I'm set for a decent home defense reload. Depending on how this does at the firing range next time I might even get the tiny block with another loader. Maybe make my own block from hardwood. We'll see.
 
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MrBorland

New member
Felenari said:
I'm still going to look into another firearm for competition practice
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Decide which competition you'll participate in, then do some research and read the rulebook before buying your next gun. If it's a revolver, it'll likely be a 6-shot speedloader-fed K/L frame (or GP100) or an 8-shot moonclipped-fed N-frame in .38/.357.

Felenari said:
I'm set for a decent home defense reload.
Click to expand...

Gearwise, perhaps, but keep in mind quick and efficient reloads (especially when stressed) are mainly about technique and a boatload of practice :cool:

Felenari said:
Depending on how this does at the firing range next time I might even get the tiny block with another loader. Maybe make my own block from hardwood.
Click to expand...

Get a loading block if you like, but IME, they're really not necessary. Just invert the speedloader, load the loose rounds directly, then lock the speedloader closed. I competed a bunch with speedloaders and have Idon'tknowhowmanythousand reloads under my belt and never used a loading block.
 
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Felenari

New member
I've been practicing the reload at home with dummy rounds and I'm going to my in laws's ranch in a few days so I can practice there with live ammo.

I figured I would attend a few competitions as a spectator before deciding what kind of match to shoot. I'm not very competitive by nature so actually competing is still a maybe.

I like the novelty of the loading block. I'm not planning on running around with a loading block to every range and transferring whole boxes of ammo to it just to use the speedloader. I was thinking more like the little double block that holds two loaders next to the bed on the nightstand of something.
 
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huntinaz

New member
Right, I don’t think anyone is suggesting a loading block is necessary... but that’s not a reason to not buy something

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