Bruce Cartwright
07-04-2020, 10:25 PM
Folks:
In this final installment of the Wheelgun Challenge, I am going to touch base on several thoughts/observations I have had since my time carrying a Ruger Match Champion full time, is now over. I carried a Ruger Match Champion 357 magnum revolver every day for six months. I learned several things and re-learned some old lessons. What follows is a brief summation of those lessons.
First, my Ruger Match Champion held up fine. It has quickly become one of my favorite revolvers and is my preferred revolver when I teach revolver specific classes.
Stocks: My Ruger came with very nice looking stippled wood stocks. These did not fit my hand and I did not enjoy shooting them. I decided I wanted a set of Pachmayr Compac round butt stocks. Pachmayr offered these stocks a long time ago for the GP100 series of revolvers. They haven’t been made in years. Finding them is nearly impossible. So, what happened? I found a set in a local store gathering dust. I bought them, put them on my Match Champion and immediately disliked them. My solution to all of this: Buy a set of Ruger factory compact stocks made of rubber with the wood stock inset panels. These feel much better than the Pachmayr’s and are very hand filling, yet easy to hide Growing up I read Elmer Keith, Skeeter Skelton, Bill Jordan, Ken Hackathorn, and Ross Seyfried. As a result, I shot a bunch of magnum revolvers with heavy magnum ammunition. I also remembered why there were so many pairs pf Pachmayr Presentation stocks in my revolver gear box. Those rubber stocks soak up a pile of recoil energy. I find that while the rubber stocks are ugly as a mud fence, they are a necessity if you shoot any real amount of magnum ammunition. I love wood stocks, especially those made by Craig Spegel and John Hurst, but I am under no illusion that using rubber stocks make long sessions of practice with magnum ammunition much more pleasant.
Revolver Modifications: The Ruger Match Champion has a really well thought out set of modifications that I don’t believe exist on any other factory revolver (I will qualify that by saying I don’t have access to the newer S&W Performance Center guns). The grip/stock extension allows a wide variety of stocks to be used on this gun. The beveled edges of the cylinder do make it easier to re-holster the Match Champion. I initially didn’t think this would be very noticeable, but I find re-holstering in a tight kydex rig is easier than straight edged cylinders. I Imagine that this feature will save some wear on a good leather holster as well. The chamfered charge holes are a really nice addition. I have paid extra to get that feature added to custom revolvers. It is nice to see Ruger do that from the factory. The chamfered charge holes do make speed loading easier. As strong as I believe the Ruger Security Six series of revolvers are, the GP100 is an improvement on the earlier revolvers in terms of strength. All of the engineering changes that Ruger applied to the GP100 are now assembled in a much more shooter friendly gun.
Maintenance: I don’t abuse my guns. Carry guns are cleaned immediately after a range session prior to being put back into regular service. My training semiautos get lubed regularly and cleaned only when necessary. All of that said, revolvers are different animals altogether. I cleaned my Match Champion pretty much after each range session. I have taken to keeping a military/M16 copper bristled cleaning brush in my range bag. I find my self doing with a revolver what I used to do during high round count classes with Pat Rogers. With the AR family, I applied lubrication every four hours of training. With the revolver, I take the time to brush out the extractor star and recess it fits in several times during a range session.
Ammunition: As a young shooter and reloader, I was always looking to save money or make my reloading funds go “further”. This lead me to cast bullets. I still cast bullets to this day when I get a chance. That said, I have found that lead bullets have two significant downsides. One despite my best efforts they lead up the gun and get things very dirty, very quickly. Secondly, I find that the smoke from lead bullets tends to obscure targets when I am running a revolver fast. My solution is to go with plated bullets. They allow longer shooting sessions and don’t gum up the guns nearly as quickly. I am going to experiment with the new polymer coating on cast bullets.
Defensive Ammunition: I realized several years ago, that 9mm Parabellum has become the new 38 Special. I remember seeing gun stores stocked with a wide variety of 38/357 ammunition. You can still find 38/357 ammo, but the prices have gone up significantly and the selection isn’t as wide. I tend to shop carefully and buy revolver ammunition when I “want” to, rather than when I “need” to. I think the Speer 135 grain Short Barrel Gold Dot hollow point load in 357 caliber might just be the solution to the blast and recoil of my favored 125 grain Federal load. This load uses a bonded core bullet and is slower than the Federal load by about 300 feet per second. I think it hits a “sweet” spot in terms of greater power than a +P 38 but without some of the recoil and flash of the full power 125 grain magnum loads. I have also heard good things about the Remington 125 grain 357 Gold Sabre load, but I don’t have any experience with it.
Training benefit: Most folks find mastering the long double action (trigger cocking) pull of a revolver to be more difficult than shooting a semiauto 1911 or striker fired pistol. I have found that once a person learns how to shoot a revolver well in double action mode, there is nothing they can’t learn to shoot. The amount of concentration on fundamental skills is such that revolvers generally require more focus than other types of weapons. I believe that shooters that expend the effort to learn to shoot wheelguns well find that those skills translate very easily to other guns. While I primarily teach and carry striker fired weapons or 1911s, I always keep revolvers in my training rotation. I do this because of the training benefit and because they are fun. I did so much “serious” based training during my career, by choice and necessity, that once in a while it is pretty nice just to have fun shooting a gun I like.
Long Range Capability: As I mentioned before, I spent a portion of my youth reading the old masters, Keith, Jordan, Skelton, Cooper, and Seyfried. I also spent a pile of time in the woods hunting and recreating. I learned how to shoot a revolver at significant distance (at the time I has access to strip mines where coal had been dug back east; I had 400 yard ranges where I could shoot). The ability to achieve hits at long range may not be something you need very often, but when you do, it is a nice capability to have. I am aware of a shooting one of my trainers at our Academy went through. When the dust settled, he had survived and his final shot that hit the subject was made at 47 yards.
Actual Carry: During the six months I carried my Ruger every day I didn’t experience any misgivings about being armed “only” with a six shot revolver. I adjusted my tactics to reflect the tool that I was carrying. I compensated a bit by carrying magnum loads. All of that said, I tend to carry a striker fired pistol most of the time. Like Pat Rogers said: “The mission drives the gear train”. If I am recreating in my chosen Montana, I am no longer at the top of the food chain and tend to carry big bore revolvers or 1911s. Those tools don’t serve me as well in more urban environments. All of that said, I tend to think the tool is much less important than the operator/shooter. Ken Hackathorn is friend and mentor. I was taking a handgun class from him several years ago. During one of the breaks, I asked him, since he has had the opportunity to train folks who shoot a lot of bad guys, what traits did the folks he trained possess that made them such successful gunfighters. Ken’s response was situational awareness. Ken indicated that the really successful gunfighters saw the things they needed to see before the bad guys they were fighting and acted accordingly. I never forgot that. Ken’s answer tracks with what I’ve heard/learned from other folks in the arena. While guns are important, learning how to fight is the greater concern. Having a gun, be it a revolver, 1911 or plastic fantastic and knowing how to use it, is what will save your life.
At any rate, those were my experiences/observations. Thanks for taking a look at these installments. Happy Independence Day.
Bruce
In this final installment of the Wheelgun Challenge, I am going to touch base on several thoughts/observations I have had since my time carrying a Ruger Match Champion full time, is now over. I carried a Ruger Match Champion 357 magnum revolver every day for six months. I learned several things and re-learned some old lessons. What follows is a brief summation of those lessons.
First, my Ruger Match Champion held up fine. It has quickly become one of my favorite revolvers and is my preferred revolver when I teach revolver specific classes.
Stocks: My Ruger came with very nice looking stippled wood stocks. These did not fit my hand and I did not enjoy shooting them. I decided I wanted a set of Pachmayr Compac round butt stocks. Pachmayr offered these stocks a long time ago for the GP100 series of revolvers. They haven’t been made in years. Finding them is nearly impossible. So, what happened? I found a set in a local store gathering dust. I bought them, put them on my Match Champion and immediately disliked them. My solution to all of this: Buy a set of Ruger factory compact stocks made of rubber with the wood stock inset panels. These feel much better than the Pachmayr’s and are very hand filling, yet easy to hide Growing up I read Elmer Keith, Skeeter Skelton, Bill Jordan, Ken Hackathorn, and Ross Seyfried. As a result, I shot a bunch of magnum revolvers with heavy magnum ammunition. I also remembered why there were so many pairs pf Pachmayr Presentation stocks in my revolver gear box. Those rubber stocks soak up a pile of recoil energy. I find that while the rubber stocks are ugly as a mud fence, they are a necessity if you shoot any real amount of magnum ammunition. I love wood stocks, especially those made by Craig Spegel and John Hurst, but I am under no illusion that using rubber stocks make long sessions of practice with magnum ammunition much more pleasant.
Revolver Modifications: The Ruger Match Champion has a really well thought out set of modifications that I don’t believe exist on any other factory revolver (I will qualify that by saying I don’t have access to the newer S&W Performance Center guns). The grip/stock extension allows a wide variety of stocks to be used on this gun. The beveled edges of the cylinder do make it easier to re-holster the Match Champion. I initially didn’t think this would be very noticeable, but I find re-holstering in a tight kydex rig is easier than straight edged cylinders. I Imagine that this feature will save some wear on a good leather holster as well. The chamfered charge holes are a really nice addition. I have paid extra to get that feature added to custom revolvers. It is nice to see Ruger do that from the factory. The chamfered charge holes do make speed loading easier. As strong as I believe the Ruger Security Six series of revolvers are, the GP100 is an improvement on the earlier revolvers in terms of strength. All of the engineering changes that Ruger applied to the GP100 are now assembled in a much more shooter friendly gun.
Maintenance: I don’t abuse my guns. Carry guns are cleaned immediately after a range session prior to being put back into regular service. My training semiautos get lubed regularly and cleaned only when necessary. All of that said, revolvers are different animals altogether. I cleaned my Match Champion pretty much after each range session. I have taken to keeping a military/M16 copper bristled cleaning brush in my range bag. I find my self doing with a revolver what I used to do during high round count classes with Pat Rogers. With the AR family, I applied lubrication every four hours of training. With the revolver, I take the time to brush out the extractor star and recess it fits in several times during a range session.
Ammunition: As a young shooter and reloader, I was always looking to save money or make my reloading funds go “further”. This lead me to cast bullets. I still cast bullets to this day when I get a chance. That said, I have found that lead bullets have two significant downsides. One despite my best efforts they lead up the gun and get things very dirty, very quickly. Secondly, I find that the smoke from lead bullets tends to obscure targets when I am running a revolver fast. My solution is to go with plated bullets. They allow longer shooting sessions and don’t gum up the guns nearly as quickly. I am going to experiment with the new polymer coating on cast bullets.
Defensive Ammunition: I realized several years ago, that 9mm Parabellum has become the new 38 Special. I remember seeing gun stores stocked with a wide variety of 38/357 ammunition. You can still find 38/357 ammo, but the prices have gone up significantly and the selection isn’t as wide. I tend to shop carefully and buy revolver ammunition when I “want” to, rather than when I “need” to. I think the Speer 135 grain Short Barrel Gold Dot hollow point load in 357 caliber might just be the solution to the blast and recoil of my favored 125 grain Federal load. This load uses a bonded core bullet and is slower than the Federal load by about 300 feet per second. I think it hits a “sweet” spot in terms of greater power than a +P 38 but without some of the recoil and flash of the full power 125 grain magnum loads. I have also heard good things about the Remington 125 grain 357 Gold Sabre load, but I don’t have any experience with it.
Training benefit: Most folks find mastering the long double action (trigger cocking) pull of a revolver to be more difficult than shooting a semiauto 1911 or striker fired pistol. I have found that once a person learns how to shoot a revolver well in double action mode, there is nothing they can’t learn to shoot. The amount of concentration on fundamental skills is such that revolvers generally require more focus than other types of weapons. I believe that shooters that expend the effort to learn to shoot wheelguns well find that those skills translate very easily to other guns. While I primarily teach and carry striker fired weapons or 1911s, I always keep revolvers in my training rotation. I do this because of the training benefit and because they are fun. I did so much “serious” based training during my career, by choice and necessity, that once in a while it is pretty nice just to have fun shooting a gun I like.
Long Range Capability: As I mentioned before, I spent a portion of my youth reading the old masters, Keith, Jordan, Skelton, Cooper, and Seyfried. I also spent a pile of time in the woods hunting and recreating. I learned how to shoot a revolver at significant distance (at the time I has access to strip mines where coal had been dug back east; I had 400 yard ranges where I could shoot). The ability to achieve hits at long range may not be something you need very often, but when you do, it is a nice capability to have. I am aware of a shooting one of my trainers at our Academy went through. When the dust settled, he had survived and his final shot that hit the subject was made at 47 yards.
Actual Carry: During the six months I carried my Ruger every day I didn’t experience any misgivings about being armed “only” with a six shot revolver. I adjusted my tactics to reflect the tool that I was carrying. I compensated a bit by carrying magnum loads. All of that said, I tend to carry a striker fired pistol most of the time. Like Pat Rogers said: “The mission drives the gear train”. If I am recreating in my chosen Montana, I am no longer at the top of the food chain and tend to carry big bore revolvers or 1911s. Those tools don’t serve me as well in more urban environments. All of that said, I tend to think the tool is much less important than the operator/shooter. Ken Hackathorn is friend and mentor. I was taking a handgun class from him several years ago. During one of the breaks, I asked him, since he has had the opportunity to train folks who shoot a lot of bad guys, what traits did the folks he trained possess that made them such successful gunfighters. Ken’s response was situational awareness. Ken indicated that the really successful gunfighters saw the things they needed to see before the bad guys they were fighting and acted accordingly. I never forgot that. Ken’s answer tracks with what I’ve heard/learned from other folks in the arena. While guns are important, learning how to fight is the greater concern. Having a gun, be it a revolver, 1911 or plastic fantastic and knowing how to use it, is what will save your life.
At any rate, those were my experiences/observations. Thanks for taking a look at these installments. Happy Independence Day.
Bruce