Uncle Scotty Stories: My First LAPD Duty Pistol

[Half Moon]

Interesting comments towards the end of the video about revolver reliability. Back when I bought my first pistol, a 1994 S&W Model 66, it was partially due to the perception even then that semi-auto's were complicated and unreliable compared to a revolver. I thought wheelguns always go bang when you pull the trigger, apparently they have their own failure modes.

If anything revolvers are probably somewhat more mechanically complex. Still, my experience says, given well maintained handguns, the odds of mechanical failure are probably about the same between revolvers and semi-autos. Feed cycle reliability and ammo flexibility are higher on the revolver though. Since cycling is purely muscle powered you don't have the same issues as a firearm reliant on recoil or gas to cycle. In exchange though you gain bulk and lower capacity. TANSTAAFL.

[Brian T]

Does anyone have detail pics of the Uncle Scotty's Mod 67?

[Clark Jackson]

“You went out with just 18 rounds and you had to make your rounds count. There was no way you could sit there and hose 15 or 20 rounds at a suspect. You had 18 total and it took time to reload. In many regards it forced you to be very accurate, it forced you to be accountable for your rounds.” (*emphasis is mine)

Say it again Uncle Scotty! Louder! For the hyper fast split time people in the back!

[HCM]

“You went out with just 18 rounds and you had to make your rounds count. There was no way you could sit there and hose 15 or 20 rounds at a suspect. You had 18 total and it took time to reload. In many regards it forced you to be very accurate, it forced you to be accountable for your rounds.” (*emphasis is mine)

Say it again Uncle Scotty! Louder! For the hyper fast split time people in the back!

Context matters.

In general I agree with what Jared Reston says here:



However he is talking about .30 ish splits. Some people would take what you and Uncle Scotty are saying an endorsement of slow bullseye type fire for real world use even tough I don’t think that is what either of you mean. Like the process for speed training bullseye type shooting is a training mode towards our end goal of a balance of speed and accuracy.

To a PF person fast is “jail bait” splits under.20 however many “normal” people think .50 splits (or even 1.0) is “fast.”

To get faster in general you need to push speed till accuracy suffers and the dial it back to a speed you can reliably hit

One take away from both performance shooting and performance driving is speed development dies two things, it builds confidence and it trains you to “see” faster. To be confident applying that .30 or even .50 split with accuracy in the real world one should at some point be going faster than that in training. The confidence resulting from this also allows one to apply more “bandwidth” to other things like accountability and accuracy.

[Gadfly]

E.T.A.: To get back to revolvers, I was able to buy original, pre-Federal Hydra Shok at Alexander’s Guns, on San Jacinto at McIlhenny Streets, near Downtown Houston. That place is long gone, of course.

If you want nostalgia, you can still go to Central Police Supply over on Washington. They still have HKS speed loaders on the wall that have been there since Regan was in office. Yellowed plastic, and price tags stacked 6 deep... peel down to the bottom and find the $4.99 original price... The still have some OLD holsters that have been on that wall 25 years. Good times.

I did the Montgomery County SO academy in 96 with an SSIII(070) holster gifted to me by an HPD officer (Jamie King) who went to high school with my brother. Same guy who gave me my first ride along and set the hook to be a cop. He took me out for a night of wild rides, shots fired, officer assists being dropped, dead guys found... followed by a sunrise breakfast at House of Pies on westhimer with his shift mates. I was hooked.

Thanks for your service to H Town @Rex G....

[SCCY Marshal]

If you want nostalgia, you can still go to Central Police Supply over on Washington. They still have HKS speed loaders on the wall that have been there since Regan was in office. Yellowed plastic, and price tags stacked 6 deep... peel down to the bottom and find the $4.99 original price... The still have some OLD holsters that have been on that wall 25 years.

I love stores like that so much. Please tell me the floor creaks and you need to dust some of the boxes on the shelves when looking around.

[Totem Polar]

On the subject of wheelie vs semi-auto reliability, I have found that the reliability of my Glocks has definitely taken a hit lately over ammo issues. Even some “premium” duty ammo QC has been a little lackluster of late. I think that the street reliability of modern service autos may well ebb and flow—within a very small window of variance—based on the volume of ammo that our factories are cranking out to meet the demand at the time.

I’ve had several failures at the range (Like, 3 or 4) over the summer—including from a G45 that is definitely vetted. Of course, I’ve had some failures to ignite during the season in revolvers too—most likely more than the Glocks, but we all know the malf drill there.

All the wheelie failure has been cheap ass 130, 132 and 158 ball though. The GDHP+P and various .357 HP ammo that I have been willing to burn has all lit off as expected—which is more than I can say for some 9mm that should really know better.

Data point of one hobbyist shooter, OMMV, etc...

[Clark Jackson]

Context matters.

...However he is talking about .30 ish splits. Some people would take what you and Uncle Scotty are saying an endorsement of slow bullseye type fire for real world use even tough I don’t think that is what either of you mean.

You are correct in your assumption above at least as it concerns my intent.

Edit: The J. Reston video is on point.

[Dave T]

Some people would take what you and Uncle Scotty are saying an endorsement of slow bullseye type fire for real world use...

I didn't get that from either of them, but then I was taught to fire 2 and access. And interestingly enough I've been told several times by young hot shots that is old fashion and it no longer applies. Since I am old fashion, I still fire 2 and access.

"The confidence of amateurs is the envy of professionals."

Dave

[HCM]

I didn't get that from either of them, but then I was taught to fire 2 and access. And interestingly enough I've been told several times by young hot shots that is old fashion and it no longer applies. Since I am old fashion, I still fire 2 and access.

"The confidence of amateurs is the envy of professionals."

Dave

I didn’t get that from either of them either but I have heard many people twist this into “there’. no timer in a gunfight.

You are making a decision to shoot, firing two quickly ( 1.5-2 seconds on the draw and .3 to.5 split) then assessing. Speed doesn’t have to be a mag dump.

And if the first two didn’t work you are applying more.

The problem is I see too many people try to use assessment as an excuse for being slow aka the “no timer in a gun fight” people. I would assume you have run into plenty of them over the years.

I’ve talked before about the three basic responses we see in body and dash cam footage of OIS in order of frequency:

1) an initial burst of reflexive or panic fire at cyclic rate, followed by an assessment re-gaining of emotional control, at which point they apply fundamentals of shooting and get hits ending the fight.

2) those who maintain emotional control and apply fundamentals in a quick but controlled manner - these usually end fights the quickest

3) those who lose emotional control and never regain it. These are the guys mag dumping and not hitting anything.