Shooting DA revolvers

[markiver54]

AMEN...Great analysis NCG. I personally learned from it!!

[Mags]

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Thank you NCG.

[North Country Gal]

You are so welcome, my friends.

[BrokenolMarine]

A lot of good advice offered here, but shooting double action revolvers is one thing that I can say that I would consider myself qualified to comment on. In competing in PPC we shoot revolvers double action at distances as short as three yards and as far back at fifty yards with the heavy barreled custom guns. The key to accurate shooting double action at that distance is indeed staging the shots, but most of us had trigger stops on the fifty yard guns. (In this picture, you can see the small rubber tip sticking out the back of the trigger that would contact the inside of the trigger guard at the rear of the trigger pull) It is adjustable with an allen wrench. It will contact the frame just as the shot is beginning to stage, and being rubber, your additional trigger pressure compresses the rubber just enough to fire the shot. This allows you to pull TO the staging point rapidly, with practice, and stage just enough to finalize your sight alignment / sight picture, then pull thru and fire the shot.

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Practice and practice and it becomes second nature. I was shooting falling plate matches in revolver class, and found that I was actually staging the trigger out of habit, but doing so rapidly, with only a slight hesitation. With non competition guns, I don't stage the trigger, but pull thru smoothly, keeping the sights steady. A good way to practice smooth straight trigger pull is to balance a spent case on the end of the barrel and pull thru the trigger holding the gun out at arms length in your shooting grip. If you pull thru the double action pull without the spent case falling off the barrel, you achieved a smooth pull.

To reinforce what NCG had to say, remember that the gun is already dead, you don't need to strangle the grip. What I used to tell my students was to think of your grip as a firm handshake. Your grip, grips the gun and your trigger finger (only) operates the trigger. Squeezing with your grip hand as you pull the trigger is called "Milking the grip" and will cause the shots to go low and left for right handed shooters.

[BrokenolMarine]

A couple shots from the Virginia Police Revolver Association Matches...

From the 50 Yard Line...
I am the old Fat Guy in the Black T at target 17...

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The Richmond Shooters at the 50 yard line. You can see HOW far away that target is and we are shooting at it with 38 caliber revolvers.
The little guy on the left, shooting that tight sitting position on target 13, is the builder of all those amazing guns.

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Before the start of the match... this was years ago, back when I was still working patrol.. not all gimpy.

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I enjoyed the matches, they kept me sharp, and I got to spend the day with folks who liked the same things I did.
As an Department Firearms Instructor, competing helped insure I was at LEAST one of the best, if not, "The Best" shooter on the range when I was teaching.
In addition, most of the other department's instructors, were there on the range with me, so we got to discuss new techniques, ideas, and training methods between strings and matches.

[North Country Gal]

Marine, that is so cool. Love that mod on the trigger. May even try it on my Dan Wessons. I gladly concede that you are the real expert, here. Thanks for sharing.

[BrokenolMarine]

Thanks, it's an easy mod, but most smiths will ask if it's a recreational or protection gun. It's NOT recommended for a EDC gun or a Personal Defense home gun as it can creep slightly out of adjustment if you over wear the allen screw all the time playing with adjustments because YOU can't make up your mind. For a target or competition gun all it costs you is a second to make the adjustment and a few points in a match. (At worst.)

On a defense / protection gun you don't want to find yourself fighting the trigger stop and pulling hard to fire the shot, which would pull you off target. It would have to drift WAY out of adjustment to keep you from being able to fire the shot at all. Hopefully you would have noticed in your monthly practice sessions before that happened... right.

[GFK]

I also do not shoot my DA revolvers DA very often but as a starter it would help to have some larger (and rubber) wrap around style grips for an improved grip on the gun.

I can attest to this. A rubber grip has helped me. It makes holding my S&W .357 Mod. 65.5 easier. It is an Uncle Mike grip that I brought from S&W in 2006. As far as trigger pull goes, it is smooth throughout the pull. I shoot it in single action mode most of the times. But, double action is good for quick draw.

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[fortyshooter]

Got here a bit late but this is a great topic! I fire DA when I have those revolvers out during my 10 ft. paper target drills.
One thing I have tried is to dry fire in DA with a penny or dime sitting on top of the front sight if it is wide enough to sustain balance
and try to go thru trigger pull with coin staying in place. Works in SA pull also .

Not any expert by any means...but not to awful shooting the Alaskan in DA...at the 2:50 segment in video.https://youtu.be/wCToPRzUyb8

Broken Marine....thanks for those great shooting tips!

[ditto1958]

NCG, thank you. I’m gonna work on this at the range over the next few weeks. I hope I will have some progress to report.

I like my Security-Six, but it’s DA trigger is not very good. This may be a good excuse to find another nice older Smith & Wesson. My Model 14 has a really nice trigger, both SA and DA. It’s my bench rest gun, though.