Range Report
... ok, here goes, as promised ...
... I did the "Jim March' on all six revolvers and although there were differences, I have to say that the respective posters were right in terms of quality of the Astra ...
... now - I'm out on a limb here, because as mentioned before I'm not an experienced shooter - plus this would be my first revolver ...
... anyway, my verdict: excellent craftmanship, very precise and tidy machining, accurate tolerances and all of the six revolvers within the acceptable margins according to JM ...
... the one from the counter, which was the one I shot (no need to dirty the ones still in the box) had a cylinder-barrel gap between 0.007 and 0.008 and otherwise also (just) acceptable ...
... below is a piece of the target, I tore out and scanned - looking for grouping only:
... 6 shots DA and 6 SA ... 10mtr ... due to the above stated facts, I would say, that the size of the grouping was rather me than the gun ... an experienced revolver shooter would have definitely achieved a much smaller group ...
... recoil is not too bad ... the grip ergonomics, I find a bit awkward and guess it will be something to get used to ... I should add, that I have broad hands but rather medium to short fingers ... I have to really hold on, in order to control the gun and avoid it from coiling into the palm ...
... the one I would pick has the following test results according to JM:
• no front-back cylinder wiggle ... none in counter-spinning-direction and maybe one half to one milimetre in spinning direction (hard to guesstimate)
• cylinder to barrel gap 0.003 to 0.004 ... I guess a 0.0035 would have been perfect ... the 0.004 went in a little bit easier at one hole and a liiitle bit more difficult at the opposite one ...
• timing - cylinder to barrel - check, was perfect, I would say ... I reckon, that my ability to eyeball a center position is quite good and there was nothing to complain about ... same goes for the firing pin position ...
• no complaints about the forcing cone (thanks Lone Star) ...
• the trigger was in fact exactly as JM likes to call it, " like a glass rod breaking" - very nice ... and also a very comfy trigger reach in SA ... DA is a bit long and awkward due to the grip ergonomics as mentioned before ...
... sooo ... all in all I'd say this is an excellent revolver, especially when considering the price tag, and worth every cent ... the guy from the shop, who is an experienced shooter and also fired a couple of rounds with it, reckoned that the new generation S&W's don't deserve to be in the same shelf with this one
...
... I guess my decision is made ... question is, when to grab it ... the reason being is, that we had the CZ97B down there as well ... my oh my - what a gun (I'll post about it in the Semiauto Forum) ... difinitely mine -gotta have it ... can't buy two guns at the same time, but then I think, that they not going to sell all six of them in the near future ...
thanks again for all the help and advice ... yet another issue, where members of this forum helped me to good judgement and the right decision ...
cheers and beers
LetsFetz
PS: sorry for the 'bumpiness' in the grammar, but I'm not used to discussing gun-technical things in English (yet) ...
