Jim Watson
New member
Shaggy Dog Story Warning
Back in the 1970s, I got into PPC. Unlike the tightly wound NRA program now, the local leagues did not care that my only connection to the police was my honorary deputy's card from the local sheriff.
Things were pretty loose, I started out with my Gold Cup, but when I wanted to get with the program, I needed a good .38 revolver. My M27 was just too big, a K38 seemed kind of spindly, a bull barrel match gun was too specialized, and the L frame had not yet come out.
So I bought a Python and sent it off to the Colt Custom shop, then headed by Don Tedford, for a trigger job. Nice, but dependent on Federal primers. A friend studied mine and applied the modifications to his and a couple of other guys' Colts. We had a lot of fun and shot pretty well. I bounced around near the Sharpshooter-Expert line and treasured a little trophy for one sub-match at the 1978 state championships.
I later shot it in IPSC with Major power factor loads, around .38-44 HV ballistics.
Down the road a decade or two, I got into IDPA and wanted to visit all the Divisions. So I traded a seldom used European automatic for a 4" Python and sent it to Reeves Jungkind before he completely retired. Not as light as the PPC gun, but it will pop magnum primers. That worked well for a while but I got more interested in maximum score than interesting guns and went to the 1911 for a long while.
Every once in a while the Revolver bug would attack and I would get a different sixgun and shoot it a while before reverting to the automatic.
So I looked at the collection this Spring and decided to do some testing.
I laid out Smith K (M67) L (M686) and N (M25) frame revolvers, plus the Colt.
I set up some drills calling for the draw, target acquisition, double taps, target transitions, and reloads.
The K and L felt different but shot similar scores and times.
The N frame moonclip gun was a bit slower on the move but made up for its heavy handling with reliably fast reloads.
The Python was accurate but slow in every respect. You can't get Comp III speedloaders for it and the "raftered" V spring action felt mushy and slow on the reset.
Back in the 1970s, I got into PPC. Unlike the tightly wound NRA program now, the local leagues did not care that my only connection to the police was my honorary deputy's card from the local sheriff.
Things were pretty loose, I started out with my Gold Cup, but when I wanted to get with the program, I needed a good .38 revolver. My M27 was just too big, a K38 seemed kind of spindly, a bull barrel match gun was too specialized, and the L frame had not yet come out.
So I bought a Python and sent it off to the Colt Custom shop, then headed by Don Tedford, for a trigger job. Nice, but dependent on Federal primers. A friend studied mine and applied the modifications to his and a couple of other guys' Colts. We had a lot of fun and shot pretty well. I bounced around near the Sharpshooter-Expert line and treasured a little trophy for one sub-match at the 1978 state championships.
I later shot it in IPSC with Major power factor loads, around .38-44 HV ballistics.
Down the road a decade or two, I got into IDPA and wanted to visit all the Divisions. So I traded a seldom used European automatic for a 4" Python and sent it to Reeves Jungkind before he completely retired. Not as light as the PPC gun, but it will pop magnum primers. That worked well for a while but I got more interested in maximum score than interesting guns and went to the 1911 for a long while.
Every once in a while the Revolver bug would attack and I would get a different sixgun and shoot it a while before reverting to the automatic.
So I looked at the collection this Spring and decided to do some testing.
I laid out Smith K (M67) L (M686) and N (M25) frame revolvers, plus the Colt.
I set up some drills calling for the draw, target acquisition, double taps, target transitions, and reloads.
The K and L felt different but shot similar scores and times.
The N frame moonclip gun was a bit slower on the move but made up for its heavy handling with reliably fast reloads.
The Python was accurate but slow in every respect. You can't get Comp III speedloaders for it and the "raftered" V spring action felt mushy and slow on the reset.