(didn't know if there was a better place to post a range trip report).
Just got back from the range, after having a great old time. The gun performed excellently, and was as "exciting" as I expected. Previously, the only times I'd fired a .357 was outdoors. Well, indoors is a whole different ballgame. The muzzle flash and sound were astonishing. A huge grin spread across my face after the first shot. Surprisingly though, despite all that noise and flash, the actual felt recoil really didn't feel much harder than a .45. The .38's were total kittens.
What kind of surprised me (not being a revolver type) was the amount of blast that comes out of the cylinder/barrel gap and singes your fingers. I tend to shoot with my left thumb off the grip and pointing up and away. After a few rounds and a bit of blackening of the tip of my thumb, I had to change
I did have one WTF moment. At one point, while shooting .38's (maybe 50 rounds into the trip) I pulled the trigger and nothing happened. I figured ok, misfire. Cocked the hammer, pulled the trigger, misfire. What the hey? Then I watched the cylinder as I was cocking the hammer - it wasn't rotating! I have something of a bad luck streak when it comes to new guns, so I thought "oh great, its broken already". Opened the cylinder, checked it out, cocked the hammer, and away she went. Over the next 20 rounds or so it happened at least 4 or 5 more times. Now I'm really concerned. Eventually, I figured out what the deal was. Being used to the very short trigger pull/reset on a 1911, and wearing a heavyish leather glove on my right hand, there were times where it appeared I wasn't letting the trigger move all the way back forward before cocking the hammer again. Once I made a conscious effort to release the trigger completely between shots the problem went away altogether. So, I'm assuming this is just a normal thing. I'm going to play with this a bit after I clean the gun up to make sure I'm not hallucinating.
The cylinder push rod also had a tendency to want to unscrew itself. Every 30 rounds or so, I'd have to screw the thing back in or the cylinder wouldn't be able to lock closed.
Gun was very accurate but wanted to shoot to the right. Naturally I forgot a screwdriver to adjust the thing (razzum frazzum). The .357's wanted to go to the right moreso than the .38's. I actually had a helluva 10 shot group at 10 yards (< 2", which is really good for me) with the 38's.
Shot UMC and Winchester white box. Winchester was cleaner but seemed to have a tendency to leave powder grains in the forcing cone and the cylinder. UMC was dirty (as usual).
Anyway, I'm totally tickled with the gun. Now I get to clean it!
Just got back from the range, after having a great old time. The gun performed excellently, and was as "exciting" as I expected. Previously, the only times I'd fired a .357 was outdoors. Well, indoors is a whole different ballgame. The muzzle flash and sound were astonishing. A huge grin spread across my face after the first shot. Surprisingly though, despite all that noise and flash, the actual felt recoil really didn't feel much harder than a .45. The .38's were total kittens.
What kind of surprised me (not being a revolver type) was the amount of blast that comes out of the cylinder/barrel gap and singes your fingers. I tend to shoot with my left thumb off the grip and pointing up and away. After a few rounds and a bit of blackening of the tip of my thumb, I had to change
I did have one WTF moment. At one point, while shooting .38's (maybe 50 rounds into the trip) I pulled the trigger and nothing happened. I figured ok, misfire. Cocked the hammer, pulled the trigger, misfire. What the hey? Then I watched the cylinder as I was cocking the hammer - it wasn't rotating! I have something of a bad luck streak when it comes to new guns, so I thought "oh great, its broken already". Opened the cylinder, checked it out, cocked the hammer, and away she went. Over the next 20 rounds or so it happened at least 4 or 5 more times. Now I'm really concerned. Eventually, I figured out what the deal was. Being used to the very short trigger pull/reset on a 1911, and wearing a heavyish leather glove on my right hand, there were times where it appeared I wasn't letting the trigger move all the way back forward before cocking the hammer again. Once I made a conscious effort to release the trigger completely between shots the problem went away altogether. So, I'm assuming this is just a normal thing. I'm going to play with this a bit after I clean the gun up to make sure I'm not hallucinating.
The cylinder push rod also had a tendency to want to unscrew itself. Every 30 rounds or so, I'd have to screw the thing back in or the cylinder wouldn't be able to lock closed.
Gun was very accurate but wanted to shoot to the right. Naturally I forgot a screwdriver to adjust the thing (razzum frazzum). The .357's wanted to go to the right moreso than the .38's. I actually had a helluva 10 shot group at 10 yards (< 2", which is really good for me) with the 38's.
Shot UMC and Winchester white box. Winchester was cleaner but seemed to have a tendency to leave powder grains in the forcing cone and the cylinder. UMC was dirty (as usual).
Anyway, I'm totally tickled with the gun. Now I get to clean it!