Competitive shooters, a moment of your time please.

[Tyler L]

...
Stance: should I be turned completely sideways to the target or some other amount? Leaning forward or back? Weight distribution on my feet?
...

You might find this video interesting. I certainly did.


Also, it is possible to set up a Colt to be able to safely dry fire, where the nipples are a few thousandths short of the hammer face.

 

[Relic shooter]

Dry Fire Nipple Protection & Safety Option;

I use neoprene cone-shaped faucet washers for both dry firing. A cone that stands above top of the capped nipple with hammer-down works well as an added safety feature on my capped & loaded rifle while hunting.
**If a rifle or pistol is carried loaded & on half-cock & is dropped during a fall & the hammer strikes a hard surface it's almost a certainty that the half-cock notch will fail & fire.
*For dry-firing C&B revolvers, cut & place a tight fitting segment of the neoprene washer in the hammer slot to prevent nipple damage.
Note 1st Photo;
An oblong piece of thick leather or flat piece of neoprene retained to the trigger guard also works well as a hunting safety option.

 

[M. De Land]

Good thread.
French Colonial makes a worthy suggestion, but of course it is unacceptable to dry fire a percussion revolver with the nipples in place. Rather than pull the amm. I have occasionally placed a narrow strip of leather in the channel where the hammer falls to cushion the blow, but this is a bit awkward. What's the better solution to allow dry firing without peening the nipples?

I've worked out a cushion made from a neoprene glass setting block that friction fits on the web in the hammer cut, right over the back of the arbor thread. The cushion needs to be sanded down enough to allow the action to cycle (re-set) but allows dry fire without nipple deformation.

 

[Sam squanch]

Don’t overlook the option of practicing with a good quality pellet pistol for those times you can’t get to the range. I was amazed at the improvement I got from just plinking at small objects for 5 minutes a day!

 

[Relic shooter]

Don’t overlook the option of practicing with a good quality pellet pistol for those times you can’t get to the range. I was amazed at the improvement I got from just plinking at small objects for 5 minutes a day!

Excellent advice Sam squanch
Relic shooter

 

[Iceman]

Don’t overlook the option of practicing with a good quality pellet pistol for those times you can’t get to the range. I was amazed at the improvement I got from just plinking at small objects for 5 minutes a day!

I was just at Pyramid Air looking at air pistols before I came here. Good idea.

 

[maillemaker]

A couple of thoughts from me - 10+ year N-SSA competition shooter.

When shooting off hand with a revolver, make sure you take your free hand and put it in a pocket, or loop your thumb in your belt, or otherwise anchor it so that your free arm/hand is not waving in the breeze, slightly moving your body as it does so.

Buy one of those bore sighting cartridges with a built-in laser that will fit down the bore of your barrel. Then you can practice holding the revolver while keeping the red laser dot still on a point on the wall. Dot doesn't need to line up with your sights - you just need to be able to see it to hold still.

 

[jdesro]

I was just at Pyramid Air looking at air pistols before I came here. Good idea.

Don’t overlook the option of practicing with a good quality pellet pistol for those times you can’t get to the range. I was amazed at the improvement I got from just plinking at small objects for 5 minutes a day!

This is the way.

Not as economical as dry firing, but an air pistol is cheap to shoot, has no recoil and gives you feedback on how your shot actually broke - which is something dry firing can't really do.

I have a Diana Airbug, which is a CO2 powered pistol with good sights and a decent trigger. I can shoot this all day in my basement while the weather is crap for pennies, and doing this most certainly carries over to the powder burners. I think it has helped my one-handed shooting immensely.

 

[Smokerr]

I will disagree on not dry firing. You do get feedback on flinch or not and an idea of how the shot went.

I have nothing against air guns but you need to understand they are not a BP revolver and will not have the same fidelity.

The police no longer use low powered training ammo as the cop if he had to shoot suddenly dealt with a big boom and recoil they were not used to.

That said dry firing is as simple as removing the cones.

 

[jdesro]

I will disagree on not dry firing. You do get feedback on flinch or not and an idea of how the shot went.

I have nothing against air guns but you need to understand they are not a BP revolver and will not have the same fidelity.

The police no longer use low powered training ammo as the cop if he had to shoot suddenly dealt with a big boom and recoil they were not used to.

That said dry firing is as simple as removing the cones.

Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not suggesting to not dry fire. I do it all the time, and it is an invaluable tool to be effective in the shooting sports. But it is just one tool in the toolbox. Just like an airgun is another tool to use for certain occasions.

All trigger time is good - dry fire, airgun, live fire - it can all be part of the learning journey.

 

[M. De Land]

Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not suggesting to not dry fire. I do it all the time, and it is an invaluable tool to be effective in the shooting sports. But it is just one tool in the toolbox. Just like an airgun is another tool to use for certain occasions.

All trigger time is good - dry fire, airgun, live fire - it can all be part of the learning journey.

I do need to point out that no matter how much one practices "NO BODY" can hold perfectly still , that is a myth that needs knocked in the head from the get go.. What actually happens with lots of informed practice is one learns to coordinate hold, sight alignment and trigger break consistently which enables accurate fire.
The sight alignment is always on the move to some degree.

 

[Iceman]

Update: Thanks everyone for your replies, I really appreciate you taking your time to help me out. I had planned on going to the range Sunday to work on this but I think I can safely cancel that. In a good way! Lot of ideas I can and have been workin on here at home, and I need a lot more work.

Stance: Jdesro’s picture says a thousand words. He looks to be shooting from a strong position and i’m working on trying to build a good stance like the photo. i Find myself involuntary relaxing my elbow. Not as bad as the Bisley stance shown in the video. So having a comfortable but strong stance with a natural point of aim and be able to hold steady on the target is going to be my first goal.

Dry fire: I love it and finally came up with a way to do it. There is a narrow window to stop the hammer that doesn’t jam it , can still re-cock the hammer and see the front sight after the trigger is pulled but I got it. Major problem here, the sights are off the target after pulling the trigger. I need to dry fire it everyday to stop that from happening. Definitely a different trigger than I am used to.

Air pistol: I don’t have one yet but I do have a 22. Once I get everything working good at home dry firing i can practice with it live fire. I might go shoot a 10 round group tomorrow so I can have a before target and see how much I am improving as i go.

I’ll keep updating as I go. The shoot I want to win is in June. I think it’s an achievable goal, 5 shots on clay pigeons. Sixth shot on the shoot off target, if I can make it to that II’ll at least have a punchers chance.

 

[French Colonial]

Update: Thanks everyone for your replies, I really appreciate you taking your time to help me out. I had planned on going to the range Sunday to work on this but I think I can safely cancel that. In a good way! Lot of ideas I can and have been workin on here at home, and I need a lot more work.

Stance: Jdesro’s picture says a thousand words. He looks to be shooting from a strong position and i’m working on trying to build a good stance like the photo. i Find myself involuntary relaxing my elbow. Not as bad as the Bisley stance shown in the video. So having a comfortable but strong stance with a natural point of aim and be able to hold steady on the target is going to be my first goal.

Dry fire: I love it and finally came up with a way to do it. There is a narrow window to stop the hammer that doesn’t jam it , can still re-cock the hammer and see the front sight after the trigger is pulled but I got it. Major problem here, the sights are off the target after pulling the trigger. I need to dry fire it everyday to stop that from happening. Definitely a different trigger than I am used to.

Air pistol: I don’t have one yet but I do have a 22. Once I get everything working good at home dry firing i can practice with it live fire. I might go shoot a 10 round group tomorrow so I can have a before target and see how much I am improving as i go.

I’ll keep updating as I go. The shoot I want to win is in June. I think it’s an achievable goal, 5 shots on clay pigeons. Sixth shot on the shoot off target, if I can make it to that II’ll at least have a punchers chance.

"Major problem here, the sights are off the target after pulling the trigger. I need to dry fire it everyday to stop that from happening. Definitely a different trigger than I am used to.

Keep at it, dry firing is one of the best things for follow through and to get used to the trigger, you can see below on the shots where I screwed up, 30 shots off hand. You WILL get there.

 

[RonRC]

I use the clear tubing meant to connect air pumps to aquariums for aeration.
I cut the tubing into small lengths and place them over revolver nipples. The tubing extends just beyond the nipples.
For rifles, I use the same washers discussed earlier in this thread.
Additionally, I use a target pellet gun on my indoor pellet range to practice trigger control. It really has helped my shooting.

 

[Relic shooter]

Experienced forum members have provided numerous excellent tips to keep shots in the 10-ring !
As others have stated, serious revolver competitors usually stick with a Remington or Ruger old Army for obtaining the tightest groups.
Some say Colt open-top revolvers don't make good target guns but I would venture to say that they haven't fired an original 1851 or 1860 Colt revolver.

BARREL QUALITY, FIT, FINISH & TUNING MAKES THE DIFFERENCE;
Barrels on original Colt & Remington revolvers have far superior deep 'progressive-twist rifling, in the right shooter's hands they are capable of producing cloverleaf groups.

Barrels on replica Colts & Remington revolvers including 2nd generation have much shallower depth rifling & a slower rate of twist.
Obtaining match grade accuracy with replica revolvers requires much more tuning, arbor work & development of light loads along with fillers.
Some older forum members & serious competitors will recall back in the 70s-80s will recall paying big bucks for special match grade'' 58 Remington revolvers that were mfg with deeper fast twist rifling.
Others like myself decided to go with the real deal & shoot our original revolvers that sometimes were less $ than buying a copy.

Below is photo of my original 58 Remington war horse.
At 160 yrs old it's still tight as new & still out shoots my Ruger Old Army.
IMPROVING OUR SHOOTING SKILLS KEEPS US YOUNG
Relic shooter

 

[45D]

Uberti's have 1:18" twist across the board.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I use piece of a foam earplug under the hammer to keep from battering the nipples, it stays in place for a long time, will slip eventually but I just put it back and start again.

Well that's a bit of genius....

LD

 

[Relic shooter]

Uberti's have 1:18" twist across the board.

Thanks for the update Mike,
Some older model replicas often had a much slower rate of twist.
good that they have stepped up & corrected.
Just leaves some fine tuning to put them in the competitor's ring
Relic shooter

 

[45D]

Thanks for the update Mike,
Some older model replicas often had a much slower rate of twist.
good that they have stepped up & corrected.
Just leaves some fine tuning to put them in the competitor's ring
Relic shooter

Yep, one of the biggest reasons I like Uberti best for my use is the fast twist. It makes better sense for conversions.

Mike

 

[Larry Akers]

You might try stoning the full-cock notch and sear nose. I haven't seen a new pistol yet that they weren't rougher than a cob causing inconsistent pressure to be applied for release. Use a hard Arkansas stone and don't change any angles.

You can use a revolver at Friendship to shoot single-shot matches. Only load one chamber and fire the shot. Do this 10 times per match. For revolver matches load 5 chambers, fire the 5 shots and load 5 chambers again.( you are not allowed to load all 6 chambers.)