Hope this goes well, 627 Pro

[RonS]

Too dark to take it to the range tonight, hope the weather is good tomorrow. Bought it for my 60th birthday, thanks to my wife and daughter saving spare change for the past few months. The only thing I need to do now is get on the Brownells site and get an Allchin red dot base and spare moon clips ordered. No more chasing brass. No more choosing between seeing the target or the front sight. If the light is good at the range I'll try and post a picture. Not that it is anything special being stock and all but it is kind of traditional.

[Macinaw]

What type of red dot sight are you going to use? I highly recommend a C-More Railway 8 moa. It is easy to "find" the red dot as compared to other red dot sights. Midway USA. com usually has them on sale for $208.

[RonS]

I have a Burris FastFire III that I am going to put on it. It was a gift.

[S&W357]

No more chasing brass. No more choosing between seeing the target or the front sight.
Well said. I been there!!!

[RonS]

I loaded up the three moon clips that came with it with CCI Blazer Brass .357 Magnum ammo. I can see that I probably won't be using moon clips as much as I expected. I guess I need to standardize on one brass like Starline and buy the right thickness moon clips to match. The factory moon clips and CCI brass combo is a bit loose.

I need to practice my revolver skills and adapt to this big beast. I used to be able to load a K frame three rounds at a time without looking down. Not going to happen with this without a bunch of practice.

Still, I am a little pumped and can't wait to get to the range tomorrow. At least if it is rainy, it is stainless steel.

[*chris*]

Great gun, I have a Weaver Microdot on mine, I love it! I have read that the 8 shot moonclips are thinner than the 6 shot ones and what is why the fit is sloppier. I don't know if the TK Custom moonclips come thicker, but they may. Use round nose bullets and loading is much easier.

Chris

[Pizza Bob]

Ron:

Moon clips are the greatest invention since sliced bread - you just need the right clips and the right tools to appreciate them. I have six revolvers that use moon clips and three of those I shoot in IDPA and USPSA - literally thousands of "moon clipped" rounds down range.

This site may prove invaluable to you...

The Revolver Supply Company. Supplies for the revolver enthusiast

I have been told that his moon clips for the 627 (.38 Spl/.357 Mag) are very close to the much more expensive Hearthco moon clips at about 1/2 to 1/3 the cost.

He also offers the original moon clip tool. Again, those thousands of rounds? All loaded into the clips with an original moon clip tool. That takes care of loading the clips, to remove the brass, get yourself one of the screwdriver handled de-mooners from Brownell's and you'll be a happy camper.

USPSA just changed their rules to allow 8-shot revolvers to compete in the Revolver division, but they will be scored "minor" - which means you can use the shorter (more stable in the clip), low recoil (in a 627) .38 Special round (bullet weight x velocity / 1000 must be equal to or greater than 125). You would have to forgo the optical sight if you decide to compete.

I'm sure my eyes are worse than yours (I have a couple years on you and I had eye surgery last year - from which I will never fully recover) and here is what I do. Get more light around the front sight blade - and make that blade a fiber optic. Standard S&W set-up is a .125" wide blade front sight with a .125" notch in the rear sight. If you have a DX type front sight (easily user changed) get a High-Viz .125" FO DX style blade ($30 - $40 on Amazon) and send your rear sight off to Jack Weigand and get his rear target blade with a .140" notch. If it is a pinned-in front - get a gunsmith to install a Dawson Precision .100" FO blade and leave the rear sight alone. Makes a world of difference.

I just picked-up a 627-4 PC in .38 Super, for use in USPSA. I will be equipping it by taking advantage of people's Christmas largess. Have fun with yours and good luck.

Adios,

Pizza Bob

[RonS]

Ok, no more storms, no more rain, no more 20+mph winds, no more 13 hour days at work so today I got to the range with the new Pro.

Fired 80 rounds of Fiochi 158 LRN and 16 rounds of CCI Blazer brass 158 JHP. The Specials were enjoyable, the Magnums were a blast, just enough recoil to tell you that you just sent a serious burst of energy down range but not enough to punish the hand.

The good:
I love this gun.
Single action trigger is great.
Double action trigger is good; very good IMHO, nice clean pull thru, the stack and bang a nice crisp break. Groups stayed circular when going to double action, for me the most important sign of a good handgun trigger, if I don't pull low left then I know the trigger is giving me all the help it can.

The bad:
Three light strikes. All fired on the second try. The third round of .38 Special, another later in the next box and one round of .357 Magnum failed to fire on the first try.

The ugly:
I just blew through probably $40 of factory ammo and I forgot to pick up one of those cloths for cleaning ss handguns so I get to do it the old fashioned way.

Side issues.

If the sun is at the right height, a red ramp turns into a mirror and turns into a glowing bar. But there is enough air on either side of it you can still get a sight picture.

Grips are nice but I think I want something different, when actually shooting they feel somewhat thin. I have thin hands and wear a size large glove so a little more girth might help.

It is interesting shooting an 8 shot gun. I just know when I have fired 6 without thinking about it. With this I found myself wondering, "Was that the last one?"

Update:
Just ordered a set of Brownells S&W screw driver tips, 10 OEM moon clips and my Allchin red dot mount. Hope they come in before my vacation is over after Thanksgiving.

[pipeliner]

Loose moon clips are better than moon clips that are too tight. Ya gotta to kinda throw them in.

[RonS]

I have discovered that gravity is your friend. Once I learned to break my wrist and let the gun go vertical the ammo drops into place a lot easier. I didn't want to shoot my moon clipped ammo, it didn't seem worth the effort but I did practice loading them into the cylinder while I was at the range, mostly out of curiosity.

I wonder how the Hornady tipped bullets would work. I would probably need a custom bullet seating punch to get consistent depths. Anyone use them? I want to work up two loads, a nice, consistent .38 Special wadcutter plinking and introducing shooters load and a .357 Magnum HP load. Back in the day (when range ammo was mostly affordable) I loaded only one load, Speer 146 grain 3/4 jacket SWCHPs. Those are sitting around drinking a beer with the dodo and passenger pigeon now so I need to find a good magnum load.

[Master Chief]

Very nice gun. Is it a carry gun ? Hunting maybe? Or just a range
piece ?
$1200 ish ??

[RonS]

Oh, Lord no, my family likes me, but not that much. Tag was $889, then tax, NCIS fee and some ammo and it came to a large pizza over a grand.

I have a Glock mini gun for carry, right now that is as heavy and bulky as I want to deal with. It is mostly a range gun although once I get the light strikes sorted out I may keep it out of the safe for a bump in the night gun. I have been shooting since I was 8 and I am still more of a revolver guy since that is what I learned on. I trust the Glock and shoot it well enough but revolvers are just more comfortable in some ways.

Plus, I have a couple of non shooter friends who have expressed a sort of interest, I think this would be a good intro gun with match wadcutters once we get past shooting my dad's Colt Officers Model Special .22.