A Tale of Two Smiths

[AzShooter]

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
But it was a great time at the range today.

I took my two 617s to the range for testing and sighting in at 15 yards. I'm preparing for a Steel Challenge match and find 15 to be the best distance to sight in for.

I started shooting my 6 inch 617 with iron sights, a green Fiber Optic with an LPA rear sight. Sitting on the bench with the butt of the gun sitting on the concrete block I fired the first 3 shots to verify my sight setting. I ended up having to more it 3 clicks to the right and only 2 down before I was dead center.

I then shot my 4 inch with a Bushnell First Strike 3 MOA red dot. The four inch seems to track faster between targets. It took me the first cylinder to make sure I was hitting dead center but after the sight-in it was quite reliable.

Both guns have had a little tuning and both have 8 - 9 pound double action trigger pulls. The 6 inch has an Apex Mass Drive Hammer while the 4 is stock so far. ( I'm waiting for the new RevUp Hammer to show up for a K frame.

I had no problem keeping the majority of hits in a 6 inch circle at 15 yards off hand. I'll admit I had a few groups larger than I like but I settled down and began watching the sight and pulling straight through and my groups got tighter.
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[PALADIN85020]

I started shooting my 6 inch 617 with iron sights, a green Fiber Optic with an LPA rear sight. Sitting on the bench with the butt of the gun sitting on the concrete block I fired the first 3 shots to verify my sight setting.

I learned long ago never to place either a handgun or a long gun on anything hard and non-yielding when firing.

The recoil of the gun (even 22s) will bounce the gun off the hard surface enough that your shot will deviate from the sights a bit.

In other words, hand-held off the block rather than setting the butt of the gun itself on the block will give you more accurate and repeatable results. Just sayin'.

John

 

[series guy]

I have found the same issue. I sight everything in off hand.

 

[slight_turn_line_69]

You've got a couple of nice guns there! So, do you feel ready for the match now? I bought a cheap, plastic MTM pistol rest for sighting in, and it works ok.
I have my strain screw backed out 1/4 turn to give me 8lbs DA on my 617. I don't know whether the hammer would make a difference or not. It seems like the lack of mass of the MIM hammers would not allow anything lighter than 8 lbs without misfires, and that's been my experience so far. A 6.5 lb DA pull would be nice, but I'll probably skip the Rev up hammer at $240. What does the Apex hammer do for you? Do you feel the Apex you have is worth it? I'm afraid I'm too cheap to buy any expensive upgrades, but I am curious.
Of course, I also see you have cloud storage too. Lol.

 

[AzShooter]

I'm ready. I worked on my form and fired in excess of 300 rounds. As I progressed I could feel that my right arm was getting fully extended about 90% of the time which is a vast improvement for me. I normally keep my arms unlocked and only half extended. I'm finding the new extended arms are much more stable.

My strain screw is all the way tight. I put an 11 pound rebound spring in the gun and polished the slide and all of the interior where it moves. That's it on the 4 inch. I had a couple of clickers today but they were with Federal AutoMatch which gives me FTFs in all my guns.

The Apex Hammer has been a great improvement. It's listed as being able to have a 6.5 pound trigger and it works that way with Federal BYOB bullets and Remington Bucket Of Bullets. For CCI, Aguilla, Federal AutoMatch and Eley Force I need the extra weight.

I would say the Apex Hammer is worth the price.

The internals of my 6 inch have all been polished, it too has an 11 pound rebound spring but the mainspring is stock. I have a Cylinder and Slide extended firing pin in it. Timing is perfect and head space is minimal.

I normally have a C-More Railway on all of my guns. The Bushnell First Strike was on sale for $98 so I had to give it a try. I had no problems shooting in very bright sunlight today even with the 3 MOA dot.

Another good investment are the DS-10 speed loaders. I have about 20 of them that I either bought or were given to me by shooters that one them but didn't have a 617. They are the best, holding the rounds more secure that the other makes.

The also release faster, especially the newest ones. Dave at DS-10 gave me 5 and a loading block. I take it to the range every time I go. I have 3 Pelican cases with loading blocks in them. They each hold 14 setups so shooting a Steel Challenge match lets me reload very fast between stages.

I do have 2 of the SpeedBeez loading blocks that I got from Amazon. The Pelican cases are very hard to find.