I am a long time revolver fan and bullseye shooter, and that is great shooting. I always did better with revolvers myself, even though I managed to shoot enough while on a military team to make distinguished with a semiautomatic. Life has gotten so busy and unfortunately both my shooting time is limited ( I get only 6 days off a month) and have been focusing on other shooting disciplines lately. Also unfortunately my local club that ran bullseye matches decided to change them to a weekday, leaving me zero chance of getting there. ( somewhat understandable as bullseye is an old man's game at this point and I think I may have been the only guy not retired that shot the matches!
High Master Score with a Bargain Bin K38 and Cheap .38s
- Thread starter jareds06
- Start date
This is the setup Don Hamilton 3 time National Champion used at Camp Perry to set the record for 2700 in 1969. Note the 22 conversion is completely handmade and slide remains stationary. The Gun and conversion was built by Thelbert Almond from Charleston SC. Both still shoot unbelievably accurate today
Attachments
The current record is 2680-159x, set on July 24, 1974, by Hershel Anderson, with 159 of 270 shots hitting the "X" ring. It makes the common bragging posts seen online these days laughable, when some dude shows his groups fired from a rest at 15 ft. or 21 ft. The "big boys" shoot at 50 yds. and 25 yds. standing, one-handed and unsupported!
An absolutely insane score, I don't think a gun locked in a machine rest could score much better. I've only been competing since November and I think where I'm at at around 90% is a reasonable goal for most people who have a firm understanding of the fundamentals and put in serious practice for the amount of time I have this year. The difference between 90 and 95% is huge, the difference from 95% and 97% is even greater. Then the difference between 97% and 98% is even greater than that! You can see how stringent it gets just by looking at the list the NRA keeps of the 2600, 2650, and 2670 club. If I can get to the point of being even a 95% shooter consistently I would be happy.
I'd be happy to shoot that well at 50 feet! Bravo.
Kinda why my favorite gun is a shotgun.
. I hate it when my obnoxious BIL comes over snd outshoots me with my own guns.
Kinda why my favorite gun is a shotgun.
. I hate it when my obnoxious BIL comes over snd outshoots me with my own guns.
It takes a special kind of personality to shoot and excel at bullseye (precision) pistol matches. For most folks it requires a huge commitment in time and money. It certainly isn't for the average guy or gal. It can be a great foundation in handgun marksmanship that can carry over to other shooting sports, too!
I own two. A 1947 K-22 and a 1948 K-38 Masterpiece. Both shoot better than I ever can. (Tested off rests and sandbags.)
Great shooting, jareds06. Those scores are definitely prize winning.
You wrapped the grips with electrical tape?
Great shooting, jareds06. Those scores are definitely prize winning.
You wrapped the grips with electrical tape?
Yes inside out electrical tape as per Bill McMillan's advice in the "famous" instructional video put out by the Marine Corps. I found that sometimes under recoil my hand would slip upwards or sometimes when cocking the hammer back in rapid/timed my hand would not always go back to the same place before/after cocking. The tape helps keep the hand in the exact same spot in timed/rapid.
It took a few iterations but finally found how I like it. I started by just wrapping the grip with inside out electrical tape, this worked OK until it started to slip upwards under recoil. Tried again but wrapping it tighter, worked better but still slipped. Third iteration I took the stocks off and wrapped only the right side so the tape is mechanically held from slipping upwards while serving the purpose of keeping my palm in the same place under recoil. Works fantastic like this and I can still flip it over to show the "good side" without the tape
That's some really good shooting!Last chance to shoot before my matches Saturday. Another new personal record for the revolver.
That grip tape brought back a memory of when I shot my K38 in a police revolver bullseye league in the 70's and 80's. I always had a hard time maintaining a consistent grip cocking the hammer in the rapid fire stage, and wrapping my grip in old-fashion friction tape, or grip tape or "tar tape" as we called it as kids helped a lot.
Tar tape is a childhood memory for me - we used it on baseball bat grips and repaired our scuffed up baseballs with their seam stitches unraveling with the stuff until they were about 7/8 sized and just a black lump.
Thanks for the memory.
I'll bet your score will go up when you do a load workup for your gun with 148 gr wadcutters.
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Looking at a lot of old photos of revolvers used for competition back in the day, grip tape seems common. I don't think I saw anyone using it on the line at the revolver match I attended in November. It might be one of those "lost" tidbits of knowledge that needs to be rediscovered by people. The CMP rules explicitly allow for it so clearly someone was aware when they made up the rules approximately 1.5 years ago.
I just sold a 14-2 to a fellow forum member for a lot less. I probably should have thought that through a bit more. Lol
Doug M.
Member
Most of us cannot shoot up to the potential of the K38 and other Smith target revolvers. I do pretty well, but not at all close to the possibilities.
Not to knock your achievements, but isn't a Master score still a 95% average? A High Master score is still a 97% average, isn't it? A 90% average with a revolver is still a very high achievement.
The CMP has different classifications for EIC/"Service" pistols/revolvers and Match Pistols since there are considerably more limitations placed on those types of handguns than on Match Pistols. For Match Pistols ie shooting the 2700, 97% would be high master, correct. The people who can shoot service pistols at that 97%+ are ones who are winning the NTI, P100 NTT etc
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