When I published the first in this series back in June I had no idea it would be over three months before the next installment, but here we are. It’s not because I’m a lazy schmuck (though I am) but because I was waiting for the final (?) parts to arrive- the Bar-Sto Semi-Fitted bull barrel, heavy guide-rod and reverse recoil-plug which have finally arrived.

This is no slam against Bar Sto; it says right on their web-site that with one thing and another it might take 12 weeks to get your barrel. OK, it took 13, but I’m not going to carp over one week. At last my eagerly awaited components arrived and I was ready to start.

Bar St says the semi-fitted barrel will require some fitting, and of course it did, but it took surprisingly little. I’ll say it with pictures-

This led to the actual first-step, which was assembling the gun with the barrel to see what needed to be done. This was pain-free, as the barrel came with an appropriate link already attached. The barrel-hood did not fit the cut-out in the slide, which required a few minutes careful filing. on the right-side of the lug. This is done with the barrel in a padded vice, cutting only on the push-stroke; if you saw the file back-and-forth you will inevitably go off-square and you’ll dull the file. Once the hood was filed-to-fit the gun almost went into battery. I consulted the sharpy marked section and there was one tiny mark in the ink at the bottom of the space between the lugs on the left-hand side. I kissed it with the file and the gun locked up proper. I remarked the lugs etc. and cycled the gun vigorously several times, and the fit is tight but it cycled without producing much in the way of wear marks. Moving on…

…and this is where things went a bit sideways, and it was entirely my fault. For some reason- I’m going to go with stupid here- I utterly failed to note the outside diameter of the recoil plug. Had I done so I would have noticed that it’s significantly smaller than the slide-stirrup. My only experience with reverse-recoil plugs is from Detonics, which was several decades ago. They cut the stirrup to fit the recoil plug, which had a rim that matched the stirrup. The Bar-Sto unit is designed to be sleeved into the stirrup. Read on for the results…

Feeling quite pleased with myself I assembled the gun for the first time in it’s final for and… oh. That’s not right.

OK, I screwed up. This is where I realized the recoil-plug was supposed to fit inside the reamed-out stirrup, not have the stirrup cut away. Bugger. Nothing for it now, I supposed, so I loaded a magazine and cycled the action… and the gun wouldn’t go into battery. Removing the barrel and checking I discovered the cartridges were about 1mm short of seating in the chamber. I pulled out a .45 ACP finishing reamer and carefully reamed the chamber by hand until the cartridge seated perfectly.

I’m not certain, but I seem to recall reading that the chambers of match barrels are deliberately cut short so that they can be cut precisely once the barrel is fitted. maybe so, maybe not, but after that the gun hand-cycled cartridges from the magazine just fine.

Of course there’s still that unsightly gap, and while I test-fired the gun in this state it didn’t stay that way. For convenience I’ll describe the work now and discuss the test firing below.

After consulting a couple of 1911 boffins the solution was to make a recoil-plug with a rim of the proper diameter. I have a lathe and had some O-1 tool-steel rod on hand, so this was accomplished pretty quickly.

With that accomplished there was one thing on the gun that I did not like- the beavertail grip safety. I mean, I’m a fan of the concept, but this one made me nervous. something about it’s shape always made me feel like I might not activate it at a crucial time. I have always kept my thumb on the safety while firing, and this grip-safety did not work well with that. It wasn’t comfortable, and on one or two occasions my grip failed to deactivate is. Can’t have that of course, so I considered replacing it. Pulling it out and looking it over I determined that I could probably modify it to suit, and I did so.

The new profile allows a higher, more comfortable grip, and more importantly I now cannot grip the gun in a firing position without deactivating the grip-safety.

Test Firing

The first trip to the range was with the original too-small recoil-plug. The load used was a mid-range one; a 200gr. LRNFP over 6.2gr. of Universal with a Winchester WLP primer. I fired a hundred rounds, and the only issue was some light primer strikes. That was a bit baffling; the gun had never done this before and I had not messed with that part of the mechanism. OK then. I cleaned the firing pin hole and firing pin, then installed a stiffer mainspring. Problem solved.

By the second trip I had fitted the new recoil-plug, and fifty rounds of the reload listed above and a couple magazines of my 200gr. Speer ‘Flying Ashtray’ JHP load went downrange without issue. I was starting to get a feel for the gun, and liking it. A lot.

The third trip was thing morning. Another fifty rounds of my handloads, and I decided to try some factory ammo. Ggasping from sticker-shock, I bought a box of Selior & Bellot 230gr Ball ammo and tried them out. Now, I have not always had the best of luck with S&B ammo, but it’s what they had on hand. I didn’t have the best luck this time either; on initial loading the gun failed to go into battery. A slight tap remedied this. Out of fifty rounds I experienced maybe a half-dozed failures of this sort. No feed issues, mind you, or any other mishaps.

Not awfully surprising that there have been no feed issues; you can hand-cycle a full magazine of empty cases from the magazine! Curious about the failures to go into battery, I measured the loaded S&B ammo, and at the case’s throat they are .470″. This is well within spec for .45 ACP ammunition. Next I measured my handloads, and they came out at .465″. That’s only five thousandths of an inch smaller, but apparently it is juuuust enough to occasionally impede it from going into battery. Huh.

I considering whether to re-ream the chamber; it’s pretty tight obviously. On the other hand for my purposes being iffy with factory ammo is not a huge concern; I don’t normally shoot factory ammo. We’ll see.

Next…?

I think all the major work is done; I’d like to refinish the slide, and might replace some springs etc. simply as maintenance items, but the gun is pretty much finished as-is. It’s tight, reliable and accurate with the loads I intend to use in it. I’ll need to make a holster or two, as I never made one for this gun.

Hopefully as things get back towards normal, whatever that is, I’ll shoot some Action Shooting International matches and generally have fun with this gun. I think the friend that gave me this gun would be pleased with how it’s turned out.

Stay safe, and take care.

Michael Tinker Pearce, 2 October 2021

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The First Bird-

I’ve been messing about with my .38 Detective Special, trying to come up with a set of grips that suits me. First I went with some abbreviated grips that fit the short grip frame. Too squirmy. I added a modified Tyler T-grip. Unpleasant! I made up a set of ‘classic-style’ grips in Cocobolo. Those feel great in the hand… until a stout load goes off and the trigger-guard is driven into my middle-finger with painful force.

Screw it. I have large hands and moderately thick fingers. Time to tailor a grip to suit. I have some very nice Goncalo Alves wood on-hand, and I ran up a set, fitted them to the gun. Then I got the Foredom tool and some sanding drums and just started removing everything that didn’t feel right. Once I had the shape I sanded them up to 2000-grit and lacquered them.

Superficially this looks like a two-finger grip, but it actually isn’t. My pinky-finger wraps around the grip from underneath, giving a solid, three-finger grip.

The grip isn’t just comfortable, it’s easy to grab when holstered. I did several tests where I pointed the gun at eye-level with my eyes closed. When I opened my eyes and looked the sights were lined up. All good so far, now to test them. And what better way to test them than with a series of my standard drills?

The Second Bird…

I grabbed a couple boxes of my reloads and headed for Champion Arms near Renton, WA. I shot a few cylinders full just to shake the kinks out and get a general feel for the new grips. I shot a couple of targets at 25 yards and they were, uh, not special. 6-8″ groups. Far from my best effort, but some days are like that.

Drill #1- Two-Hand Aim-and-Empty

This one is pretty simple. OK, they’re all pretty simple. Anyway, you start with the gun held in two hands at the low-ready position. Bring the gun up, acquire a sight picture and empty the gun. Don’t fire faster than you can re-acquire the sight picture. For me this was about three-to-four shots per two seconds.

I repeated this drill twice with good results. I was using a moderately stout 158gr. load, and the chunky grips really reduced the felt recoil and gave excellent control.

Drill #2- Strong-Hand Aim-and-Fire

Run a target out to five yards. Start with the gun in the strong hand at the low-ready position. Raise the gun to eye level, acquire a sight picture and fire. Get off a good, clean trigger squeeze, but don’t doddle. DO NOT ‘pre-load the trigger as you raise the gun; your finger shouldn’t touch the trigger until the gun is pointed at the target! After firing the shot take your finger off the trigger, return to the low-ready position and repeat until the gun is empty.

Drill #3 Slow Draw-and-Fire

This one is not going to work on every range because many places won’t let you work from a holster. At Champion Arms if you are a member an RO can check you out and clear you to work from a holster. If your range allows, use your carry holster.

Place a target at five yards. Observing all proper safety measures, secure the gun in the holster and arrange your cover-garment to conceal it. Clear the cover garment, obtain a proper grip and draw the gun, keeping your finger off the trigger until the gun is pointed at the target. Obtain a sight picture then fire a single shot. Repeat.

The objective is not speed, but to perform these actions correctly and be mindful of each part of the process as you go. If you don’t get good hits slow down. This drill is about precision, not speed. You should also dry-fire practice this drill; doing on the range with live ammo is to reinforce that training, not replace it.

The objective is to develop muscle memory, so a lot of repetitions are needed, but most of them can be dry-fired. But the actual firing is needed to reinforce this training.

Wrapping it Up

These drills are far from comprehensive, but they are useful and easy to practice on most ranges and can be a useful part of a training regimen.

So, a nice, fun day at the range, the grips worked and I got some solid drills. Good day.

Take care and stay safe

Michael Tinker Pearce, 20 September 2021

Are revolvers obsolete? Yes…

…and at the same time very much No. Because real life is never simple. On the one hand for many people a light-weight polymer-framed high-capacity semi auto is an excellent choice for self defense, and as a duty weapon it has many unquestionable advantages. There’s a reason that autos have been far and away the most common military sidearms for over a century. With improvements to the weapons and ammunition in recent decades they have attained similar dominance in law enforcement.

Modern semi-autos are light, reliable and carry a lot of ammunition. They reload quickly and easily compared to a revolver. Yes, you can get pretty good with a speed-loader, but unless you’re Jerry Miculek it’s just not going to be as fast as an autoloader.

For many reasons and in many ways revolvers are obsolete compared to modern semi-auto pistols. But this does not mean they are useless or irrelevant, and there are a still a few things they do better than semi-autos.

Reliability

I’m listing this first because it’s the first thing most people think of. Yes, revolvers can and do jam, and unlike a semi-auto when they do you aren’t going to fix it easily in the field. But it’s a vanishingly rare occurrence; some folks have shot revolvers all their life and never encountered a jam. If it’s loaded and you pull the trigger it’s most likely going to go bang… and if it doesn’t a simple trigger pull gives you another chance. As FTF drills go pulling the trigger again is pretty simple.

They also are ammunition-agnostic. They aren’t picky; if it fits it shoots. Powder-puff target loads to +P screamers, the revolver just doesn’t care. Given the shoddy state of a lot of rimfire ammunition these days this is especially relevant for rimfire revolvers used for plinking, small-game hunting and even self-defense.

Would I personally choose a revolver over a semi-auto on this basis alone? No. But it’s something to think about.

Simplicity

I once heard the manual-of-arms for a revolver described thusly:

‘Open the cylinder, fill the holes with cartridges. Pull the trigger until it stops going bang. Open the cylinder and dump the empties. Repeat.

It doesn’t get a lot simpler than that. No loading magazines, no safeties, no releasing the slide, no clearing jams. Of course the latter is because if it does jam you probably can’t clear it.

Yes, I know that learning the manual-of-arms for a semi-auto isn’t rocket science, but sometimes it’s just easier for a beginner to use a revolver.

I’ve introduced a lot of people to handgun shooting over the years, and around half of them have found the relative simplicity of revolvers appealing. Not being experienced shooters they didn’t realize that the heavy double-action pull was supposed to be a problem and did just fine with them. My ex-wife, at 5’2″ and 100lbs soaking wet, handled my Model 36 like a pro in her Women’s Armed Self-Defense class.

A lot of them went on to semi-autos in time, but the revolver was their gateway-drug. If a new shooter wants to shoot a wheel-gun don’t explain to them why you think it’s a bad choice; it’s certainly better than nothing and it gets them shooting.

Power

By and large revolvers are available in more powerful cartridges than semi-autos. Yes, there are magnum semi-autos, but they’re rare and expensive beasts. If you want a powerful repeating handgun for hunting or long-range target shooting the revolver remains the weapon of choice.

.44 Magnum and .454 Casull are both popular choices for big-game hunting and self-defense against dangerous game, and the revolvers that chamber these rounds are lighter, cheaper and more reliable than their semi-auto counterparts. We can argue all day about the real-world utility of handguns chambered in .45-70 or .500 S&W, but at the end of the day if you want that level of power and more than one shot revolvers are where it’s at.

Light Weight

An alloy-frame S&W J-frame is lighter than any of the popular service-caliber polymer semi-autos used for self-defense. In some seasons and places minimal clothing is necessary for comfort and to blend in. In those cases dropping an air-weight J-frame in a pocket can be a lot easier to manage than a similarly sized semi-auto. Yes, it’s only five shots, but five is infinitely better than none.

In fact you can buy an ultra-light revolver in nearly any caliber you’re masochistic enough to shoot. In activities like hiking, deep-woods hunting and similar activities weight can matter a lot.

People Like Them

This may seem a silly basis for choosing a weapon to bet your life on, but is it? A gun you like is a gun you’ll practice with, and a gun you practice with is more likely to save your life when you need it.

It’s axiomatic that the gun you have with you when you need it is the right gun, and a gun you find comfortable, convenient and that you like is more likely to be there when you need it.

Suited to Purpose

For special applications like hunting a revolver is still the weapon of choice. Even in applications like civilian self-defense it can be a valid choice depending on the individuals life, anticipated threats and circumstances. Most self-defense shootings are at point-blank range and are resolved in 2-3 shots, and a revolver will deliver those shots with great reliability.

Obsolete?

For many applications they very much are. There are good and valid reasons police and militaries have overwhelmingly chosen semi-automatics for duty use. There is simply no arguing that for them more shots are better, semi-autos reload faster and are more resistant to extreme environmental conditions. Modern semi-auto pistols are the go-to choice for professionals who rely on their weapons every day, and they should be. But…

Revolvers are inarguably still relevant, and not just to ‘Fudds’ and old farts like me; a lot of younger folks find their qualities serve their needs well. There are good reasons why companies like Colt, Kimber and others keep introducing new models, and people keep buying them. Despite the proliferation of excellent, reliable and affordable semi-autos people still find revolvers attractive and useful, and they just keep chugging along.

Do I carry a revolver? Pretty often, though I do carry semi-automatics frequently as well. I’m confident in my abilities with them and they suit the sort of needs I feel I am most likely to encounter in day-to-day life. At the end of the day that’s what they need to do.

Michael Tinker Pearce, 17 September 2021