New Ruger Match Champion

[tomme boy]

Well I have a little bit of time behind this gun now. It is turning out to be a fantastic and accurate gun. I ended up with the new adjustable sight model.

The action is super smooth compared to the standard GP100 in blued. The sights are very easy to see. I have not had to adjust the sights. It came centered perfect from the factory.

The wood grip is awesome! it really fits the hand well. The only thing bad with it is on the underside by the trigger loop, there is a cutout for the trigger loop. The edges of this are really sharp. If you ride the gun really high in the grip it will dig into your fingers. I think I am going to take a piece of wood to use to polish it down without actually sanding it. I don't want to change the color from sanding the finish away.

I do not have any targets, but it is very accurate. Especially coming from someone that does not shoot revolvers. I have been testing it resting on my toolbox with the soft pistol case on top of that. I have been shooting a few different loads. A LEE 140 gr SWC that is powder coated in HF red with 5.5 gr of unique. And a NOE 360477 under the same load of unique. The NOE is lubed with my own lube.

I was shooting at 20 yds and I am getting about a 1.25"-1.5" as long as I don't mess up the shot. Both loads shot really well, I am happy. Two times I could not see were the bullet went. Then I see a nice hole in my case! Oh well.

Now the BAD. On the cylinder, they rounded off the front of the cylinder to aid going in and out of the holsters for IDPA shoots. I do not like this at all. It allows the gas to come around the cylinder and get carbon and lube all over your right hand. The carbon gets all over the gun from this also. It cleans up, but it is really nasty all over your hand. If you look at the picture, you can see what I am talking about on the very bottom front of the cylinder.

Other than that, I am very happy with this gun.

[contender1]

Those are sweet shooting guns. Glad you like yours.

[tazman]

My 357 revolver isn't rounded off on the front of the cylinder, but after a session at the range it has carbon all over the cylinder area just as you described. It also gets on my hands.
I suspect it is just one of the things you deal with using a revolver.

[John Allen]

I think these new match GP100's are really nice looking.

[tomme boy]

This is the first revolver that I have had to just shoot. So if that is normal for the carbon to get all over than that is fine with me. It comes off. At least it comes off easier on my hands that the cylinder.

I really liked how the 140 gr SWC that were powder coated shot. I just don't know if I will invest any more $ into doing it better. I got the Harbor Freight Red and the plastic BB's and a old toaster oven that we threw in the basement 15 years ago because we never used it. I can do about 80 bullets at a time right now every 15 min. But, I don't have anything else to do in the winter. I normally cast all winter and then shoot all summer. But this really slows me down on making bullets.

[fecmech]

My 357 revolver isn't rounded off on the front of the cylinder, but after a session at the range it has carbon all over the cylinder area just as you described. It also gets on my hands.
I suspect it is just one of the things you deal with using a revolver.

Same here with my K-38. If I'm using a two hand hold my left hand has soot on it from the cylinder gap blow by.

[tazman]

I really liked how the 140 gr SWC that were powder coated shot. I just don't know if I will invest any more $ into doing it better. I got the Harbor Freight Red and the plastic BB's and a old toaster oven that we threw in the basement 15 years ago because we never used it. I can do about 80 bullets at a time right now every 15 min. But, I don't have anything else to do in the winter. I normally cast all winter and then shoot all summer. But this really slows me down on making bullets.

Smoke4320 sells powder coating powders that work much better than the Harbor Freight red. They are a bit more money but the results and ease of use are worth it. He also has lots of colors available.
I made up a pair trays out of 1/4 inch wire cloth that I used to bake the boolits on. I didn't use the bb's and just dumped the coated boolits into the tray gently after tumbling and made sure they were separated.
I would use a glove to make sure they were free from each other as soon as I took them out of the oven. They had small places where the coating came off where the wire touched the boolit but it had no effect on shooting. This way I had a tray ready to go back in the oven immediately when the first one came out. I could do about 100-150 at a time in each tray.

[DR Owl Creek]

This is the first revolver that I have had to just shoot. So if that is normal for the carbon to get all over than that is fine with me. It comes off. At least it comes off easier on my hands that the cylinder.
...

Beautiful gun!

If you don't want to get your hands all icky, I'd be happy to shoot it for you!

Dave

[omphacite]

I bought the fixed sight version sometime around May and have probably around 4K rounds through it. I replaced the grip with the standard size rubber grip with Altamont inserts. I found that the stock wood grip is nice for shooting light target loads, but if you have a high grip, hot magnums will hurt the knuckle of the thumb because the grip is so thick at the top. One other change that I made was I replaced the fiber optic tube with a smaller one so that I could see the square post. It helped with my aim in bright conditions quite a bit.

[9.3X62AL]

The Ruger Match Champion is a VERY handsome revolver. I like, a lot.

Dirt and detritus is part of the game with any revolver. It comes with the territory. For a more comprehensive covering of same, I advise the use of dirty old nasty commercial-grade Goex 3F at top-end loadings in any cap-and-ball revolver. You only THINK you've seen a dirt cake after a shooting session with smokeless cast loads......

[BigAl52]

I have one of the fixed sight models and absolutely love mine. I have owned Smith 686's and I like this one better than any of the 357's I have ever owned or shot. Al

[btroj]

The carbon and what not is a fact of life. I have a mid 90s GP100 in stainless and it gets covered from stem to stern with carbon fouling. I take it down and scrub the grunge off the outside of the cylinder about once a year.

Nothing shows carbon like a stainless revolver. Long as it shoots well I don't care how it looks. Sounds like yours shoot very well.

[freebullet]

Nice gun! I shot one of the match Champs and I really liked it.

I have the 6" ss. Picked up mine used. The shop owner was putting back in his display when he dropped it. It broke 2 thick glass shelves and every gun on them crashed to the bottom of the case. I negotiated a nice discount due to the scuffs and scratches.

I added an over travel stop and polished the entire gun inside and out. It's smooth as glass and fouling wipes right off.

[rintinglen]

That is a cool gun. I almost bought one a couple months ago, but with all the problems I've had with Rugers in the last year or two, I managed to keep my wallet in my pocket.

[EMC45]

I usually shoot my revolvers til my hands are black. Reminds me of mill scale from cold rolled when I worked in the machine shop.