Originally Posted by
Bent Ramrod
I would have to say that this metrological heartburning, previous to a shooting session at the range, is backwards from the logical progression of things. Unless and until you find an actual issue with the function and accuracy, all that scoping and mic’ing, even chronographing, comes under the heading of Too Much Information.
One of the guys in a SASS club decided he needed a matched pair of revolvers. After endless reading, comparison of technical points, queries to club members, and other due diligence, he sent in an order for two Ruger Vaqueros in .44 Magnum. (This was before a lot of the obsolete calibers began to be chambered again in replicas.) He didn’t even take delivery of these guns directly; instead, he had them sent to Joe Doakes, Pistolsmith to the Stars, for his special lightening, slicking-down and tweaking treatment that all the then-Champions espoused as essential to unloading their sixguns in the minimum time, with the minimum effort, with the minimum disturbance of aim.
While the guns were getting reworked, he was back at the books again, researching the minimum loadings necessary for minimum recoil, maximum recovery from same, and therefore highest hittability coefficient. A look at these mouse fart charges in the cavernous Magnum shells convinced him (along with more reading and consultation) that the hottest Magnum primers were necessary in order to ensure complete burning of the powder and avoidance of squibs.
When the guns came from the gunsmith, he was ready with a couple boxes of these optimized loads, and then it was off to the range and a local Cowboy Action shoot. When the buzzer went off, he achieved the fastest ten clicks ever recorded by the local club. Not a single one of those Magnum primers fired with the light strikes delivered by the lightened springs and hammer.
Of course, he came back subsequently with loads that worked, in his guns, but a couple hours’ worth of load development with the guns as-issued, would have identified any real problems he might have encountered, saved him some negative notoriety (and even some money), and kept him off the bottom of the scorecard for the match.
I figured it was a true story because none of the shooters who told me about him would repeat it in his presence. But I took it as an object lesson in what the drill should be: you find the shooting problems by actually shooting, rather than try to head them off beforehand by addressing a bunch of theoretical possibilities.