Range and New Grips

More practice, more progress. Why didn’t you people TELL me that the secret to improving my shooting is to practice shooting more? (“Uh, we DID, T-Bolt.” “Shhhhhh!” )

The secondary purpose for this particular range trip was to test out the new grips. The tertiary purpose was to practice with a Bianchi speed strip on reloading

First, the cold target:

Odd. My flaw is high and left today. Sometimes it's hard to guess where DA trigger work will send it. GAH! I'd be horrible at pin-shootings. Plus I count 9 holes for 10 shots fired.

Ok, so maybe I back slid a little bit. Ten rounds, 7 yards. .38. Not too shabby. Except for that miss.

Then I wanted to test .357 with the grips. I thought they would hurt my hand. They didn’t. But something else happened. My grip positioning is different with these grips because of the shape, and when I fire the magnum loads the cylinder on the right side of the gun/cylinder jams back into the tip of the left thumb. Every time. Painfully. Even when I try to grip better or different. It’s not a problem with .38. Good to know, though. I don’t think I’m getting full value and benefit from a .357 out of a 2 inch barrel anyway.

Here is the target. 10 .357 on the left shoot n' see, 38 on the right:

Not bad with the left side despite the painful hit. Except... Yup, 8 holes with 10 shots. I have no idea where the other 2 went.

The .38 on the other side... I am settling down. 2 fliers a little high and left, but at least they are on the paper. 10 for 10 on the holes, too.

And another:

Better. Tighter. All holes accounted for. Maybe I am growing accustomed to the new grips already. Good.

To tell the truth, the grips don't shrink the pocket profile of the pistol, and the old rubber grips don't stick in my pocket like I thought they would. This might end up being an expensive speculative upgrade that I won't be using. We'll see.

And NOW I need to buy some more .38 ammo. Good luck there.

During the session I loaded about half the rounds with the Bianchi speed strip. It is marginally faster than loading them loose, but the speed strip fits in a pocket better than a round speed loader, and they keep all the rounds together in one place, aligned, in your pocket. So there are other advantages to carrying a speed strip even if it isn't SUPER speedy. I practice to get faster. Practice to be like JayG.