Distinguished Revolver loads that don't suck?

Ok revolver lovers,

I consistently shoot worse with my revolver than my other guns--and I always shoot DR legal loads.

My buddy lent me his machine rest to use for developing my ammo.  It's not good!

If I shoot 148gr HBWCs in my gun they group <2" with a random flier a couple inches out of the group, but when I shoot LSWC or LRNs through it, I get some pretty big spreads.  5-7"!  There doesn't seem to be any consistency from cylinder to cylinder either.  One set of 6 shot has cyl 1 with a flier.  The next string has cyl 1 in the group but cyl 5 is a flier.  And every string had a lot of vertical stringing.

I switched to factory loads (ok Blazer 158 LRNs but it was the only DR legal stuff I could find) and it was about the same.

Is this about normal?  Are my expectations just too high?

3.4-3.5 of BE or HTG with a Zero 158 LSWC works well for me.

Post not showing up...

Check your rest technique. There is more to it than just throwing it together and shooting.

If its a Ransom look at the link here for instructions:
http://www.ransomrest.com/RansomRest.html

158gr LSWC (Red River - local) 2.9gr clays makes nice groups.  S&W K38 14-4 groups under 2" and a S&W 586 just slightly bigger.


+1 on the RR, we were getting inconsistent results based on where we placed the clamps when securing it to the bench.

I should add let me know what your group sizes are.

Wish I could help you there. Interested in DR myself but don't have a load yet. My SWCs are 143-gr and are going 2.5-2.8 inches benched off a rest with a red dot. Barely good enough but wrong weight.

RESISTING the urge to buy a 158-gr 4-cavity mould... But want to know WHOSE commercial 158s do group well, like the OP is seeking.

Are you shooting them out of a .38 or a .357? I had a terrible time finding a DR load for my .357 Ruger Security Six. I finally settled on 3 grains of bullseye because it was easy to remember. I tried Titegroup, 231, Unique and none were better or worse than the Bullseye load. What did work well in testing was to load 158 grain LRN's over a medium load of Unique in a .357 case. To stay DR legal I tried the same load in a .38 case with the bullet seated out to the same OAL with no luck.

Hi Rob-

Here are a couple of things that have helped me shoot better long line scores with my DR:

1. I used a Ransom Rest to determine which of the six chambers shot the best. Then, I single load that chamber for slow fire.
2. I use a Zero 158 SWC with 3.3 gr. WST for my long line load. I use 3.0 gr. WST for my short line load.
3. The best 10-shot group I was able to obtain at 50 yards (and I tested a lot of factory and handloaded ammo) with the load listed above was about 3 to 4". 
4. I think it is difficult to obtain the same accuracy from a cast bullet than you can from a swaged bullet, so all of my long line ammo is loaded with the Zero 158 SWC. For the short line, I have found that most anything will work O.K.

Finally, while off the topic a bit, I found that the short line provided me with the most "low-hanging fruit" for improving my score, so I spent most of my time training at 25 yards in my quest for the DR badge. I found that shooting double-action (especially in rapid) on the short line improved my score, too. This really surprised me because I never thought that shooting DA would work well for me when I first started doing it.

Hope that helps,

Bill

Hi, Folks - New member here.

I love shooting revolvers and would like to start shooting some Bullseye come spring, eventually shooting some DR. That said, I thought DR required the use of factory or commercially reloaded ammo. Can reloads be used in matches, or do y'all use them just for practice? 

Tom

You can use your reloads for DR matches (158 LSWC or RN) and in the CMP EIC matches for Distinguished Pistol with your 1911 (230gr FMJ)

Dave

Tom, Any 158gr LSWC or LRN are the acceptable loads.  They can be factory loads or reloads.  For non-DR matches (for bullseye CF) I recommend you use the 148gr HBWCs over 2.5gr Bullseye--MUCH more accurate!
Dan, I'm shooting a S&W K38 Target masterpiece. --so .38spl only.

Bill, my machine rest work that I'm doing was to try to figure out which cyl I should use for the long line--but the groups weren't consistent enough for me to come to any conclusion yet.  I think I will wait until it gets warmer.  I think I will try shooting 10 from cyl 1, 10 from cyl 2 and so on...then measure my groups.

MrBorland wrote:Hi, Folks - New member here.

I love shooting revolvers and would like to start shooting some Bullseye come spring, eventually shooting some DR. That said, I thought DR required the use of factory or commercially reloaded ammo. Can reloads be used in matches, or do y'all use them just for practice? 

Tom

Tom-

The rule (Rule 3.1.4) for Distinguished Revolver equipment and ammo says that any safe .38 caliber ammo using 158gr round nose or semi-wadcutter bullets only are allowed (though the NRA's own current PDF of the rules has a printing error and doesn't list anything for Rule 3.1.4, that IS what it said, and the error should be corrected in future printings). No restrictions on bullet construction - can be lead, jacketed, or plated - as long as its either a round-nose or semi-wadcutter bullet.

---

As for a particular DR-legal load that I like: I load 3.6gr Accurate Arms No. 2 powder under a 158gr Remington swaged .358"-diameter LSWC w/ Winchester WSP primers and Winchester brass (I forget what my crimp and OAL are, though). Out of every gun I've used for DR (S&W 19-3, S&W 14-4, S&W 14-5, S&W 14-6, S&W 68-2), it groups well and has a standard-feeling recoil - mild enough that I can get back on-target in rapid-fire, even with my usual routine of shooting single-action through the whole match. I'll admit it is a little dirty, but it was good enough for me to leg-out with, and even helped me get my first ever cleaned rapid-fire target (I'd never done it with any gun, even in Conventional shooting with a red-dot, until then). With that load, I've shot Master-level scores in DR matches (though I was already legged-out for most of them, and just shooting the matches for fun).

Are we roll crimping or taper crimping?  Doing any case trimming to get them all to a common length?

Taper crimping.  Not trimming but measuring cases....matching headstamps etc.

Finally!  Found some DR legal ammo that shoots great in my revolver!!

Standard Remington 158gr LRN ammo that I bought at my local hardware store.  Sub 2" group from my machine rest at 50 yards!  The blue circle is the size of the 10 ring.  I think that this gun is capable of 10x performance with this ammo!

Oh great,now I have to buy some more ammo.Thanks for posting this.I haven't found anything that shoots that good in mine.Except XTPs of course.

Len

Darn rn always comes back to haunt us like that.

No nice, pretty, easy to score holes..

All I ever used was American Eagle 158gr LRN out of my Colt Python to get distinguished; worked well.

C.Perkins wrote:All I ever used was American Eagle 158gr LRN out of my Colt Python to get distinguished; worked well.

 i run american eagle 158lrn or the remington umc 158 lrn. will be shooting my first DR match in may but the stuff shoots some nice groups from my 14-3

FYI. Bi-Mart here on the west coast has large quantities of Remington umc 158 LRN for 19.95. Midway prices are higher and they are outa stock.Just a heads up.
Len

Picked up a couple of boxes of the Rem today. I am going to test them in a 27 and a 19 to see what kinda groups they are capable of in a 357. I don't have a ransome rest but should be able to get a fair test with sandbags.

Len

It finally quit raining here long enough to test the Rem through my pistols. I just did a test between a model 14 and a model 27. I was pretty disappointed with the results in the model 27 (357).After sighting the pistol in with the Rem ammo I fired two 10 shot groups for score. The best score was 84-1x the other was a 79 with a couple of real bad fliers. The model 14 (38) on the other hand did much better.Best score was 94-4x and a 91-2x.Both of these pistols were fired from sandbags and have optics mounted on them.My conclusion is I need to stay with the 14 for DSR matches.Which is a shame since the 27 has a much better trigger and feel.The powder in this Rem ammo smells like and is as dirty as Bullseye powder.I think it would be easy to duplicate with handloads.

Len

len, if you get the chance try some American eagle 158lrn

Any luck with the Fiocchi  158 grain RN lead?  Holding some American Eagle and I'll grab some Remington too for testing.

Gitkrunk
   I will try the American eagles if I find any.I am on a mission today to try and figure out what powder was in the Remingtons. I pulled the powder out of a bullet and weighed it. 3.6gr, that matches the load in the book for Bullseye powder.The stuff smells like bullseye and like I said it is as dirty as bullseye but under a microscope the powder looks identical to bullseye...except it has about a 20% bigger flake.That might just be a batch difference but sorta kinda want to be sure before I load a batch.I know I can try the bullseye and will if I can't narrow it down.

Len