Practicing with your revolver

[Rancher Will]

Just wondering how many on this site actually regularly practice with their handgun. Since I was an LEO from 1961, I have regularly practiced, at least weekly, with my revolvers, and still do with all of them.

I use wax bullets, loaded with Mag Primers, with targets in my ranch shop and also in the basement of my home, for most practice. Then, at least once, or more, each month when weather is nice, I shoot on the range in one of my pastures with live ammo.

Since I consider my revolvers as short range, emergency, quick draw weapons, I practice that way at about 20 feet or so, indoors, shooting from the hip with wax bullets. Outdoors, with live ammo, I practice some quick draw but mostly with targets at about 50 yards for practice with sights. Even at 50 yards I always practice quick draw, then raise the revolver and use the sights to fire as quick as I get the sights on the target. At short range I always draw and shoot with one hand. At longer range I use two hands on the revolver by the time it is to eye level. Accuracy comes first with speed second, without delay.

In my basement, and in the shop, I have three paper targets, side by side. Outdoors, in the pasture I usually have two or three targets of the carrier side by side. I practice quick draw, firing one shot at each target, always considering the first shot to be the most important for accuracy and the quickest. The follow-up one or two shots on the other targets is fired as quick as I can accurately fire. However, that first shot is the most important for me.

Using wax bullets permits economical practice, indoors any time no matter the weather, and I find it keeps me in practice.

Just a side note. I use .44 Special and .44 Mag revolvers, S&W double action and Ruger Blackhawk single action. I have always noticed that quick shooting rom the hip results in faster second and third shots than shooting at longer range with arm extended. I believe that this is for the reason that shooting quick from the hip results in less recoil reaction than with the arm extended. I have no way to measure it but I believe that quick shooting from the hip provides less arm leverage for recoil reaction than shooting with the arm extended.

What do you do for practice?

 

[JimP]

Ye gads, wax bullets?! Never heard of such. Can you buy those or do you have to melt your own? :^)

I shoot at my local range approximately 3 times per week. I also shoot at my farm which I go to a couple weekends a month. I primarily shoot .38s in a 357 magnum and 45 ACPs in a 454.

best,

JimP

 

[contender]

Practice is what can mean the difference in a stressful situtation. "Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast" to quote a few famous competition shooters. Most of the ones I've spoken with say that mastering the basics is the best practice. You are practicing the things you feel you need and that is good.
I don't use wax bullets, but I do shoot a fair amount. And at least once a month, I shoot in competition. By shooting in USPSA competition, I get the stress of the timer, the challenge of trying to think & shoot, and the satisfaction of knowing I'm working on my muscle memory skills in a way that may help me someday.
Plus, since I own a range, it's easy to get in any shooting I desire.

JimP; wax bullets are easy to make. Do a google search to see how. Lots of folks use them.

 

[Rancher Will]

I make my own wax bullets with Parrafin that I buy, melt, reuse, and pour into wood blocks that I made to fit the form of the plastic cartidge forms in Remington cartridge boxes. I also have some wood blocks with 50 holes drilled in the size of the cartridge cases to use in the press. The cases are pressed into the wax by my drill press in my shop (with no drill bit in the chuck without the presss turned on and rotating) but a vise could be used also. I use regular cartridge cases with the primer holes drilled out. I press 50 Cases into the wax at a time thus forming the wax into the cases. I then push the wax down into the cases to the bottom with dowel, and then prime with Mag Primers (no powder) before shooting. I keep the waxed loaded cases in the refrigerator until I am ready to use them and prime them just before I load them in the revolver for shooting. Do not store primed wax cartidges for any lenght of time before use since the oil or somthing from the wax tends to deactivate the primers if stored for a longer time before use. It take only about 15 minutes to press-load 100 or so cartridges cases with wax. I use a Lyman tong tool to prime the cases before each shooting session.

Any centerfire revolver cartridge can fire wax bullets. I do not own an auto and I don't think an auto can fire wax bullets. Over about 50 years I would guess that I have fired a few hundred thousand wax bullets. If you practice often and do it right, you can get pretty good with live ammo. I have read that professional exhibition and professional target shooters fire thousands of round of ammo practicing. This gets expensive. Wax bullets give the same result without the excess cost.

The normal small paper targets are just scotch taped to a sheet of thick cardboard fastened against a wall. The wax doesn't mark the wall behind the thick cardboard. The bullets mark the paper targets and then fall to the floor. We use the regular 50 ft Small bore targets.

My wife also practices with wax bullets, in her .44 Special. She doesn't shoot as often I do but she can out shoot me many times in some situations. We have "friendly" competition. I always practice from my holsters and my wife always practices from her purse since that is the way we would be required to do it in stress. It's enjoyable for both of us and we can shoot when the weather is bad, or just when we want to take an hour off or so and we don't have to leave the house or shop.

I won't mention how fast and accurate it is possible to shoot with this kind of practice since usually I am not believed. But you will learn if you try it. And, when practicing with wax gets your results you can surprise your friends (and any bad guy who accosts you) when you shoot live ammo.

Wax bullets are safe to fire, create no powder smoke, have almost no recoil, and are accurate up to at least 20 feet or so (the range we shoot in my basement and in the shop). It is easy to keep the bullets in a 3 or 4 inch circle, shooting with quick draw from the hip with the right revolver that fits (this is important). And it is economical. The wax bullets are reusable. After firing a few hundred of them in the basement or shop, I sweep them up from the floor and re-melt them. The wax is also cheap to buy at a drug store, the supermarkets and some hardware stores. In fact, any store that sells canning supplies to housewives also sells parrafin wax. Housewives use it to seal jam and jelly jars, etc.

Some years ago I bought a few plastic bullets and plastic cases from Speer. I used them for a few years until I wore them out. I don't know if they are still available. The plasic bullets were safe but could do harm up close. Wax bullets are safe enough that if you accidently shoot your foot or leg in quick draw, you should not have a real injury, especially if you wear Levis and boots as I do. (I don't shoot my self with them but I have seen a couple of others do it trying to copy me.)

If anyone here wants to use wax bullets, I will describe and give the dimensions of the pair of wood blocks that I built and use to load wax bullets. And, of course, you can design your own, perhaps better than mine.

 

[m657]

great review Rancher Will. I appreciate your technique tips. My own practice varies from paper targets 7-50 yards, in both slow fire and fast draw drills. I also use a variety of falling plate racks, which are set between 20 feet to 25 yards. I like to use a variety of single and double action revolvers, and until recently did compete in Cowboy Action matches usually twice a month. I used pre 1900 Colt 45 SAAx and the Holy Black often for nearly 10 years.

In addition I almost always compete in both Steel Challenge as well as ICORE matches each month. At least once a week or sometimes more, I get to the range for a little extra practice, sometimes in the indoor rim fire range. For real target work I prefer High Standard but include some of S&Ws finest revolvers as they are marvelous as well. Currently I shoot the Steel Challenge matches best times with either a Ruger 10/22 or a S&W 3 7/8" m610. Now & then a factory GSSF Match shows up locally and I really enjoy those too.....but I am far more a 'participant' than a 'competitor'.

.....having finally retired, I barely have time for my other chores, such as reloading, going to gun shows, and hanging out on line talking about firearms.

 

[JWhitmore44]

If anyone here wants to use wax bullets, I will describe and give the dimensions of the pair of wood blocks that I built and use to load wax bullets. And, of course, you can design your own, perhaps better than mine.

Would love to hear about this. How much wax do you put in the cartridge?

 

[deac45]

I have done the wax bullets many times. The case mouths are pushed through the block of wax. The blocks I've used are about 1/2 to 5/8 thick.
One thing I want to caution about...ordinary primers contain lead. If you shoot indoors ventilate the room well.

Deac45

 

[Chris]

Rancher

Great tips, appreciate the info

Chris

 

[mattsbox99]

At least once a week. I set up several Steel Challenge targets. In the winter I primarily shoot revolvers so brass doesn't get lost in the snow. I compete with both autos and revolvers, but to me practice is practice, even if I can only shoot .22s. We have an indoor range for when it gets really nasty out, but they only allow .22LR.

 

[JimP]

I do not reload...yet. The idea of wax bullets sounds fantastic! I will see what I can find. Thanks very much!!

JimP

 

[JWhitmore44]

I do not reload...yet. The idea of wax bullets sounds fantastic! I will see what I can find. Thanks very much!!

JimP

Just fyi, I use the Lee Auto Prime tool for reloading. It's a hand tool that is sperate from a reloading press. It is fairly inexpensive an and works great.

 

[Nowata]

I shoot 5.0gr. Unique and a 240gr. SWC(about 750fps) for a plinker. However, when I get to the end of my Unique, I will switch to Universal(prob cleaner)

 

[JimP]

OK, I'm ignorant. but, here goes. So, you just use wax, a primer and brass? Powder?

JimP

 

[mattsbox99]

No powder, just a magnum pistol primer and drill the flash hole out to 7/32".

 

[timnc]

I shoot a lot of .22 for practice in trigger control and sight alignment. Reload to duplicate factory spec full power ammo. Took me 25 yrs to become "comfortable" with my ability to shoot a handgun and it takes constant practice to maintain that level. As Vince Lombardi once said "Practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect."

 

[Meeko]

I haven't heard wax bullets mentioned in YEARS! I would not recommend this today but long before the advent of Simunitions rounds and barrels Wax bullets were popular for force on force training. They were also popular for inside training if you didn't have a "legitamit" firing range. Like I said I wouldn't recommend it for force on force but wax bullets are a great alternative for the good ole wheelgun!

 

[JimP]

No powder, just a magnum pistol primer and drill the flash hole out to 7/32".

Drill the flash hole out to 7/32 ??? Ye gads!
Will the loader mentioned in a previous response (Lee Auto Prime tool) do that?

Jim

 

[JimP]

No powder, just a magnum pistol primer and drill the flash hole out to 7/32".

Drill the flash hole out to 7/32 ??? Ye gads!
Will the loader mentioned in a previous response (Lee Auto Prime tool) do that?

Jim

Here is a wax recipe I came across for those interested:

http://www.americanrifleman.org/ArticlePage.aspx?id=2294&cid=32

 

[JWhitmore44]

No powder, just a magnum pistol primer and drill the flash hole out to 7/32".

Drill the flash hole out to 7/32 ??? Ye gads!
Will the loader mentioned in a previous response (Lee Auto Prime tool) do that?

Jim

The Lee Auto Prime only seats the primers in the case. Just use a drill and 7/32 drill bit to drill out the primer flash hole in the case.

 

[jmdmt]

If you don't feel good about making wax bullets and the clean-up try rubber bullets made by "X" Ring. Follow the instructions with them and have fun. jmdmt