.357 magnum - The truth please!!

[Skyman]

Yogi, i agree with you.But in this country, it is rather difficult to fire even a hundred rounds a YEAR.

Jake, i suppose at those ranges it is purely for advanced practice only.

Yes Haji, but i think dry firing is better than nothing...?

[xl_target]

A little off topic but there is a lot of truth in what liljake82 says about dry firing. Some professional practical pistol shooters says that they dry fire almost as much as they shoot. Pistol shooting skill are necessarily different from rifle shooting or shotgunning skills. Dry firing a pistol helps build muscle memory of the actions so you can do them without having to consciously about every step.

Here is what Bruce Gray, a well known competitor, trainer and gunsmith has to say about it:

I rarely encounter shooters who feel their shooting and gun handling is as good as it should be, and most will acknowledge a real need for improvement in shooting abilities. Whether you are new in recreational shooting, an officer of the law or armed civilian, or a seasoned practical competitor, experience suggests the place to start rebuilding your firearms training program is by reinforcing the fundamentals.
Fortunately, the most important single fundamental skill in shooting- trigger control- is the one which can best be improved off the range in independent practice. As good as the trigger on your SIGARMS service pistol may be, correct dry firing with visualization is the key to mastering it.
This basic dry-firing and visualization regimen evolved during thirty years of practical pistol competition and professional instruction, and includes ideas I’ve shamelessly robbed from some of today’s best shooters and anybody else I couldn’t outshoot. These basic techniques are directly applicable to anyone who wants to hit accurately at speed with a handgun. As well as being a standard amongst many top competitors, it has been adopted by a number of elite agencies as part of their tactical firearms skill building programs. I urge you to spend the minimal time required to employ it as a cost-free method to improve your shooting skills.
What sports gurus say about training is really true: it takes a minimum of 5 to 10 thousand correct repetitions of an activity before that action becomes permanently hardwired into your subconscious, and proper attention must be paid to form during each repetition for the imprinting of that action to be perfect. Many people hold the mistaken belief that great shooters, like musical prodigies, are simply born with superior coordination, vision or other innate talents from whence they draw their superior skills. The reality is they work harder, but they also have developed better training tools to work smarter.
Practical, defensive shooting requires mastery of many skills beyond simple marksmanship such as the draw, reloading and safe, high-speed gun handling. It might seem that the task of correctly executing each skill many thousands of times while maintaining correct form and acute mental focus would seem almost impossible. It’s really not, but the ability to train effectively is actually the only attribute separating champions and survivors from the losers and the dead. It’s not the amount of training time they put in that counts, it’s the quality of their experience.
The key to such effective training, defined as getting the most correct reps of an action from the time available, is to focus on quality. Do a thing perfectly even one time, and you’ve learned something; let yourself flail about in haste and distraction, and each crummy repetition just does more damage. The purpose of practice is to reinforce your subconscious’ ability to reproduce a performance on demand. Your mind cannot differentiate between a good shooting string and a lousy one, a proper trigger press and an ugly jerk, an aligned and clear sight picture or a fly on the target; it grooves in what you actually do and see as the model for future performances. If you do not want to jerk the trigger and miss your target while staring blankly under stress, you must align your sights and press the trigger as perfectly as possible in practice. This is equally true for both recreational and defensive shooters. Such conceits as letting yourself ignore fundamental shooting skills and hosing wildly or point shooting “because that’s what happens on the street” will gain nothing; an edge hit in practice will be a missed shot when it counts........

Read more about it here:Dry Fire Secrets of the Pro's

[YogiBear]

Aloha,

Many old timers shot at long ranges.

Here is one example: http://www.guns.com/2012/08/01/texas-gu ... shoot-out/

I and my friends used to practice shooting at the silhouette range out to 200 yards

with standard non sihouette guns. We liked to Challenge each other.

My personal favorite magnum is the Smith & Wesson Model 57 and 58 41 magnum.

My collection of M-57s start at 3" Mountain Gun to the 8 3/8" guns.

Also, I prefer to shoot all my shots Double Action.

I also shoot semi autos Double Action on the first shots. I do make it a point to practice

shooting semi autos Double Action on purpose.

None of my guns have had any special work done to them.

They are all "as issued, factory stock" guns.

I have trained myself to shoot Any firearm that has a Double Action to shoot

it as designed, Double Action.

[Skyman]

Very interesting gentlemen.Long range shooting skills saved a life there.

[Sakobav]

Baljit,

I knew you are good.Just did not know how good. Now I do!


Best-
Vikram

and thats a great calibre .38 Super

[Baljit]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Well, it's going to derail the thread but I tend to disagree.

Dry Firing and Practical Firing are two different things - Haji

with you Haji.




Thank you very much Vikram and Navi Sahib.....This is the only hobby i have.

Baljit

[Skyman]

May i ask why you do not believe in dry firing? It has been advocated by many people....? Including XL.

[Hammerhead]

May i ask why you do not believe in dry firing? It has been advocated by many people....? Including XL.

Yes Haji, but i think dry firing is better than nothing...?

Tagged - It's OK. Going into overtime already.

_________________________________________________________--- Edit

I'll grant you it's not the same as live fire, but IMO it serves to familiarize the shooter with the gun. It builds muscle memory of grip, grip angle, sight picture, control locations, and trigger pull

You got the point.

liljake82 ------
my point was that just going through simulation chamber does not make you a pilot, you needs to put time and effort to learn the flying. Same we sit in the car and do broom broom does not make one a good driver, hitting the road is. So again my point was that in context of Indian subcontinent, you don't own lots of ammo to practice but standing in from of a mirror and doing click click does not make some one a shooter, hitting the range is. Live firing is practical and you negotiate the full factors of shooting such as recoils and accuracy - Haji

[YogiBear]

Aloha,

Dry firing is OK as long as a snap cap or similar is used.

If using a Smith & Wesson with a hammer mounted firing pin a snap cap is definately recommended.

Those with frame mounted firing pins really don't need a snap cap, altho it is suggested.

Dry firing a hammer mounted firing pin can cause it to break.

Years ago I knew a federal agent who used to dry fire his snubie Smith a lot.

Until he brought it into the gun store(I just happend to be there whe he came in)

He showed it to one of the store guys who told him he didn't have a funtioning firing pin.

It had broken off and the gun could not fire.

He was totally unaware it had broken. It was replaced immediately.

It was his back up gun.

[liljake82]

May i ask why you do not believe in dry firing? It has been advocated by many people....? Including XL.

Yes Haji, but i think dry firing is better than nothing...?

Tagged - It's OK. Going into overtime already.

I'm still interested in your thoughts on this.

I'll grant you it's not the same as live fire, but IMO it serves to familiarize the shooter with the gun. It builds muscle memory of grip, grip angle, sight picture, control locations, and trigger pull. These are all key components of proficiency. What you do miss out on is recoil management and target transitions because you only have one shot unless you have a revolver or a true DAO pistol then you can snap away till your heart is content.

[rpm148]

Here's my take on the 357.

I am a single-action semi-automatic handgun shooter. My daily carry weapon is a Browning hi-power mkIII in 9mm. I carry 147gr +p hollow points. 13+1 in the chamber, I think it would be a fine man-stopper if I ever needed to stop one, but the key is shot placement, not the round. I used to carry a kel-tec p380 and felt confident in that as well (at least at close range). My nightstand gun is a springfield armory MC Operator in 45acp. 8+1 rounds of 230gr+p hollow points. The pistol is simply too large and heavy to carry around on a daily basis (and also too expensive to risk theft).

My wife never bothered to learn the mechanics of my semi-autos, which is why I bought her a revolver for the house. She has a Ruger police-service six in 357 magnum with a 4" barrel. fixed sights, blued finish. in good working order. we keep it loaded with the old FBI round, which is 38 special +p 158 grain lead semi-wad cutter hollow points. The reason it's a good man stopper is that I know she can hit a soft drink bottle at 10 yards, and she has spent time at the range developing her marksmanship. my wife is 5'10", and I won't disclose her weight but she is not of slight build. I am 6'1" and about 100kg, but I know people who are much smaller who handle powerful loads with good technique and practice.

As far as hunting, I personally feel that hunting anything but small game with handgun rounds is unethical unless you are an expert marksman and experienced hunter. Many people around here hunt wild boar with 357/44mag, but usually with 6+ inch barrels and scopes. I have a 7" 44 magnum (ruger super blackhawk) that I have considered hunting wild boar with, but have never had the opportunity. I hunt deer and elk with my 30-06 (180gr for elk, 165gr for deer).