Normally shot on indoor ranges or close range at old carnivals with special ammunition and a chance to win cheap prizes, a gallery course is strictly a marksmanship exercise. I was at the range on another project and took along a fine 22 revolver, the Colt King Cobra Target. The revolver was featured on SHOOTING WIRE here. 

The gun has seen some use (bullseye, for example) and is more accurate than I can hold. It’s still new enough, the action is stiff though not terribly heavy. 

The Colt website shows various versions not available when this one arrived. There are now two-, three-, six- and eight-inch versions in stainless. The same lineup is available in blue finish as well, according to the website. 

The chunky little stainless revolver, “semi-bright” in finish, weighs just under 34 ounces. The adjustable rear sight is mated to a red fiber optic front sight. Stocks are Hogue Overmolded rubber. The cylinder is flat faced on the rear, not enclosing the 22 case heads. I don’t see that as a disadvantage.

In the Colt fashion, the cylinder rotates clockwise (to the right). 

I took stages from a gallery course to get a work-out with the KCT. I posted a downloaded/printed target from Sage Dynamics, representing a human head – but, more realistically, a bullseye for my purposes. All the shooting started with gun already in hand – and none of the strings are shot fast enough to cause heartburn on an indoor range. 

You might consider getting legit bullseye targets instead of my field expedient targets; the targets I used could cause some concern. Just make sure the scoring circle is five-to-eight inches. 

At seven yards, I shot five rounds. The time goal was 15 seconds or less. This was followed by the same thing, fired at fifteen yards. I moved back up to seven yards, for ten rounds in the same 15 seconds. I finished with 10 rounds in 30 seconds at 25 yards.

Shooting it this way, I was able to keep after any variation between point of aim and point of impact. All the strings with a 15 second par were fired in 8 seconds and under.

But I was shooting a 22.

The 25-yard double action 10-round string was fired in just over 29 seconds – either a good use of time or me being slow. 

I ended up with one hit at 11 o’clock just off the silhouette. There was a hit in each “ear,” and one in the “jaw,” low right. The remainder were in the circle at the top of the graphic. That was thirty rounds fired with four hits out of the scoring circle but still on paper. 

All of it was fired two-handed, double action. 

I’ll move this course to B-8s and start working one-handed strings of fire and shooting with the non-dominant hand. 

Gallery courses are fun, but you can use them for practice as well. 

The Colt King Cobra Target 22 has been here three years. Like any 22 DA revolver, it helps maintain my shooting ability with centerfire handguns without the blast and recoil. 

And this one does it with class.

– Rich Grassi