Johann the Horrible

I like the whole she-bang around F1, the skulduggery, the politics the cheating and mostly people like Schumi and his must win at all cost attitude. Hell maybe that is why I enjoy IPSC/USPSA too. I think it mist really suck for you guys as all the races but the one in Canada means that you get up very early. Come on Sunday, I can not wait.

Just a question from a foreigner: How in thee hell do you guys keep abreast of all the changes. Now I live in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Province. I embark on an Iron butt tripp with my bike covering all 9 provinces during a long weekend. By the end of the weekend I have driven some 5000 Km through all the Provinces and everytime a cop stops me he has the same powers and after comparing my firearm license with the gun lets me bugger off. In front of a school, in a church in a shopping mall all the towns all the Provinces. If my gun is showing he tells me to cover it or get arrested.(Carrying open carries a 2 year jail sentence) Now in America it seems like you could get yourself deeply immersed in brown stuff every time you cross a imaginary line on the map somewhere. So you get stopped and told that you are within two miles from a school in some state far away form your state`s laws. How would you know if you have never been there before? You Governor or sheriff or Marchall or whatever said it was quit OK to be carrying but this other guy says no way. Even if you knew about his rules, where would you put your piece until you get to the next piece of ground where you are allowed to carry? If a cop chases a criminal does he really stop at the border if the guy he is chasing crosses it and if he does stop what does he do when the guy shows him the "Brown Eye" after he crossed the imaginary line? If you legally own a full auto and moves can you take the gun with you even if you are not allowed to own a full auto at your new home? Do you have a right to property enshrined in your constitution like we do? I just think that you guys live in a very mixed up country with a bewildering array of laws. In Africa we have it a lot easier. When the cop asks you for your firearm license you just hand him a R100-00 note and drive off.

Used to be a cop in South Africa. The rules was that you got 120 days every 3 years. Some of the new guys we started getting after 1994 saw this as use the 120 days or loose it. They would time their sic leave to make sure they did not miss a day. As chief of discipline I used to drive to their homes and nail them if they were not at home or at their Doctors. This made me the most popular guy by far. Even got a couple of death threats out of it. Eventually in 200 I got sick and tired of this and took my discharge. The only time I used the flu shot I became so ill I had to be hospitalized.( I got bronchitis and that effected my Asthma and was knocking on the door for a while) Now if I see that stupid little injection I get fighting mad.

I lengthened the OAL by .05118027 of a inch(1.3 mm). Unfortunately the propellant that I am using is very sensitive to changes in length/pressure so I "know" everything will change. The reason I am using Somchems S121 is that it is fast, clean and stable. If I do my part my average spread is under 20 fps. The problems came with mostly one mag( but obviously the rest chimed in) and was basically cartridges nosediving.The magazine would then get stuck in the frame and refuse to feed or come out. The only way to free the mag would be to lock the slide back and then pull the mag free, the same way you would rectify a double feed. Since I had endless trouble with the slide stop locking open the gun during "weakhand" shooting the slidestop was modified so that it could no longer lock the slide open. This makes the whole process a lot more difficult and I have to push the mag out from the top while manually holding the slide open. I have a fully supported ramped match barrel.(Briley) The ramp is polished to a mirror finish and has not a single blemish. As stated previously I changed nothing. My mag springs are about 5 months old (and seems just fine) and the mags was tuned by an extremely knowledgeable person. Basically one of the only two people that ever work on my gun. Because of a lot of shooters sleeping before Nationals I do not have a snowballs hope in hell to have him look at my mags or gun(he works on first in, first out- and rightly so). As the mags are specially prepared for the gun I cannot run out and buy some new mags.(The gun is a Para 45 but uses BullM5 mags). My best mag(that makes the box) takes 17 and that is one of the reasons why I stick to 45 and have not made the jump to 40.(That and of course the fact that the gun used to be ultra reliable) I have a sneaking suspicion that I have treated a symptom and not the real cause of the problem and that it would come and haunt me during the Nationals. I used to have a spare(but not identical) gun but because I never ever used it traded it off less that a month ago. I rue that decision now. The time I need to be at my most confident in my shooting ability and equipment I lie awake at night chewing my liver. The "plans" I am making for the stages includes things like the fixing of stoppages. Saturday I started of again with one of my old bad habits of looking at the top of the gun to see if it worked after every hot. Saturday was also my last chance to make my Province`s team and, because the gun was playing up I missed it by one place. The option of my daughters pink Browning HP looks better and better all the time.

+1 for Luca`s post. I always double plug except when I RO. I like the feeling of being alone while shooting and not hearing any distracting noises. (even the RO going "stop") +100 for not wanting to lose more hearing, you spend so much time sitting under a noisy siren and other noises so protect what you have left. After 20 years the word most commonly used by me is "Huh".

From "Sunny South Africa", with love: My youngest daughter comer running out of the school building this afternoon and remarks'"Look daddy there is actually a cloud in the sky". Still about 109F though. How do you guys get that white stuff all over your pictures? Never seen snow except in photo`s and on mountain peaks in Lesotho and that was about 20 miles away.

Picture this, for two years I never experience a single malfunction, brain farts aplenty but stoppages no. Now suddenly a week before Nationals my gun turns into a jam-o-matic. I have done noting to the gun but the normal maintenance, ammo is the same recipe used for 3 years- factors 174 and feels like a .380ACP, almost like cheating. During a 9 second stage I get a 7 second stoppage and end up shooting the shoot in 16 seconds. During Standards the gun jams so badly that I have to strip the slide from the frame, just to fire the last 6 shots. The RO remarks to the time keeper "I am sure the command was two on each target, reload two on each target and not two on each target, strip gun to component parts, reassemble and two on each target". Everyone except me has a whale of a time- at my expense. All the unwanted advice I gave over the years come back to roost. So I take my gun to the local gunsmith and get told- you have to be joking, I cannot even speak to you until after the Nationals, all you guys wait until it is too late and then come banging on my door. So I work out, what I think, the problem is and part of the cure is making the rounds longer. The stuff already loaded for the Nationals go into the practice bin and now I have to reload 600 rounds, making 170+ factor but not above 190 as RO`s fear hot loads and could rule them unsafe! I have to get it right the first time as I do not own a chronograph and cannot test it. I also live quite far from the range and the ranges is fully built and competitions are not exactly welcome to shoot on the ranges before the National. Added to that I have 400 TMJ`s except if I pull 200 rounds of live rounds with a kinetic bullet puller- and just where do I get the time? My other choices are 400 TMJ`s and 200 lead or 600 lead, problem is that the propellant I use is hotter with lead so I have to Chrono it out to get the correct load to make that factor. RO`s just love shooters rocking up at Level 3`s with different types of ammo. I am so mad I could chew nails and spit rust!! Why me, why now! All my ducks were in a row and now someone came along with a shotgun! I could either shoot my gun and hope that it works or could borrow my daughters pink Browning HP and shoot minor! (She is RO`ing and not using the gun) I do not think I will survive the Pink gun. I can just hope Frankenstuff works but I am not the type that works on hope and luck. I prepare not trust to luck. Currently I feel like calling it a day and watch state television(like paint drying).

Even my .45 that never malfunctioned stopped feeding my short rounds a week before Nationals! Just think the consternation, the ultimate in dependability suddenly refuses to feed the rounds that you have specially loaded for your first Level 3. My kinetic bullet puller has never been this busy.

My wife does not shoot but my daughter does. In my club family does not shoot in the same detail period. I have gotten my first DQ but Luanè not. As things stand now I will hopefully never get to DQ her and that is a good thing.(Teenagers are so unforgiving). She is a young RO at 14 and will RO me at the coming Nationals this weekend. Because she is so young she will be assisting and just doing the scoring. Still quite a responsibility for such a young person but I believe that she is up to it. I would not be happy shooting around barricades that have been known to trip competitors. To my mind it is a unsafe condition that needs to be rectified before someone gets seriously injured or killed. The media takes childlike delight in reporting around incidents around shooting that could place us in a bad light. 180 Traps are one of my pet hates and I have learned the hard way that if you bitch and moan enough about it something gets done. If you keep quiet nothing will be done. The once I did not have the guts to press through with my concerns I got to bleed because of it. At our upcoming Nationals the one range where the 180 rule might be a problem the 180 is clearly marked on the range and competitors are warned. The idea is not to trap competitors but to make sure everyone is forewarned. Our sport is about enjoyment and safety and not about seeing how many people you can send home early. Because of the barricades history for tripping people I gave it a good amount of thought but I had to concur, a DQ was warranted but to me it was not a foregone conclusion. I had to think about it a good bit. I know about a case where a piece of range equipment malfunctioned and knocked a gun out of a competitors hand. The end result was that he got himself a re shoot. Tripping over a barricade leg is IMHO not the same though but knowing about previous injuries at the barricade make me sympathetic to the competitor since it clearly demonstrates a problem, not enough of a problem to prevent a DQ though. I firmly believe that the RO does not DQ a shooter, the Competitor does that all by him/her self.

Are you sure about that, my Para kit does not accept SVI stuff. The mag body is to wide. Maybe it is just mine and it is pretty old.

Indeed sir, I have one that I built my Standard gun(Frankenstuff) on and it is good quality, better(I feel than the whole Para guns).

I have the honor of living less than 5 minutes from the main gate of the National Elephant Park in Addo. I used to drive through the Shamwari Private game reserve jut to take the kids to tennis. Sometimes here in South Africa we loose sight of the wondrous sights around us. We are truly blessed. Sometimes we just focus on the bad like the stupid gun laws we have. Hell if I want to go hunting I drive less that 10 minutes to a friends farm, he is still old school saying that the Lord made all the animals and he should not take money from people harvesting them. Obviously he is a close friend and I am one of the very few that is allowed to hunt on his farm. If things would just cool down a little( it was 109.4 F in the shop when I opened this morning) I would be so much happier. If you come to SA and the Friendly city (Port Elizabeth)is on your way come and look me up in the best coffee shop in the country. I could possibly organize some trips for you to places that the tourists seldom goes.

After my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer several of the friends went for checkups, one of them also received the bad news. My wife went for three ops and chemo therapy and the cancer is now in regression. You need to be strong for them now. Remember all the times your wife carried you, well sit now it is your turn to carry her for a while. I just do not know what to say about your daughter diagnosed with cancer at the same time. You will need to be two, she will need your support too. If she is married hopefully her husband will help. The most important thing is that both your wife and daughter need to have the right attitude. Cancer quickly kills where the patient gives up. They need to stay positive and beat the cancer. Obviously both me and my family will carry you in our prayers and thoughts. If Sanet could beat this so could your wife and daughter. Millions of people have beaten cancer, your family can too. Just be aware, there is some people out there that would sell you all kinds of miracle cures.

This morning when I got to work(06:30) It was 109F or 43 C. I make you guys a deal, as you are in spring and we are in fall send half the cold here and I will send half the heat there. Sounds like a good deal to me. Roll on Winter!

Get Open Office 2.2. It has a change to PDF format button in the task bar. Have 6 beers, Open Office is free and works better that Microsuck everyday. Only problem is that they have not written a Spellchecker for Koi-San, Xhosa and Afrikaans, they have one for Zulu though. Not many of the San people have electricity never mind computers and all the Afrikaans and Xhosa people speak English as second or third languages. I have never figured out why a thinking person would let the Anti-gun Bill Gates pick his pocket.

At the risk of sounding stupid, another thing you might consider is a rough chamber. We clean the barrel until it shines like a mirror but do we clean the chamber? Frequently not. A rough bit there would make the case stick nicely and cause a lot of extraction problems. The rifle guys have it even worse. If they get a case stuck it is normally a gunsmith job just to get the case out. A nice clean and shiny chamber will make the extractors job so much easier.

I just stopped the indoor range thing and the whole problem just went away. Obviously I do take, and always have, the normal no eating, drinking, and washing hand precautions.

Try the "New" Grand Paradiso, it just went Beta 3. I have never had this crash on me and I have been using it since before Beta.

I find that the shooter is normally the weak link in accuracy. The more I practice the luckier I get with accuracy. (and other things)

Welcome to the sport and forum. It is well worth the travel. to shoot though you might want to find a shooting range closed to home for the practice. Shoot as much as you can, competition and practice, it will only make you a better shooter. Most of all, enjoy the sport, after all that is the reason you started shooting is it no?

I spent 20 years as a cop. Now I never even visited the US but I think certain truths are universal. I was never bullied as I was always rather large for my age(still am). Once I got into a fight because one of my classmates got beaten up by a bully in a senior grade. I learned a few very good lessons that day. Firstly, though I am a easygoing person I could not control myself if sorely provoked. Secondly, if you hit a person in the throat he goes to hospital and the paramedics has to cut a hole in his throat just to let him breathe.Even in the seventies that was not a good thing to see in a school playground. Thirdly, if you seriously injure a person it does not matter who started the fight the police will take you in, even if you are 13. Even though my dad is a quiet and unassuming person he could still keep me out of the justice system. Lastly, it would have been kinder on my behind if I stuck to the justice system, my dad has a rather firm right arm. I sat with great discomfort for about a week after the "discussion". My dad had to carry the medical expenses for the kid and I got moved to another school as my old school would not have me back. I never set out to seriously injure the bully, I just let rip at his face and missed. Please, if a bully is left unpunished you are tarring his road to the gallows. You are kind to him when you report the matter to the authorities. If the school refuse to act against a bully, report the matter to the police. They work with bullies all day long and know exactly how to deal with the matter. If you allow yourself to be bullied by the school you are teaching your kid a defeatist attitude. It is never a good thing to take the law into your own hands, you only end up in trouble. If bullies are left to their own devices they will either end up in jail or in the morgue. The only problem with that is that it might be your kid that puts them in the morgue.

Worked with a gunsmith for three years. Do yourself a favor and get it to a gunsmith before it is damaged to such an extent that you have to replace the die. When a case gets stuck it normally stays there and it takes a expert to get it out. The gunsmith is an expert since he got to practice on quite a few stuck cases during the years. You however might get lucky, but then just maybe you might not be lucky and end up replacing the die.

I went the other way round. Opened the rear sight to work with a wide front sight. I am getting much higher score now so I must be shooting better.

Thank you, thank you very much. Just as I thought I have made all the mistakes available out there and now you added another one. I am looking forward to make that one too. The bast... shooters that shoot with me will never keep their laughter in to the end of the shoot, neither would any of the RO`s. The therapy for this is quite simple. Go to someplace quiet where you will not be interrupted. Quietly take out your liver and chew on it for a while, until you feel better. Works for me until I make the next one.

The only reason I work and have married is to support my shooting, hunting and fishing. As you probably gathered, my wife has a good job. Shooting is not something you do, it is a lifestyle. If Christmas falls on a Saturday and we do not shoot at the club, I get withdraw symptoms. Shaking, aggressiveness visual distortions et al. I shoot about 48 matches(Level 1`s) and 12 Level 2`s as well as 3-4 Level3`s per year. My wife will need to work harder so that I can have my butt kicked at Level 4 and 5`s.