Johann the Horrible

I gauge all my ammo and the less than 1 per 100 that does not gauge goes through the FCD. After that it goes to the practice bin and works just as well as the match ammo. The last stoppage I had was a dead primer.

I clean the brass before reloading and then tumble the loaded rounds afterwards. This makes for nice shine cartridges and cases easy to spot on the range. If you need to clean the primer pockets tumble them, de-prime them. chemically clean them and reload them.

Hey, I live here! Once you have the correct mindset its OK. Believe me. I run a Coffee shop in Port Elizabeth and carry concealed at all times, even to church. Its not the criem that is the real killer it is the way the minibus taxis drive. Approximately 21 000 people will die violently in South Africa every year.

I have one of the original Para kits. The frame has out lasted several top-ends. At one time the frame was used in open so it had a couple of holes drilled through it for a scope. I just replaced the top-end again after the slide cracked. This year I did about 5-7K rounds through it and last year about 12K. According to my gunsmith, who has known the gun since the previous century the frame has done several 100 thousand rounds in 45, 38 super and now again 45. If my things work out, I plan to put a 40 top-end on it sooner or later. I also had a heavy full-length dust-cover fitted. In all the gun just runs and runs. If the sear breaks, I replace it, if the hammer goes I replace it. The frame just goes on and on. Currently I am not even considering any other frame. Its like an anvil.

You guys are so lucky. Here in SA we have to leave our guns in a safe or under our direct control. If we loose a gun, we get charged criminally. I have a high end alarm/immobilizer in my car as well as a gun safe. Having a gun on your person while in a premises that is allowed to sell alcohol is also a criminal offense so every prize giving I have a line of guys at my car boot wanting to give me guns to keep for them.

You be from the "Istin Cape" then sir? LOL

I am left handed but was taught to shoot right handed. If I hold the gun in my left hand I close my right eye and vice versa. I=While attempting some particularly awkward stages I sometimes shoot "weak handed" especially at extended ranges if the targets are put way far and particularly inaccessible to right handed shooters. I accept that I loose time like this but I believe that you cannot miss fast enough to win.

It is a dark art practiced by gun smiths while no-one is watching. Personally I would rather remove my appendix myself than work on guns trigger, I think it is safer and easier. You have to understand exactly how the parts interact with each other and the frame. Frankly, I would just pay a gunsmith to do it as it works out cheaper as by doing it yourself you may end up paying a smith to replace all the ruined parts plus his labor. Unfortunately in my case DIY stands for Destroy It Yourself.

Obviously yes sir, the Arbitration committee does not get involved but the buck stops with the RM. Sorry my mistake.

Fine point here. I can only speak of IPSC since that is what I do but we score the highest value. If there is no hole through the target(in one side out the other side) no score/penalty. But what happens if the other side of the hole is in the "D" while the crease starts in the "A"? Personally I would just give the shooter a "A" and get it over and done with. Anything else will just keep the Arbitration committee busy, and end up with a "A" in any case. At first round Nationals I had no less that 4 creases on penalty targets in one stage. Got zero for that stage!

So long as people are watching their broadcasts and reading their papers they will continue doing exactly what thy are doing. It is not about feelings(they do not have any) it is about making money. Years ago, while I was Media Liaison Officer for the Police in Port Elizabeth. I caught a big fat photographer standing on a female reporters shoulders to get a shot of a crime scene through a window. The "poor" petite reporter groaned under his weight. (In South Africa we do not have the press photograph crime scenes as details are sometimes revealed that help the criminals) As long as people are wiling to buy papers containing this type of stuff or watch news casts containing material like this they will continue doing what they are.

If the barrel was never properly fitted to the slide you would have had to replace slide-stops, barrel links and link pins over and over until you ruined the barrel and slide. I think you not only paid for the time of the gunsmith you also paid for his experience. If you did get ripped of it was by the guy that did the original work on the gun. He should have fitted the barrel correctly to the slide to start of with. $177 is a lot of money but it was after hours and the gun did get delivered. Good service but not cheap.

I am unfortunately still in the infantile stage where I am trying to buy solutions. I did manage to get myself into B class, mostly by our top shooter going through a slump and copious amounts of dry-fire. I do now get some practice in on alternate Sundays though I feel I should get some more trigger time. I yes, I also sold my red progressive press and got me a blue one. Best money I ever spent. I am so much faster now that I am not looking at the top of the gun after every shot to see what stoppage I should rectify that I am now realizing the shortcomings of my system.

I always leave my keys in the car at the range - that way it is harder to loose them. Best is everyone at the club knows I do this and most of them that the cash drawer is in the boot of my Benz too. Never missed a cent, except that someone got some change out of the drawer to pay the entry fee( I assume). I only picked it up because there was a R100 to much and a R50, 2xR20 ans a R10 to few.

Have you guys never heard about Senacot leaves? I have this rule that I do not consume anything that can be used to propel vehicles or thins paint with the possible exception of Prickly pear Mampoer. (A distillation of the noble Prickly pear. A few glasses of this unique Eastern Cape drink and you could easily loose a week)

Added to that we have other shooting organizations telling their members that they are not allowed to do any practical shooting or risk loosing their affiliation. When IPSC was campaigning to get into the Olympics they were blocked by a shooting organization. Obviously that does not help anybodies cause. We, all of us, should set ourselves a goal about recruiting members. My personal goal is 3 new members a year and now I have learned to follow up on the new recruits. If they miss a shoot they get a phone call on the Saturday night - "Where were you?" If hey run into a problem with ammo or gun or whatever they need to tell me so that I can help them sort it out before their enthusiasm wains and we loose them to the sport.

Note to self: "carry a spare pair of underpants in possibles bag." We have a lot of "Puff adders" over here in the Eastern Cape part of South Africa and they are not nice.

It still sucks to get DQ`ed though! The trip home is always so long and quiet.

Spent 20 years in the National police and was even qualified as a SWAT instructor. I seriously thought I would do well in IPSC, well I got myself a magnum sized butt whipping by a bunch of civies. I still suck at IPSC but I still have "the most fun you an have with your clothes on"

OK, I will order a 1000 200gr bullets and start working on it again. Has anyone lightened the slide on a 45 before. My previous slide was lightened quite a bit and that felt soft enough but now I am shooting better percentages with the gun. Video shows that the gun was muzzle flipping less with the light slide. The last thing I want to do is remove metal from the slide and then finding that I now fare worse.

If your Kimber has an Israeli frame you could use the BullM5 one. If you are talking singlestack, I honestly do not know.

I experimented quite a bit with different bullets but unfortunately we only have 3 propellants suitable to handguns available to us here in SA. The one I settled upon felt the softest and also happened to be the most consistent and cleanest. My gun has serious issues with 185gr bullets and the 200`s did nothing for me.

I have a Para 45 that I shoot in IPSC Standard Division. That means that anything and everything goes except ports and optics as long as it fits the box. The only reason I am not shooting a 40 is that we have really screwy Gun Laws in South Africa and I would probably not get a license for a 40. Bottom line is that I am married to the 45 until something changes the law. (Fat chance) My Para frame has been fitted with a “full length Dust cover” that added about a pound to the front of the gun. For me it works. I have a “cone lock-up” described in another thread. I am also most happy with that. I had an oversized, square firing pin stop installed and that is also a big improvement. I shoot a 232gr bullet in front of a very fast propellant. In short I did just about anything to the gun that I could to get it to shoot softer. Currently I go through a stage waiting for the gun to come back from recoil so that I can get the next shot off. I find it most frustrating. I am now considering lightening the slide and then going with a lighter recoil spring to help tame perceived recoil. Some advice I got was to forget the lightening completely as it only works in 40`s. I am no engineer but common sense seems to tell me that it should also work in a 45 if it works in a 40. Common sense is actually not always enough as actually for some reason a 40 does shoot “softer” than a 45.(all else being equal) Someone explained it to me and I got most of the explanation – everything except the last crucial bit. Apparently it has to do with the pressures that the rounds work at. I am now at a stage where I feel that my gun is keeping me back so I need to do something to take me up the ladder. Currently my shoot goes something like this: Beep, draw, bang…..come on down please front-sight come down, at last...bang, damn a D, front-sight come down, hell any time today will be fine, bang, sweet an A next target….

Yes indeed you might be jerking the trigger. Added to that check the possition of your finger on the trigger, you might not be putting it through far enough.

The fluting may make the barrel more rigid and that might improve accuracy- in a rifle. I would actually like the barrel heavier and the slide lighter for recoil purposes. That is me, other people have different requirement thought.