Glen

XRe ... The primer shoulders are ever so slightly less rounded, as you say they should be. I have to look very closely to see a difference between the fired and unfired primers. The Caspian was a gunsmithed gun but I don't know the details. The IMM is direct from the factory. Different length firing pins does make sense as I didn't ask for one from SVI. I'll check the firing pin lengths in both guns to see if there is a difference. For the chrono, the IMM makes about 175 pf and the Caspian makes about 180 pf with the same ammo in very close to the same conditions. I put the difference down to the shorter effective barrel length in the IMM as compared to the full size Caspian. The IMM is vastly flatter, though, and it does have an AET barrel. Thank you, Glen

I have two guns in 38 super. In both of them the primer corners are as rounded when fired as they are when freshly loaded. Same ammo in both guns. Winchester small rifle primers. However, one gun will cause the primer to be cratered ever so slightly (a raised bit of metal around the primer dimple), while the other exhibits no cratering at all. The cratering gun is a year-old SVI IMM open and has always cratered for me, while the non-cratering gun is an ancient Caspian singlestack and has never cratered for me. Might this be a difference in the firing pins? Is this excess pressure but it's masked somehow? Glen

A friend of mine has 9MAJOR as his vanity plates. Glen

Para has replied. Here is a quote: "The bad news is that this situation is not covered under the Limited Lifetime Service policy simply due to the fact that standard factory ammunition and proper recoil spring replacement intervals would have never allowed this to happen." I guess they don't believe my power factor. Not a problem, as I'm not going to be knowingly shooting cast slides in the future. Perhaps an overreaction, but I used up an enormous amount of good luck in this event. Glen

Paul B, The Para is a stainless p14-45 Limited. It has a magwell, fiber optic, and experimental ghost ring. It has about 30,000 rounds of "equivalent-to-factory" through it. By this I mean mid-190's power factor (extensively chronographed in all temperatures). The breakage history is a firing pin stop, a sear spring, the little plunger in the slide for the series 80 trigger, a magazine catch, the rear sights fell off (the pin broke), and a barrel that cracked where the feed ramp meets the chamber. Para replaced the plunger and barrel. No word yet on the slide from Para. The recoil spring is stock. There were no shock buffers and no work of any kind done on the slide. This is my ipsc standard gun and apart from cosmetics is just the way it came from Para. Glen

In February of this year I had a Para slide break in half. There was just enough metal in the rail slot area to stop the back part from hitting me in the head. Glen

I have found that the power factor goes down with increasing temperature. Glen

Jim, The USPSA classification would be just fine. The judgement of the other areas is trusted. Glen

Jim, It is an IPSC Canada requirement. Glen

Jim: The Black Badge course is for Canada, and is nation-wide. Glen

This is for ipsc and new shooters, and applies to those who want to shoot in sanctioned matches. We have to take (and pass) a Black Badge course. It's a formal course on the ipsc rules and gun handling skills. It covers the draw, loading and unloading, reloading, movement with the gun, barricades and ports, stong hand/weak hand, etc. Essentially it is a non-match, in-depth introduction to ipsc. The instructor can locate problems, reinforce good practices, etc. The instruction is the first half of the course. The second half is competing in a sanctioned match as a Novice. The entrance requirements are a 1) a sight picture 2) trigger control 3) desire. It usually is a two day course and then at some point in the future the novice shoots his/her first match. The novice shooter is still in the deep end, but at least they can tread water. Glen

Hello all. This situation between Vince and Jim has been building for some time. It has not been a pleasure watching this escalate. We can't let knowledge and talent get away and yet we can't have turmoil in the forum. I'm hoping that the moderators will urge Vince to return. I expect that it was a "last straw" moment. Been there, done that, regretted it. I don't know what Jim's plans are, but I hope that he too returns. We have to solve this else we run the risk of having our forum turn into all the others. Glen

People have been saying that the single action is not safe with a round chambered and the hammer down because, to take an example: " In a SA pistol, the hammer is generally resting on the firing pin when the hammer is down. An impat o the hammer spur could cause the round to fire. " In this condition the hammer is actually resting on the slide. The firing pin spring is partially compressed and the firing pin is slightly forward of it's usual position. The quote above implies that the firing pin is touching the primer, which is not the case. There are many good gunsmiths that visit these forums so why don't we consult them and get an opinion. If it turns out to be safe then we can return to the "hammer cocked" phrase and thus have essentially the same language for all the firearms, if that is a benefit. Glen

Ignore this one, too. Glen

I was doing quite a bit of shooting in the 5 weeks between my Black Badge course and my novice match. I was shooting a Colt Lightweight Commander. I didn't have a chronograph so I was going by "feel", and I was desperate to make major. I would shoot 300 rounds, or so, and think to myself "That's not too harsh". So I would add a little more powder to the next lot. A 27 ounce gun is supposed to bounce around a little bit, isn't it? A week before my novice match, I was able to get my loads through a chrono. The power factor was 215. I downloaded for the match and came in at 198. I now have a chronograph. Interestingly enough, there were no real signs of pressure. Sure threw the brass a long ways, though. Glen

Vince, thank you for the very fast reply. That's how I read those rules too. I does seem odd that the single actions are treated differently than the other autoloaders when they are in the same state - mag in, nothing in the barrel, hammer down, and no hope of actually firing. The difference is the phrase "hammer cocked" is not in 10.5.11.1 Is there a way to align the rules for the two groups of autoloaders? Could a competitor get DQed undeservedly (and then reinstated) or get a free pass because a RO didn't properly recognize what he was shooting? Glen

Two of us were practicing last night when the following occured: A competitor comes to the line and the RO says LAMR. The competitor draws his gun, inserts a magazine and then, without racking the slide or manually cocking the gun, he reholsters. Is there a call to be made? The gun was a Para P-14 so the thumb safety cannot be applied unless the hammer is cocked. If it was a double action or a selective action, would the call be different? Glen

When I am standing relaxed, my hand extends down below the bottom of the holster. My arm lies alongside the holster so some or all of my hand and fingers will be in front of the muzzle. Will I be required to pull my shoulder back to move my arm? (Recall the Steve Anderson video and the subsequent discussion.) Further, this isn't occuring during the draw, but immediately after the LAMR, so I doubt the "draw exemption" will apply. Is this sweeping? And if so, how do I correct it? Glen

An update on the base situation. I got the new Viper BP-201 bases. They feel "right". Sturdy is a good word as well. The service from Reg at Viper is remarkable. Glen

Hello all. A para p14-45 10 round magazine has a plastic extension on it to give it the required length. These are fragile, most especially on concrete. Does anyone know of a replacement for the factory plastic that will survive? I found a potential replacement from "Viper" at Brownells. Will it work? Glen