Carlos

This crap makes me NOT want to fly with firearms (rest of story at link at end). "Two Bronx men attempting to sell stolen shotguns at a local gun shop were busted last Friday during a sting operation orchestrated by the Police Department and the FBI. The arrests stem from a 2006 incident in which two shotguns, with a combined value of $105,000, were allegedly stolen from an airline passenger's checked baggage at Newark Liberty International Airport. " http://www.greenwichtime.com/ci_11613756

Were they factory Reloaded or Remanufactured? Two possible causes I can think of here: 1) case was loaded too many time & weak or horribly defective from factory or 2) Out of battery discharge. Calling Jack Suber: didn't your gun have problems with out-of-battery discharge? This could be a design flaw.

UPDATE: turns out my close friend had a cracked barrel. Appears it was defective from the factory. We do not know exactly WHEN it cracked. But, it would certainly have had an effect on his load development. Damn...

Good point. I probably should have taken my comments over to "what I hate" instead of here. Glad that the original story in this post has a happy ending for the good guys.

Glad the gun is back in the hands of its rightful owner. Stories like the one about the thief being out on probation though? Just too common & our sour economy will not improve the situation. -anyone else here think its a bad idea to restore the voting rights of someone like that? and, -wish there were easier ways for the victims to have more say in the prosecution of these people. If the jusdges could see and hear from more victims, perhaps they would not go as easy on criminals.

Its all good bro BTW - me & Jeff are back in business running a new indoor USPSA at Silver Eagle Group here in VA (Ashburn VA actually). Hope you can check it out when you are back in town. d

I remember the article: they tested factory ammo out of regular 20" and 16" barrels and all of it - including the Wolf - safely made Minor. They also got a hold of a NFA restricted "short barrelled rifle" with a 14.5" barrel and there - some of the loads did not make it. But, its illegal to cross state lines with such a short barrel without prior filing of forms with .gov and I have never seen such a gun at a USPSA 3gun. Besides, how hard is it to take down popers at 350 yards with a 14.5" barrel? Dunno & don't want to try it. Gist was: for any normal civilian AR with a 16+ inch barrel, factory ammo exceeded Minor.

Agree 100%. Not to cast stones here, but the sales of cheap SKS and AK-47 rifles have been strong for DECADES, and yet, the supposedly premier National shooting organization in the USA does not have any sort of civilian competition or organized recreational shoot where such guns have even a slim hope of being competitive. Fact is, the guns are in civilan hands in ever increasing numbers. Why does the National organization fail to provide outlets for civilians to be shooting them in an organized way? It's as if the National organization is ignoring the fact that the guns are so popular (and maybe even hoping these guns go away? Not likely). For such a large "organization" they are not doing a very good job of "organizing" IMHO. The M4 carbine is also forbidden in Service rifle competition (the M4 is not technically a "rifle" ya see - gee: semantics and technicalities) - even though its what most of our Vets are carrying in Iraq and Afganistan. Fortunately, there is 3gun & multigun. Yes, the AR-15 rifle dominates. But around here, we don't have many club ranges or club matches with shots over 100 yards. Luckily, a few (a very few) of the huge population of AK-47 owners bring their guns out for their intended purpose: "sporting purposes." (see where I am going here?). And the record number of vets that know and love the Carbine are welcome in 3gun/multigun - even if they've been left out in the cold for decades in other sports.

My first dedicated USPSA gun was a stock Edge in .45 ACP; it NEVER ran reliably until I had it worked over by custom gunsmiths. But, that is par for the course with the Edge. Once they are tuned up, given tuned mags & made reliable, the STI-based custom Edge guns are great shooters and they dominate the sport here in the USA. OTOH, the STI Spartan (which, to be honest, is not really a 100% STI product) should run right out of the box.

Off topic here, but with a 625 revolver, some Trail Boss, and the excellent 185 Hollow Base RN from Berry's , I got down to about 300 FPS range. Really useless load though.

PowerPistol: That powder will take you all the way to Major - so it is a safe choice for minor too. And, slow powders like PP and N350 are reported to deliver the very best accuracy in 9mm - though at the price of increased perceived recoil and additional muzzle blast. For Minor only, you want to look at Solo 1000. It is very clean and is the BEST compromise between excellent feel and great accuarcy.

Good point. First and foremost, Larry deserves our thanks for all the great Blasts he worked hard to bring us over the years. Only after that should we begin debating/discussing/planning to revive the Summer Blast.

Only brass I have ever purchased new was Starline 9mm Supercomp - and then I loaded it over & over until the primer pockets got really loose (and then I used it for 9mm Largo in an antique gun).

To get the black off, you can use citric acid (lemmon juice, old orange juice) or a vitamin C tablet in hot water (ascorbic acid - same thing?). Also vinegar will take the black off (most of it anyway). Then tumble with brass polish. But make sure to dry it completely and quickly after the acid bath. I would ONLY reload recovered blackened brass with LOW pressure loadings, ie, MINOR or .45 ACP. Do NOT load it to major anything. And any steel cases that are rusted through - forget it!!!

Actually - we kept the range open to the public during our USPSA shoot. How? - range had 2 bays. One was open to the public, the other was for our match. I intentionally asked for the one closest to the door - which forced the other customers to walk past our match while it was in progress. Let me tell you, THAT generated a lot of interest on the part of the non-USPSA shooters (all of whom had never actually seen a USPSA match). We also had our shoot on Wednesday nights - and virtually every range is more than 1/2 empty on Wednesdays - so our volunteers brought the range a lot of business on an otherwise slow night. Done correctly, it is. Just try to think about it from the owner's point of view - revenue vs. the issues involved with closing the range to members during your match.

We used to shoot 3gun at the 25 yard inddor at Shooters Paradise before it burned down. -to simulate distance, make the targets smaller. A LOT smaller. We usually used a deck of playing cards at 25 yards. We also used white lifesavers candy as targets on occasion (BigLots had them on sale). Its about 1" in diameter - but what AR won't group under 1" at 25 yards? -we mostly included prone ports for a lot of the targets. As for speeding it up, eliminate the walk through. Seriously, just give the stage briefing, and then yell: "Who is my first shooter?!"

At the risk of repeating old (and possibly faulty) info from one who has worked on (but not shot much) the Para P14 & 16: -good friend in the area was once the "team gunsmith" for a group of guys that all shot paras & got free .40 cal ammo (guess where it came from). Paras were the rage in the 1990s - being one of the 1st highcaps suitable for our sport. He showed me a box full of broken para parts. When I asked him what broke the most, he said: frames, slides, even barrels. Back then, there seemed to be somethign screwy about either the steel alloy used in the Canadian factory, or possibly the heat treating methods used. Maybe that is a non-issue now that they are in the USA. -some of the measurements used to make Paras at one time varied slightly from the original JMB/Colt blueprint. Slide bore is one example - its larger than most and many bull barrels are too small to fit the bore. Seem too recall certain frame hole locations were slightly off as well (though they worked with factory Para parts. Dunno if a conversion to metric measurements had anything to do with it. -basic frame design is sound: it is the basis for the excellent Springfield highcap, as well as a few others (Enterprise Boxter comes to mind - though its discontinued I think). -Para's new extractor design is not very popular - and it uses a larger hole so it is not possible to go back to a regular 1911 piece. But, - the P16 shoots as nice as anything out there. For instance: a built Para shoots as well as a similar built Springfied custom. Slight mag capacity advantage too.

Agree. For that money & STI's experience with our sport, I would expect something closer to what JP Rifles turns out. Short of a JP race rifle, I think STI would have done a lot better with an 18" barrel from a better known, accuracy-oriented barrel like a Lothar-Walther, Krieger or if on the cheap, a Criterion by Kreiger. Since they went with a 16" barrel, at least they had the wisdom to go with a mid-length gas system.

Welcome Toscano! .45 ACP runs very VERY low pressure - in the neighborhood of 15,000 PSI for loads you want to make for competition. Those pressures are comparable to a shotgun's pressure - and a shotgun's pressure is so low that the hull can even be mad out of paper. Since we only need to launch a 230 grn at 717 FPS to meet the "power factor" for competition, we should be using the very most FAST burning powder possible. Why? Recoil will be reduced, and the powder will burn efficiently in a short handgun barrel. Of the powder you mentioned, Green Dot is better than Blue Dot. Better still is the faster Red Dot (which I once used) - but if you buy a new powder, the VERY best for .45 would include: -E3 (a cleaner version of Red Dot) -Solo 1000 (my choice) -regular Clays (my second choice) -if you can't find above powder, try either HP-38 or Win. 231 (they are the same powder).

Bingo: "Sarch 1x fired military brass" + shot from a SAW (belt fed machinegun) = stretched brass. It is not Sarch's fault though. Word I hear from many of our .mil friends is that MANY of our 5.56 cal machineguns are seriously worn out. Apparently, such guns spit out brass that is stretched to the limit - even after a single firing. Problem is: buying ANY fired brass forces you to guess at that brass' history. There is simply no way to be certain.

First match I ever shot was a "ipsc-style" match at the range they have set up down in the basement of the NRA's HQ building of Rt. 66 here in Virginia. I was hooked! Later, I helped start up the indoor USPSA club at the old Shooters Paradise range (which burned down in 2007). We ran 4 stages using only ONE bay that was only 30 ft wide by 25 yards. It can be done.

Hi Julie (& congrats). I own 2 revolvers suitable for competition: a 625 and a 686. I once shot my 340PD in an ICORE shoot that was created as a "snubby" friendly match. I shot it like I carry it: from my pocket holster (and it was sloooow). 1. What sports do you shoot your revolver in (USPSA, ICORE, IDPA, Steel, NRA, etc.)? -USPSA. Before Shooters Paradise burned down, I also shot in our ICORE affiliated club match. 2. How often do you shoot revolver at the club level? -1 to 2X per year now 3. How many majors do you shoot each year (state/regional/areas)? And with a revolver? -2 to 4 per year. None with a revolver. 4. Do you shoot a national championship with your revolver and if so which one(s)? -no 5. Would you consider crossing over to other shooting sports with your revolver? If so, which ones and why? -only ICORE. Otherwise, the "bottom feeders" tend to dominate the other sports. 6. Why do you like to compete in the revolver divisions? -change of pace. I once organized an "all revolver" squad at a club match. It is much more fun if there is at least SOME competition at the same match. Otherwise, revolver shooting can be quite lonely.

I have seen a similar break in a CZ's trigger bar. Its just something to keep an eye on in all 75s.

There is data in the Lee book for 200 grain lead bullets in a 38 - and IIRC, the velocity came close to 800 FPS. -a 200 grn bullet going 800 FPS - out of a .38 spl? That is quite a bit of energy for a .38 special. Not too far beyond the magical .45 ACP in terms of energy, actually. Makes you wonder why its not further explored as a defensive load.

A friend's younger brother was murdered during a robbery in Atlanta last week: http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/...=7&cxcat=13 Latest report indicates that all the robbers' demands were complied with and money was turned over. They shot him anyway. Lesson to me is clear: always defend yourself no matter the odds.