Pat Miles

Only way to find out if it is still good is to try and load it onto a wheel and then start polishing a tube. Depending on how many tubes you have to polish you may need more only you will know. CYa, Pat

Pay attention to Chucks advice. Para cuts their sear spring anchor slot in the frame about .090" LOWER than other 1911 gun manufacturers. The sear and disconnector fingers of the spring ride lower on the sear and disconnector. Dropping in a sear spring not specifically made for a Para leads to all sorts of potential problems. The middle finger will not be able to push the disconnector up enough to function correctly and possibly causing very bad ju-ju to happen(single shot or maybe full auto). BE AWARE! CYa, Pat

Dan, With the bushing out the barrel unlocks but the slide scrapes the top of the barrel and wedges itself between the frame and slide when hand cycling the slide. Bushing is an EGW. Snug fit into slide, easy fit onto barrel with no slop. Bart, Did you shoot yesterday? Goodly amounts of airborn real estate I hear. Ah, springtime in New Mexico! CYa, Pat

I haven't cut the barrel feet yet as the barrel can't come out of battery yet. The barrel can't drop any farther as it is sitting on the frame. I wondered about chamfering the inside of the frame rails where the barrel contacts it. As soon as I finish fitting the barrel/slide lugs so the barrel is centered on the firing pin hole I will have goodly amounts of barrel/slide lug lockup. I can't measure this yet as I am not finished fitting the lugs. Thinking that I would have a lot of lug lockup I was thinking about removing some material from the top o' the barrel. If I remember correctly a minimum of 0.040" lug lockup is necessary between the barrel and slide. CYa. Pat

Sorry I didn't address that earlier. The polishing compounds I use come in sticks or larger diameter (2" - 3" ) round sticks. With the buffer/grinder running you rub the face of the stick into the wheel and load it up across the face. Some stick are colored so you can watch the wheel change color as you load it. If you decide to buy a couple of different polishing "grits" then I would suggest buying a wheel for each. keep the stick(s) in zip lock bags so they don't dry out, turn flaky and won't adhere to a wheel when you load it up. If you can, do the polishing outside as the polishing dust and wheel material gets everywhere. CYa, Pat

I like the Dillon polish but shipping doubles the price thus the search for something available locally. It appears that NuFinish is the answer. CYa, Pat

I'm in the process of building a Single Stack 40. Wilson forged frame, Caspian slide and Schuemann bushing barrel. Slide to frame fitting is done. The hood is fitted correctly. The barrel will drop out of battery easily when the slide is off the frame. I've got just a smidgen left in fitting the upper barrel lugs/slide lugs so the barrel is centered with the firing pin hole in the slide. As it stands now the barrel will not drop down out of battery because it is already sitting on the frame. It will drop a bit but not enough to unlock. This is with the bushing installed in the slide. My thoughts are removing material from the top of the barrel for the additional clearence using shop roll sand paper ala shoe shine method. Inside of frame lug area is polished and if necessary I can take some out of there but it will be tedious. Thoughts from the pros? CYa, Pat

You will need to load the wheel up with compound from time to time when polishing your tubes . If you are using a bench grinder with the wheel use gloves as the tube will get hot. Think friction. Also when working around edges or the openings at either end make sure you have your gloves on and a good firm hold on the tube. The wheel will grab it and send it across the floor. Don't forget to polish the inside of the feed lips for obvious reasons. Clean the tubes inside after you are finished as you don't need any left over polishing compound rubbing off on your boolits and then going in the chamber of your pistola. Jantz Supply is a good source for wheels and polishing compounds if you do not have a local source. Look for jewelery making supply houses in your area. Take a tube and tell them what you are doing. CYa, Pat

God, I love it.When someone opens a door for me (or the equivalent) they receive a sincere 'Thank you!'...no matter what I'm thinking about myself at that moment. Gestures like that renew my faith in the morals of some of our people out there. I ALWAYS open the door for females, and I HATE it when they are not gracious enough to say thank you!!!! Sometimes I nearly let them know it too!!! My wife laughs at me, cuz she sees me getting really PISSED when it happens, which is typically someplace like a mall or the like I also always hold the door for women. That's how dad raised me. Of the many times I've done it I had the good fortune to have a lady that didn't thank me follow me out of the building we came in earlier. Timed it just right. She took it for granted that I would hold the door again. I didn't and she walked face first into the door. It was great! CYa, Pat

Howard, you remind me of me!! I fall in line with Jim Normans thinking and how I try to act around ladies. I was raised that all women are ladies until they prove otherwise. Once they have proved otherwise I have no room for them in my life. Same goes for most guys that prove that they are not gentleman. Don't get me wrong, it takes some consistant crude behavior to be put out of my life. I have even dressed down friends who cross that line while I am around. That said some of the women and girls today are down right foul mouthed and foul minded in the presence of anybody. Those are the ones that earn my description as Howard says, sue'nt. CYa, Pat

Then there is the other side of the coin. My son and thirteen coworkers signed up for life memberships with the NRA. A couple of years ago he decided to get a CCW. He again asked coworkers if they had any interest in a CCW. He and fourteen of his coworkers filled a class. These folks have varied levels of interest in shooting. Some are bona fide gun freaks and down the interest scale it goes. Men and ladies. One lady (the spouse of a coworker) who is described by her husband as a flaming liberal earned her CCW and now carries. I frequently get calls from these folks asking about certain firearms or ammo. About three months back they did a bulk 223 ammo order of over 20K rounds. I was asked to put a short primer on AR care and cleaning together for this group. This is an interesting group of people. The majority are young (under 30), all have advanced degrees in math and sciences and all have a great deal of common sense. CYa, Pat

I numbered and put my initials on my mags with an engraver. Looks okay, serves the purpose of IDing them. I follow Bigdawg in the fact that I don't leave my mags anywhere on a stage except in my bag, belt or backpocket. After buying them (SVI tubes, Dawson basepads, Grams guts) and spending time tuning them they become expensive little suckers to just leave laying about. CYa, Pat

I think that is the point where I quit being a gentleman and force her back into her area. I realize that there are folks of oversize proportions in this world but when they interfere with my paid for comfort area especially when they sit with legs splayed then the fights on. I've been in this situation and dealt with people who actually thought that I should fold myself over myself to make extra room for them. I flew into Sky Harbor (Phoenix) four years ago to shoot the Western States Single Stack Championship. While waiting for a friend who flew in from another direction I was sitting in a "row" of seats. Eight seats welded together as a unit. The legs were under the inside arm rest of the second seat in from each end with four seats in between each leg plus the outside two seats at the opposite end.I stood up to try and spot my buddy in a crowd walking to the baggage claim area and was standing at the end of the row of seats. A lady of considerable tonnage decided to quite literally flop into the seat at the far end, just falling backwards. She hits the seat, the seat goes to the ground and the seat at my end flies upward just missing my face by inches. WTF!. She lets out a screech, finally rolls out of the seat onto her hands and knees and with considerable effort hoists her massive bulk to her feet and starts wailing about "never being so humiliated in her life" and verbally starts shouting threats of a lawsuit. She looks at me hoping to see a sympathetic witness for her action against Sky Harbor Airport. I looked back at her and said something to the effect that if she would learn to sit down like a lady instead of jumping into a seat like a child she wouldn't find herself on her ass as she had been. Then I walked off. I thought about the arm of that end seat catching me under the chin like an uppercut. Probably would have ripped my head off. CYa, Pat

They took care of me very well. You might try giving them another call. Stuff does happen unfortunately. CYa, Pat

Even though jury duty is our civic duty, that would seriously suck! CYa, Pat

I think in the strictest definition of word "consumable" they are. In the reasonable definition they are not. Yes they wear during use. If they are of good quality and maintained correctly (cleaned and lubricated correctly and when necessary) they can work correctly for many, many thousands of cycles. After a certain point they can be "refreshed" and do their job again for many, many thousands of cycles. Then they can be refreshed again. In theory they could be refreshed countless times if a person did not care if the thumb safety did not work at some point. That said, will they eventually reach the end of their service life which includes allowing the thumb safety to work? Yes they of course will. My short answer to a long explanation... no they are not a consumable. A consumable in my opinion when talking about firearms is a primer or the gun powder. A brass cartridge would be another consumable even though it has a longer service life. CYa, Pat

Twice in two years. Nothing for the 20+ years before that. I have to admit, they make it as painless as possible here in Albuquerque. Call the "pool" number the night before. If you are called in for possible jury selection the paid parking is within 100 yards of the courthouse. Would be nice if they would pick me up at home and feed me breakfast before I went but... CYa, Pat

Well, that certainly clucks! CYa, Pat

I am proud to say that I have never watched a reality show. Doing almost anything else is a better use of my time. CYa, Pat

Donato, Is it me or does that top target show that your bullets are tumbling? If they are and you get that problem squared away your groups may shrink a bit and make you happier yet. CYa, Pat

If you want to "gently pursue" the involvement of your daughters in shooting then add other traditions to the shooting day. Next day of shooting Lyndsay gets to pick the place for lunch before or after shooting. The next range day it's Sydney's choice, then it's your turn. Make a day of it. More quality time with the girls. CYa, Pat

Jim, You and I know a certain individual that happens to be sitting on 500K primers. At $60.00/K that is a $hitpot load of $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$!!!!!!!! CYa, Pat

You did the right thing. He broke the 180! He admitted it when he whined about pointing his muzzle at the berm. The rule book gives no relief if a person is shooting or pointing the muzzle into a berm when breaking the 180. The fact that he paid $20.00 for the match means nothing also. The ONLY consideration is safety! Let him bitch and moan til the cows come home. Be proud that you made the right call and had a pair big enough to make the call and stand by it. CYa, Pat

I had the chance to shoot a friends JP yesterday. That gun rocks! Shoots like a 22 rimfire! I might have to bite the bullet and order one up. CYa, Pat

Taping the targets would be a cakewalk compared to digging the trenches that they shoot from. Picking up brass might be a bit of a chilly chore. CYa, Pat