Griz44

The USPS sells a 10# scale for home use. I bought one several years ago, IIRC it was 14 or 15 dollars and goes to 10+. It has never missed a beat, and I check it against a 5+2 set of check weights every month or so. http://www.amazon.com/USPS-PS-100-Desk-Postal-Scale/dp/B001EJF9PM

I did, and the answer is no, not a good fit. Dawson has a listing for the PARA replacement mainspring housing, so I will order one next week. There is just something about plastic parts that makes me want to throw up dinner. I know they all use them now, but that still does not make it right. This pistol is rapidly working its way to becoming my favorite pistol. I have had a lot of fun building/re-building this into an excellent pistol. It is a great foundation to build from, and heck of a lot of fun shooting it. It is just sinful that PARA started something like this and did not carry it to its full potential. They had the hype, the right idea and the right timing, just ran it to the seedy side and did not follow through with the right execution.

Followup on the mag tuning, All the mags are tuned. They load up, shoot, and fall clear with a touch of the release button. I ran 240 rounds through them yesterday and am now very comfortable with the setup. The mags and gun ran 100% reliable. Accuracy is very good as well. I am loading Black and Blue 115gr and 147gr coated with AA#5 powder. I have a feeling this pistol is going to keep the LNL pretty busy this summer.

bwikel Bone stock, from the factory, Dawson recommends 19, STI specs say 20. With aftermarket follower, basepad, spring, capacity can be increased +5, depending on choice of parts. The 140 is really not that long, it only protrudes out the bottom of the gun .9" https://www.dawsonprecision.com/ProductDetail.jsp?LISTID=80000CAA-1388518163 The 170mm mag is REALLY long. For steel challange the 126 would have been enough, but I do have future plans to start shooting some USPSA matches.

The 380 acp, 9mm Luger, 9x21 IMI, 22 TCM and the 38 super are the same. I just measured my 40 and it is NOT the same. The round will try and enter the chamber off center. Probably not a good idea.

I went the Guncraft route as well. It took about 30 minutes and a little off the top to get a good fit. I spent another 15 minutes doing some red rouge polishing in the tunnel. End result is a great trigger. The PARA plastic POS was the worst trigger I had ever seen in a 1911, including the all plastic Korean built 22 my son hauled in wanting me to fix it. So I dropped the slide off of it and dropped it in the trash can. He wasn't impressed with my smithing skills on that one.

I got 2 more STI mags in yesterday. Both of them sit high enough that they need no additional adjustments. I have identified the issue with not falling clear, and this weekend when I have time, I will take a few tools out to the range with me and make the adjustments to the top of the magazine. I can get 20 in them with no isse and they will run 100%. The end is in sight. I have enough mags and a gun I can depend on to function correctly. Maybe I will give it a run at the Steel Match in a couple of weeks. It's going to feel odd not competing with my Colt, but I think it will be a good change. Anyone want to go bang steel with me in Austin on the 26th?

Fire Control group, issue solved. TJ shim, Guncraft trigger.

I finally got my hands on an STI 140mm 9mm magazine. It will need some tuning, and a relief cut on the follower, but with some work, it is going to run. I does need to sit a bit higher, so the existing magazine cut will need to be lowered, or the catch raised. If the catch is changed out, the factory magazines are trash, I'm stuck with the STI. It seems the factory magazines will run in my Rock Island TCM, although I have not tried running ammo through them yet on the Rock. I'm thinking that's not a bad way to go. That way I have the option of using a 126mm, 140mm or the 170mm magazine. Interesting note on the PARA slide catch, it was way too short to ride the lip on the STI magazine follower. I cannot figure out why it was cut so short. I compared it with the ones from 3 different RIA pistols. It's just short for some reason. I changed it out with a standard catch, and it works just fine with the STI magazines. I will figure out how to post pictures in the thread and try to get some pics to share with all of the issues and fixes so far.

I load the 147 Hi-Tek Gold coated no lube groove round nose from Black and Blue with 4.9gr of AA#5. It burns clean and is very accurate. I have not tested the other colors and cannot speak for them (LOL)

IMR "HISCORE" 700X Fairly bulky, I load it in the 38 spcl with 160gr coated lead from B&B

RIG on the slide, FP10 on the internals. For many decades now. All good.

I found the forum while searching for information on PARA pistols. I think I like it here. I am old as dirt, an NHRA RO, CHL instructor, Steel shooter and avid gunner for over 6 decades now. When I finally pass on, it will be with a Colt in my right hand, and a smile on my face. Griz 44 Mag

Kenny, Just a quick note on the basepads, If you put them on the P18 magazines, they won't lock up on the TCM either. I can't find a single pistol that they will work with. Another bad move from PARA, since their tech guy is the one that told me to get them. Seems the "TECH" guy is also "TECHLESS", and has the same high level of expertise as the zombies on the assembly line. Griz

The saga for my 9mm Pro Custom took some weird turns this weekend. I went out Saturday AM early, just wanted to put a couple of batches of test rounds through it, since I am still developing a set of loads for Steel and target. The 147gr Black and Blue round nose bullets started off hitting 3" left, which was strange since I had adjusted the rear sight to be sport on at the last range session. So I grapped my small screwdriver set and started to adjust the sight. The act of placing the screwdriver in the adjustment slot sent the entire sight off the left side of the gun into the grass. Hows that for craftsmanship and quality control? The message I sent off to PARA was on of venting (+). From the lack of magazines, to a wandering sight, to a plastic trigger and mainspring housing and the grows. WHY didn't I save up a few more dollars and buy a STI? That said, when I got home my package from Dawson had arrived, that's an instant mood changer. I love those guys! In the box, a new long shoe guncraft trigger. That coupled with the shims that had arrived Thursday, it was time to change the nature of the sour grape to a sweet plum. I tore it down to the last screw, only to find at a great surprise, that one of the grip screws had been stripped completey out, and had been GLUED into the hole. More choice words of the kind we can't say here. Since it was the bottom grip screw, the magwell keeps the grip in place until I can adapt a new bushing or something to it to hold a new screw in place. The screw that was glued in did not have any threads left on it, so that is trash as well. Now the Saturday cave special, The slide was cleaned to the quick under the dovetail, the sight cleaned as well. The metal under the slide showed not a single hint that the two allen screws that are supposed to bind the sight had ever been tightened from the factory. I centered the sight, drove the screws in, then removed the sight and using a 1/8" bit, put two small keeper wells into the slide to make sure the sight did not move around anymore. Still, the fit was sloppy loose, so along with a locktight bed, was re-introduced to the frame with a .002 shim to add some depth to the sight. Properly pushed it into the slot, I realigned it to center, and set the two small allen sets on the sight and that issue was completed. Next up, the PARA trash trigger was introduced to the trash can, and the new Guncraft was fitted. I had to take a few thousandths off the top of the trigger, and only polish the bottom to get a great fit. Just for the information the other PARA owners here may find interesting, the original plastic trigger was .905" tall, the final dimension of the Guncraft trigger was .942" There is no small wonder the factory trigger was so sloppy. Note to do it yourself gunsmiths (like me) The grip safety tang needed to be shaved about .011 to allow for the additional depth of the bow on the guncraft trigger. It has a "tab" on top of the bow portion that the tang engages for the purpose of helping keep the bow square with the frame and thus with the trigger shoe where it meets the frame. Once fitted, it is a really nice trigger for the money. Now, the abolishment of the series 80 firing inhibitor. I bought 3 shims, one undersized, of "standard" and one oversized, just to be sure I could get a good fit. And of course, the "standard" .057 shim is the one that I needed. These are very nice shims, slick and fit perfectly. The now spare parts joined the other spare parts that look just like them from 3 Colts, and they will exist happily never after in a plastic bag in the spare parts drawer. Sunday AM, we went back to the range to test. I took 250 rounds of Black and Blue gold coated bullets loaded with AA#5. After burning 15 or 20 rounds to do final sight adjustment, I went to work on destroying the 1/2" black dots out of the center of multiple Gunloads printed targets. Spot on. Smoother, faster, more accurate. I love the new trigger, and the clean crisp break I get now after the polishing and cleaning to the entire fire control system. I did not have a single misfeed, misfire or miss of any kind. I am now satisfied with the pistol, and really POED at PARA. Especially at the lack of magazines. It's like buying a new BMW with a 1 gallon gas tank. If you can't fuel it, it's pretty much nothing but a boat anchor. Next up, will be the replacement of the plastic mainspring housing, another super cheapie from PARA that should never have been put on a 1499.00 MSRP pistol. That will happen as soon as I can determine if a standard 1911 MSH will fit it. Since the other plastic housings I have replaced went straight to the trash, I will have to drop one from one of the Colts to test with, unless of course, someone here can confirm that for me. The barrel will go to a local smith for reaming, since I do not want to purchase an expensive reamer for one time use. After all of that, maybe this gun will become what it should have been in the first place. Especially if you listen to PARA advertising. Griz

I asked PARA about the P18 MecGar magazines, this is what he sent back. I use the P18 magazines in my Rock Island 22 TCM, I did do the relief cut on the feed lips, hopefully they will still run in the new PARA. I will be nice if the replacement base pad will mod them enough to fit the Para Pro Custom. If not, the basepads will be a welcome change for the TCM. Anything to get rid of the horrid overhang on the P18, I had even considered grinding it off! After one range session with the PARA: I hate the sloppy trigger shoe, that has to go. The barrel apparently needs to be reamed, I am loading really short to get my reloads to fit. I will talk to my smith about it, is this really a bad thing? I load light for steel shooting, the stock recoil spring runs just fine, but the cost of the flat wire spring is high, and I change springs in all my guns frequently, so that will go as well. The PARA shoots like a dream, is very accurate and very reliable. Last night I loaded up small batches of coated lead bullets from Black and Blue, with several powders, will find out what it really likes. I loaded 115gr, 125gr, 135gr, 147gr and 160gr. All to middle of the chart pressures with 700x, AA#5 and HP38. I will post results after this weekend. From PARA Support: <quote> Bill, I do not have these magazines in stock. My retailer Numrich, doe have the part you need to convert the P18 Magazine to an 18.9. You simply just replace the baseplate. Here is a link to the part you need. http://www.gunpartscorp.com/ad/1371120.htm Thank you and best regards, PARA Customer Services <unquote>