matteekay

Howdy e'rrybody. Little bit of a weird question. I picked up my first Para (and first 80 series) recently - a Hawg 9 that I'm considering running in IDPA BUG. I may need to reduce the length a little to get it to fit in the box so I was considering a smaller grip safety and bobbed hammer. I noticed that Para uses a strange "nosed" design on their half-cock notch, as seen below: (Para hammer on top, Brazos trigger on bottom) Does anyone know why they do this? Would I be able to replace it with a standard hammer, and/or need to grind one down to match?

That thing looks like it came straight from the depths of hell (in the best possible way). Is the notch in front of the rear just for weight reduction? Are you still shooting this one this season?

100% agree. I went into it thinking that the stages looked way easier than the State championship last year (no exercise bikes, baby carriers, etc) but really, they were equally as tricky without being gimmicky. Even the props/gimmicks that were used, like the pool table, were integral to stage planning and not a pointless challenge element. I also appreciated that static targets were usually in close enough proximity to movers that you had the option of going activator-static-mover or activator-mover-static (as a revo dude... I usually did the latter, haha). Lots of ways to cut up the stages and scaled well to us capacity-challenged folk. Easily the best IDPA match I've shot.

I took some; I'll have to get it edited and posted at some point.

I'm not surprised. They always have "CSEC Standards", a standards-type stage with targets at 5, 7, 20, and 30 yards. You shoot two strings, one all freestyle, one weak-weak-strong-strong and the remainder freestyle. Broke my match last year (down almost 40) but managed to not stink up the joint this year. Tons and tons of double drop turners and disappearing bobbers and leaners, including a few where two disappearing targets were triggered from the same popper Several instances of reload traps if you weren't counting rounds Everything around us was on fire and the air quality was approximately "the inside of a Traeger grill"

I managed to snag a Hawg 9 in really nice shape from the local gun shop and my (stupid) brain is telling me to get more mags and shoot it in IDPA BUG division. Unfortunately, the factory 12-rounders seem to be non-existent on the free market. Are there any alternatives I can look at? Were there any other Paras that used this size of mag? There's one guy on eBay selling mags, but they're longer mags that are capped at 10 rounds with a grip sleeve added. Basically, the worst of all possible combinations. Any help/leads are appreciated!

Hope everyone was safe and had a good time. That was a challenging, but fun match. Obligatory Joyce picture - thanks, Joyce!

Nice! Hope you enjoyed it - I'll probably bump into you there at some point! Sent from my Pixel 3a XL using Tapatalk

Awesome! I'll be there tonight shooting USPSA. I'm in the 6-7 squad I think, and will be the only fat dude running a Chiappa Rhino, lol. If you take the class, tell Bryan that Matt says hi!

I also have a .45 ACP 2011 "Frankenbuild". Actually, I think wgj3 has my old mags! I run a 230gr round nose and I just couldn't get the MBX's to run consistently with my setup. I'm using Gen 1 STI 140 tubes with Dawson SNL +1 extensions and I get 14-15 reloadable. That's with Grams guts - I've been meaning to try the Dawson competition follower and see if I can squeeze one more in there. If only someone would make 171.25's in 45 ACP...

I kinda want to build an "open" snubnose S&W 627 with a dot after watching that...

Cool, I have a couple friends up that way. I'd highly recommend taking Bristlecone's "Intro to USPSA" class (they're in Lakewood). You'll get your yellow card at the end of it and it's a good mix of classroom and practical instruction. Definitely check out Weld's USPSA match, too (WCPS / Weld County Practical Shooters), as it's up your way and always a great time. And join the ECOUSPSA Google group / email list as it's the easiest way to get match announcements and the like.

LOL. 7ish is where my pull sits right now; I've never been able to get it lower with any kind of consistency. I will say that Winchesters have worked almost as well as Federals in in all my wheelguns, but they're equally hard to come by. It's really bad down here right now, on the order of (or worse than) the Obama shortages. Did I mention that they're CCI? No revolver with a pull under 10 pounds stands a chance. Besides, it's probably time to shoot some other guns.

We were kicking this topic around the other day and it seemed like there were quite a few opinions on it. When you're shooting a match that's more than one day, do you check scores in the evening? Or between stages if scores post immediately? Personally, I avoid Practiscore like the plague. I'm not a good enough shooter to ratchet up my runs if I'm chasing someone (well, without a high probably of disaster), so I'd rather just shoot my game and hope for the best. Other people I know take the stance that they'd prefer to know if they're in striking distance of leading (or are currently leading) so they can adjust accordingly. Obviously it gets a little complicated with USPSA's points-based scoring and even time-down when you're not shooting the same stages as your competition. Thoughts?

OP, I'm not a great shooter by any means, but I've found your "one class down" metric to be true. I've been shooting Revolver 90% of the time and finally made "B", but I'll pull out another gun for super-classifiers and can typically make a "C". In the very occasional instances that I shoot a non-revolver, I typical go to reload when there's absolutely no reason to, lol. Ironically, the primer shortage has me moving OFF of revolver. I can still find large primers, and have an okay stockpile of small primers, but my revo's all specifically require Federal #100's and those are about as rare as an honest politician.

At this point I'm just giving up and switching to black powder cowboy action shooting...

Good advice here. I run a lighter mainspring but I only run my handloads through the gun so I know it works. Dialing down the recoil spring will change how the gun resets (just like how it does in a CZ). You want it stout enough to function reliably, but light enough that the sights return to zero with minimal dipping. Basically, go to the range with a bag of springs in different weights and swap them out until you like how it runs. The joy of the 1911 is that you don't even need tools to do this, lol.

Welcome aboard! Where in CO are you? There are a few good ways of getting started if you're in the Denver area. This is all really good advice.

Assuming we're all going to be out playing in the sand next week... Anybody seen a match book yet?

I'm not super-familiar with Nighthawks (I'm a poor) so my response is based on looking them over on their website. Take with the appropriate amount of salt. I don't see anything that would prevent you from using either in IDPA ESP/CO. Humorously, IDPA is less strict about machining/porting/lightening 1911's than USPSA's SS division is, so the frame windows are good to go. They both appear to make weight (the limit is under 43 oz with a magazine inserted) and will fit in all other dimensions. It looks like you'll also be covered in terms of using the iron sight "plate" in ESP rather than the dot: 8.2.2.2.A. Sights may be changed to another notch and post type. Slides may be machined to accept different style sights. I interpret the bold part to cover the swappable system as the net result is still notch and post. As always, your mileage may vary.

Howdy 1911/2011 folks! I'm eyeing potentially converting a 1911 I built into a 2011. I'd like to use a full-length dust cover, but the slide I have is a standard-cut 1911 slide (not slab-sided). Obviously this will work, but I'm having a hard time picturing how it's going to look. Does anyone have photos of a full-length and/or railed dust cover with a standard slide?

I had no idea anyone was making P320 metal frames. Super-cool!

Thanks! Stock knob, just flipped over to the passenger side. The grip is a Magpul MOE and the stock is an Archangel commercial-spec.

That's super-cool. How is the optic mount attached to the frame?

Never. Speaking only for myself, I won't be. Not sure about anyone else, though.