Flatland Shooter

Glad your father is OK and hope his best friend fares well too. And the old boy must be one tough son of a gun to take on a pit bull bare handed. That's one trait that we all hope stays in the gene pool. Bill

The Steyr GB may be more of a collector than a shooter? If I remember correctly, they were in competition with Beretta for the US military contract. They lost out to the Model 92 variant. Less than 20,000 GB's were built and production stopped back in 1988. May be tough getting parts if something breaks. For a competition gun you really need several magazines. I remember when the GB first came out as the new "Wondernine". They are very nice guns with little felt recoil but I have not seen one used in competition in over 20 years. But if you are not worried about parts and enjoy shooting it, go for it. Bill

Excellent post Steven.

I've never used the DOH, but from the experience of someone who has had their pistol fall out of a race rig, the main difference appears to be retention. And based on comments made by others on this forum, their draw time with the DOH versus a full race holster is maybe 1/10 or 2/10 of a second. Bill

If you are worried about hail, New Mexico may not be the best place to live. Many years ago Jal, New Mexico had the hail storm of all hail storms. A friend told me that even the hubcaps of his car were damaged. Not a roof in town survived. Bill

Please excuse my ignorance, but what match is ssc? Has it filled up or do you still have time to enter? This is my first year to shoot the Double Tap Challenge so I was concerned that I would not get an entry submitted in time. The neat thing is my entry appeared on the USPSA self squading list well before the check cleared. One less thing to worry about. Bill

Though usually not a good source for price, I saw one in excellent condition for $359 and one NIB priced at 389 at a local gun show last fall. Both were blued and included the original Browning box and one magazine. Neither had markings on the frontstrap. Bill

The 391 with light loads can be handled by your daughter with ease. But the best method would be to take her to the range and see if she could "borrow" or even rent a few different shotguns. Show up with a box of Winchester AA Light loads and give it a try. Locally, the 391 seems to be readily available as a rental. Now some folks seem to think I shoot sporting clays like a 10 year old girl, but that is another story. Bill

As a followup, I spoke with both Infinity Firearms (SVI) and received an e-mail back from Rene at Speed Shooters. SVI 38 super x 140 mm magazines are as hard to find as the proverbial hen's tooth. I had a nice visit with a gentleman from Infinity who indicated they are doing their best to supply magazines and tubes for their guns and the added demand by STI shooters (and now Para owners) has resulted in a pretty good wait time. The recent Dallas area weather has not helped matters. Getting the stainless steel sheets to build the magazine tubes is delaying further manufacture. If anyone has any further ideas, please PM me. Thanks. Bill

Another option for the Para frame is the Hiett Tech (formerly Red Buff) mount available from EGW. This mount attaches to the frame above the left grip and replaces the plunger tube. They are available with a weaver mount or 30 mm scope ring type mount. It made out of aluminum and seems very strong/rigid. Very little if any scope movement. I've had mine for over 10 years without problems. With the 30mm ring type mount, it keeps a Tasco PDP3 very close to the slide. No ejection problems so far. The only negative is that I cannot attach a slide racker to the gun. Bill

If I remember correctly, the Browning BDA .380 was actually produced by Beretta and similar to their Model 84. I have one in the gun safe. Nice little gun but a little large for a .380. About 15 years ago a group of these hit the market marked on the frontstrap with a "D" or something. Supposedly a "defective" batch that they felt the finish on the receiver would flake off in time. Nothing mechanical, just cosmetic. I've shot mine quite a bit and like the .380 cartridge for training purposes (taught two daughters to shoot with this gun). Bill

Thank you for your response .40AET. The info is appreciated. Bill

Good morning Warpspeed, Are they too big, too small, or a combination of both. I saw on Bevin's site that the magazine must be sized correctly to fit his pad to avoid damage. How do you make the adjustment. Too large they go into a vise? Too small and they are spread out with a pair of crescent wrenches? Thansks. Bill

I was on the waiting list for about a month. They just got them from production about four days ago. Web sight is not updated. Sorry bout that. Call em! Got it on my calendar for Monday in big red letters. "Wake up someone at SVI." Thanks. Bill

This link has a load for 124 gr Precision Delta and HS-7 http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?...c=44165&hl= This link has a load for 124 gr MG JHP with True Blue http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=12740 Hope this helps (and the links work). I found them with a search for 9 Major. Bill

Just got 4 tubes, they are in stock. http://www.sviguns.com/store/?indx=7 Thanks FullRace. I need to give them a call on Monday. When I go to their site ( and your link) the pulldown box does not show the 9mm 140 mm as an option so I guessed that means not in stock. The tubes you just got, do you think they need to be tuned? Again, thanks. Bill

I'm not having much luck finding 9mm 140mm SV magazines or magazine tubes in stock. Checked Speed Shooters website as well as SVI's site. Neither appear to carry them in stock. Would prefer tuned magazines, but don't have the luxury of waiting too long. Stock mags if in stock will also work. My current blaster is 9x21 with plans to have a 9mm Major built in the future. Based on comments in the forum, the SV magazines work well on the 9x19 without spacers, so these mags should work with both guns. Any help is appreciated. Bill

STI no longer manufactures magazines designed for ParaOrdnance. That leaves several options. 1. Purchase a modifed STI magazine where the gunsmith has welded up the STI mag catch notch and recut it to fit a Para mag catch. (Among others, Bevin Grams with Grams Engineering does this.) 2 Modify your mag catch to enable the use of stock STI magazines. (Richard Dettlehouser with Canyon Creek does this.) Going with this option means your stock Para mags will no longer work so you will need to purchase additional STI magazines. 3. Find a gunsmith that can weld up two Para Hicap magazines making one big stick. I went this route a while back but the results were not satisfactory. You may have better luck. I recently went with the second route. Some needy person walked off with most of my Para magazines, and since I was basically starting from scratch, Richard modified my mag catch, Bevin is building me a big stick, and Brownell's has several 140mm STI mags on back-order. HTH Bill

I thought it was for real, but then looked at the Trail Map.

Oh look !!! Double D's (Dumb and dumber.)

Looks a bit like a .32 Long Rimfire. Could the bullet be closer to 8 mm and the rim about 8.4 mm?

If you are worried about trapping moisture in the zip-lok bags, just don't seal them. Maybe I should elaborate a bit. I store my handguns in Dillon pouches in the safe. I don't think the Dillon pouches breathe much with all the padding and such. I clean and lube with Breakfree CLP and store the guns in the Dillon pouches upright. It allows room for a few more toys and after 20+ years of doing it this way, no rust problems so far. Bill

But I don't think that will help you at Double Tap Don. The "spyder monkey" stage has two Texas Stars rotating in opposite directions. How will you shoot something like that? Bill

Thanks for the explanation joseywales. I love it when the stage designers target my weaknesses. Looks like its gonna be a great match. Only 9 weeks and counting. Bill

That's a review I would like to see. Comparing "fast and snappy" to "smooth and softer". At least that's my conception of the difference between the two top ends. From my reading it appears that your current top end is this year's "best of the best", yet I've yet to see that many shortening their slides and adding poppel holes. It may be the crowd I shoot with. If you go ahead with the new top end, please keep us advised And if you have time for a quick question, your 9x19 loads have an OAL of 31 mm (approx 1.22"). What bullet are you using and have you had any problems with bullet movement in the case? (I shoot 9x21 loaded to a length of 1.225" and wondered if the next blaster could be 9x19 to take advantage of the cheap brass and use similar loads.) Thanks. Bill