Flatland Shooter

Thank you for your response Craig. Are you using some of the older "pre-ban" Para mags or some of the newer and longer Para mags? All of mine are the short (by 0.09") "pre-bans". At this point I'm leaning toward the S&A magwell and Dawson basepads. How much hassle is the installation of the S&A magwell. I have not seen their directions but it looks like I'll need to hacksaw about 1/4 inch off the bottom of the pistol grip and dress it up with a file. Sounds correct? I "googled" Ammosmith with no luck. I guess they are no longer in business or now operating under a different name. A 27 or 28 round magazine would have its benefits. Again, thanks for your response. Bill

Many years ago I loaned out my PACT setup for a charity shoot. The match director set up the chrono in a spare bay with someone to run it at scheduled times. A local yokel drove up (not a participant or even a club member) and decided to chono his handgun loads. Noone there to say no, so that makes it fair game. He shot both skyscreens and my tripod. We caught him headed back to his pickup. When confronted, his reply was "guess it was pretty stupid of you folks to leave it just sitting out there, wasn't it".

My 550 started doing the same thing this past weekend. In my case, I cleaned out the primer pocket and realigned the assembly. Don't know if this will work for you, but I usually need to realign the assembly once or twice a year. FS

This past week I heard mention that a mix (not sure of %) of vinegar and hydrogen peroxide works. Maybe someone who's used this mixture can shed light on if it works or not. I was told that this mixture should not be left on too long. The mixture I use is 50% peroxide and 50% white vinegar. It will disolve the lead in your barrel and compensator. And yes, if left on too long will cause damage. I made a small container out of PVC pipe with a cap on one end. I'd drop the barrel/comp assembly into the mixture and leave it in for 10 minutes, then rinse with hot water. As long as I didn't let the lead build up in the comp, a little scraping with a flat point brass rod knocked out any chunks left. The lead floats to the top of the mixture and is probably pretty toxic. Be careful how you dispose it. About 10 years ago I put the barrel and comp into the mixture to soak. A few minutes later I got an emergency phone call and hit the highway. Long story short, three or four days later I returned to discover the stainless steel barrel untouched, but anywhere the hard chrome was thin or chipped on the steel compensator, the underlying metal was badly pitted. All the lead was gone, but at a high price. I've never tried this on blued guns or bare steel, but would be very cautious. Moral of the story, I still use the 50/50 mix but I am very careful to not allow my gun parts to soak for more than a few minutes. I may have a little lead in my current comp, but I also have an entire comp. Now I need to go lay down. After all these years thinking about this still upsets me. I gotta get a life. FS

Good morning Benny, The male threads on the conversion cone cleaned up nicely. Since my friend has yet to order a new compensator, is there any downside to just leaving the cone in place and buying a compensator to fit it? The more I think about it, the better I like the idea of a conversion cone versus fitting the entire comp to his gun. Thank you. FS

Does Dremel, or any of their competitors, make a 1/8" or so ball shaped cutter for soft metals only? That might be good to remove the lead and minimal damage to the comp. Edited with new information added: May have an answer to my own question. Here is a ball cutter for plastic, woood, non-ferous metal, etc. May be worth a try.. http://www.widgetsupply.com/page/WS/CTGY/dremel-hss-round

It looks like it. The gun this barrel and comp came off of was built about 10 years ago by a gunsmith in Oklahoma (not Nowlin) that used Nowlin parts. The current owner of the gun tried to locate the gunsmith to ask a few questions without luck. If memory serves me, Nowlin made a conversion cone for a while too. Does George (with EGW) recommend the conversion cone be silver soldered in place? Tomorrow I'll clean and measure the threads and see if its 11/16" x 40 threads. If able to install any bull barrel compensator, this may be the way I go with future guns.

Earlier a friend brought by a Nowlin 38 Super barrel with a two chamber comp installed. Put the assembly in the oven, we each opened a cold one, and let the heat break down the loctite. Now for the surprise, instead of a one piece compensator, its two pieces with a compensator screwed onto a conversion cone and the cone screwed onto the barrel. Since the compensator, with a little coaxing, came loose but the cone stayed put, is there a possibility that the conversion cone was silver soldered on? If so, any way to remove it or (my suggestion) should he just go with a new comp that will screw onto the conversion cone? Will he have trouble finding a comp maker that will match the cone's threads? Also I noticed Brownells seems to no longer carry compensator alignment reamers. Anyone know where I can pick up one? Thanks.

Thank you Wide45, Good job locating exactly what I needed. I've gotta hone those search skills. I have the "old" short magazines (all six measure a very consisent length of 4.590"). I also downloaded Dawson's catalog. It has a lot more information than found in their website. I plan on giving them a call tomorrow. An increase from 20+1 to 23+1 will be well worth the effort and expense. FS

Mr Patterson, Looking at their online catalog, the S&A ParaOrdnance full Magwell requires replacing the mainspring housing and trimming a little off the bottom of the frame for fit. To keep the integrity of the mainspring pin holes on the frame, it looks like the bottom of the frame forward of the mainspring pin holes is the only metal trimmed by approximately 1/4". To enable magazines to fit, is the frame with the S&A Magwell now shorter than an original pistol frame? And did your gunsmith open up the bottom of the mag well and the bottom of the gun frame as part of the magwell attachment? On my gun, the metal near the bottom of the frame is mighty thin and could not be opened up much. I guess that shoots down my theory that the new factory ParaOrdnance magazines are a little bit longer than the original magazines and allow aftermarket basepads to fit with no pistol modifications and, as a bonus, allow 1 additional round to be fed into the magazine. And per your advice, I think I'll give Dawson a call in the morning and for their advice. Thanks for your response. FS

From Michael Banes blogsite, the results are in: 1. J.J. Racaza 2. K.C. Escubio 3. Todd Jarrett 4. Max Michel 5. B.J. Norris JJ's winning time : 82.6 seconds

I did a forum search and was not able to answer several questions that have come up. I'm doing a little research on ParaOrdnance magazines and trying to determine how other shooters are able to get 21 rounds into their magazines and are able to use magwells on their Paras. If this is very elementary, please forgive my ignorance. I've just started shooting again after a 10 year absence from the sport. All my mags are original prebans acquired in the early to mid-90s. With 9x21 their capacity is 20+1. Several of the old basepads are no longer functional and needed to be replaced. After installing new aftermarket basepads, the magazines fail to seat. Even though I do not have a magwell installed on the gun, the new basepads will not allow the magazines to go far enough into the pistol for the magazine catch to latch. I went to the local gunshop and measured a new production magazine. I found the new mag body was 0.09" longer than my old magazines. Not much but maybe this little bit is all I need. Will the extra length of these new magazines allow the use of Dawson basepads in a ParaOrdnance? And if so, (now I'm really pressing my luck) will it also be long enough to allow me to install a magwell on this gun? Thank you for any assistance you can offer. Also a side note to Brian for giving us this forum and to the many contributing members out there, THANK YOU. After finding this forum last February, it was a significant factor in getting me out there shooting again! F.S.

From the video, your reloads look pretty decent. And times in the 1.20 to 1.25 second range sound good too. From the experts on the forum, what should be your reload times for different USPSA classes? Are the GM's under a second consistently? FS

Is it my computer or what? I went to ghostholster.com to order some Zero bullets (my first order with Angus) and could not get a security marker (you know, the little locked padlock on the lower right hand portion of your computer screen) when I needed to enter the credit card number. Anyone else have this problem? p.s. Angus must be out traveling to/from a match. No answer at his shop's phone number. p.s.s. Heard back from Angus this evening. Turns out this is the week of the Steel Challenge. I really need to keep up with the basics, i.e. major matches. Thanks for calling Angus and good luck with the match. Bill

Thanks AustinMike, You headed me in the correct direction. The information I needed. F.S.

"If you get a racker, definitely go the ball and detent route. I had mine converted " I like the idea of a slide racker that is easy to remove for gun cleaning. Does anyone offer a slide racker with the ball and detent? Where can I order one?

I shoot a 9x21 and use 6.6 gr HS-6 under a 147 gr bullet (AOL = 1.245") and my load is just short of being compressed. Your load of over 8 gr HS-6 in a 9x19 must surely be a compressed load. BTW, my load shoots a 175 PF and is definitely my maximum. This load was developed for my gun and is recommended only for my gun. FS

I allowed the concrete to cure for several months, then applied epoxy concrete paint. The safe sits on the garage floor with nothing under it. A golden rod plugged into a dedicated outlet runs 24/7. After 6 years, no sign of rust or moisture problems for the safe or its contents thus far.

Just wanted to close out this thread with a few quick comments. I did make it to the OKC Gun Club's August monthly match. There were 61 shooters competing in 107 degree heat. It was GREAT!!! We shot 6 really neat stages (OK, one was a classifier), using lots of walls and movement. Every local is rightfully proud of the range and their matches. I will be back.

To go to single stack, add $250 for barrel and bushing, $60 for front sight installed onto the slide. It may be cheaper to go with a new gun with up to date equipment. Sorry, no nostalgia class in USPSA (yet).

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My wife wanted personalized plates on her car. Got her "LOST-AGN". Kept them for a year and decided to go back to regular plates (or at least not let me pick the plate). We like to travel the out of the way places. Met nice helpful folks several times when we were off the side of the road checking out our road map.

14/14 - time to update my Christmas wish list. Class 3 anyone?

You may want to check the case length. A shorter case does not get flared out quite as much and may cause your problems. (Been there, done that.) As a minor check, lower the powder drop thingy (don't remember the correct name) for a real drastic flare of the case and see if it still does it. If so, sounds like much thicker brass than your crimp die seems to like.

http://www.mattburkett.com/ seems to work a little better. Just checked out Matt's site. Dry fire training section is great. I'm switching over from the laptop to the desktop with the good monitor and speakers. Way cool!