Went shooting today ...

[Rimfire McNutjob]

For the first time in years. There were some noobs at work that have never been and a couple of others that had 45's. I always take more than one gun and it paid off today. I'm in the IT department and most of the people in my group are younger guys in their 20's and 30's. I'd be hard pressed to pull a gun out of my safe that didn't pre-date their existence.

I got there before everyone else and was putting a few rounds of factory Winchester 155gr .40 S&W down range. My P16.40 has never had a failure to function though people have told me that they are not highly reliable. I've had mine since the early 90's.

On about round 20, I had a failure to feed. I removed the mag and was able to clear the round. Then, something odd happened. Something small fell out of the gun and onto the shooting table. I just noticed it as I was going to re-insert the mag and continue. I picked it up and recognized it as 1/2 of the pin that goes through the link. The hole it should have been protruding out of was empty. Obviously, this pin is integral to the slide stop which remained in the gun. So much for shooting .40 today. I switched over to a 6" .22 Diamondback ... which many of the noobs favored for its lack of recoil and excellent trigger. Though the concept of a revolver was a little out of sync for them. Apparently, you don't see a lot of revolvers on TV shows these days.

About a 1/2 hour into our range session, a man showed up with his young son ... I'm going to guess about 7 years old. He wheeled out a .40 S&W and was tandem holding it with the kid. You could tell the little guy wasn't ready to deal with the noise or recoil. I think it was his first range trip ever. I handed the guy my Diamondback and some CCI .22 LR Standard Velocity rounds and told him to try that. The Diamondback is a bit heavy in 6" for a kid that small but he manged to get his hand mostly around it. His dad helped with the hold and they puffed out a couple of cylinders worth. A much better learning experience for the kid I think. I would probably not be shooting today if my dad had me holding a .357 or .45ACP back when I was that age. I'd have been scared off.

Later I called Para and waited for about 1/2 an hour for a live person. The armorer at the range said Para had a lifetime warranty and they would probably just send me a new slide stop. Yeah ... not so much. I had to pay for the part and shipping. Anyone here had any luck with the Para "lifetime" warranty?

[jdad]

I know someone that recently had the barrel bushing crack, on his PARA. He needed a stainless one, but all they had was blued. It would have been a 4-6 month wait, for what he wanted.

[MrMurphy]

Paras were decent when introduced, after Ted Szabo died their CS and QC have both taken a serious dive, to where some well known gunsmiths won't take them for custom work as there's too many things screwed up to fix first. Much like some of the more recent Kimbers, though Kimbers can be hit and miss on that.


The 90's era guns were generally quite good (having shot a bunch of them) but after I'd say 2006ish the QC started to go, and once Ted died......CS went out the window.

That part should be a standard 1911 part drop-in, most of the Paras are pure 1911s except for the frame.

[Rimfire McNutjob]

That part should be a standard 1911 part drop-in, most of the Paras are pure 1911s except for the frame.

That's what I thought, but Para has a specific one for the double stack frames on their site. I don't know if there's any real difference though.

[RIHMFIRE]

wish i was there blasting away with you!......
i need to get to the range and sight in my hunt'n rifles..
but which ones?

bow season starts tomorrow....

[Sixgun]

Nut Job, Whats a "noob"? Similar to a "boob"? If so, I'm in.

Just another reason my revolvers outnumber my autos 25-1----------------6

[Rimfire McNutjob]

Nut Job, Whats a "noob"? Similar to a "boob"? If so, I'm in.

Just another reason my revolvers outnumber my autos 25-1----------------6

A 'noob' is the short form of 'newbie' ... a person uninitiated in an activity. We computer people won't waste the extra syllable on them and so we say 'noob' instead of 'newbie'.

[wolfdog]

What range you go to? I am a member at Titusville Pistol and Rifle.

[Old Ironsights]

...
About a 1/2 hour into our range session, a man showed up with his young son ... I'm going to guess about 7 years old. He wheeled out a .40 S&W and was tandem holding it with the kid. You could tell the little guy wasn't ready to deal with the noise or recoil. I think it was his first range trip ever. I handed the guy my Diamondback and some CCI .22 LR Standard Velocity rounds and told him to try that. The Diamondback is a bit heavy in 6" for a kid that small but he manged to get his hand mostly around it. His dad helped with the hold and they puffed out a couple of cylinders worth. A much better learning experience for the kid I think. I would probably not be shooting today if my dad had me holding a .357 or .45ACP back when I was that age. I'd have been scared off...

Not necessarily.

A buddy of mine & I had been shooting up @ Ft. Rich (or maybe it was at Rabbit Creek) and we were back at his place cleaning our hand cannons. His 5(? might have been 4) yo was watching us from a respectful distance throughout the process.

When we were nearly done, he asked if he could "look at" one of the guns. OK. Guns were safe, no ammo anywhere near, etc, etc.

So the child goes up to where the guns were laid out on the mat on the floor and picks... The .44 Redhawk.

Curious as to what this little kid was thinking, we allowed him to pick up the gun.

Smart, observant kid that he was, he wrapped both small hands around the grip, picked up the gun, and pointed it at the "safe wall" (dry-fire/clearing wall). His fingers could not pull the DA trigger, so, little gears whirring in that little skull, he grabbed the barrel in one hand, the bottom of the grip in the other, and, still keeping the muzzle pointed away from himself & others, turned the gun upside down and used the floor to set the hammer. Then he turned the gun over again, and with a 2-hand grip dropped the hammer at the Safe Wall.

We went back to the range. Right then. With the kid, extra muffs and the Redhawk.

Demonstration Time.

With child on Daddy's lap, and grownup arms/hands there solely to keep the recoil from flinging the gun into anything, the child was allowed to drop the hammer again... on a loaded chamber... Factory .44 ammo.

Result: "What did you learn?" "I don't want to play with guns until I'm Big like Daddy!". (He got his own Single Shot .22 at 6 and has been a Shooter ever since...)

Eddie Eagle has nothing on this method. Properly applied fear ruins nothing, and saves a lot of heartache...

[tom deinek]

Like a lot of you, I own about 75 guns. I'm a retired cop & I have been around guns my entire adult life.

Recently was given some factory .45acp 'self defense' rounds. Tried 'em at the range. They scared me.

You don't have to be a child to dislike enormous recoil and deafening report.

[Rimfire McNutjob]

What range you go to? I am a member at Titusville Pistol and Rifle.

I was at the Shoot Straight in Casselberry. I gave up my membership at the Seminole County club range.