greencobra
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- Jul 2, 2011
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cause this thread has the big two that leads to an aneurysm around here...para ordnance and .40 s&w. i wanted to show you all the gun i was using to shoot ipsc with in the 90's. just to spice things up.
up until this time i used a series 70 gold cup .45 acp pretty much stock and a colt 1911 .45 i had customized. (the man who worked on it is a member here) i wanted more round capacity. a lot of the national big guns were going to 9mm in custom built guns at this time but 2 problems...beretta was the only ones that could get a double stack 9 to run reliably and of course the platform of choice was a 1911... and pressures were running extremely high with people reloading the 9 trying to make major. para had recently put out the p-16 .40 so i figured problem solved. i didn't have the money to buy a caspian or para frame and build a .45 hi cap from the ground up, so...logical choice. the .40 made major no problem and 16 in the mag with one up. jesus, i could shoot the whole match without a mag change the way the stages were designed in those days, lol.
i got my p-16. a pretty slick canadian made pistol with 2 issues. it wouldn't shoot to point of aim at 25 yards, way high. i had to aim under a target, and it too had an issue with the double stack .40 mag not feeding 100%. i needed warranty work. since i couldn't send the gun back to canada para provided the name of a u.s. shop near me to send it to. i was living in colorado so it went to bill laughridge at cylinder & slide in nebraska.
i wanted to keep the stock rear sight cause it was flat and tall, perfect for racking a gun on something if an arm was out of commission. bill ground off the original front and rebuilt a big honking sight out front and filed it to point of aim at 25 yds. he also reworked the 4 magazines i sent to tune them to the gun for reliable feeding. on all four he engraved the serial number of the gun. the rest of the work was minimal, he installed an extended mag release, installed a beavertail and tuned the action. all under para's warranty. i ran with the original springs, they are still in the gun today.
i got back a pretty nice competition gun, extremely reliable and accurate. the first match i took it to the rest of the field wanted me dq'd. no way that gun was legal. see, these guys wanted to stay with a traditional single stack .45. i remembr a few years prior when someone showed up with the then new wilson 8 round mag. they all had heart attacks after screaming cheater at the guy. i said i dunno, all the big boys are using double stacks in california and no one is yelling foul. and besides, i was no threat to anyone, i sucked at the game but it was a lot of fun. i ran the gun for 8 1/2 years and it worked like a champ, still does. i take it out of retirement several times a year.
i wore the factory finish off the frame. i had lou biondo at bec cerakote the frame back to factory color spec. for some reason whatever they used on the slide held up and it still looks new today. and we drew from those old timey bianchi leather holsters so it held up well.
to make your heads explode in furor, here she is today, lookin' sassy and smart. we never won a damn thing but we looked sharp trying.
up until this time i used a series 70 gold cup .45 acp pretty much stock and a colt 1911 .45 i had customized. (the man who worked on it is a member here) i wanted more round capacity. a lot of the national big guns were going to 9mm in custom built guns at this time but 2 problems...beretta was the only ones that could get a double stack 9 to run reliably and of course the platform of choice was a 1911... and pressures were running extremely high with people reloading the 9 trying to make major. para had recently put out the p-16 .40 so i figured problem solved. i didn't have the money to buy a caspian or para frame and build a .45 hi cap from the ground up, so...logical choice. the .40 made major no problem and 16 in the mag with one up. jesus, i could shoot the whole match without a mag change the way the stages were designed in those days, lol.
i got my p-16. a pretty slick canadian made pistol with 2 issues. it wouldn't shoot to point of aim at 25 yards, way high. i had to aim under a target, and it too had an issue with the double stack .40 mag not feeding 100%. i needed warranty work. since i couldn't send the gun back to canada para provided the name of a u.s. shop near me to send it to. i was living in colorado so it went to bill laughridge at cylinder & slide in nebraska.
i wanted to keep the stock rear sight cause it was flat and tall, perfect for racking a gun on something if an arm was out of commission. bill ground off the original front and rebuilt a big honking sight out front and filed it to point of aim at 25 yds. he also reworked the 4 magazines i sent to tune them to the gun for reliable feeding. on all four he engraved the serial number of the gun. the rest of the work was minimal, he installed an extended mag release, installed a beavertail and tuned the action. all under para's warranty. i ran with the original springs, they are still in the gun today.
i got back a pretty nice competition gun, extremely reliable and accurate. the first match i took it to the rest of the field wanted me dq'd. no way that gun was legal. see, these guys wanted to stay with a traditional single stack .45. i remembr a few years prior when someone showed up with the then new wilson 8 round mag. they all had heart attacks after screaming cheater at the guy. i said i dunno, all the big boys are using double stacks in california and no one is yelling foul. and besides, i was no threat to anyone, i sucked at the game but it was a lot of fun. i ran the gun for 8 1/2 years and it worked like a champ, still does. i take it out of retirement several times a year.
i wore the factory finish off the frame. i had lou biondo at bec cerakote the frame back to factory color spec. for some reason whatever they used on the slide held up and it still looks new today. and we drew from those old timey bianchi leather holsters so it held up well.
to make your heads explode in furor, here she is today, lookin' sassy and smart. we never won a damn thing but we looked sharp trying.