July 2008

My Warthog is certainly an attractive firearm – shiny finish and gracefully sculptured lines made me fall in love with this pistol. But, it has had some problems, as Cap’n Bob mentioned a couple of days ago.

But now, thanks to DirtCrashr, Glenn B, Sabre22 and, especially, Michael Bane, we might be getting the problems resolved real soon. Michael contacted his pal at Para and referred him to us. We will be in contact with Para tomorrow to determine the next course of action.

Thanks again Michael!

Damsel’s Para Ordinance Warthog has a history of jamming, almost since the day she got it. At first, we thought it was a break-in issue and would clear up. However, jamming persisted and we resorted to using a new cleaning lubricant, which seemed to help, but not eliminate the problem.

Lately, the ‘Hawg has been misfeeding quite a lot. We suspected that the magazines might be fouled up, so last weekend, she disassembled her magazines and thoroughly cleaned them out. But, while shooting today, the pistol seemed to jam more than ever. Once, the round got stuck straight up in the mechanism. Damsel posed with the jammed pistol so I could get this shot of it.

Since we earlier were told that the springs in Para magazines might be a tad weak for proper feeding, we ordered some new heavy duty Wolff magazine spring replacements a couple of weeks ago and had them on hand for today’s gun cleaning session.

I disassembled a magazine and laid the original spring next to one of the new ones. Visually, the difference is significant. The new springs are longer and heavier gauge, although they both have the same number of loops. Re-assembly of the magazines was also more difficult than I remember from the last time.

I read somewhere on the Internet that these new springs would reduce the magazine capacity from ten to nine rounds. That’s not true. Damsel was able to get all ten rounds into the first magazine I re-sprung with no problem. She noted that the new springs seemed to be stiffer and the last round was tougher to cram into the magazine than before. She compared the difference to my Glock 30 magazines which have always been tough to load that last round.

We will take the Warthog for a rare midweek shooting range visit, just to see how we do with the new springs. We’ll have a report after we try this fix out.