Shooting

Last weekend while inspecting and cleaning up my little Para Ordinance Warthog .45ACP compact pistol, I discovered cracks in the recoil cap and a broken ferule on the recoil spring assembly, itself. In last week’s range report, Bob said:

This was the day for misfeeds, I guess. The Para, which had been working mostly flawlessly the last several outings, suddenly had numerous misfeeds. Nothing serious and a little lube fixed it for the most part. It happened using the same ammo and under all the same conditions as before.

After making the discovery of the defective parts, it was no wonder it acted weird. It’s a good thing that I found the cracks and broken ferule before the gun catastrophically failed.

We will be ordering the replacement parts on Monday. We will be calling our friend in Para Public Relations to discuss the best way to restore my favorite pistol to full functionality.

Click on the images above for a closer look at light shining through the cracks in the spring cap and the broken ferule.

This week we took the following firearms to the range: Para Warthog (.45 ACP), S&W 908 (9mm), S&W 442 (.38 SPL), and the Glocks – G26 (9mm) and G30 (.45 ACP). We also brought Remington 870 shotguns – a 20 gauge ‘youth model’ and a 7-shot ‘security gun.’

This was the day for misfeeds, I guess. The Para, which had been working mostly flawlessly the last several outings, suddenly had numerous misfeeds. Nothing serious and a little lube fixed it for the most part. It happened using the same ammo and under all the same conditions as before. The biggest peculiarity today was the Glock 30 had a misfeed. Move your cursor over the image above to see the Glock 30 with a round stuck halfway into the chamber.

We had a pretty busy day today. We wanted to get our target practice session in before coming home to enjoy the Superbowl festivities. After shooting, we religiously clean up the firearms and get everything ready for the next shootout. In addition to the fun chores, the lawn needed to be mowed. But, we managed to get everything done and were ready to sit down and enjoy the big game.

Congratulations to the Pittsburgh Steelers on their Superbowl XLIII victory.

Our weekly trip to the range was a lot of fun again. We shot the usual suite of firearms and the usual number of rounds. It was mostly uneventful except for shooting 12 gauge rounds through the Remington 870 Magnum Express.

We bought some Winchester Super X® 12 gauge ammo a week ago when it was on sale. The rounds were 2¾ inch 7½ shot. Today, we put 25 rounds through the big shotgun and found out that the Super X had most of the same problems as the “Universal” shells we bought (and regretted doing so) last summer. This is from our post complaining about the Winchester Universal Ammo – Read the Fine Print:”

Universal loads are a great value, ideal for dove, quail, grouse and recreational target shooting.
…
Try Universal ammunition for fun and practice. Then, when you’re ready to do some serious hunting or target shooting, pick up a box of Winchester Super-X®, Supreme® or our famous AA® Target Loads.

Well, we were serious and ready for some target shooting, and thought we could trust the Super X ammo to perform. Wrong. There were stovepipes, failures to eject, and, at one point, a jam that required some serious disassembly of the firearm to clear out the spent round. I have one more box of 25 rounds to shoot and then no more Winchester shotgun ammo for us.

Despite that, we had an excellent time. Here is Damsel shooting her Warthog and definitely enjoying one of the brighter moments from the outing:

The images above show some of the muzzle blasts from Sunday’s trip to the range. Top left: Glock 26 9mm. Top right: Warthog .45ACP. Bottom left: Remington 870 12 gauge. Bottom right: S&W686 .38 special.

Here’s a reprise from a post I did last February on the visible component of muzzle flash:

• Muzzle glow – Muzzle glow is a reddish glow that is visible before the bullet leaves the barrel. Muzzle glow is created by superheated gases that have leaked past the projectile and have exited the barrel.
• Primary flashes – The primary flash is caused by propellant gases exiting the firearm behind the bullet. Although amongst the brightest of the flashes, the heat of the primary flash dissipates quickly and thus is no longer visible.
• Intermediate flashes – The intermediate flash is caused by shock waves created by the high speeds of the escaping gases and projectile, and appears as a reddish disc shape in front of the muzzle.
• Secondary flashes – Secondary flash appears farthest from the muzzle as a large white or yellow flame. Secondary flash is caused by the mixture of fuel-rich gases and oxygen in the atmosphere surrounding the muzzle.
• Sparks – Following the dissipation of the muzzle flash, partially unburnt powder or other heated materials can be ejected from the muzzle and appear as sparks.

We got to the range today just as they were opening; we wanted to finish our outing so we could get home to watch the NFC Championship Game. When we got to the range, it seemed that others had the same idea, because there were more shooters than usual for opening time. Nonetheless, we got a booth and set up for handgun practice.

We shot close to the usual number of rounds except I forgot to bring the second box of 9mm ammo; we did without them, however, since we had plenty of .38 special and shot the revolver more than usual.

We had two anomalies – I should say “I” since Damsel’s shooting went without a flaw. One anomaly I had was a failure to feed when I was shooting Damsel’s Warthog. A little lube fixed the problem and all was normal after that. The second problem was a .45 round didn’t fire in the Glock 30. I ejected the magazine and the unspent round and saw that there was a dimple in the primer. When I reloaded the dimpled round back into the magazine, It fired normally. Damsel took a close up of the spent cartridge. You can see that the primer has two strikes on it. The .45 ammo I used in the Glock today was commercial reloads – we get a dud once in a great while.

We took our usual suite of firearms to the range today. I took my two Glock pistols (G26 – 9mm and G30 – .45ACP), a S&W 908 9mm pistol, the S&W 686 .357 magnum revolver and my Remington 12 gauge 870 magnum shotgun. Damsel took her Para Warthog .45ACP pistol and her small 20 gauge Remington 870 shotgun.

There were no misfeeds on the Para this week again. It has been several weeks and about 300 rounds since even the last minor feed problem. There have been no stovepipes and no serious jams for a couple of months now. Following recommended maintenance and lubrication guidelines, the pistol has been performing just like it should.

I had one minor incident with the Rem 870 12 gauge. At one point when actuating the mechanism, an unspent round came out and the next round from the magazine did not go into the chamber. It was weird. Damsel picked it up right after that and promptly fired five rounds into the target with no problem. “It seems OK to me,” she said. We both laughed it off. At home, disassembly and inspection were completely normal.

After Damsel finished cleaning up the guns today, she loaded forty rounds into four Warthog magazines and posed them for a group photo (above). Very nice. Click 4 big.

Update: Thanks again to Liberty Sphere for including us in the Second Amendment Roundup.