After the range with the Para CF edition

So, shortly after posting photos of my Para, I had an offer on the pistol, and I wasn’t even selling it, lol!  He was an ex member who actually was on TF-1-08 and he’d been looking for one and when he googled the roto, he found pics of my pistol.  Actually, google reveals very few photos of the CF edition single stack Para, so I guess mine is starting to populate online.  I’d told him that despite the low round count, the pistol wasn’t a safe queen and there were plenty of blemishes as he could see from the photos.

He was also aware of Para’s track record for issues and I’d told him I had encountered magazine issues.  He said he was fine with all of that, and he still wanted it, but with all of the original parts installed.  Lol, he really hated the grips I have on there now.  I reinstalled the full length guide rod, but I don’t have the factory grips and I still haven’t bothered swapping back the arched main spring housing, but that’s an easy fix.  

The other day, my buddy Hermes came by and tinkered with the mag release for my Para.  My other buddy Roy tried several mag catches from other manufacturers but none of them fit.  He ended up taking a new one and grinding it down to fit the Para frame, but it still wouldn’t seat properly.  Hermes experimented with it a bit and took the magazine catch lock and magazine catch spring from the Para, and threw it into the ground down magazine catch Roy did up, and somehow it managed to seat into the Para.  It still doesn’t catch Dlask and Wilson Combat mags, but at least now, both Para magazines lock firmly in place, as do all of my Remington mags and the one Springfield Armory mag I have.  Not perfect, but more functional than before.  

I hadn’t heard from the potential buyer for a while, so I figured, well, now that the mag issue has been semi-resolved, might as well take her out again without that hanging over my head.  I remember my last experience and almost flinched on the first shot because I was half expecting the magazine to drop out…..but it didn’t.  I threw in another mag, and another, and another and the mag remained firmly locked in place and I was able to focus on shooting instead of worrying about the mag falling out.

I brought it out only to test the function, so again I was sending Norc ammo down range, but not a single failure, and no mag issues.  I was surprised to find that the pistol was able to group well if I did my part.  I’m a terrible shot with a pistol, but if I take my time and focus, I occasionally pull off fairly decent groups.  Like last time, the Para was able to demonstrate that it had the potential to produce some fairly decent groups, but I’d like to try again with some half decent ammo, and maybe ask my buddy Roy to shoot a group with it.

Photo shoot after the range:

So, after this last range trip, I’m not so eager to sell it anymore, haha!  When the thing runs on mags it likes, it runs rather well, and since it’s already beat up, I’m not afraid to abuse it, and I don’t need to walk on eggshells around it like some of my safe queens.  On top of that, I think it photographs rather well, haha!  

If the guy doesn't get back to me, I'd probably be happy to keep the Para after all :)

AR Family photo

After the rebuild, I function test it, everything seems to be good to go, no issues.  After all, it was really just a barrel swap, trigger change and swapping out the stock, but I figure a range test would probably be a good idea as well, so off to DVC with about 50 rounds of 5.56 American Eagle.

The rebuild is obviously much lighter than its original 20” iteration and the first thing I notice is how easy and quick it is to point.  The PWS BCG is smooth to work, and the trigger from my spare parts box, probably a Colt, isn’t as awesome as the Jard unit that was in there (that is now in my CC 10.5”), but it isn’t horrible either.

I’m fairly confident the rifle won’t kaboom (all the while, I’m going over in my head all the steps it took to swap the parts, hoping I didn’t miss anything) and I let off the first round.  No boom, and I have all my fingers, yay!  I hold the red dot in the same place and it just makes a larger hole.  Yeah, it’s only 17 meters, but I’m just shooting unsupported from the standing position.  3 more in the mag, and I get one ragged hole.  Not friggin’ bad!  The PWS brake/flash hider is doing a great job keeping the muzzle from hopping too much, and doing a pretty good job of keeping the flash down as well.

45 rounds later, and I’m thinking why the hell am I selling this rifle?  It’s awesome!  I’m already thinking a few months down the road to the Redneck Three-Gun competition in Lone Butte.  This would literally be the perfect 3 gun AR.  It produces pretty tight groups, it’s light, it’s easy to point and if you still wanted to bolt a bunch of crap onto it, you still co

PWS Rebuild

About a year or so ago, I built this AR starting off with a 20” Colt HBAR barrel.  I started the build with an Armalite upper, but eventually the build evolved and I ended up flipping the Armalite upper and used almost all PWS parts except for the trigger group, barrel and butt stock.  

Well, it turned out what started off as a spare parts build ended up as a sub MOA rifle that stacked rounds from 100m.  The only problem was, it was a range toy, unable to reach out beyond 200m (the closest local range) and I could not take it out to crown land for long range plinking, where most of my shooting interest has been lately.  

I knew the C7A2 can effectively put rounds on target from 500m because when I tried out (and got rejected, lol!) for our unit range team.  I hit 10 out of 10 shots on paper from 500m (shooting from 500m for the first time, and I’m a crap shot), 3 in the v-bull, with my C7A2 with the mag buried in the dirt, no bipod, and only 3.4x magnification.  I figured the same rifle with a bipod, free floated barrel, match ammo, and half decent magnification (anything beyond the 3.4x Elcan) would probably perform well.  I didn’t want to tear down my SA20, so I built this one.  I built it, I shot it, and then it sat………..

I liked having it, but didn't shoot it much, and lately, I’ve been obsessed with building a Mk12 Mod 0 or Mod 1.  I really don’t want to start because I know it’s going to cost a fortune, but I really want one so I figured if I sell this rifle, it might motivate me to get started.  My buddy’s friend was looking to get into an AR, so I started breaking the 20” build down because I wanted to keep the 20” HBAR, and buddy’s friend wanted a carbine length AR anyway.  I happened to have a spare Colt LE6920 16” barrel in my spare parts box, so on it went, along with a Magpul MOE stock and grip (keeping the PRS stock…..for what I have no idea).