I really dislike the grasping grooves ParaUSA is using on their slides these days. I know that one way to be visually distinctive in a market full of people making nearly identical guns is to go with a different style of cocking serrations, but the ones Para picked definitely emphasize style over substance.They appear to have been cut with a ball end mill, and have a wide, shallow, semicircular profile that leaves none-too-sharp ridges between the grooves. Slather this with teflon paint, and you have a recipe for slipped grasps with dry hands. And a slipped cocking grasp on a pistol sporting a big BoMar-esque target style rear sight equals a trip to the first-aid kit for a band-aid.
Incidentally, somewhere between Blackwater and Roseholme Cottage, the LTC 9 also sprouted an ambi thumb safety. While the thought was nice, the CTC Lasergrips make it nearly impossible to re-apply the safety using the left thumb.
16 comments:
This isn't the first time I've read that exact story....I spesifically remember Robb slashing his hands on the Gunblog .45....I'm betting the other have also felt the bite.
Also Ambi-Safeties are things I don't get. The only way I can see being useful is as a left-handed thumb-rest. Otherwise it makes the gun profile so much larger, you have one more peice of equipment to fail or be bumped, and it can be turned on and off with ease with the trigger finger of the left hand. That actually might be a BETTER way to operate the safety as your booger-hook shouldn't be near the boom-switch when your working the widgit anyway!
Nothing wrong with ambis per se; I've never had them be an issue on my Pro.
So much wider? Low profile ambis really don't protrude any farther than the grip. (Although big gas pedals have no place other than on competition toys.)
I can take 'em or leave 'em, but then I've never had an issue with them causing my safety to get bumped off...
(FWIW, when doing weak-hand drills, I find that working the safety with your trigger finger is slow and awkward, compared to even flipping your thumb over the top of the slide. Have you tried that?)
Does anyone make a slide that's checkered?
Wee'rd, you are correct. I've slashed myself several times on the rear sights. I had them beveled a bit and instead of a clean cut, they now rip chunks of flesh off ;)
The problem is that I get gun shy (no pun intended) when it comes to racking the slide now. There's nothing up front to grab onto, and I do slide over the grips in the rear. I don't have the forearm nor finger strength that Todd Jarrett has to simply pinch the slide up front in my fingers and rack it, although I AM working on that.
I actually have been trying to think of a way to add some surface to the front of the slide that won't affect the pistol, but I'm not familiar with the options for 1911s. I have a feeling putting skateboard tape on the front would get me laughed out of the next IPSC match.
Skateboard tape is always in fashion.
Probably so, but trying to do an 'ollie' on the TAC-S is probably still not a good idea.
Maybe if I used my Dremel...
You right-handed people may hate ambi-safeties, but as a lefty, it is very difficult to find a pistol that has a safety I CAN operate reliably unless it has an ambidextrous one. Custom left-hand handguns are too expensive for me.
I've never cut myself on my Para (SSP, regal finish) but I hate those grooves with a passion. I'm seriously considering having them stippled when I refinish the gun.
Meanwhile, I too am working on my Todd Jarrett grip.
Of course, the Para has marvelous grooves compared to my Kimber SIS Pro... awesome pistol in every other respect, but seriously, WTF?
Robb, how about a good sandblasting of the slide for gription? It would give it a nice matte finish and be functional at the same time.
Orange, if it costs more than $4, it's probably not going to happen.
I really like the slide serrations on the S&W M&P pistols. It looks funny, but it's got really good bite and you sure won't slip off of it.
Just cover it with duct tape.
Sheesh. I gotta teach you kids everything...
I built my Paras from factory gunsmith kits and put Caspian slides on them.
As for ambi-safeties, I was doing practical shooting before they existed and am fine with standard safeties and nothing extended as I learned to shoot them that way. I don't like how extended and ambi things add snag points when drawing.
Weak hand I flip my thumb over the top of the slide and back. By the time I've presented on target from holster my weak hand thumb is back where it's supposed to be to shoot properly.
charles, I might add:
For what it's worth, as a right hander, I probably shoot 2 magazines or revolver wheels left handed for every right handed string to keep the weak side skills up.
Non-dominant eye too, as I have a tendency to want to instinctively shoot left handed with my right eye sighting, which exposes more of your face if you're peeking around to the left side of cover.
Tom,
"As for ambi-safeties, I was doing practical shooting before they existed and am fine with standard safeties and nothing extended as I learned to shoot them that way. I don't like how extended and ambi things add snag points when drawing."
I just don't see how a tactical extended safety adds a "snag point" on the draw.
In fact, having done a jillion presentations with them both over the years, I'd say it's less snag-prone than an original GI tab and no worse than a postwar Gov't Model safety.
I often appendix or meskin carry and they bug me. It's an IWB vs OWB carry issue as much as anything for me. Pure race gun, it doesn't matter but I'm used to what I'm used to.
There's no one size fits all in this world. That's why there are so many custom parts.
I machined my own parts to suit me for my tastes on a number of my project guns.
If we all felt the same about how a 1911 should work it'd put a hell of a lot of smiths and manufacturers out of business.
:-)
I don't like extended slide and mag releases either. Some people love them.
We could get 20 serious 1911 shooters around a campfire with a bit of barbecue and perhaps some whiskey or beers and within an hour every single one of the 20 would think that at least some of the others around the campfire were loonies.
I've got a deer hunting buddy where every time we go on a hunt, at some point in the course of it he demeans me for my taste in belted rather than non-belted magnum cartridges and we argue for a while and go off on some other topic and the next time we meet up we argue it all over again...
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