22 Jan 01

>From an attorney who also teaches defensive shooting:

"Responding to your email about the Wyoming officer who reassembled his Colt pistol wrong, then carried it in an inoperable condition for five months, I believe manufacturers or instructors should develop, and agencies should teach, a basic "Function Check" which can be performed by the user to determine that his firearm seems to be functioning properly, short of actually live firing it.

One standard function check for the twelve-gauge, pump shotgun has involved removing the barrel, then holding a copper penny against the bolt face while pulling the trigger to check that the firing pin indents the penny. For a pistol, the same can be done more easily using the "Pencil Test." Hold the UNLOADED pistol with barrel pointing straight upward, and insert an unsharpened pencil, eraser end first, into the barrel. Disengage all safeties and pull the trigger. The pencil should move upward out of the barrel at least one foot. This test confirms, among other things, that the firing pin is unbroken, the firing pin channel unobstructed, and -- very important in the case of pistols with firing pin safeties -- that the firing pin safety is disengaging properly.

Here, the "Pencil Test" would have revealed the problem. It's part of both the Para-Ordnance LDA (double-action pistol) User's Function Test and Armorer's Inspections we are teaching in law enforcement classes for that system."

/John

22 Jan 01

Update:

I just completed an Urban Rifle/Shotgun Course in south Florida. The Robinson Rifle continues to work well. Unfortunately, the factory muzzle compensator inefficient. There is a fireball at the muzzle in low light. I will probably replace it. No malfunctions. Very accurate. All magazines, plastic, aluminum, steel, work well.

Chris Vursels at H&H Range in Oklahoma City installed a Patternmaster on a 11-87 Police Shotgun I was using. The Patternmaster works as advertised! It greatly restricts the spread of 00 buckshot pullets, extending 00 buckshot range from twenty to thirty meters. No effect on slugs. They work normally.

To work, one must use shotgun shells with a plastic, shot cup. Patternmaster has no effect on S&B buckshot, which uses conventional wads. Smokey and erratic, S&B ammunition is not recommended in any event.

Chris replaced the Remington "locking safety" with a conventional, manual safety. Chris is a good shotgun guy! Recommended.

/John