Walther GSP Expert, Pardini SP, AW93

[Jerry Keefer]

[/quote]
Jerry, I always learn from your posts and would be grateful to know what aspects of the Pardini you like and any weaknesses you see.
Thanks,
Spence[/quote]
Spence;
I apologize for not seeing your request until today.. Sometimes I fail to follow up on these threads.
I have an older Pardini which I shot for many years..Purchased at the urging of Don Nygord.. Thanks Don..I passed this gun on to the lady who I sponsor.. She is doing very well with it shooting high 870s low 880s..I adapted a very low settinbg Micro Dot to it. One negative, which can be overcome with careful machining,is the top strap is very thin... Mounting an optics base to this surface must be done with some care. To enable maximum thread contact in the thin material, the screw body should protrude slightly into the bolt/slide area of the gun. To prevent interference between the two, I grind a relief on the top of the slide/bolt. The gun has countless rounds thru it with not one malfunction.. It has never fired anything but Eley. Two years ago, I devised a stationary rest to test it's accuracy.. .625 / 15 shots @ 50 with Ely Red Box.. Very good..so the old myth that the Pardini is a 25 meter gun does not hold true, at least for this gun. Very few .22 actually shoot that tight, without a rebarrel. The barrels are easy to machine, should replacing become an issue. Saw a friend shoot an 887 @ last months local match with open sights on his Pardini. Greg Derr is an expert on all the aspects of the Pardini, plus he has won, countless matches, holds and set records with the Pardini. His is one of the very first, if not the first,(can't remember for sure) Pardini's imported into the US and he is still winning with it. He won the .22 phase at Perry a couple of years ago. I have not personally seen a cracked frame, but a friend of mine at the AMU told me it does happen. I don't think the frequency is as high as the High Standard cracks, which I have seen countless times..The recoil impulse with Ely is so subdued, that I can't see a lot of stress transferred to the frame..
My lady shooter complained a little about the heavy front end.. (while shooting 880) I love complaints like that..anyway I cured this by machining an all aluminum front barrel shroud. The plus to this is, that even with the spring loaded recoil dampeners in place the front end is much lighter..Greg also has machined these for various shooters. As for ammo, I would never advocate shooting anything but match grade ammo in any high dollar match grade pistol.. I have done many years worth of .22 work and experimentation with various barrel configurations, chambers and ammo.. There is nothing out there that outperforms Ely for 50 yd Bullseye..
Goodluck
Jerry

[spence]

Jerry, thanks for another great post.

spence

[Ttgoods]

If you are looking for good sights and reliable then a Benelli Mp 90 is for you. at 1500 you get adjust grips, a very good trigger and the sight set is very good.

[Ttgoods]

My benelli eats anything from Blazer to Aquila and it seems to shoot best with CCI standard or Blazer.

funny thing get worse groups with Lapua and Eley.

With Aquila you have to sort the bullets but it shoots well too and CMP prices can't be beat.

Outside of Pardinis and Walters the poor Eastern European Countries seem to shoot the Benellis And the Baikel Clone of the Benelli.

[gwpotte]

I am also a Bullseye shooter with a S&W41 and looking to upgrade to a better trigger and gun. I had a Benelli MP90s on order with Larry's Guns for over 11 months (ordered in mid to late Nov 2012) and grew tired of waiting. Larry's Guns is great to deal with but for months now they could not (and still cannot) get an answer from Benelli as to when Benelli will start shipping the MP90S again. So, after some research I decided to spend a few hundred $ more and go the Pardini SP Bullseye in 22 route. Unfortunately Larry no longer carries the Pardini SPs, so I contacted Pardini USA. Pardini USA was also great to deal with, answering all my questions, and I was able to get my Pardini SP Bullseye (received yesterday) in a week.
I have not shot it yet (on today's activity list), but the balance and feel is great. The two stage trigger may take some getting used to, but there are alot of adjustments you can make. The Rink grips (ordered with Rink grips with upswept palm instead of standard Pardini for $105 more) fit me like a glove and are even better than the Rink grips on my S&W41. So far I am impressed. The acid test will be shooting it. I will update again after having a chance to put it through it's paces..

[gwpotte]

Had a chance to try my Pardini SP Bullseye out yesterday. Outside on a private range (home made bullet trap in the back yard of my elderly parents farm) with temperatures in the high 40s (Wisconsin). After firing about 100 rounds sighting in my Burris Fastfire sight and getting used to the two stage trigger, I was scoring better from 75 feet on 50 foot NRA targets (both slow and timed / rapid) than I usually do in a Bullseye match at 50 feet with my S&W 41. I fired about 150 rounds total of CCI Standard Velocity. I had no jams but after about 90 rounds, I had two consecutive rounds fail to fire despite having good hits / indentations on the rims. I noticed I had some bullet wax particles by the face of the chamber. I cleaned that out and fired about 60 more rounds without a problem. I do not know if I had two duds (should have retried the two rounds rotating them in magazine but didn't) or if it was the wax build up. I did notice the tolerances on the magazine is much tighter than my S&W 41 and that, not always but more than once, the first round in a magazine when loading would rub on the ramp going into the barrel. So there may be something to the CCI std velocity not working well in Pardini SP. I will have to try some more CCI (I have alot of it) and watch this. Perhaps even switch to Wolf or Eley ammo. But all in all, I am very happy with the Pardini SP Bullseye and would definitely recommend it.

[crankythunder]

I purchased a new pardini sp bullseye mechanical back in june.

Since I had a lot of eley sport and cci sv stockpiled, I have used those two ammos almost exclusively since purchasing the pistol. Since it got cooler over here in Michigan, I have found that the eley sport will not cycle the pistol reliably when temps are below forty or so and gunbox is in trunk for most of the day prior to shooting.

I have about 5000 rounds through the pistol, and after the first couple hundred, have not had a problem with CCI SV. The eley sport worked very well until the weather turned chilly, actually a touch more accurate off a bench then the cci sv.

Interestingly, the CCI sv is not the most accurate off the bench but I consistently score higher with CCI SV then some of the European ammo.

Hope this helps and of course, you will probably get different results in your pistol and your eyeball.

Regards,
Cranky

[gwpotte]

Thanks Cranky.
Did you notice bullet wax particles building up on the chamber face the first couple of hundred rounds of CCI Std Velocity? And if so, did the wax buildup decrease as you ran more CCI std velocity through your Pardini SP BE mechanical?

Right now I plan to use CCI std velocity for practice and watch for wax build up and then use my CCI Pistol match supply for Bullseye matches (making sure the chamber face is clean before every match).

Hopefully after a couple hundred more rounds, CCI std velocity will perform as reliably for my Pardini SP BE mechanical as yours, as I have several thousand rounds of it.

George

[crankythunder]

I have not noticed any wax buildup on the breach of the barrel on my pardini when shooting cci sv. I have gone between 500 and 1000 rounds between cleanings of CCI SV.

While most of my cci sv has been relatively clean, I have had boxes of ammo where there was so much lubricating wax that I had to push the cartridges out of the plastic holder to get them out.

One of the guys that I shoot against who uses cci sv as well, has had this wax buildup inside the magazine in the nose part. I have not noticed it but I have checked and it has not happened to me. He cleans it out with a q tip cotton swab

Hoping that the CCI Sv becomes available and supposing that CCI might make a run of it once hunting season is over. I sent a email to CCI inquiring about it but have not heard back from them yet.

Perhaps if all us cci sv shooters sent a email they might get the idea that we need some ammo soon?

Regards,
George (aka cranky)