Had an interesting question today.....
On my answering machine a caller from Area Code 308 asked a question...
This caller obviously follows CYA closely, so I'll respond here, and I'm sure he will read this.
The question was basically this:
Do I think ARA will ever make a Pistol Class?.............This gentleman is interested in a pistol.
Here's my answer:
I pray to The Almighty ARA don't.
These pistols are not a novelty......
They are as competitive as any RFBR rifle on Earth.........even more competitive that most of the RFBR rifles on Earth.
So no, they most certainly do not need, or want, a special class in ARA.
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To the caller:
If Anthony DiOrio can build the Bond Trigger, these MD-PAS pistols are coming.
If you want a Class A pistol, then go for it........cause if Anthony can pull this thing off, there's a new and fresh world coming to Big time RFBR.
Your friend, Bill Calfee
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PS:
If someone asked the "girl with a pistol" if she thought ARA needed a Pistol Class, she'd probably just smile, politely, as she drove away from the range in her white Corvette.
Howdy Bill,
A guy I know at work has not one, but TWO Calfee XP's. I don't see him as often as I used to, but every time I pass him I tell him "you don't need two of them!".
He always smiles and says "oh yes I do!".
Neither is for sale..........not that I could afford one anyway.
He and I were talking one day probably four or five years ago, he had repaired a piece of equipment on my line at work, and I said something about a gunsmith in Southern Indiana and extreeeeeeemely accurate rifles. He looked at me and said "Calfee?". I said yep! He smiled real big and said "Calfee's a good dude".
Turns out he had bought an XP silhouette pistol off of you. And he bought another you built from someone else some years later. Seems he shoots a lot of silhouette.
I told him that you were putting rifle length barrels on the ones you ran across now. Then I asked him how the Calfee XP's shot with pistol barrels.
He looked at me a little funny and said "If I told you, you would think I'm a liar".
I said "try me".
He said that if you could find the closest to a no wind day possible, it is not unusual to shoot half inch groups....................at 100 yards.
These are not RFBR pistols. They are two silhouette pistols you built many years ago.
If Anthony can sort out the issues y'all have discussed regarding PAS triple lug pistol actions, and there ends up being a lot of people building pistols, and they perform like you expect.....................
Classes on equipment in competition are there to create an even playing field and protect people from competing against others using equipment far superior to theirs.
If ARA, which does not currently have a class separating pistols from rifles, creates a class exclusively for pistols, they will not be creating the class to protect pistol shooters from competing against rifle shooters...............
They will be creating the class to protect rifle shooters from competing against pistol shooters.
I hope Anthony can sort out the issues discussed and that these pistols can be everything you hope they can be.
Take care,
Greg