Todd Jarrett is the first person to win all four USPSA national championships, and he did it with four different Para pistols. Jarrett had already taken wins in the Production, Open and Limited divisions, and then this July, used a Para P16.40 Limited
to sweep the Limited 10 Division of the Factory Gun Nationals.
"This is one of the highs of my shooting career," said Jarrett, who won the Production Division at last year's Factory Gun Nationals. "It's exciting to be the first guy to do this."
The Factory Gun Nationals, now in its second year, challenges shooters to compete with factory guns only-forcing them to leave their highly modified pistols at home. This evens out the playing field by eliminating expensive custom advantages, and is designed to give new shooters more opportunities to compete.
This sounds fair, until you consider that Para's Limited Series pistols come with those custom-shop extras already built in to production models. Jarrett's P16.40 Limited came with a match-grade five-inch barrel, a full-length recoil guide system, front and rear slide serrations and a lowered ejection port, along with other features like adjustable sights.
Jarrett shoots the .40 caliber pistol because in the USPSA Limited Division, it allows him to load more cartridges into his magazine than a .45 would. "If I can make one less reload, I can go two-tenths of a second faster than the next guy," he said. And in a sport like this, "Winning and losing can be within a tenth of a second."
With the recent American ban on new high capacity magazines, USPSA developed the Limited 10 Division. It allows shooters who don't have access to pre-ban magazines equal opportunity to compete by restricting everyone to ten-round magazines.
Jarrett sees it as a move by USPSA to adjust to the changes in society, and in ten years he believes that the Limited 10 division will most likely replace the Limited division completely if the ban on high capacity magazines stays in effect.
Jarrett chose to shoot his single-action Para P16.40 Limited in the new Limited 10 Division as well because of consistency. Using the same caliber and the same ammunition was one less thing he needed to focus on with all of the variables that crop up in a National Championship event.
Limited 10 was the largest division at the Factory Gun Nationals, with 157 people competing for this year's title in scorching Barry, Illinois. The grueling weather provided an additional test of conditioning with temperatures exceeding 100 degrees every day of the weeklong shooting competition.
Jarrett, who came prepared for the humidity and heat, used a chart to calculate how much he'd have to drink just to stay in condition through the match. "I had to drink two gallons and two quarts in a 15-hour period, just to stay hydrated," he said.
Jarrett compared the actual stages of the match to making laps in a racecar, with each blending into the next.
The stage designs range in distance, position and challenge. There are some stages where you have to draw by picking your gun up off a table or out of a drawer, while others demand that the competitor shoot weak-handed. The targets vary from two to twenty-five yards in distance, with anywhere from six to 30 rounds to required to be shot per stage.
"You have to be prepared to shoot at any given distance," he said, "and from any position."
Jarrett finished in the top five in most of the seventeen stages, and came in first on two of them. He shot all his stages fast and with his trademark accuracy.
"I just shot very consistent the entire time," he said.
Para pistols, with their cut rifling and fully ramped barrels, are known for their consistent accuracy and gave Jarrett an edge in the match.
"It's important to have a gun you can trust," said Jarrett.
Immediately prior to shooting the Factory Gun Nationals, Todd also participated for the first time in USPSA's Three Gun Match (rifle, shotgun and pistol), coming in third. Between the two matches, Jarrett shot 659 rounds, and every single shot hit its target.
Last year Jarrett won the Production Division of the Factory Gun Nationals, shooting with a Para high-capacity 16.40 LDA.
It was an out-of-the-box gun and one that Jarrett favors for its double-action only trigger.
"The LDA, bar none, is probably the lightest, sweetest trigger pull on the market today. There are no other triggers like it," he said.
While many double-action triggers have a trigger pull of around 14 pounds, the "LDA is actually 6.5 pounds," said Jarrett. "And that is a real advantage."
