dixondave

Bought my 16-40 new a couple of years ago and have over a three thousand rounds through it. Recently while shooting the gun the front sight cracked and the forward portion of the sight came out and was held on only by the fiber optic rod. These front sights are highly skeletonized in order to hold the fiber optic tube. Has anyone else had trouble with this front sight as I am reluctant to replace with like kind.

I installed the DP extended firing pin and started crimping a little tighter, .420" and now everything is roses!

The strikes seem to be very well centered but they look like scratches rather than a dimple. Ordered a DP pin and should have it in a few days.

fishpinoy27, I removed the series 80 components and installed a spacer a while ago and all has gone well until I had fitted a new Barsto Barrel. Incredible accuracy but at the cost of having a very tight chamber. Only about 95% of them pass the drop test. The 23 lb. mainspring and new Para firing spring seem to have cured the problem except that I would prefer to a run a lighter mainspring for a little lighter trigger pull. Right now with the 23 lb spring my pull is 3.5 lbs. I put a 17 lb spring and got a trigger pull of 2.7 lbs but when I tested it this weekend the light primer strikes returned!!!!

RippSpeed What bullet are you using?

Roy Thank you for the reply I would like to try an extended foring pin for my 16-40. Did you use the Dawson Precision 026-1025 DP 1911 HiCap 38 Super, 40 S&W, 9mm Extended Firing Pin.

After hearing of others sucess with WST I tried it and it is now my favorite load for making major in .40. My pet load for my Para 16-40 is a 200 gr Zero bullet loaded to 1.19" over 4.9 grs WST for a velocity of 850fps. Very soft and very accurate and the gun loves it.

When I changed recoil springs in my Para 16-40 Limited I also used the firing pin spring that comes with all Wolff recoil springs, whew was that a mistake. Immediately started experienced light hits and many failure to ignite misfires. The Wolff firing pin spring is longer and stiffer than the stock Para spring. Tried using new 23 lb Wolff mainspring hoping a little harder hit would help, new mainspring did not help. Put in a new stock Para spring and gun now runs like a clock. Just a warning to all 16-40 Limited owners, aftermarket firing pin springs may not work!

+1 for WST.

This is a simple problem that I have also been having when using lead bullets in my 40 para. I can use jacketed bullets all the way out to 1.28 without hiting the lands and they all chamber very nice. Lead is typically .001 larger in diameter than jacketed bullets and any bearing surface past the case mouth is going to scuff against the throat which is sized at .400" That is a problem when using many lead bullets and the only practical solution is to seat them deeper in the case so no bearing surface touches the throat. I just bought some S&S 200gr Round Nose Lead bullets and after hand chamber checking them I ended up having to load them to a very short 1.075" or else they hung up in the throat! Not much room for powder and ended up using 3.5grs WST for a chrono of 810fps. Not major but good for a practice round.

Got mine from http://www.shootersplus.com

Are there any 10 round mags available for .40 single stack and will they fit in the box to use for USPSA Single Stack Minor?

Using your thumb to hold it down while shooting accomplishes two things. First, the safety will be held down in the off position. Second, your thumb helps control muzzle flip and gets you back on target quicker.

All you need to make the gun ready for competition is a good gunsmith who knows how to perform a trigger job, change the mainspring to 15lbs add a Dawson Ice Magwell with extended basepads and install and tune the Para/EGW extractor. Now you will have a great reliable gun with a 2.75 lb trigger that breaks like an icicle. I did add a Guncraft aluminium trigger cuz I hate plastic parts on my guns.

Bought some for my 16-40 Limited and they DO NOT WORK. This is in their stock configuration with a stock gun. They will not lock into place i think if I filed down the cutout for the mag catch they might work but I never tried it.

Went the route of a custom fit barrel bushing but did not help. The lockup is too loose for the bushing to make much difference.

Wow, I ordered my Bar Sto bull barrel for my 16-40 Limited 7 weeks ago. It is a 12 week wait so only 5 more weeks to go! Bought the 16-40 new from buds about a year ago and installed the EGW extractor so now the gun runs flawlessly but I have never liked the accuracy especially when comparing it to my Kimber Gold Match II. I ordered the gunsmith fit barrel and not the semi drop in as i want the most accuracy possible and be able to use it for IPSC and Bullseye. I will LYK how it turns out.

Lou D Just so you know a lot of us load the 40 S&W looong. I use 200 gr plated bullets and load to 10mm length so to the gun and shooter it is a 10mm with the only difference being a small pistol primer instead of a large. Why load long, well lower pressures and my Para loves it. I never look at 40 S&W load data for my 40 because it is no longer a 40 it is a 10mm. Change recoil springs and shoot full power 10mm loads, because it is a 10mm. After awhile it seems dumb to have a 10mm in a 1911 except if you really want to shoot short light bullets at high velocity, ohterwise a 40 is a 10mm in a 1911.

It has been awhile since I updated my post and this is what happened. A Para representative named Travis Tomasie contacted me the next day after he read my post and informed me that Para has EGW HD Extractors designed to fit the PXT hole with no sleeve needed and he would like to send me one free of charge. It arrived at my door in less than a week. It is a thing of simplistic beauty. Ater installation I checked the tension and it was way too light so I put a bend in it with the Weigand tool and got it to where it felt perfect. Took it to the range and shot 130 rounds through it with ZERO FTE's. The next week shot a six stage USPSA match with it (191 rounds) with ZERO FTE's. I love my Para 16-40 Limited. Thank you Para Ordnance and Mr. Tomasie for their time and effort. Respectfully, Dixondave

Go TT, Travis Tomasie is his name and after he read my post in the reliability thread he wrote me and offered a new extractor for free! Here is his last email to me. Hi David, Your extractor shipped today. It's a one piece, machined EGW HD made for the PXT hole. It is a thing of beauty and will really take your 16-40 to the next level. Thank you for choosing Para! Please let me know if you need any assistance. Best regards, TT

Bought a new 16-40 Limited last February and have over 6,000 rounds shot through it and use it for USPSA Limited. Out of the box it had a 12 lb trigger and would not run. All kinds of failures like FTE FTF. After about 500 rounds it started making it through a mag without failure and got better and better. It was still impossible to shoot accurately with the heavy trigger pull. Sent it to the local smith and told him to give it a trigger job and replace the sloppy fitting plastic trigger with a Guncraft aluminum trigger. Wow, now I had a 3.5 lb trigger without all the slop. Soon after I removed all the series 80 parts and installed a spacer now the trigger is now about 2.5 lb. All was good until recently it started failing to eject (FTE), and everything was going so well. Carefully looked over the gun and found the ejector was loose so replaced it with one from Dawsons but that did not solve the problem. Took apart the extractor and noticed the plunger inside was mushroomed, Para sent me some replacement plungers but that did not help. Finally asked Para to send a whole new extractor which they did with no problem and things have got a lot better. Shot a match on 12/11/2011 and had one FTE. The gun was not cleaned before the match, my bad. So stripped the gun bare cleaned every inch of it lubed and took it to the range yesterday. Shot 100 rounds with one FTE. OK it is a lot better one round out of 100 is not bad but a FTE is devastating during competition since you have to drop the mag to clear the gun and then reload, really ruins a stage. I think I am done with f***ing around with the power extractor and my next step is going to be to install and EGW HD extractor with sleeve. EGW is currently out of stock on the 40 S&W extractor but is going to call as soon as they get back from being heat treated, I am keeping my fingers crossed.

I think it is time to make the change on my 16-40 Limited to a series 70. I know that the plunger that blocks the firing pin is removed and the arm next to the sear is replaced or ground off. My question is this, if you remove the plunger what holds the extractor in place? Sorry if this is a stupid question.

I tried the dummy load method of measuring for maximum OAL in my new Para P16-40 Limited and with A 200 GR Xtreme Plated RNFP bullet I measured 1.280" consistently, wow that is a long leade. Anyway have been loading out to 1.250" with the 200gr bullet giving me a 0.030" jump and everything worked great until the ejector loosened up. Will replace ejector this weekend and see how it runs.

X-treme Bullets is one place. I have used their 180 gr and 200 gr. bullets in my 40 with excellent results. The plating in very thick and they are very accurate as well.

0.040"