Reliablity?

[fishpinoy27]

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.

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

The guy who answered or PM'ed you is Mr. Travis Tomasie the new Professional Shooter of Para...If you are shooting IPSC you would encounter this guy at Major matches...he is a member of the US team that competed in Greece...he did the same to me, he sent me an EGW one piece extractor for my 16-40 Limited....

Edited January 14, 2012 by fishpinoy27

[Iggy42]

Did you end up buying the Para? I love my Para, but if you are not experienced in 1911 work, or dont want to spend time/money on a gunsmith, then i would say to go with something else.

I had an old P14-45 which I took the frame of, then put in a Caspian slide and a 40 bull barrel. i also built it up to make it a long dust cover (ala STI) and put in a tungsten guide rod. it is heavy, but has almost zero recoil, which i love. i can run 175PF and it feels like 160 in a regular 1911. My trigger is a koenig, i love it, but I am thinking of getting an STI because they have a really nice contingency program where I could have won several hundred if not a thousand dollars already, had I been shooting an STI the past year.

Anyway, my main beef with para is the mags. You really have to tune it to get it working flawlessly. Its best friends are my Dremel and sandpaper. I can fit 21 rounds, changeable, with the dawson extended basepad, wolf springs and a dawson follower. With my ipsc legal basepads ("fit in the box") i can fit 19 changeable, which is 1 or 2 more than most STI folks.

I also have an XDM with a powder river drop in trigger kit - works fantastic for a cheap gun, it runs well out of the box but you still have to put in the drop in trigger to be competetive. The new XDM 5.25" is awesome, i would get that in 40 and run production minor on it, it makes big holes, easy to see.

I ended up picking up a SA 5.25 XDm in .40 that I am modifying for USPSA Limited. Not want I wanted, but sadly my budget was the deciding factor. I am hoping that next year I can sell it and get a 1911/2011 of some kind (either a worked over Para or a ground up built Caspian). Really not a fan of plastic guns but it was important to me to get out of SS and into Limited. After all I shoot matches for fun and by going Limited I have a lot less mag changes to worry about, especailly when compared to SS.

[ramairthree]

I bought a used alloy P14-45 back around 97.

Not bought as a competition gun.

One mag of the eight I have resulted in some FTF.

Otherwise, over 3000 rounds without FTF/FTE.