Para Lda Tac-5

[COF]

Finally picked up one of these and I hope I can shoot as good as the gun. Took a little getting used to the trigger, but I like it. According to my trigger scale it breaks at 6.25 lbs but it sure doesn't feel like it. Several folks tried the trigger and said it feels more like 3 lbs.

Shot a classifier in a freak snow flurry Saturday - kind of hard finding that white dot front sight in the middle of quarter sized snow flakes but I still managed to shoot a 111 with it - best classifier I've ever shot.

The only issue I see with the gun is the factory installed magwell. The rulebook says you can't add magwells but it doesn't address factory units for SSP. The gun and mag weigh 38.7 oz so it meets the weight for SSP and it's a DAO gun. Guess I'll have to call HQ and ask for a ruling.

[Aircooled6racer]

Hello: That is the pistol I was going to get for SSP as well. If you have shot a Glock with a good trigger how does it compare? I know they are night and day different but thought I'd ask. Thanks Eric

[Duane Thomas]

The two trigger actions are very different.

On a Glock, the overall trigger pull goes about half an inch but all but about 1/8 inch is takeup. You take up the slack until you hit the "link" resistance point, then there's only very little continued movement required to break the shot. As the trigger returns forward, as you hit the "link" point again, the trigger has a very definite reset - you can both feel it and hear it. At that point it is not necessary to let the trigger return any further forward, the trigger can be pulled again to fire the gun. The "link" point is in the same spot going both forward and back, and once you hit the reset there's absolutely no slack thereafter, it's just click!, you're ready to go again. In use you can take up the slack as the gun is moving toward the target, then thereafter it's just a series of short, light, consistent trigger pulls for every shot.

On a stock Glock with "5.5 pound" connector, in my experience out-of-the-box trigger pulls tend to go somewhere between five to 6-1/2 pounds. Trigger work on a Glock is easily accomplished, and so simple that even non-pistolsmith trained end users who know what they're about can perform their own trigger jobs.

On the Para, LDA stands for Light Double Action. The majority of the trigger stroke is quite light and fairly long, about 3/4 inch. (Hey, they didn't call it a Short Double Action.) On an LDA I recently had in for testing, it required 3-1/4 pounds of pressure to get the trigger to the link. At this point the trigger pull suddenly gets heavier. You only encounter really appreciable resistance toward the very end of the trigger stroke, then there's a tiny hitch in the trigger pull, and the trigger broke at six pounds even.

Both the Glock and Para LDA systems make it very easy to prep the trigger, i.e. take up the slack until you hit the link, apply almost as much pressure as it takes to fire the gun but not quite, then apply that last half pound of pressure to fire the shot. One thing to be aware of, for shooters like myself conditioned to hit the trigger reset point in recoil and not let the trigger return any further forward than that before we begin prepping the trigger for the next shot: with the LDA there's a perceptible click (you can hear it and feel it) after you let the trigger return forward only a bit. Do not fool yourself into thinking the trigger has reset at that point and begin applying rearward pressure or the gun will refuse to fire. You have to let the trigger return forward all the way before you begin going in the opposite direction.

LDA trigger work, or so I've been told, is fairly complex, and pistolsmiths who really understand the system and are competent to work on it are comparatively rare.

For myself, I greatly prefer the Glock trigger system over the LDA. However I'll be the first to admit that long familiarity with the former, and comparatively little experience with the latter, has a lot to do with that. YMMV.

[Glock3422]

I have heard that Para specifically designed this gun to be IDPA legal. It is in response to the SSP weight limit that the LDA ran up against.

By removing some of the grip and adding the built-in magwell, they made weight and added a desireable feature in one shot.

A smith who knows the LDA can make a VERY nice trigger. The initial pull will still be long, but not hard. The subsequent shots will be short pulls, with the same force effort to the break.

I've also heard that some associated with the project referred to this gun as the FU Bill gun, since it met the rule and made the LDA even more competitive in IDPA SSP. You have got to like a manufacturer that responds to the competitive environment.

[Duane Thomas]

Well, obviously I need to get in one of these things for article test and eval.

[Aircooled6racer]

Hello: Thanks guys for the great info. I am headed in the Glock direction for now since I can buy all the parts I need. That was one of the reasons I did not go with the XD. I want to be able to buy parts just like my 1911's. Thanks Eric

[COF]

I noticed that right off, Duane - you can't try the trigger reset with the LDA - just use the TGO method. Good thing I've been training like that for a couple years

A couple things that reduce weight on this gun:

1. The barrel is full size at the muzzle and chamber ends but tapers down in between.

2. No FLGR, just a standard plug and spring

Eric, I've got a Glock 17 and a 22 with the 3.5 lb connector. They've got decent trigger pulls and I shoot them fairly well, but I wanted to get out of the relearn cycle when switching back and forth between the 1911 and the Glock. The long trigger pull takes getting used to but I like the way it breaks. Of course, I'm a HP fan shooter too, so the trigger didn't bother me.

Bottom line - I'm going to shoot it and enjoy it !

Jerry