As I wrote here, it died at 437 rounds.
The end (claw) of the extractor broke off. I am hoping that Para will just send me a new one. It'll be easier (and likely faster) to strip the slide and repair/replace the thing than to send it back to them and wait for them to decide to fix it. It's not like replacing the part will be hard to do or anything. This is a part of normal cleaning after every 300-500 rounds or so anyway...
I am disappointed though. I had expected better from Para. I own several other firearms from them, and some of these have round counts nearing 10,000, with nothing breaking, and only new recoil springs after 5,000 rounds or so.
This is a failure that should not have happened. And it shakes my belief that Para makes a good firearm. Perhaps the complaints about Para letting quality slide have some merit. Then again, maybe this was a fluke.... I dunno.... I have the alloy framed brother of this pistol, and it has 5,800 rounds through it with no issues, and no parts besides the aforementioned recoil spring(s). Below is the broken extractor, still in the slide:
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| Broken extractor (click to embiggenize) |
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| broken extractor 2 (click to embiggenize) |
And here is the extractor from the other LDA, unbroken...Just so you can see what it should look like (this one has extracted over 5800 rounds with no issues):
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| unbroken extractor (klick to make big) |
The issue is that had this broken anywhere outside of the range, this could have been very serious. This was not something that could be fixed with "tap, rack, bang". Failure drills do not fix this sort of issue. Essentially, this is (right now) an expensive single shot firearm until I get it fixed.
I hope I never need my firearm...I hope I never shoot it except on a range of some sort, and only in practice. But should I need it to, I want it to go Bang every time I pull the trigger....Not fail like this one did.
This sucks. And then I gotta shoot it some more (and then some more after that) to verify reliability after it is fixed.
That broken part is the ejector, btw. The extractor is the part that hooks on the rim and extracts the case from the chamber.
ReplyDeleteHad the same problem on my full sized Para 1911, I know a standard ejector is not a choice in one of the little guns, but I put a standard 1911 ejector in it and have had no further problems. That thin rod takes a lot abuse and the square machine cut at the base of the extension creates a stress point. Not sure what the best answer is.