Sunday, April 24, 2011

Shit. It happened again.

As you may remember, my new 3" Para decided to eat its extractor after 437 rounds about a month ago.

It took several calls to get the Customer Service folks at Para to answer, but eventually they did, and eventually they sent me a new extractor. It has taken me a month to have the time to get to the range and attempt to seriously wring this firearm out.

I got 34 rounds through the beast. Remington Target Ammo. Nothing terribly hot or anything.

Same issue. The major part of the extractor claw broke away. Again. 37 goddamn rounds. Empty brass all but falls out of the chamber. It isn't sticking. Nearly the EXACT same failure as before.

I WILL be calling Para for a call tag and sending it back to them this time. I had assumed that the original failure was a one off...maybe a badly heat treated or machined part. It happens. But this is why people should SHOOT their carry firearms. Just to prove their reliability.

I am bummed..... I had wanted to prove its functionality and then send it off for tritium inserts. Was gonna plan on it becoming (once it had proved itself)  my Main Carry. Now I am not so terribly sure of I can ever trust it.

I LIKE this firearm. Good trigger. Ergonomics of a 1911. Stainless. assembles like a 1911. Manual of arms like a 1911. Essentially a 1911 with the LDA trigger.  I can field strip and clean this thing blindfolded. Seriously.  But I am in doubt of it ever being trustworthy.


We shall see what Para decides to do. Updates as they are relevant.

2 comments:

  1. The sad part is that I have 2 other Para pistols. One is my daily carry (another 3" LDA), and the other is a stadard 5" 1911.

    Both have multiple thousands of rounds through them (like 5k and 8 k respectively), and neither has had any issues.

    I think that this time, I got a lemon. Hopefully they will make it right.

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