Para at the Range

So, I'm not sure if anyone was holding their breath on a range report for my new/previously enjoyed Para, but I finally managed to get it out to the range and was pretty pissed off about my first experience.  I had instant visions of all those that came before me, pointing and laughing at my expense for having not learned from their past experiences.  

 I'd brought a variety of Wilson Combat and Dlask mags with me and a bunch of Norc .45ACP ammo (yeah, I know, junk ammo, crap results, but wait for it, you'll be surprised).  Balmed up my mags, fed one in, racked the pistol, squeezed the trigger and like a really bad comedy, the mag fell out on my first shot.  WTF, how embarassing.  I locked the slide back, cleared the pistol, then proceeded to look around to see if anyone else had noticed.  Luckily for me, no one saw that I didn't know how to feed a mag into a pistol properly.  

I inspected the magazine, slammed it back into the well, tapped it to make sure I did it right this time, rack and squeeze.  Bang!  Nice round placement almost touching the first shot from 10m (probably luck as I was using Norc ammo), but the mag fell out again!  Cleared the pistol, and again, lookeda round to see if anyone noticed.  Nope, ok, load the pistol again, squeeze, bang, and thump as the magazine hits the deck again.

Okay, this mag is messed up, try another.....and another, and another....wtf, why did I buy a single shot 1911?  I stopped looking to see if anyone noticed, because clearly this had nothing to do with my inability to properly seat a magazine in a 1911.  I debalmed my mags, and sure enough, the Dlask and Wilson combat mags would pull loose from the mag well without even depressing the mag release.  

My buddy Roy, who also happens to be the gunsmith for the range I was at, took the pistol into the shop to have a look at.  The guy is a genius and he usually is able to resolve issues within a few minutes and is back with a very functional firearm.  This time, he was gone for the remainder of the night.  

He found that the Para didn't like mag releases from other manufacturers.  He tried about 10 different mag releases from the range's 10 different 1911s and none of them fit.  He took a brand new one and attempted to fit it into my Para, but without some serious grinding on the mag release, it was not going in.  We tried a few different magazines and found that Dlask and Wilson Combat mags would drop from the mag well after the first shot.  They would in fact pull free from the mag well, without the mag release being depressed.

I pulled out one of the two Para mags that the pistol came with, and one of them remained firmly in the magwell and fed rounds fine without issue, the other mag just fell out.  I tried a few Remington R1 mags, and found that two of them worked perfectly, another one did not.  I also managed to make a Springfield Armory mag work without any problems.  So I had a 1911 which was finicky for magazines.....crap.  I'll try to contact Gravel Agency, who operate as the Service Center for Para Ordnance in Canada.

On the bright side, what rounds I did send downrange led me to believe that save for the finicky mag issue, the pistol itself was not only accurate, but precise.  I was able to produce a fist size groups with cheap factory ammo from 10m.  The rounds landed basically where I was pointing without needing to adjust the sights, so not bad considering.  I'll have to get out to the range again with some decent ammo, and take some pics of the target sheet next time.

For now, I've marked which mags the Para seems to accept, so I'll remember to bring those next time to the range.  Roy did make one comment on what could be wrong with the pistol though.  He said that the problem was "Para" was written on the slide, lol!

From there, he suggested a quick fix and placed my Para in the bin, hahaha!

Ok, so all kidding aside, when the Para worked, it worked well.  Yeah, not cool that it doesn't accept all magazines, including ones of their own manufacture, but I have figured out which mags it likes, so at least it runs, and runs well until I can figure out if this is an issue Para/Gravel Agency can help me sort out.

Para Ordinance PXT 745 Updates

As some of you may know, I can never leave well enough alone.  I've had this 1911 for less than two weeks, and haven't even shot it yet, but I felt the need to change a few things.  

The first thing that sort of bugged me was the full length guide rod (FLGR).  My first 1911, a Remington R1 Enhanced came with a GI or short length guide rod.  I'm not going to get into trying to justify one style over another, there are fans of both and the topic has been argued since the beginning of time.  Some say that the full length guide rod enhances reliability, supposedly because it addes a little extra weight to the front end which theoretically reduces muzzle flip.  Other's say the full length rod will prevent the recoil spring from jamming up.  I've also heard someone say it makes it faster to swap out their .45 upper for a .22lr upper.  

The advantages I've read about the GI length guide rods is that it's really a lot easier to take down, that you definitely won't need a barrel bushing wrench (well, you don't have to use one with a FLGR set up either, but it certainly makes things easier on your thumb if you do).  For the self defense types, you'll see them prefer the GI length because if you get a jam and you only have the use of one hand, you can clear it by pusing the end into the edge of a table to clear it.  Then there are the guys who like to customize their spring guide caps.  

For me personally, it was really just because my first 1911 came with the GI length rod and it was what I was used to.  As for the main spring housing (MSH), again, just personal preference because my first 1911 came with a flat one and I didn't like the feel of the arched one.  So I stuck with what I was used to, nothing fancy or custom, and picked up a bunch of Wilson Combat bits and pieces, a Colt MSH (yes, it's plastic, but it was cheap and it does the job just fine), and the final touch was a set of LOK Grips - Spec Ops Custom in brown/black.  These are pretty good quality, G10, excellent fit and finish, offering some really good grip for a affordable pricing.  I would say they are definitely on par with VZ grips.

I've used the Wilson Combats parts before, in my Norinco 1911, and what I found was they just drop right in, they're not super expensive and they work without any issues.

The GI guide rod and spring cap are pretty straight forward, simply swap the parts when taking down the pistol.  The MSH can be a bit of a pain in the dick, but not impossible.  First tap out the retaining pin.

I found that it helps to maintain some pressure on the MSH when knocking out a really stubborn pin.  With the Para, there was very little resistance.  My Norc on the other hand, lol different story.

Next, I tapped out the main spring cap pin.  The new colt MSH didn't come with any of the internals, so you will need to swap all the parts over  (main spring, main springhousing pin retainer, mainspring cap and main spring cap pin).  

It helps to keep pressure down on the main spring cap when tapping out the main spring cap pin so the whole assembly doesn't come flying out.

After it's all apart, drop them into the new MSH and assemble in reverse order of the disassembly, again, applying pressure down on the main spring cap so you can slip the pin back in.

The next thing you have to ensure is the hammer strut slips into the MSH and sits on top of the main spring cap.  If you don't line this up properly, you will know soon enough when you try to push the MSH back into position.

Using your thumb to apply pressure to keep the MSH in place, you can tap in your mainspring housing pin.

I bought these grips off Amazon.ca, they are apparently made in the USA out of G10.  They have terrific reviews, and they look a lot better in person compared to the photos on Amazon.  As mentioned earlier, they are well made, fit perfectly (they did not need any fitting, dremeling or removal of material whatsoever.

LOK Grips Spec Ops Custom in brown/black.

I'l be honest, my selection in style of grip and color was heavily influenced by this pistol:

My Para didn't come with the original Para grips.  If it did, I would probably still swap them out.  Mine came with those rubbery Pearce grips, but they looked a bit worn and felt like they belonged to someone else, so off they came.  I had an extra set of Magpul grips, which were fine, but these LOK units just add so much more gripping power.

Now I just have to shoot it, lol! 

A good reference for the names of all the 1911s parts:

Para Ordinance PXT 745 Kandahar TF 1-08 Canadian Forces edition

Wow, I am the biggest poser ever, lol!  First, I'd like to make it clear I was not on TF 1-08, I have never been to Afghanistan, have I ever been deployed overseas, nor do I want to appear as if I'm a CF vet with experience outside of my in-Canada reservist life.  I haven't been in the CF very long, so I was a bit hesitant to get one of these for the longest time, but a deal popped up on CGN and the price wasn't horrible so I figured why the hell not.  I'd get it as a commemorative firearm, sort of like my Colt Canada SA20.

I first heard about these years ago when googling military discount (like the cheap bastard that I am) and stumbled on these 1911s.  Para Ordinance PXT 745 Kandahar TF 1-08 Canadian Forces edition.  If you google them now, there are hardly any images of them, or maybe I'm just looking in the wrong places.  Anyway, I'd just gotten my RPAL and been in the CF as a reservist for only a few months.  At the time, I could barely afford a Norinco 1911, and besides, I'd apparently missed the boat on these as they were no longer in production and I wasn't even sure I qualified for one, just by being in the military.  

Actually, I still know very little about these pistols other than it might have been possible for members to acquire them for $750CAD?  I don't know what the criteria was, whether you had to just be in the CF, or you had to have been deployed to get one, or if these were available to the general public and available to members for a CF discount.  I do know one thing, they are limited, and of what few were made, there appeared to be a lot of complaints. regarding malfunctions and quality control.  That may have changed, and Para Ordinance may have even fixed all the issues, but like anything else in the firearms business, folks will always remember if a company screwed up.  

So, why did I get one after all the ugly stuff I heard about them?  Well, most of the bad stuff I read about was related to the hi-capa version (double stack 1911).  If I thought there was barely any info on the CF edition Paras, there was even less information regarding a single-stack version.  The only image I found of a single stack was here:

https://www.1911addicts.com/threads/what-was-your-first-1911.16413/page-10

The pistol came in a pretty massive case, the biggest out of all my pistols.  

As you can sort of see, the pistol was previously enjoyed, but the previous owner seemed like a pretty cool guy and though the pistol is used and has some history marks, it wasn't completely abused, and thankfully, no idiot scratch, lol!  Like any used tool, it came with some character, and I won't be afraid to take her out and shoot as it is not much of a safe queen the way it is.

Before I looked at the pistol, I took a quick glance at the shiny magazines that came with it.  Mine came with two, but I understand that if you jumped on these early when the first came out, some came with 5 magazines.

A simple base plate with the Para logo on it.

The first thing I played with was the follower and noticed it tilted.

I'm not sure I like this and have no idea if it will affect performance.  To the best of my recollection, my other mags (Remington R1 mags, Wilson Combat mags, Springfield and Dlask mags) all are sort of designed with an anti-tilt follower.

One of my Dlask mags for comparison,

Something else about the Para mags.  With an empty mag inserted and the slide locked back, I found hitting the slide release was difficult to send the slide forward.  I tried with my Dlask mag (all under control of course), the slide was able to go forward with an empty mag after hitting the slide release.  Is this important?  I have no idea, just an observation.

The Para has a nice rail for a light...more on this later.  The trigger is polymer, and supposedly self-lubricating.  It had a funny feel to it though, as if the reset had a slight step to it before completely resetting.  I will have to see if this is the case after I clean the pistol and send a few rounds through it.  It may not even be an issue, but I'd never noticed this with my Remington 1911s.

Detail of the TF 1-08 markings.

Para decided to go with a curved main spring housing.  I'm not really sure what the reasoning is for this, but for me personally, I am not a fan of the curved MSH and prefer a straight one.  Since this pistol is very used and likely has little collector value, I may swap this out for a straight one.  A polymer one from Colt only runs about $10 if I recall correctly.

The Trijicon night sights still have plenty of glow left in them, though not evident in this photo.

The slight to frame fit was nice and tight, about on par with my Remingtons.

A shot of the maple leaf, though I'm not sure this pistol was made in Canada as it says Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

Another interesting feature is the full-length recoil spring guide.  Most of my other 1911s do not have a full length guide.

The feed ramp appears to be polished and smooth.  We'll know for sure when I take her out to the range.

The barrel bushing is a nice fit to barrel and the slide.

Despite being a little rough around the edges on the outside, the inside seemed fairly clean and well take care of.

This pistol came with Pearce grips.  They had a rubbery feel like Hogue grips and looked like.....well, someone else's grips for lack of better words.  There wasn't anything wrong with them really, but I had a spare set of Magpul 1911 grips laying around so I threw them on.  I may swap them out with a pair of VZ Operator II grips.  A set of those came on my R1 Carry and I like them a lot.  

I tried mounting one of my lights on the rail, but it wasn't a perfect fit.  I'm going to have to play around a bit to find the best fit as there are several inserts that came with the light for various pistols.

My 1911 family.  So far, it's not as bad as some others.  I have seen some people positively addicted to all things 1911 and my little collection pales in comparison.  That being said, I have 4 more 1911s than I originally planned when I first got into firearms.

I'm really not sure why I have 8 pistols.....but then again, why to men collect man-crap?  Who knows, lol!

No more pistols......said no one, ever, lol!