Well, this will be my cherry poppin' post here since I just joined. I bought one of these today. I was at lunch and rode down to Ronnie Barrett's (yes, the .50 caliber sniper rifle guy) gun shop (The Outpost Armory, just south of Murfreesboro, TN) to kill some time and look for another ccw to reach out and say, "take me home with you" as I've been doing for months now at every gun shop, pawn shop and gun show I could squeeze into the schedule.I either find junk for cheap or cadillacs that surpass my "cost to benefit" ratio. Names don't mean much to me. Actual people FEEDBACK is king. Today, things changed. They had a brand spankin' new one for $829 and I wouldn't even let him get it out of the case for me to hold it. Besides, I've done that before, many times. Just as I was about to leave he told me he'd almost forgotten about one he'd taken in on trade. It had a little holster rash on it but then he shocked me when I asked how much he was giving it away for..............$499!!! Even MORE surprisingly, I asked him if that was the best he could do and, after checking on his computer, told me he could go $450!! With the box and manual!! I snagged it. Cadillac gun at a Yugo gun price. I haven't had the chance to shoot it yet but I have compared it to my full size 1911 and, although the mag is thicker, the overall grip thickness is only about a 1/16"....MAYBE 1/8" thicker.That, to me, is negligible. Even loaded, the Para is waaaaaaay lighter and carries just perfectly in my Galco STO460 IWB holster that I bought for a Sig P238.
I I've had a Colt series 80 Officers model and a hot rodded (springs, polished ramp, etc..) Charles Daly officers model in the past and had many, many FTF issues out of both. Now, after many hours of research, I've carried a Taurus 1911 for over a year now and have only had maybe five FTF/jams in 500+ rounds. This works well for me since some of my buddies have Kimbers that aren't nearly as reliable. Anyway, I have carried a Sig P238 and Kel Tec PF9 as backups but just didn't feel comfortable with the smaller rounds. Of course, the idea is not to have to use it in the first place, but, If I DO have to I want it to stop a meth head as opposed to just pissing them off. Also, I wanted to stay with one caliber because it just makes practical sense to me.......no trying to jam a .380 round into a 1911 mag while nervously trying to re-load in a situation you hope never happens. I know, carry extra mags, etc.... My logic is that if one jams and you have to grab the other, you can steal ammo from the first if you need to and .380 doesn't chamber properly in a .45 or vice-verse. This thing is the pefect answer to me. two inches shorter barrell, an inch or so shorter grip, MORE capacity, much lighter and, like I said, negligible difference in thickness.
I'll post my range impressions sometime this weekend and will hopefully have something good to say. I haven't read much bad stuff about these little powerhouses except from people who are loyal to other brands. As with anything that's mass produced, lemons make it through sometimes. Sorry forthe small novel but I'm kind of thorough with most things.
Keith
