USA Para

[Mr Peabody]

Bought a new Para Expert Commander. Terrible trigger, but it shoots the RCBS 45-201 SWC and Lyman's 225gr RN very nicely. This ought to be a nice trail companion.

[Doc1]

I don't know a great deal about Paras, but I inherited my son's P14 after he passed away just over a year ago. It sat in the safe for a long time because - as I'm sure you can imagine - I just didn't want to deal with it. I finally decided to start shooting it, sort of as an homage to him, in a local USPSA club's matches. This caused me to do a bit of load development for it and I discovered that the magazine dimensions - front to back - are pretty tight. I have to seat any bullets rather deeply and some, such as the Bayou Bullets 200 gr. semi-wadcutters will bind in the (factory) magazines unless the OAL has the bullet seated well below the shoulder. This isn't a problem with Bayou Bullets' projectiles (which are fine products and feed well in my single stacks at normal OALs), but seems to be an idiosyncrasy of the Para.

Have any of you Para folks noticed this and if so, is it true for all Para models?

Best regards
Doc

[ioon44]

Sorry for your loss.

I shot a P14 for years and loaded the 200 gr SWC at 1.250" with out any problems, you might try some new or different mags. My older mags were made in Canada and the newer ones are Mecgar made in Italy.

[Larry Gibson]

I don't have that problem (seating OAL) in my Para either. I got 5 mags with mine and they all take standard OAL loaded rounds (those that pass the "plunk" test in the barrel. Only problem I have is with the tight match chamber; it will not go into battery reliably with .452 sized bullets. With .451 sized bullets it runs smoother slicker than the scum on a Louisiana swamp.......

Larry Gibson


Attachment 191696

[Doc1]

Thanks for the input, gents. I'll try some additional mags and give you an update.

Best regards
Doc

[DougGuy]

Many many years go I used to get 30rd Thompson mags at the gun shows for $5 each. They had two kinds of springs in them, one was shiny chrome looking the other black in color. I would take the shiny chrome ones and painstakingly bend the top loop so it would rest up under the front of the Para follower to keep it nosed up as forcefully as possible. Man, those mags ROCKED! If you really want to "fix" a para mag, THIS is how it's done.

Common prob with para mags was this. strip 3-4 rounds out of the mag, then push down on the nose of the stack, see how briskly or how limp it was in pushing the noses of the boolits back up. Most of the stock springs the stack would remain nosed down as they just didn't have enough tension to push the front up very well, and the para was all but guaranteed to have feeding problems when they did this. The Thompson springs really wake a para mag up.

I'd like to go back and compare some of my old original para mags with Thompson springs to the new ones with Wolff or Mec Gar springs. I bet the Thompson spring still kicks their butt.

[flyingmonkey35]

As a gun my para is a good shooter once i had the barrel fixed. But as a company they are ****.

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[ioon44]

As far as know there isn't a para company any more, something about Remington or Iver Johnson buying them.

[Mr Peabody]

I think Remington gathered them up. Mines made in the Carolinas'