Hello everyone,

One of my good friends called me today and told me he has this Para LDA that he's not emotionally attached too and he wants to give me first crack at trading for something I have. He is going to bring it by for me to look over on Monday. He says it is in good condition and shoots great. Do any of you have experience with this particular firearm? Any advice would be appreciated.

I had one of the first ones a while back, when the LDA was the cover baby on most of the gun mags. I paid top dollar, was excited to get it, but quickly found out that it was absolutely garbage. Upon receipt, I saw the hammer had a huge crack in it, and Para customer service was terrible to deal with to get it repaired/replaced. This has nothing to do with how the pistol handled, but is worth mentioning. Shooting-wise, the trigger was "rubbery" and did not give me any sense of confidence or consistent control. I've owned well over 100 revolvers & pistols (S&Ws, Sigs, Rugers, cowboy actions, etc. and various 1911s) during the years, and the LDA ranks as the worst of them all. Suffice it to say, if I was given one for free, I would immediately give it back. Nor would I trade anything of moderate value for a used or new LDA. There are numerous higher quality and cost effective 1911 platform pistols that you can choose from. My 2c.

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I'm with the banned ...

My experience with a 7.45 has been a good one. I did have one issue with the grip safety and found the customer service to be very good. I have found my gun to be very accurate and reliable with perhaps 2k rounds through it. The trigger helps to make this a very accurate 1911 with the feel of a very smooth da trigger. My only reservation about this gun is the trigger reset that must be learned.

I had one of the first LDA 14-45 that came out. Never had a problem with it and the trigger was consistent from first to last round. Just didn't care for it compared to a standard single action 1911 trigger.

I had a 14.45 LDA. Was nice but I traded it for a Glock 21 because at the time it was hard to find extra mags for it. Subsequently I trade the Glock for the full size custom M&P 45, which I still have

My 2003-made Para 14.45 Limited has been a real good one. I bought it for two reasons:

It was advertised as having a great light, double action trigger. Since I've done my best match shooting (bowling pin matches and steel) with S&W revolvers (double action of course), I really wanted one.

Mine is the "Limited" version with their version of the Bomar rear sight and it is a VERY accurate and good looking firearm!

Sadly, although it was great shooting at the range, when I took it to a local steel match I discovered that my hands (which are fairly small, and with a 7 ring size) wouldn't keep the widebody handgun perfectly stable in my hand after the torque of a couple of rounds.

A gun that won't remain perfectly in one's grip for each and every shot will destroy the accuracy!

Thus, I discovered that the high cap grip frames will not be for me! Bummer, for I really liked that pistol. I probably ought to sell it . . . but ONLY for that reason.

IF you can, see if the owner of the 9mm LDA will let you run a couple of boxes of ammo through it and see if there are any problems with feeding and such, and if you like the LDA trigger (I did). The gun will probably be a gem, and I wouldn't think a very good friend would stick you with a lemon!!!

Here's mine . . . so you can see a "Limited" version that was made for the competition market . . .





Tom

There is a used one just like that ^ at my local shop. I played with it today. Seemed ok. I didn't like the fact that sometimes the safety wouldn't disengage.

Thank you all for your opinions. Tom Turner, he is going to let me keep it for a few days and run some ammo through it. I'm pretty excited as I always am when given the opportunity to try out an unfamiliar gun.