Para LDA Owners

[Bohicaccw45]

I purchased a CCWX745S a few months ago. What a sweet firing pistol. Trigger pull on the LDAs are amassingly smooth. But, last week while firing factory ammunition the thumb safety sheared off. It looks as though the metal was a cheap alloy instead of steel.

Returned the pistol to the factory, they did the needed repair and I now have it back in working condition.

I would like to know if anyone else has had problems with the Para LDA with the thumb safety shearing off.

I got this particular pistol because of the the double action and size as my CCW. But now I am sort of leary of it, and guess I will be until I have put a fw hundred rounds through it.

[jdlv4_0]

Well it sounds like you've been introduced to the wonderful world of MIM.

I can't guarantee it, but it sounds like you had a MIM part go bad, I don't recall if Para uses MIM safeties, but I'll check mine when I get home and look for mold marks.

I didn't have any mechanical issues with my Para's.

There's a lot of info regarding MIM related failures on the 1911 forums.

In one case, the hammer on a Kimber actually broke in two.


I had a MIM issue with my wife's Kimber Ultra CDP, nothing as bad as having it shear off, but the problem did in fact render the gun useless until it was rectified.

She dropped it, it landed muzzle first, and the slide actually traveled rearward getting stuck between the thumb safety and the slide, locking the gun out of battery.

Afterward, we could replicate the problem by slamming the muzzle with the palm of my hand.

The issue was caused by two things:
1: The MIM safety is softer than a tool steel safety.
2: The older CDPs had a more extreme melt job, thus giving the slide more ability to travel under the safety. (I know it's hard to picture this, I'll take pictures of this one day as I still have the original safety)

What worked for this issue was replacing the MIM safety with a tool steel Wilson Combat safety.

If you still have a doubt about your pistol, take it to a smith and have all the MIM parts replaced with steel components.

I'm not saying that all MIM parts are bad, but in my case and in this case, they (MIM parts) seem to be the culprit.

[synergy]

There are bad MIM parts out there, and there are bad tool steel parts out there.

In a production gun, a MIM'ed part can be made to tighter tolerances. A tool steel part cut on a CNC machine will vary in it's specs as the cutting surfaces dull and vary through the range on their acceptable specs....a MIM'ed part is not subject to any manufacturing machining wear, and is VERY consistent from part to part.

Unless you're hand fitting parts and getting a full blown custom gun...the use of MIM parts won't matter.

One of the writers for SWAT magazine did a story on MIM parts, and beat the snot out of them along side tool steel parts. They even threw em in a fire and tested their hardness....they pretty much came to the conclusion that MIM'ed parts are not inherently inferior, and that it's up the manufacturer quality control more than anything, with either MIM parts or tool steel parts. All MIM parts are not equal.

Internet posters on 1911 specific forums tend to think they know it all....like the saying goes.... "you have to know how to separate the wheat from the chaff."

[knighthawk06699]

I was think about getting a Para 1911 are they worth the money?

[Mity2]

Para do use MIM parts on few things(hammer, grip safety, thumb safety, slide release, and barrel bush), and while I haven't had any issue with mine(PX745S), Replacing MIM on my gun is on my to do list...

[synergy]

Para do use MIM parts on few things(hammer, grip safety, thumb safety, slide release, and barrel bush), and while I haven't had any issue with mine(PX745S), Replacing MIM on my gun is on my to do list...

Kimber uses them, Springfield Armory uses them on EVERYTHING except their custom shop guns (read: over $2k), Para uses them, Taurus uses them, RIA uses them....

I'd be willing to be you couldn't find a production 1911 made today for under $1500 that doesn't have MIM'ed parts in it.

[Mity2]

Kimber uses them, Springfield Armory uses them on EVERYTHING except their custom shop guns (read: over $2k), Para uses them, Taurus uses them, RIA uses them....

I'd be willing to be you couldn't find a production 1911 made today for under $1500 that doesn't have MIM'ed parts in it.

Your probably right on that.
its not that I have any probrem with it. I just think they look ugry. THey have different texture then rest of the gun..

[jdlv4_0]

Even Colt uses MIM.

I'm not saying that everyone should run out and replace every MIM part on the gun.

All I'm saying is that there seem to be more instances of MIM parts breaking than tool steel parts. Is it mostly internet trash talk? Mostly, but people post the pics to prove it. I've even heard of Ed Brown hammer struts breaking. So no steel is not immune to failure

If someone's not comfortable with the MIM parts, then they can replace them, it's as easy as that.

I've had plenty of 1911s with MIM, and as stated, the only issue I had was caused by a combination of issues.

Yes steel can break too, but my thing is this, if you had one MIM part on your gun from a bad batch, who knows if the other parts were part of a bad batch.

I don't make the stuff, I'm not an engineer, and I don't really care if a part is MIM or not, but If I had a part totally break on it's own with no other contributing factors, I'd be a little concerned. Was it a problem with the mold? Were other parts of the gun affected by the manufacturing screw up that caused an out of spec part? Beats the hell out of me, so in that case I would replace the parts with after market steel parts and have them properly installed.

Overall I think Para's are a good buy, but their prices are going up. They do have a good warranty, I've heard mixed results regarding their customer service, but like anything else on the internet I don't put much faith in it.

I have likes and dislikes about every maker out there it seems.

I wish Para would do a better job with their ParaKote finish, I wish Springfield would make a TRP Champion, I wish S&W would make a steel framed Commander sized gun.

It all depends on what features you want on what size gun, everybody offers something different. Sad to say, almost none of the manufacturers are making the type of 1911 I want.

[synergy]

Even Colt uses MIM.


All I'm saying is that there seem to be more instances of MIM parts breaking than tool steel parts. Is it mostly internet trash talk? Mostly, but people post the pics to prove it. I've even heard of Ed Brown hammer struts breaking. So no steel is not immune to failure

Thanks for the reminder on Colt...I hate their guns. I had a brain fart when I listed off 1911 manufactures...they slipped my mind (wishful thinking).

I think you may see MIM parts failing more often due to the law of averages.

If you think about it...most every production 1911 these days is coming with those parts.

Guns coming with tool steel parts are in the minority these days, pretty much only being the Wilson Combat, Les Baer, Ed Brown, Nighthawk Custom, EGW...full blown custom shop guns. And of the small percentage of 1911 owners that drop the $2k on a gun....how many owners push those guns hard, versus worship them as a "safe queen"?

I would be willing to say, that if you ran some of the quality MIM'ed guns (SA TRP, Kimber TLE II, etc) along side the high-end custom shop tool steel guns (Wilsons and Browns, etc) you'd probably see about equal parts failure rates.

[knighthawk06699]

OK so somebody please tell me what is a "MIM" Part?