This is the gun (with part of the serial number obscured) I have been shooting:
Custom guns just for us knuckle dragging gun bloggers! How cool is that?
I had some problems yesterday and finally figured out what was going on (with a simpler repro of the problem by JR). If the gun cycles, you let up on the trigger to the first click, squeeze (it will hit a hard stop without firing), then let up until the next click, then pull the gun will lock up. You have to manually cycle the slide (roughly the equivalent to a computer reboot) to recover. I mentioned this to Kerby, the Para USA guy, and he said, “Yes. It will do that. Don’t do that. After the gun cycles move you finger until the nail touches the front of the trigger guard then do your pull.” He went on to explain that this is because I’ve been shooting single action guns for a long time. Others that shoot double action or Glock type actions before using a Light Double Action (which this is) don’t have this problem.
At Microsoft we call a bug that is easily reached and causes the program to crash a Priority 0 bug. Priority 0 bugs must be fixed before the product is shipped. Telling the customer, “Don’t do that” isn’t really an option for a released product.
Yesterday I had many failures to feed as well. After oiling the gun this morning those problems went away until very late in the day when the gun got dirty again. And after adapting my shooting technique to avoid the system lock up (and the required reboot) I did pretty well. On the last big “stage” at the end of the day with shooting on the move, shooting movers, and plates racks I had the best run of anyone (possibly even Todd who fumbled some reloads and had other problems) until Caleb shot the stage with a borrowed gun that had 18 round magazines. The rest of us used eight round magazines and I required five magazines to complete the stage.
At the end of the day several of us, including me, were able to hit the eight (?) inch plates at 35 yards half the time or better.
I have to conclude the gun works well as long as you don’t run into that one bug.
Draw your own conclusions as to whether the gun (your version would look like this) is for you.
“Others that shoot … Glock type actions before using a Light Double Action don’t have this problem.”
I bet that’s dead wrong. Your description of how the failure occurs sounds like how I and a lot of other folks run a Glock trigger.
Maybe. But the Glock guys aren’t having a problem. Only the single action guys. I haven’t shot more than 100 rouds through a Glock and that was 10 years ago. It’s going to depend on how much trigger movement is required to do a reset on the Glock versus the LDA system. If it is close then they may not have a problem.
It’s sad, I was considering one of the ParaCarry line as my next purchase. If this is a known problem with the LDA’s, and they aren’t going to fix it, there’s no way I’d trust it as a defensive weapon at all. It sounds too easy to accidentally cause the problem in a high stress situation.
Especially for a product sold as a defensive weapon. Failing to completely release the trigger would be very easy to do in the stress of a real defensive situation. If someone’s first shot doesn’t stop the cockroach, most people will try to fire again, and then instinctively pull the trigger again when it doesn’t fire. They’ve just locked up their gun while under attack. Hopefully, they will have time to tap and rack to reset, but most likely they won’t.
“Telling the customer, “Don’t do that” isn’t really an option for a released product.”
And that is why I’m not a big Para fan. I love Sig, HK, and Kimber. Every double action from Sig and HK has never given me an issue like that. Kimber I’ve only shot single action 1911s, but bottem line. That statement makes you worthless in my book.
Where I work, telling that to a customer will get you fired. If a bug like that is found, it’s a red light and stop shipment till it’s fixed. When the end result is someone possibly losing that 10th of a second in a firefight, that’s just not acceptable.
I own a Para LDA and a Para Tac-Four, both with the LDA trigger. As a long-time 1911 shooter, and very familiar with the SA trigger reset, I too had some issues with the pistol locking up on me. Once I retrained a bit I had no further problems. A lot of the top tier pistol instructors are now teaching students to use a full trigger reset, or even “trigger slapping” just because you can shoot any style trigger that way.
As far as calling this a bug – not sure about that. To me, it’s more like plunking a Windows user down in front of a Linux system. The systems both work as designed, but the user is trained to use the computer in a different way. Is that a bug? I dunno…..
I’ve been very pleased with my Tac-Four for concealed carry. 13 rounds of .45 ACP goodness, and the extra safety feature of hammer-down carry.
It depends on the exact nature of the “bug”. It is a DA, and any DA requires a longer reset. You do shoot DA revolvers, yes? Anyway, it doesn’t sound like a deal-killer to me.
You can get your SA revolver in half-cock and have the cylinder locked too, if you lower it from full-cock to half. I can’t load it– it won’t turn. “Don’t do that.” You can disengage the op-rod from the receiver on a Garand or an M-14 if you apply upward pressure as you cycle it manually, which you have to do ’cause there’s no bolt release. Some of them are really touchy about it. “Don’t do that.” That one is more serious that the Para “0 bug” ’cause now a simple re-boot won’t do. You have to reinstall the operating system.
I started my son on a Mark II pistol. I later had him shooting a single action revolver. He kept trying to fire it by just squeezing the trigger. I had to tell him, “Don’t do that” several times.
I’ve fired umpteen thousand rounds with a Glock, and with some true DAs also. Now if I tried to race with your STI, I might at some point try to fire it without thumbing off the safety, and you’d be obliged to say, “don’t do that”, and I might say, “what if my life depends on it and I’m used to this Glock with no thumb safety”? You’d say, “Learn the gun you’re using” or some such. If I gave you my pocket gun, you’d be searching for the mag release on the side, and I’d say, “don’t do that” because it’s on the bottom. But what if your life depended on it and you couldn’t find the mag catch?
No matter what you do with a Glock trigger during the cycle, or after, if you then let it forward the trigger is set and you’re ready to go. If this is not the case with the Para, I’m sure it can be “fixed”. Have them call me.