Beprepared

Before i launch into a rant about this problem, let me say that i am now, and have been for a LONG time, a huge advocate of Para pistols.. they make fantastic weapons, and i have convinced several friends to buy one..

that said, i recently had something very strange happen to my Para LDA colonel. I bought it new in 05, and it has run perfectly since then.... until last week.

here is the problem with my LDA... please tell me if you know what's causing it.

when you try to engage the thumb safety, it will not fully engage, the only way to fully engage it is to manually push the hammer (this is the gun with the flat shaved off looking hammer). Additionally, once the safely is engaged, if you take it off, the hammer partially moves back to the cocked position...

I do not know what is causing this, and i am worried that it will make the gun unreliable.

additionally, should the hammer remain cocked when the mag is loaded and the slide is racked? The hammer does not fall back like (i think) it used to, but it can be manually pushed all the way forward... is something broken in my LDA?

gun fires and feeds perfectly as always, but the trigger seems a bit different... (could be completely my imagination as i am a bit nervous with the safety acting up)

buddy_fuentes

I have owned three LDA pistols and still own one, but don't know too much about them. I would detail strip and clean the pistol (without messing with the LDA mechanism) and make sure some trash/chipped part isn't causing your problem. If that doesn't do it you need to send it to an authorized Para repair center.

You are right, Para makes a good gun. I have a single action double stack pin gun that is pretty darn awsome.

Good Luck

Beprepared

well, i tore the gun down to the bare frame, and found the problem. The coil spring that causes the hammer to reset after the slide is racked had rotated out of position so that it no longer reset the hammer. The safety mechanism cannot be engaged until the hammer is all the way forward, so it wasn't operating properly.

I completely disassembled the gun, and fixed this problem, but then, once i had figured out how to take it apart, and how it all worked, i decided to do some customizing... i pulled out the grip safety mechanism, and polished the part that stops the hammer from moving backward until it is depressed. I took roughly 1/8th of an inch off, then reassembled the gun. The trigger was noticeably smoother. I went and fired it today, and it is every bit as dependable as before... (300 rounds ZERO issues)

i have since torn it down 9 times and reassembled it. I can now put it back together in under 20 minutes. This gun is incredibly complex, but it is not impossible to figure out.