Elite LS Hunter and "The New" Para Review
I was finally able to buy one of the production-delayed Para Elite LS Hunters in late November.
I'd been looking for a 10mm longslide for several years to shoot frequently big wild piggies across the river in AR but no one wanted to part with their Omega or Javelina at a resonable price. Then Para comes along at SHOT 2013 with a new offering with all the bells and whistles: FO front sight and adjustable rear, a recon rail, black Ionbond on stainless, and a foreseeable decade+ of parts.
SOLD! :eb:
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Slide to frame fit, barrel lock-up and action is nice and tight. Surface finish is excellent and the PVD'd Ionbond's wear resilience, which I've experienced for many years on my two like-finished daily carry Nighthawks, should be perfect for the great outdoors. While the final production didn't have the SHOT and early interweb marketed front strap checkering, the furnished VZ Operators II G10 stocks afford plenty of lateral grip even if your hands are wet and/or muddy, and easy recessed acces to the mag realease. The long, flat wire recoil spring along with the all steel weight ~41 oz should well manage this sweety's recoil even with 220-gr hardcast Buffalo Bore loads.
Now, upon receipt I immediately noted that the ambi safety wasn't locked in at the cross shaft splines properly, the plastic skeletonized trigger had plenty of molding flash remaining attached and, most dissappointingly, the trigger had massive, unreasonable amounts of gravely creep.
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Para's Customer Service was quick to forward me a FedEx return call tag and I thereafter got the gun back just a week later. The returned work order ticket noted that the RHS ambi safety, trigger and sear where replaced.
The safety now looks/works good. Take up and break on the trigger stayed satisfactorily unchanged (and I'd not complained about these).
BUT, while admittedly less gravely, the creep is still significantly present and doesn't reflect what I would expect from a $1200 gun. The gentleman I talked to at Para quickly deflected that "they weren't a custom shop" but I've owned several Kimbers and Springfields, both in Custom Shop and non-CS offerings, and none of these ever exhibited any significant creep.
So I'll spend some more cash to swap/tune in a premium trigger through an aftermarket source, though that's dissappointing and contrary to the "new" Para's marketing that includes notions like "uncompromising purpose" and "handcrafted excellence"...