Para kit ID Help

[Chuck_Bullets]

I think I may have a P14 that started as an early kit. How does one tell for sure?

Thanks,

Bob

[Hawkmoon]

Does the magazine have a steel or polymer floor plate/base?

Does the barrel have an integral feed ramp, or is it a conventional 1911 barrel?

What make is the slide?

[Chuck_Bullets]

The one Para magazine I have has a plastic base, it is a conventional barrel and the slide is a Caspian Commander length.

The reason I asked is that the serial number starts with PK.

[Hawkmoon]

The barrel is the giveaway. ALL Para-Ordnance complete guns had ramped barrels. If yours has a conventional (non-ramped) barrel, then it was made using one of the early "gunsmith" conversion kits. Those grips are another oddity -- the factory Para-Ordnance grips weren't double-diamind checkered.

That's a very unique pistol. I like it.

I wish I had bought a couple/few of those kits when they were still available.

[Spyros]

This isn't just a kit, it's an EARLY-production kit, i.e. from the first 3-4 years or so. You can tell from the squared profile in the area behind the triggerguard. I could well be wrong but I think at least some of those were sold with grip panels very much like these.

Para eventually abandoned this style of frame and went for the so-called "slim-line" frame, that we're familiar with now. IIRC Guns & Ammo had a side-by-side comparison of the two frame types and I think calling the latter frames "slim" was a bit tongue-in-cheek, i.e. the difference was pretty small.

Other than cosmetics, the problem with these early Paras is that they may not be compatible with all newer Para magazines. You'd think that since the early guns were thicker that the newer mags would fit them, but actually (and again, if I recall correctly) the newer magazines are thicker. So actually the "slim-line" frames aren't slimmer, they're just more rounded and have much thinner grip panels and grip screws, which make the difference. The difference in the magazines was pretty small, though. The newer ones had an extra round capacity but this may have been simply due to a different basepad.

This looks like a nice gun. I can't see the grip safety tang very well, but it looks like it might be a high-ride .250" radius safety. If the frame stands a tad proud of the safety, that's what it is.

[Chuck_Bullets]

I was hoping that this was an early conversion frame. I had one way back in the mists of time that I used with a chewed up but much loved Ithaca Gov't model slide.

The Mec-Gars work just fine with this pistol and I will be adding more of those. The finish on this pistol is generally considered to be Cerakote
but I didn't think that wore off and this stuff is.

Thanks for the help and kind words!

Bob