REVIEWS
3 Of A Kind
Para-Ord's LDA family keeps on raking in the chips. And they've all been gold ones. . .
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It's tough to win three times--and tougher yet to do it three times in a row. That's true of anything worth winning--the World Series, Super Bowl, an Academy Award, etc. In the world of guns, the awards given by the readers and staff of Guns & Ammo draw the respect of the industry--not to mention the consumers who spend the dollars to support it. Amazingly enough, a Para-Ordnance pistol has taken a trophy for three consecutive years.
In 1999, G&A readers offered the 14.45 LDA the "Handgun of the Year" award, and in 2000 they gave the same award to the 7.45 LDA. Now, for the first year of the new millennium, Para-Ord's designers came up with a handgun that garnered G&A's Editor's Award , a plum bestowed on what the editors feel is the most innovative design of the year. For three straight years, Para-Ord's held a winning hand. And that, sports fans, is an impressive record.
This impressive track record could only happen through better ideas, soundly executed. As a matter of fact, that could serve as a capsule description of Para-Ordnance in general. The Canadian-based firm has been producing guns for a relatively short dozen years. Before Para-Ord made pistols, it sold a frame kit that permitted the end user or custom pistolsmith to assemble a working pistol with the Para kit and GI or aftermarket parts. The resulting gun was a spitting image of the beloved M1911A1---until you picked it up or looked at it from the rear. At this point, you could see that the frame or receiver was much thicker than that of the standard Colt. That was because there were twice as many cartridges in the magazine. Para-Ord's first "better idea" was a nifty way to deal with the arguably limited capacity of the grand old gun. The kits, which are still available, sparked a lot of imitation. Properly put together, the gun looked like a 1911, handled like a 1911, probably smelled like a 1911, but held twice as many rounds.
So when the Para-Ord guys decided to build their own guns, they simply came out with a factory version of the kit gun. In time, the line evolved into a variety of similar guns that differed in size and caliber. They got as small as the chunky little 3-inch P10.45, and included factory chamberings of 9mm and .40 S&W. There may have been other calibers on a custom (kit) basis. Along the way, the company made its own parts and sharply upgraded everything from the types of materials used (aluminum, carbon steel, stainless steel) right down to the slick interlocking boxes in which the pistols were shipped.
In a remarkably short period, Para-Ordnance became a major player in the handgun market, enjoying a deserved reputation for quality. Everything looked good for the energetic new enterprise. But president Ted Szabo and VP Thanos Polyzos were not temperamentally inclined to rest on their laurels. There was a big chunk of the pistol market they weren't reaching. So they went after it...
Rightly or wrongly, there were lots of handgunners who viewed the Para-Ordnance line as being a bit dated. While Para-Ord's pistols were as good as anyone's and better than most, they were still like all 1911 derivatives in the trigger system. Simply stated, the company's single-action pistols were trapped in a double-action world. Never mind that they were high-quality guns with high-capacity magazines and made fine personal defense or competition arms.
"State of the art," however, mandated police pistols with the same high-capacity magazines, but also multiple trigger modes and all kinds of other doodads. And if you want to sell pistols in big numbers, you simply have to come up with a gun that's competitive in the law enforcement market.And by 1998, every major police agency in the country either required--or allowed--some form of double- action auto.
Para-Ord's challenge was straightforward: How to get the big police buyers to beat a path to its door. The solution was simple--build a better mousetrap. And that's what Para-Ord did. The innovation that changed the course of handgun devel- opment is indeed a better mousetrap; the LDA (Light Double Action) trigger system.
