I got a new toy!!!

[Seismic Sam]

Drool, drool, drool!!!!

After reading that Larry was starting out by selling some of his own collection, I didn't need anybody to tell me he had good taste because he's nuts about Sasha. Now, the problem that's been kind of confronting me is that I've sort of run dry on pistols that I don't have yet. Got a Series '70 Gold Cup and a Springfield 6" longslide in 45 Super, an original Delta 10mm,plus the 50GI, which is my carry gun. Got EAA's in 10mm, 45 reg & Super, and a 38 Super Match that eats 52,000 PSI 9x23 ammo like candy. Also got what for me is a bug - BUL Cherokee, full size polymer frame, 4" steel slide and bbl, and holds 18. Oh, got a P226 Elite Stainless, because I got a thing for bottle neck pistol cartridges. Also got some fairly rare stuff, and apart from the BUL 9mm it's all fairly potent weaponry and pretty good looking. Got the 50AE and the 500 of course. Occasionally I think about a Coonan, but have never really had 1.5 kilobucks just sitting in my pocket with all the bills paid.

So what else is there? I've been waiting for a Colt Double Eagle in 10mm, and didn't have $650 cash in my pocket 5 years ago when some reclusive old guy was selling an ANIB one, and wouldn't give me his phone number and didn't have a shop and wouldn't meet me anywhere. #$@$&*()*&^%$#@#!#$%^^&*(&^%&!!!!!!

So Larry is out of Pupperoni, and starts feeding Sasha part of his cookie, and I'm kind of idly looking around at the guns. After a while I notice a tag on an SS 1911, and it's a Para P14-45 Limited. Hmmmm - never had a hicap 45, and that jumbo ammo capacity does make it a viable alternative to the 50GI, and all of my 1911 holsters will fit it. Hmmmm... So Larry lets me see the gun, and I try the trigger, and holy crap is it good! As a matter of fact, its just barely inferior to my 50 GI!! The slide is nice and tight, and there's not a mark on this gun. So I ask Larry how much? He shuffles through his handwritten gun inventory list, and goes : Uhhhh..... $700?? I quick go over to John-Boy's computer, and find out that the gun is still made, and it lists for $1289 these days. I think about the upcoming gun show, but my chances of finding a deal like this are nonexistent, so I buy it.

I get it home, and the box has ALL the original documentation including a coupon for a hicap mag, and it appears that this was a 1999 gun that was sold during the Clinton ban years, when hicap mags were not permissible but hummers in the Oval office were permissible. So I clean the gun up, and it's barely dirty, so I figure that it ate maybe one box of ammo and then became a safe queen.

So here it is:





And for 45's a double stack mag is REALLLLLLLY wide! mag - holds 14 + 1 up the pipe!!



This is normally the kind of picture you see for a hicap 9mm, but them ain't 9mm rounds!! You can shoot it twice a day for a week and still have one in the chamber...



Now I gotta find some good grips for the gun. Them black plastic ones is kinda cheezy. CDNN has extra mags for $19.95, so I better stock up now!

[mmcnx2]

I've got the 40 Limited version. It has run flawlessly for years.

[Geezer43]

Wow -- that is a good deal on a nice gun!
Me thinks yer really gonna like that beauty.

I have one like it, but it's blued steel and doesn't have the FO front sight.
It's accurate and has never malfunctioned.
Yes, the factory grips are a bit cheesy, so I put Hogue grips on mine and love them.
Makes for a sweet shooter.

[CarRacer]

That is pretty badass. A double stack 45 is a different animal but I really like the one I have. Hope you have fun with yours.

[sigsauersauce]

Looks great! Congrats on the steal of a deal!

[Shipyard]

purdy!

[Seismic Sam]

Glad to hear it's a good shooter. I rember looking at a Para Hicap years ago, and it had that sucky LDA trigger on it, where the DA mode was lighter than most, but the SA mode was just as long as the DA mode, which totally made it a bastardized design that threw the baby out with the bathwater. Oddly enough, in the 1999 catalog that came with the gun, it was announcing it's new line of LDA pistols, so mine came out when they were still making straight up 1911's. Para grips are really weird and thin, and have a little insert to cover up a gap below the beavertail, so only Hogue has them. I'm thinking Cocobolo would look good:

[Geezer43]

Those DO look good.
I just went with the rubberized "wrap around" grips.
They are not nearly as purdy, but they fill the hand nicely and provide a good non-slip texture.
They required a tiny bit of material removal at the top of the grip to allow for full movement of the extended "ambi" safety.

[Grifter]

Nice. Ive wanted to fondle one of those double stack for a while. Might have to go do that.
Nice looking piece.

[Seismic Sam]

Those DO look good.
I just went with the rubberized "wrap around" grips.
They are not nearly as purdy, but they fill the hand nicely and provide a good non-slip texture.
They required a tiny bit of material removal at the top of the grip to allow for full movement of the extended "ambi" safety.

I do have the black rubber Hogue finger groove grips on my hard recoiling guns, and they are very useful to hang onto the gun, but with this wide body frame the gun is plenty big to give you a full handful to hang onto, even for a big troll like me who has hands big enough to pick up a reloading n00b and drop him in my stew pot!!

Due to the fact that the gun below is a straight up 1911, I did manage to get a classy set of finger groove grips from the old guy with the gray/white pony tail who works the MWCA shows: It's a 45 Super that puts a 230 grain bullet downrange at 1200 FPS, so it has "some" recoil.

[Jeff Bergquist]

I like the Paras a lot. My P18 and P45 both had The Hogue Fingergroove grips. While I'm fine with the ergonomics of large frame doublestacks, for competition purposes the fingergrooves really helped improve consistency in presentation since the broad beam front strap on the Paras doesn't give me much from which to index my grip.

[XDM45]

Nice find on a good gun in great shape for a really nice price. Kudos!!

I was checking out a WWII Colt 45 at Thanksgiving and didn't care for it, but I did like a friend of mine's Kimber 1911, but not an SR 1911, so my point being, find what fits and works well for you. Surprisingly, I found what was even better than any of those 45s for me, was my brother-in-law's black widow Luger. That thing fit like a glove. I still prefer my XDm over any of them, but then I'm really picky and not into owning tons of anything be it cars, guns, etc.