Para Ordnance Serial Number Years

Para USA first began building handguns as Para Ordnance in Toronto, Canada, in 1988. Starting a handgun manufacturing company in Canada—especially eastern Canada—was a bit of surprise to many in the shooting world.

The couple times I've called Para CS (mags, sights) I got good CS from Justin. He's the only one that answers the phone in my experience. Always helpful and polite. When I asked for the sight cut details he emailed a diagram of them on the spot. Yesterday I called for a warranty claim. Had an extractor break at 2k rounds.

Almost no questions asked, has one in the mail. After explaining how I think it broke (pressure from ftf from weak recoil spring), he tacked on a free spring. Sadly I'm expecting a 2-3 week delay because of Freedom group buying them out. Speaking of the Freedom group buyout, he said that they kept all the guys from Para to continue building guns, and the support staff to absorb into the Remington handgun division. At the start of 2016 the guns will just recieve the Remington roll mark instead of para.

They plan to continue to honor the para lifetime warranty. +1 to Para and their CS.

-------------------- New update: had a barrel bushing crack on the same gun now. Just under 2500 rounds. It cracked at 6 oclock below the barrel, right between the recoil spring plug ears.

From muzzle-breech direction, all the way through. With jist finger pressure, i can make it open up.

Called them up, spoke to Justin again and after I email some pictures to verify they will send out a new part. It really irks me that I've had 2 failures in less than 2500 rounds. 'You get what you pay for'. Still good CS though. No issues with the user installed replacement extractor so far.

Only malfunctions since are magazine related (identified the problem mag). Will update again when I get the new bushing. Got the parts from Para today, finally. It's been a long wait. They sent me the correct recoil spring, but not extractor. Not sure if it's a Remington 1911 part, or what, but the support bulge on it is WAY too big. About the size of the head (where the slide plate engages it) instead of the size of the hole in the slide.

The claw end is also much larger than the original. I understand some slight over-size so it can be fitted, but it seems like way too much than should need to be taken off. It's also squared instead of rounded (I think that it may be that way for hand fitting). The packing slip states EGW extractor as was supposed to be OEM. Pictures from the EGW site show the part sent to me being a much closer match than OEM. This doesn't make sense. Shouldn't it have come with the gun to begin with?

Aren't the EGW parts supposed to be of standard size to the 1911 platform (granted a touch over for fitting, but not ridiculously over size)? I'm going to call them in the morning and hear what they have to say.

I think this is one time an email w/a good pic of the part would have saved you some waiting. Yeah, although I was positive that all the para guns came with that extractor as an OEM part, thusly only stocking one part # at their plant/service/whatever. Having never owned a 1911 prior to this, I didn't know that was a regular pattern part as opposed to what they ADVERTISED it as having.

Can someone confirm the upper/broken part pictured is a typical pattern 1911 extractor? Can anyone elaborate on the expected size difference? I failed to see anything on the EGW site about it being for a different sized hole in the slide, leading me to believe it would be a drop in upgrade to any other gun, requiring no special modification. I don't want to speak negatively about the CS, yet, because it may just be a simple mistake.

We're all humans and are prone to such things. I just find it difficult that they expressly state the EGW extractor as a base-model/stock feature yet find out its not. That's bad marketing, likely borderline false advertising. No, I'm not the kind of ***** that wants to make a big stink about a $40 part, but it is really annoying when you buy a product for a feature, and it doesn't come with said feature. Side note: I had called twice (about 2 weeks apart) on this and spoke to a different guy, I'm hoping they didn't fire the original and replace just because of the change of ownership. It doesn't seem below the capacity of Remington and freedom group. Just got off the phone with para.

Dude says I mustve gotten a new old stock (it was NIB when I took posession) Model that's pre-egw. Indirectly confirming that the slide must be bored out to accept the EGW opposed to a standard style part. He said they no longer support that style extractor in their parts bin, so they can't help me.

Para USA first began building handguns as Para Ordnance in Toronto, Canada, in 1988. Starting a handgun manufacturing company in Canada—especially eastern Canada—was a bit of surprise to many in the shooting world.

The couple times I've called Para CS (mags, sights) I got good CS from Justin. He's the only one that answers the phone in my experience. Always helpful and polite. When I asked for the sight cut details he emailed a diagram of them on the spot. Yesterday I called for a warranty claim. Had an extractor break at 2k rounds.

Almost no questions asked, has one in the mail. After explaining how I think it broke (pressure from ftf from weak recoil spring), he tacked on a free spring. Sadly I'm expecting a 2-3 week delay because of Freedom group buying them out. Speaking of the Freedom group buyout, he said that they kept all the guys from Para to continue building guns, and the support staff to absorb into the Remington handgun division. At the start of 2016 the guns will just recieve the Remington roll mark instead of para.

They plan to continue to honor the para lifetime warranty. +1 to Para and their CS.

-------------------- New update: had a barrel bushing crack on the same gun now. Just under 2500 rounds. It cracked at 6 oclock below the barrel, right between the recoil spring plug ears.

From muzzle-breech direction, all the way through. With jist finger pressure, i can make it open up.

Called them up, spoke to Justin again and after I email some pictures to verify they will send out a new part. It really irks me that I've had 2 failures in less than 2500 rounds. 'You get what you pay for'. Still good CS though. No issues with the user installed replacement extractor so far.

Only malfunctions since are magazine related (identified the problem mag). Will update again when I get the new bushing. Got the parts from Para today, finally. It's been a long wait. They sent me the correct recoil spring, but not extractor. Not sure if it's a Remington 1911 part, or what, but the support bulge on it is WAY too big. About the size of the head (where the slide plate engages it) instead of the size of the hole in the slide.

The claw end is also much larger than the original. I understand some slight over-size so it can be fitted, but it seems like way too much than should need to be taken off. It's also squared instead of rounded (I think that it may be that way for hand fitting). The packing slip states EGW extractor as was supposed to be OEM. Pictures from the EGW site show the part sent to me being a much closer match than OEM. This doesn't make sense. Shouldn't it have come with the gun to begin with?

Aren't the EGW parts supposed to be of standard size to the 1911 platform (granted a touch over for fitting, but not ridiculously over size)? I'm going to call them in the morning and hear what they have to say.

I think this is one time an email w/a good pic of the part would have saved you some waiting. Yeah, although I was positive that all the para guns came with that extractor as an OEM part, thusly only stocking one part # at their plant/service/whatever. Having never owned a 1911 prior to this, I didn't know that was a regular pattern part as opposed to what they ADVERTISED it as having.

Can someone confirm the upper/broken part pictured is a typical pattern 1911 extractor? Can anyone elaborate on the expected size difference? I failed to see anything on the EGW site about it being for a different sized hole in the slide, leading me to believe it would be a drop in upgrade to any other gun, requiring no special modification. I don't want to speak negatively about the CS, yet, because it may just be a simple mistake.

We're all humans and are prone to such things. I just find it difficult that they expressly state the EGW extractor as a base-model/stock feature yet find out its not. That's bad marketing, likely borderline false advertising. No, I'm not the kind of ***** that wants to make a big stink about a $40 part, but it is really annoying when you buy a product for a feature, and it doesn't come with said feature. Side note: I had called twice (about 2 weeks apart) on this and spoke to a different guy, I'm hoping they didn't fire the original and replace just because of the change of ownership. It doesn't seem below the capacity of Remington and freedom group. Just got off the phone with para.

Dude says I mustve gotten a new old stock (it was NIB when I took posession) Model that's pre-egw. Indirectly confirming that the slide must be bored out to accept the EGW opposed to a standard style part. He said they no longer support that style extractor in their parts bin, so they can't help me.