Overall, my experience with the LDA, after a day of shooting hundreds of rounds of ammunition, have been pretty favorable. The LDA trigger is nicer and smoother than the one on my Glock, and shoot pretty decently with it. My main complaint about the platform is the fact that it even has a safety. I know, I know, a Glock user complaining about a manual safety, big shocker. But I think, given the similarity in operation to a Glock renders the manual safety superfluous. More than a few times, I ended up actuating the manual safety when I was shooting, causing the gun not to fire. Not a big deal on the range, but in a life and death situation that could be lethal.
The platform itself is reliable, however. A few people had issues with it, mostly people who were used to shooting standard single action 1911s, but I had only one FTF, and it was my fault for fumbling my grip. I also deliberately eschewed oil and cleaning throughout the day to see if it could take it without failing. It did.
Para has offered us a pretty good price to buy the guns and have them shipped to our local FFL, and I plan to take them up on the offer. I have enjoyed shooting the gun. I will still remain a Glock guy for my carry piece, because I’ve put thousands of rounds through it with no failure, but if I start shooting IPSC, steel plate or bowling pin shooting, I think the Para LDA would work better for me. The LDA 1911 makes a great competition platform for shooters who carry a Glock as their self-defense piece. The feel of shooting it is similar enough that your shooting technique for one won’t interfere with the other.
Tomorrow we get to try the grips that Crimson Trace provided for us in Blackwater’s shoot house. I will offer my opinion on that after tomorrow.
One of the things I like about GLOCK pistols is the fact that if you don’t like the trigger there are a seeming infinite number of easy drop-ins to suit every taste. Safety’s on a weapon, for me, defeats the purpose. Also, never met a one of ’em that didn’t spit the bit, usually when things were getting a tad hairy.
I 100% agree, for carry/defensive guns Its DA-Type trigger OR Manual Safety…never both as its not needed.
One nice little trick with 1911-type safeties is to let your right thumb rest on the safety bar. This means when the gun is in a firing grip the safety is in the down and hot position…also this allows you to apply a little torque to the gun to get the muzzle down for follow-up shots.
Definetly the manual safety is not needed on the LDA.