Para-USA's Elite Commander

 Early guns can be extensively reworked until they achieve a level of performance required for competitive shooting and look like slick, one of a kind firearms. However, the necessary expert gunsmithing skills are costly and rework is time intensive which makes the cost of modification more than minor. Besides, who would want to alter a firearm of such historical consequence? Fortunately for 1911 type enthusiasts, many commercial 1911 manufacturers have incorporated popular and proven enhancements into moderately priced performance models. The Para-USA Elite Commander, pictured above, is an example of the current crop of these pistols.

A while back, we published several Para-USA autoloader based projects and addressed the not minor differences between the Para-USA and Para-Ordnance companies in the lead article. Considerable time was also spent with a Para-USA Elite Commander, which became a personal firearm, but it did not receive coverage on Real Guns. What can I say? I was having fun working on it and shooting it to the extent I apparently forgot to stop and write the story. Oops.

Because pictures are always better than my words…

The Para-USA Elite Commander, unlike the original Commander, is an all blackened stainless steel gun, where the original was actually the Lightweight Commander and had an alloy steel slide and aluminum alloy frame. The Elite Commander has a dovetail mounted low profile two dot rear sight and dovetail mounted fiber optic front sight. The Elite has all of the usual lowered ejection port, extended ejector refinements, as well as an 8 round magazine and a ramped barrel that will reliably feed both ball and hollow point ammo. It is a really good looking and shooting gun.

The Elite Commander has a tight fitting, but slick sliding… slide. Initially it took three men and a small boy to rack the slide, but a box of ammo permitted the omission of the boy and one man. After the second box of ammo, the slide was as slick and rattle free as it was initially, but even an old geez like me had no problem racking the slide.

A little closer look at the Para’s sight set. The rear sight is windage adjustable, matte finished and it’s face is angled and serrated to kill glare. The front sight is dovetail mounted green light pipe. Unlike many other brand front sights with huge fiber optic elements, the Elite Commander’s entire front sight, including frame, is only 0.100″ wide. The sight radius, even with the shortened slide and barrel is about the same as a full size Government model.

Below – The slide stop is a standard 1911 type part, the thumb safety is extended, as is the magazine release. The thumb safety is not ambidextrous… but then neither am I. The trigger is adjustable for overtravel.

The beavertail grip is relieved to contain the lightened hammer, in contrast to the early 1911 that used the shooter’s hand web to contain the cocking hammer. There is a little raised pad on the grip safety to provide safety release assurance for shooters with a high grip… or so I am told.

For the time being…

The Para-USA Elite Commander was able to out up 2.5″ to 4.0″ 3 shot groups @ 25 yards from a rest. The best came from Remington Home Defense ammo, the largest from 230 grain ball Remington. I thought all of them were very good from a box stock firearm. Velocity loss to the Commander’s 4.25″ barrel length, compared to the full size 5″ barrel varied.