Last year Para caught even the most astute industry observers off-guard by introducing the Para Tactical Target Rifle, or TTR. The company’s first foray into long guns, the TTR is actually the brainchild of another firearm innovator, Allan Zitta, whose Z-M Weapons company developed the Delayed Impingement Gas System (DIGS) used in its LR-series AR-style rifles. Para USA now licenses the design, which can best be described as a combination of piston and direct-impingement systems. The rifle is a perfect fit for the Para paradigm in that it, too, was earlier available as a kit for retrofitting to a standard AR lower and because it exploits another of the most established platforms of its kind: Eugene Stoner’s ArmaLite rifle. But the TTR’s features push the AR into a different category altogether. The U-shaped channel inside its gas block results in lower port pressures, and the system’s gas handling makes for a cleaner-running rifle with less carbon fouling and heat buildup in critical action parts such as the bolt. Other major benefits to the TTR’s DIGS system include the lack of a buttstock-mounted buffer system, which means the rifle can incorporate a true side-folding stock that is hinged just behind the pistol grip.

Coming To America
Reinvention is a consistent theme in the Para story. And despite the company’s continuing product innovations, its most significant defining moment was its recent move to Pineville, N.C., a small suburb of Charlotte in America’s traditional South. According to Polyzos, despite the years of Para’s successes and the many satisfied American firearm consumers, some potential buyers simply couldn’t get past the pistols’ Canadian origin. In addition, he believed that the M1911 was, at its core, an American product. He also hoped that the TTR had some potential as a competitor in future U.S. military rifle trials. So, in 2007, Polyzos began to evaluate several potential sites in the United States to which he could move the company. Among them North Carolina promised to be an ideal location with good access to transportation, a favorable business climate and, not least, a culture known for its hard work ethic. A bonus came in the form of prospective employees who came to the company with previous firearm-building experience. The company offered to transfer any of its Canadian workers who wished to make the move, and several key production personnel with invaluable experience accepted, which has contributed to the continuity of production generally and to quality control particularly. But the infusion of new blood into an established institution has proven to be the exact catalyst Para executives were looking for to advance the company to the next level. Many of Para USA’s newest recruits are skilled workers with an unusual degree of previous experience in the realm of gunmaking, fitting and finishing.

Among the staff of tool-and-die makers who transferred from Canada on work permits is Derek Beattie, who has been with Para for seven years and has 17 years’ experience as a moldmaker. Beattie runs a cubicle-size wire Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) center that cuts the molds for the Metal Injection Molding (MIM) machine, which then forms metal or plastic into the specific shapes of small parts such as skeletonized triggers. He is quick to point out that the moldmaker’s trade is essential not only to producing the necessary parts to build Para firearms, but to the fundamental understanding of the intricacies of how such parts must be designed and manufactured. “Both [Ted Szabo] and his dad were moldmakers and very technical people, but they knew that they had to leave up to the moldmaker how to come up with the solution. That kind of understanding of the process leads to innovative thinking.”

Seven-year Para veteran Neil Sevel makes a case for the contingent of workers who made the move to America, saying, “It helps us in the transition and the training. The old quality is still here—we have a proven way.” Acknowledging his new coworkers, he said, “The guys we have here are all gun people—enthusiasts. A lot of them are working for a living doing the hobby they enjoy.”

Many within the management team have a high degree of hands-on experience. One example is Ben Cook, the company’s executive director for strategic development and customer relations. Cook was trained by a former U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit armorer, has been a part-time gunsmith, has built his own M1911-style pistols and spent the better part of four years training USMC instructors in close-quarters shooting techniques.

Cook and other managers can often be found on the factory floor where they have an easy rapport with workers such as Louie Ely, a stout American with a kind demeanor but an all-business attitude when he has a tool in his hand. In the assembly area, he skillfully places fire-control parts into frames, testing the triggers and hand-setting their leaf springs completely by feel. “I built rifles before I came here,” he says matter-of-factly. Nearby is Jeff Abernathy, a second-generation gunsmith who heeded Para’s call to work at the new factory. Abernathy worked in his father’s Mount Holly, N.C., gunshop where he “cut his teeth” on all kinds of firearms before deciding, about eight years ago, that he would concentrate on M1911-style pistols for IDPA and IPSC competition. That’s when he caught Para pro shooter Todd Jarrett’s attention, and before Abernathy knew it he was elbow-deep in components in the new Para factory. “I want each gun to look the best it possibly can with 100 percent functionality,” said Abernathy, adding, “Quality is always the main priority.”

Moving Beyond Expectations
Even as Para USA pistols near completion, quality control measures are stringently enforced. Ben Fritz, who has more than 30 years of manufacturing experience, including technical design, heads a cadre of workers he described as “empowered to fail a gun at any point in the build process.” At the indoor test range the quality control protocol includes a firing test with one proof round and 11 standard rounds of ammunition. The first magazine is fired for accuracy and the second for function. Throughout the process, but especially at the end, the team checks each gun for fit and finish, function and accuracy. Fritz documents any failures, looks for trends, analyzes them and develops solutions. “We want to address every flaw. It’s a quest for perfection and the only people we’re looking for approval from is our customers.”

“Ted Szabo was a genius, and the reason Thanos moved to the USA is because he knew the 1911 was an American gun. He wanted to take Para to the next level,” said Fritz. Cook couldn’t agree more although he is hesitant to reveal specifics about new developments in firearms, both pistols and rifles, the company has on the drawing board. In fact, some are already in shootable, prototype form and promise to be significant departures from the company’s signature product lines. He also said the company will institute a number of specific changes to its products in coming months, hinting at such applications as nitride and tungsten DLC coatings to replace the sprayed-on coatings now in use as well as premium features such as tool steel fire-control components for certain models. In an entirely different type of project, Para USA has also inked a deal with the Single Action Shooting Society to produce an official Wild Bunch M1911 pistol.

“Para is breaking-in as an organization just as a new gun breaks-in,” Cook said. “Relocation forced us to build a new organization, and now we’re hitting our stride.”

Ted Szabo did not live to see Para USA become an American company. Before his death in 2007 at the age of 60, Szabo is reported to have said of his accomplishments regarding Para’s enhancements to John Browning’s masterpiece, “I have always wanted to pick up where his design left off and carry the technology forward to the next level.”

He clearly accomplished that goal, and in the same fashion his friend and original partner, Thanos Polyzos, continues to guide the able force of Para USA workers on a course aimed at convincing American gun buyers that Para USA is not only all about innovating classic designs, but intends to go well beyond them into a future all its own.