PARA Exits Tactical Rifle Market

posted on October 5, 2011
** When you buy products through the links on our site, we may earn a commission that supports NRA's mission to protect, preserve and defend the Second Amendment. **
ii2015_fs.jpg

This is a story about guns and motorcycles, but it has nothing to do with the Hell’s Angels’. It’s a story about a rifle that begins in the last century in Aldo’s Harley-Davidson shop in Massachusetts and, now, ends another chapter at PARA USA’s factory in North Carolina.

The rifle is the LR-300, an innovative conversion of an AR-15 to a novel operating system. The LR rifle (for Long Range) is the brainchild of Alan Zitta, a blunt-spoken, chisel-jawed Harley rider who owns Aldo’s H-D shop. Zitta licensed the right to manufacture the LR-300 to PARA USA several years ago. PARA marketed the gun as the Tactical Target Rifle until last week, when it was announced that the maker of .45 caliber 1911 pistols will exit the rifle market. The reason: to focus on its core product, the legendary P14-45 pistol.

Thanos Polyzos, CEO of PARA, said, “PARA has some exciting new projects in development that will continue the innovation we started with the high-capacity P14-45 pistol. We want to bring these exciting new major caliber handguns to the firearms market and we need to focus our attention on them.”

Zitta has hoed a tough field with the LR-300 since it debuted in the mid-‘90s. Originally sold as an upper receiver kit to install on a customer’s AR lower, the LR-300’s main claim to fame is that it relocates the bolt carrier return spring into the fore-end, thus eliminating the receiver extension and allowing for a side-folding, collapsible stock.

The LR-300 also boasted a flat-top upper receiver with M1913 Picatinny rail slots for mounting electro-optics, a step ahead of the AR market that was only then discovering the M4. Zitta’s company, Z-M Weapons, marketed the LR-300 as an accessory (not as a complete gun) but it looked like the rifle would make the Big Leagues as a stand-along rifle when Para picked up the design.

It was not to be. Para’s Tactical Target Rifle was introduced in 2008. The rifle was expensive, approaching $3,000, and it was a hybrid—not quite a piston system and not a DGI (direct gas impingement, the traditional operating system of an AR). Production was delayed and by the time the wheels were rolling, the panic buying frenzy on 2008 and 2009had dissipated.

The timing was bad for another reason as well. Ted Szabo, PARA’s co-founder, had died in 2007 at the age of 60. It was an unexpected and devastating loss for the company as Ted had been the principal engineer and firearms designer. I don’t think my good friends at PARA would be insulted if I refer to Ted as the brains of the operation, for that’s what he was.

Without Ted to direct new product developments, taking on the LR-300 as PARA’s entry into the tactical rifle market was the only way (at the time) for the company to enter the market.

No one will ever replace Szabo, but in the ensuing four years, PARA has augmented its engineering team and is now focusing on its pistols. The LR-300 has thus fallen back to Zitta to try again. It’s a good rifle, but it might be “out there” for the average shooter to understand.

Latest

Ruger LC Carbine In 10 mm Auto
Ruger LC Carbine In 10 mm Auto

Review: Ruger LC Carbine In 10 mm Auto

Following the success of its .45 ACP-chambered LC Carbine, Ruger realized that this platform would go a long way toward making the 10 mm Auto more controllable and fun to shoot, and a new 10 mm version was released in 2024.

The Armed Citizen® July 14, 2025

Read today's "The Armed Citizen" entry for real stories of law-abiding citizens, past and present, who used their firearms to save lives.

Favorite Firearms: A Little Stevens From Chicago

"Over the next five or six years, and before I went off to college, I fired hundreds and hundreds of rounds of .22 BB Caps, CB Caps, Shorts and Longs through this rifle."

Preview: Strike Industries T-Bone Charging Handle

The T-Bone from Strike Industries is an ideal fit for suppressed applications, as it can be configured by the user to redirect gas blowback entirely to either side ...

New For 2025: Weatherby Model 307 Range XP 2.0 & Alpine ST Rifles

Weatherby's Model 307 bolt-action rifle opens up a world of aftermarket components to consumers, thanks to its Model 700 receiver footprint, and the company now has two new models for hunters and sport shooters.

Preview: Thunderbolt To The Rebels | The United States Sharpshooters In The Civil War

Author Darin Wipperman provides a tantalizing glimpse into the world of Berdan’s sharpshooters during the American Civil War.

Interests



Get the best of American Rifleman delivered to your inbox.