Brentfoto said:
The 13-45 reminds me somewhat similar to Colt Commander in appearance.
It is slim, double-stacked mags due to capacity. I wonder if the 10-rd Mec-Gar mags are double-stacked.
Was told 13-45 would've been classified under the Expert category of their present offerings, and a cross between the Expert 14-45 for the steel frame and Expert Commander for length of barrel.
At the time that pistol was manufactured, Para named their guns so you could tell the capacity and the caliber immediately. These days, they use a bunch of names that require translation.
In the old system, the P14.45 was the full-size (5") pistol, with a double stack magazine holding 14 rounds.
The P13.45 was a Commander-size pistol with a 4-1/4" barrel, a slightly shorter grip frame than the P14.45, and a double stack magazine holding 13 rounds.
The P12.45 was a double stack version of the Colt Officers ACP (right down to the style of the barrel bushing and recoil spring plug), with a 3-1/2" barrel and a double stack magazine holding 12 rounds. Grip was another notch shorter than the P13.45.
All of those models were also available with 10-round magazines during the federal AWB decade from 1994 through 2004. The reduced capacity mags were double stack, with a shorter steel tube and a plastic filler/base that made up the extra length. The tubes were all the same, only the length of the filler/spacer varied to match the pistol.
The P10.45 came along a few years later and would be roughly analagous to the Colt Defender. It had a very short grip frame and a 3" barrel, with the magazine capacity ten rounds with no spacers/fillers/adapters -- that's all they would hold. The old P10.45 is today's Warthog.
The pistol you are looking at is very similar to the current GI Expert line of pistols, except that a '94 Para will have a ramped barrel, whereas the GI Expert series uses conventional 1911-style barrels.
