Llama Omni .45 acp

[Don357]

Can anyone tell me anything about the Llama Omni in .45 acp?Are they typical soft metal guns or are they improved ? I'v seen one, it had fully adjustable rear sights. is that a factory item? And most of all, are they reliable? When and for how long were they made? Ya'll know all the questions, give me some answers! I've found one cheap and want to know if it's worth buying.

 

[MICHAEL T]

Llama closed its doors a couple years ago, Those pistols were from the 1980's if I remember right. I would pass They also had relieability problems and I bet parts would be really had to find.

 

[Moonclip]

How cheap is cheap? It is an interesting design. Mags will be somewhat of a problem I would think.

 

[Texastbird]

Well, I have to say that I did own one in 9mm back when they were fairly new on the market. It was beautifully finished in one of the finest bluing jobs I'd seen. But beaty was only skin deep. After a couple of boxes of ammo it started to have al kinds of trouble feeding bullets and things started falling off of it like little pins and springs and I was totally upset that such a fine looking pistol would have been made so cheaply. I wound up trading it toward a used Colt and I have never missed it. I would be very wary of the Omni because parts and magazines will be hard to find. I couldn't even find one for the 9mm 15 years ago. Good luck.

 

[Mad Magyar]

"fully adjustable rear sights. is that a factory item"
Yes.
I've had a few Llama's in the past, both .45's, but not the Omni. Never was the POS so many are eager to chime in on my previous posts...The Omni has a firing-pin made in 2 pieces forming a ball-and-socket joint. In traditional 1 piece pins, might prone to break on occasions...This firing pin was guaranteed for life...It wasn't cheap off the assembly line; about $595 for this model..It was geared more to a Swiss/German design rather than the Spanish.
This is a tank of a gun....Parts are a consideration, but found that there other models have interchangeability. Try NUMRICH....If you plan to shoot this pistol more so than your others; this is a serious consideration.
P.S. Most Llamas have a lot of wiggle-room when negotiating for price...Go for the lowest or walk-away.....

 

[Wil Terry]

Magazines are 1911 style.
My LLAMA OMNI 45 is easily the most accurate 45 auto I have ever owned. The first seven rounds of my handloads at 25 yards cut a one hole group around .70" . This pistol hit dead on the sights at 25 yards and I have never used the adjustable sights. It's only problem for me was continuously breaking that damned cross pin at the front of the rear sight. It was far too hard. So, after replacing it several times with factory pains I made my own out of a heat treated hollow cross pin and there it remains to this day.
The LLAMA OMNI was NOT made in Spain, it was made here, and the heat treat on it's internals is just fine.

 

[Mad Magyar]

The LLAMA OMNI was NOT made in Spain, it was made here

Wil, I'm 100% sure they were mfgd by the Gabilondo factory until about 1986. The pistol will show U.S. import marks, I believe by Stoeger, N.J. for most of the early pistols....
Your other points about the pistol are right on...What I liked about the design is the trigger guard..Squared up front for the off-hand index finger, fashionable at that time, and an indented underside for a good high grip in order to reduce muzzle flip....
P.S. I'm a sucker for Spanish handguns, especially when they are so cheap..

 

[Wil Terry]

Yep, You Are Right. My First Mistake Since 1966 And I Have Not Heard The End Of That

One yet !!
What my feeble brain miscombobled was the designer of the OMNI was a fellow over on the east coast, Gary Wilhelm. He was also the designer of the STOEGER LUGER 22 that was a fine shooting 22 pistol.
A place called BATCHEDERS over in Michigan was the service place for the LLAMA OMNI.
I sold an article on the OMNI 45 to one of the gun magazines but I am not sure it ever got published.

 

[Onmilo]

On a sad note, I have had, seen, handled, and sold but one Llama Omni in over twenty years of working in the gun industry.
The guy who bought it waited his cooling off period, took it home, and killed himself with it that day.
That pistol worked without issue for that one shot at least and I have never wanted anything to do with those particular pistols ever since,,,,

 

[tekarra]

Llama Omni

I had both a 9mm and .45 Omni. The grip on the 9mm was quite large, at least for me, so was not comfortable to shoot. It was, however, a fine shooting pistol. The .45 was a favourite; it shot very well, was reliable and very accurate. After many hundreds of rounds the frame cracked above the trigger, so it was retired. As to magazines, the .45 used 1911 mags, while the 9mm had a unique double stack mag.

The .45 was a fine pistol with a very smooth trigger. The grip was very close to that of the 1911. The 9mm had a smooth trigger as well, but it was a long reach due to the large grip. As I recall, the 9mm had fixed sights, while those of the .45 were adjustable.

I have been sort of looking for another .45 for some years now, but have seldom seen one. Too bad as they were a good pistol.

 

[Moonclip]

I've seen 1 for sale my whole life. DA and SA trigger pulls have seperate drawbars. I think the 9mm comes in single and double stack versions, the double having a unique design. I wasn't aware the 45 version take standard 1911 mags, neat.

 

[ftierson]

I seriously considered picking up both .45ACP and 9x19mmP Omnis back when they were being produced by Llama in Spain.

They are beautiful, innovative, well made guns.

Being stupid, I picked up neither...

I still kick myself...

Forrest

 

[Don357]

Hello suckers, I bought the Omni .45 Iwas wondering about. You're right, it is a very accurate gun with a hair trigger in SA mode, and a VERY stiff trigger in DA mode. I had a problem with it during test firing though. It would double fire some times and the hammer would not lock in the cocked position at times. I believe that I fixed both problems with a good HOT water cleaning and lubing and removing some excess material from a place on the inside of the right grip that was rubbing and binding the trigger return spring not letting it reset properly. Apparently the previous owner had repaired the grip where the screw goes through, and left to much epoxy. I'll know if I fixed it the next time I go to the range. I plan on making some mahogany grips for the thing from some scrap that I have. I hope they turns out good. I'll let you know of further developments.

 

[6x6pinz]

just stumbled across the post. I have had my Omni 45 since 82. Very reliable pistol and while I have over 50 ahndguns today the omni is the only 45 I own. The 45 feeds off of the 1911 style mags even the cheap italian knock offs. I have a Marlin camp carbine 45 and the mags work from it also, even the drum mags for the 1911 work in the Omni. Yes I have been very please with my omni so much so that I also own the llama 22 and the 380 small frames all of which have performed flawlwessly for me over the years.

Hope you are still online Don357 adn can provide an update of your experiences.

 

[kq6af]

Excellent LLama Omni

I have a Llama Omni I got from a guy at work many years ago, I think in the early 1990's. He said it was too much gun for him and I bought it for his asking price of $140.00. I have always loved the 45ACP cartridge and anything that shot it so I figured I couldn't go wrong. I made the deal, sight unseen and was pleasantly surprised with a virtually unused Omni. At the time I was worried about magazines but soon found 1911 mags work flawlessly. The only problem I have ever had was with some handloads I loaded way down to try to produce som light loads for my grand son. when I tried tham in the Omni they wouldn't operate the slide all the way back, I think a weight/ spring thing so I didn't use them in it. Other than that I would conservatively guess it has had in excess of 5,000 rounds through it with no problems.
Because I didn't invest much money in it it became sort of a kick around gun used to test load, throw under the seat of the boat etc. and it just keeps on ticking. Of course i clean it like I any of my other guns and the beautiful blue finish shows very little ware except at the left front edge of the slide where it rubbed in the holster. I sure would like to find fht formula for the blueing they used.
Being a 1911 fan the ony thing I don't like about the Llama is the edges of the trigger guard sem to be on the sharpe side. I have been waiting until it need a re-blue to smooth those out but it looks like I might have a long wait.

 

[Jim K]

I am glad others have found the Omni reliable and accurate. I have worked on two of them trying to get them to shoot, without success. I do agree that they are nice looking guns, but inside they show a lot of hand fitting and crude file work on the parts. Nothing fitted well, and there was a lot of slop in all the parts, something not conducive to accuracy.

One of the guns fired about a 6" group off a rest at 7 yards, and an 18" group at 25 yards. The other was as bad or worse.

I will say that in test firing, I had no failures to feed or fire, but (to me) one look inside the gun was enough to tell me that if one of them was accurate, it would be accidental.

Jim

 

[Noodles]

Omni Lover

I bought a Llama 1911 style new in about 1983. I pulled back the slide to eject a live round (for the first time) and an internal part snapped off. Since the gunsmith I bought it from could not repair it without welding it, he contacted the importer. They agreed to upgrade it to their new OMNI 45.
I could not have been happier. I could not have imagined a gun in that price range looking so modern and hi-tech, having the newest features ie; de-cocking lever, unbreakable firing pin that tilts upwards when the safty is engaged, adjustable sights that are not needed as it groups like a $3000 match pistol. Yes it accepts 1911 mags and eats just about anything I feed it. I shoot reasonably regularly and have had nothing but trouble-free fun.
I have bought more spanish guns since because they are cheap and shoot really well. Yes there are parts out there if you need them, but you probably won't.

 

[Mad Magyar]

I could not have been happier. I could not have imagined a gun in that price range looking so modern and hi-tech, having the newest features ie; de-cocking lever, unbreakable firing pin that tilts upwards when the safty is engaged, adjustable sights that are not needed as it groups like a $3000 match pistol.

Good to see another happy-camper with Llama pistols. The expression so often associated with Llama: "it's either hit or miss" you can include most others judging by many forum posts...

 

[61chalk]

I have a 1984 vent rib Llama...but never heard of the Omni...maybe someone
can post a picture of theirs...?

 

[BigBore]

The Llama Omni is a good pistol.I only had to deburr mine a bit.Llama makes good pistols but their finishing touches were always on the low side.That being said the Omni was a much better design as well as the fit and finish.Mine shoots flawlessly .I have several 8 round Wilsons combat mags (CM shooting star)and they work perfectly.The break down is simple , the design is strong and their forging was good.

Single action mode is rather nice , double action mode grrr..LOL
These have become collectible over the past few years and are starting to show a price hike.Shame it took so long for people to see this firearm..It is worth a look..

 

[dirtyred]

I have a LLAMA 45 SPANISH made in the 70's so i was told by pryor owner it takes standard goverment,colt or any of the hicap mags,shoots straight never had any issuses with it,also makes a good skull basher when empty.If your scared of the Omin your lookin at or your gut feeling says no, then pass on it.There are a lot of good cheap guns to be had,Bersa,Hipiont,Highstandard,Ruger, just to name a few,and when i say cheap im talkin price $$ not quality,all gun makers have issues now and then.

 

[tekarra]

I really liked my .45 Omni. It would shoot with any .45 on the block and often would come out on top. I have always regretted not buying a second, or third for that matter, when they were cheap and readily available. As I recollect the trigger operated against a stack of ball bearings rather than having sliding parts. Anyway, the trigger was smooth and crisp in DA and SA.

It was purchased out of town, so it had to be sent to the police station to be picked up. After receiving notice it arrrived I went to the station to pick it up only to find a sargeant and a constable looking it over. After a bit of chatter with them, they asked if they could take it to the range downstairs to try it out. Being in a hurry that day, I told them I didn't have time, but would come back the next day. Went back the next day and one of them wanted to buy it. Yes, life was better 30 years ago.

I still have a gun test article written by Dave Arnold in January 1983 Guns and Ammo magazine.