1911 purchase advice needed

[Bullseye25]

For you 1911 guys:

I'm looking for recommendations on a good base 1911 to start with that I can do some good trigger work and upgrades to make it a competition worthy gun. Doesn't have to be over the top, as I do not even compete as of yet. Looking in the $1,000 and under range. But something of good quality that would be worth putting a little $ into and good to use for Bullseye shooting. I don't want to put $ into a cheap, poor quality gun. And I also don't want to pay $1500 for something that isn't any better than something I can get for $800 just because of the brand name. I'm looking for that sweet spot of price and quality, that I'm sure some of you know of, having experience with different 1911 brands and models. I hope my question makes sense. I look forward to your recommendations.

 

[kdunn]

Springfield Loaded or Range Officer (not the compact). Or a Remington R1 Enhanced. These are some of the best I've shot for $1k and under.

 

[Chocolate Bayou]

Bud's has an 1881 80 series for $ 710.00 or an O1070XSE for $895.00. I haven't been around that long but have never seen Colt prices that low. Otherwise I would go for the Springfield Loaded

 

[basinman]

The gunsmith that built my race gun liked the Springfield. He said the steel was good quality.

 

[rogerjames]

My vote would be Springfield Loaded or STI Trojan.

 

[anothernewb]

I don't own one yet myself (will be fixed by end of tax season!) but the Dan Wesson heritage can be had for near the 1k mark if you hit gb regularly. From what I can gather they perform above their price point. There was a series of posts on another forum i frequent where a dan wesson valor outperformed several other makers including les baer

again - it's heresay at this point for me, but I can't find much on the web to argue against them. enough to the point where I'm going to try my hand at one.

 

[tcoz]

Springfield RO is a great place to start for a comp 1911

 

[stoky]

Bud's has an 1881 80 series for $ 710.00

It seems I've completely misunderstood why they're called 1911s.

 

[Bullseye25]

Thanks for the recommendations. How does the Springfield Loaded compare to a Smith & Wesson 1911?

 

[Verbal Clint]

I don't use it for competition, but I have a Sig Sauer 1911 Ultra that I use as my carry gun and I absolutely love it. I've seen a few people on here that don't like Sig very much, but I've never shot one I didn't like. And I've never had any quality issues with one either. Guns America has a 1911 Target model for just under $900 right now. They also have a TacOps model with a rail for $899...

 

[SwampWolf]

If your interest includes Bullseye or other serious target shooting venues, I'm of the opinion that your pistol needs to be equipped with a good adjustable (rear) sight. Take a look at the SIG Model TTT for inspiration.

 

[mgmorden]

What type of competition?

If you're doing Bullseye or IDPA CDP then you'll probably want to stick with a .45 and there's far more choices.

If you're doing USPSA Single Stack, the absolute clear choice is an STI Trojan in .40 S&W. .40S&W is far cheaper to reload for (mainly the brass - .40's are cheaper and far more common to find just left on the range), and you can also get 10-round .40 S&W mags that fit the length restriction.

Since USPSA SS is 8-rnd major and 10-round minor, if you ever fail to make major at chrono with a .40 and 10-round mags you could shoot the rest of the match with 10-rounds in the gun. If you're shooting a .45 you're going to be shooting 8-rounds whether you're major or minor.

 

[kdunn]

Performance of the Springfield and the S&W 1911's are about the same. But with the Springfield RO you get adjustable sights. The S&W 1911s are also going to be above $1000

 

[AustinTX]

For you 1911 guys:

I'm looking for recommendations on a good base 1911 to start with that I can do some good trigger work and upgrades to make it a competition worthy gun. Doesn't have to be over the top, as I do not even compete as of yet. Looking in the $1,000 and under range. But something of good quality that would be worth putting a little $ into and good to use for Bullseye shooting. I don't want to put $ into a cheap, poor quality gun. And I also don't want to pay $1500 for something that isn't any better than something I can get for $800 just because of the brand name. I'm looking for that sweet spot of price and quality, that I'm sure some of you know of, having experience with different 1911 brands and models. I hope my question makes sense. I look forward to your recommendations.

It's very understandable that you don't want to overpay just for a brand name, but the segment of the 1911 spectrum where actual quality increases most rapidly per dollar spent might well be the one that runs from $800 to $1,400 (though not for every brand, obviously). I would encourage you to spend a bit more than $1,000, because there are options not too much over that amount that represent a very substantial jump in quality over anything priced below them.

The Dan Wesson Heritage is perhaps a bit of an outlier here, since it is a very high-quality 1911 that can be had on Gunbroker for as little as $1,050, a price that doesn't even reach the midpoint of the range we're considering. The STI Trojan is another excellent option. There's a factory-new one on GB right now selling for $1,129. The top option in this segment is the Dan Wesson Valor, which with a modicum of patience you can find for $1,350 to $1,400 on GB. Dan Wesson and STI are pretty easily numbers one and two, respectively, in quality for production 1911s, in my opinion. There are plenty of other production 1911s at these prices and higher, but none of them will be the equal of these three options.

Though they are certainly popular 1911s, I would suggest you not look at the Sig 1911s. Sigs these days come with a load of very mediocre small parts (and not just their 1911s); if you want to upgrade the gun, you could spend quite a lot replacing and fitting better parts. Parts fit and quality overall, and the fit that most affects accuracy -- barrel-to-slide lockup -- will be significantly better on average with the aforementioned options from Dan Wesson and STI.

 

[1911 guy]

Springfield or Dan Wesson. There are other very good pistols in that price range, but one thing makes these stand out in comparison: They are milled and drilled square. This makes any and all aftermarket upgrades much simpler for you or your gunsmith. You can work on a gun that's just a little "off" and make it work just fine, but it's simpler when things are as they should be.

 

[Bullseye25]

Oh man, I got some shopping around to do. Thank you all for the good information.

 

[HexHead]

Colt Gold Cup.

 

[Jim Watson]

A gunsmith here recommends Springfield as a base gun for customizing.
If you bought the Range Officer, you would have a solid platform with adjustable sights.
When you got good enough for it to matter - Gil Hebard said a good stock gun ought to get you into Sharpshooter - it could be fully accurized.

 

[sfed]

I bought a Sig Tacops model 1911, they build high quality firearms and the 1911 is no exception. Even though it is an 80 series I bought the spacer from Brownels to allow the removal of the series 80 safety enhancements and make it a series 70 for all practical purposes. Before the trigger was excellent but about 5lbs of pull for it to break, after the removal and conversion to 70 series it made a noticable difference in the amount of pull to break. The accuracy of the Sig Sauer is great, very high quality pistol, in my opinion you cant go wrong with Sig Sauer.

 

[SwampWolf]

The accuracy of the Sig Sauer is great, very high quality pistol, in my opinion you cant go wrong with Sig Sauer.

Very true, sfed.
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[AustinTX]

...in my opinion you cant go wrong with Sig Sauer.

Maybe so, depending upon one's needs and standards, but you can do better -- a lot better.