Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisBennet
I haven't shot in a while but my philosophy was to shoot a decent gun (not a fancy one) but shoot it a lot. I beat a lot of guys with 1911 "race guns" shooting a stock 629 (.44 mag revolver).
It's similar to the "Track time vs performance parts - which will make you faster?" argument.
The last Colt 1911 I bought had a factory "improved" beavertail which forced you to grip the gun lower - just the opposite of what you want. I had it "back dated" to a normal grip safety.
-Chris
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Yup; nothing beats "trigger time", just like seat time. Great analogy.
Years ago, before the laser dot sights, freakish compensators, and whatnot on the "race guns" guys shot
practical pistols in, well,
practical pistol matches. They were still fixed up and tuned by some very talented (and expensive) 'smiths, but they were certainly not what you see today. I just shot my mil-spec Springfield and did fairly well.
Then one day, just for grins, I showed up with a pair of single action Colts. I grew up with these things, having been shooting nothing but as a kid with my dad. He would let me shoot every bullet I could cast, but that's another story. Anyway, this was years before anyone came up with "cowboy" action shooting. I had to use both guns so I had enough rounds to cover some of the stages. No one said I had to use one gun (they do now...). Anyway, I almost won that day. I shot slow enough to hit everything - fast misses don't count, in competition or real life. That upset a few of the boys with the several thousand dollar custom 1911's; they found out they couldn't buy a win. They actually had to go and practice. That wasn't their answer, of course; they decided we (more like me) could only use one gun.
Moral of the story, in the context of which 1911 to buy? Once you "buy up" to a certain level of functional reliability and accuracy, the rest of your money is only buying "cool". If you can afford it, and it pleases you, great. Custom guns are very cool indeed - I have too many (but never enough...) If it eats into the ammo budget, buy the ammo instead. Any of the production guns we have discussed will be as reliable, and as accurate, as any high dollar custom out there. Take the extra grand you'll have left over an buy practice ammo. Then start shooting it up until shooting your 1911 is as natural as brushing your teeth.