This spring, when I was walking around the floor at the NRA annual meeting, I picked up each and every 1911 I could find. I looked at different finishes, different sights, triggers, and doodads. I tested the actions for smoothness and the triggers for crispness. It's the centennial of the 1911, and I wanted to find one that would be my barbecue gun.
Out of all of the offerings, other than the custom jobs that I knew were going to cost more than I could pay, I liked the
Remington R1 the best. I've been saving my pennies ever since, and I finally had the money for one, with a little left over in case I could find a good deal on an
R1 Enhanced.
Guess what I found at the gun store this weekend?
That's a
used Remington R1with a lot of the parts swapped out with accessories from
Wilson Combat and
Pachmeyr grips. The original owner bought it, shot half a box of ammo through it, brought it back to the gun store to have a bunch of custom work done to it, shot the rest of the box of ammo through it, then brought it back because it just wasn't what he was looking for. I'm not sure what he traded it in for, but I hope he keeps working his way down the gun counter like that so the rest of us can benefit. Let no-one say I won't take advantage of someone putting a lot of money into something they finally decided they didn't like. I bought it from the shop that did the work on it, which is also my gunsmith, so I'm pretty confident I'll like everything they've done.
Best part for me? It's only had 50 rounds through it and has a lot of custom stuff added in that I would have paid extra to get in the R1 Enhanced model. Only thing that's missing, as far as I can tell, is the adjustable rear sight and the fiber optic front sight.
It's still got the stock 3-dot sights, barrel, and bushings. It's a much tighter gun than I'm used to with my RIA 1911, but not so tight that racking the slide or rotating the barrel bushing is a pain.
I can't wait to take it out and put holes in paper with it. I made it a goal to get a new 1911 in 2011, and I made it!
8 comments:
Just got my first 1911 a couple of weeks ago. Used RIA Tactical. Hopefully with good magazines it will feed right (the mags it came with have a tendency to make the bullet nose dive into the feed ramp), I picked up a Chip McCormick to see if that will help, but haven't been able to make it to the range again yet.
Hooray for new guns.
Congrats, and all that coon fingering paid off didn't it :-) AND I'll bet you'll like what the results of the smithing are too!
ooOOOooo!!! Shiny. I'm hoping to be able to get my 1911 sometime in the next month or two depending on how certain events play out. The R1 wasn't on my short list, but I may have to give it a second look.
LBC - I like my RIA as a plinker, but I had issues getting it to consistently feed hollowpoint ammunition. Mine was also a GI Joe basic 1911, so the sights were pretty redimentary, and I would have to have used a grinder to replace them (no dovetail). I'll keep using that one as a range gun and when I get the time and money to learn some gunsmithing, that might make a good base platform to learn on.
NFO, that was where I kept disappearing to when we were walking the floor in Pittsburgh. I kept seeing someone else who had a 1911. And thanks for pointing out Les Baer to me. I looked at his offerings as the ceiling for what I was looking for and as a good example to compare the mass-produced guns against. And yeah, I think I'm going to have fun with this one.
Shepherd - It's a really good value, and the fit and finish are excellent in either model.
We have a saying in our family that "All things come to those who wait". I have a feeling that this philosophy is flawed but in your case it seems to have worked. Congrats.
I have just one question. What do you mean when you say "my barbecue gun"??
Nice score DB! I've got one coming in for T&E hopefully this week - it will be interesting to see how our experiences match up...
Jay, a barbecue gun is one that's nice enough that you wear it to somewhere you'd normally dress up. Your "Sunday, going to meeting gun", if you will. For some, it's one that's rare, for others it's one that's got a nice finish or accessories. The extreme can be the engraved, gilded firearms you'll see from time to time.
JayG, just how hard is it to send all these T&E guns back?
Very nice! Congratulations! Can’t wait for the shooting report.
Post a Comment