Competition pistol for starter-collegiate

Nomercy · 10-30-2003, 10:27 AM

I' ve done some competitive shooting at local levels in pistol competitions, and I just found out that there is some collegiate competition in my area, I' m considering buying a new pistol for it, but I' m curious as to what would make the best buy, i.e. what needs the least work done to reach a competitive level or what end price total will be the least...I now have a Ruger P-97 DC, I figure it' ll be fast on the shot since there' s no safety and it' s a DA/SA, but it' s just not really up to par with competition accuracy, and with a polymer frame, it' s pretty much how it' s going to be.

I don' t have a lot of cash to spend on it, but I want to buy something that' ll be competitive, what I' m curious about is which gun (preferably a 1911 type) would result in the least end cost, i.e. what' s the best deal between cheap and needing a lot of work or really expensive and not needing any work?

Anyone have any advice?

loghead · 10-30-2003, 12:05 PM

There are a lot of high end competition pistols out there. I don' t know much about them except that they are high priced. As far as a 1911 pistol goes you will have to pay a high price for of these also. You can buy one cheap but it will not preform the way you need it at the competition level. You will have to do a lot of work done to it or buy one that has had all of the work done to it to make it ready for the competition level. I have seen a lot of articles on how to do all of the work yourself if you can do the sort of thing. I have a Colt Government Model and it shoots ok right out of the box. Will it shoot better if I have $1000.00 put into it? Who knows. Just my 2 cents worth. Paul

loghead · 10-30-2003, 12:08 PM

P.S....the only competition shooting that I have done is silhouette. I used a Ruger Super Blackhawk with a 7" barrel. The only thing that I had done to the gun was to have the trigger lighten. I played more with the round that I was using. I reloaded a lot of different rounds then went to the range and found out which one worked the best. Another of my 2 cents worth.

Briman · 10-30-2003, 05:40 PM

What kind of competition are you doing? It almost sound like IPSC or IDPA?
If that' s the case, your ruger should do just fine- just get a good holster for it and some spare mags. Unless your pistol is grossly inaccurate, I wouldn' t worry about the accuracy of the pistol as most of the shooting is at very close range. If you can hit a grapefruit sized target to 15 yards with it, it' ll be fine. The only disadvantage I see, is he DA trigger pull on the first shot- it tends to slow me down a bit- I shoot a 92 FS that had a little trigger tweaking done on it. The 1911' s are probably the go to gun for any competition, but then again some of the the best shooters in my club use Sigs or Glocks.