TargetTalk

Is the Colt Gold Cup a decent BE gun? A friend who was involved in BE years ago is selling his, and I was toying with the idea of picking it up. I'm used to shooting a .22, where a decent gun with decent ammo can reliably group 10 ring or better without breaking a sweat. I understand there's a lot more variability with CF guns.

Is there a specific series or model (70 or 80 series, etc.) or vintage (older vs. newer) that is better or worse?

Thanks

Hi Guest, I know that the series 70 Gold Cups, when new would most
certainly group in the ten ring at 25 and 50 yards. Mine did when tested
at 50 yards(tested/rested when I first bought in 1972), and it is unmodified. I don't
know about series 80's because I dropped out of bullseye for about 18-20
years. This is a great place to ask of course.
Tony G

The Gold Cup is a great piece of raw material. Turn it over to a qualified gunsmith with a blank check and yes, it is suitable for BE.

Oh wait- what are your performance objectives? I guess that would make a difference.

Out of the Box I think you are restricted to a Rock River or Les Baer. No Gold Cup that I have ever heard of can guarantee sub-1.5" ten shot 50 yard groups day after day after day.

Thye host of this forum has a motto: "Quality Has No Regrets."

I'll second Steve's input - they're nice pistols, but not typically match grade in stock form.

Here's some history - http://www.sightm1911.com/lib/history/nm.htm

As for upgrading, IIRC Colt took a few liberties w/ the GC's. Aside from the collet bushing, I think that there are differences in critical dimensions of the barrel. Also certain series have a lightened slide and are intended as wad guns - they can be damaged by higher pressure loads. So you might want to pre-qualify whether the pistol is suitable for upgrading if it's an option you're considering.

I've been there and done that with a new 70 series Gold Cup. It wouldn't group well at 50 yards. I sold it and some other guns and bought a Clark Custom wad gun. That equipment change helped bring me eventually to master class. Buy a Rock River, you won't regret it in the long run. Now, if you can pick up the GC for a song, like $500 or less, then you might want to buy it and send it to a competent bullseye pistolsmith for a new barrel/ bushing, slide tightening, and trigger job. You will want a good ball gun, and the accurized GC would be good for that.

Hey, keep this quiet, (at a whisper) I'll take a series 70 GC for the price mentioned. Better yet I'll take those old nasty pre-70 (again at a whisper) national match colts for the same price. We all know how bad those national match guns are. I have found my pre-70 NM holds a 2" group at 50 yards from a rest with 200 gr. SWCs. Unfortunately and sadly, the pistol shoots far better than I.

this is ancedotal evidence but I shot next to a shooter who was shooting an unaccurized Colt Gold Cup at Camp Perry. The gun malfuctioned during center fire and she had to swap it out for her coach's backup gun. Her groups got much tighter and her scores went up about seven points a string. She was clearly capeable as a classified sharshooter of much better shooting than the gold cup was doing for her. Isabel