TargetTalk

I am looking for a 1911 for Bullseye competition. I have seen good remarks about Ed Brown guns and I liked their website so I gave them a call. I talked with a ‘tech rep’. I asked if they had any 1911s suitable for bullseye competition and he said “what is bullseye”. Then I said I was looking for a target pistol that would shoot 1.5 inch groups at 50yds. He said all their guns would do that. I asked if there was a guarantee or a test target included with each gun and he said no. He never offered to talk about their executive target model. He did say they would not put a frame mounted scope mount on a gun.
So in spite of a not so good first impression from that chat, I am still interested their guns. Is anyone shooting Ed Brown guns in Bullseye and if so, what is your experience with their guns and what is the accuracy like?

I don't think you will get many replies to this thread because there are very few Bullseye shooters using Ed Brown pistols.

It's not that they're bad pistols, but with so many choices in the 1911 market it doesn't make much sense to spend that kind of money ($2500+) with a company that doesn't have any interest or experience in building a wad gun.

Thanks for the response. What you say makes sense.

One requirement I have is that I don't want to wait a year for gun, 4-6 mths might be ok. The only place I know to get one that quick is Les Baer. Does anyone have any other options?

TCNTN wrote:Thanks for the response. What you say makes sense.

One requirement I have is that I don't want to wait a year for gun, 4-6 mths might be ok. The only place I know to get one that quick is Les Baer. Does anyone have any other options?

I have two pistols built by David Santurri, and am quite pleased with them. See http://www.santurriltd.com/ for information.

I just had a Bullseye gun made up by George Carell in Pennsylvania from a Caspian frame and slide. I waited a month.

There are lots of good Bullseye smiths who will build you a custom gun for about the price of a Les Baer.

Contact Greg at derrprecision.com

I do not know what his work load is at this time but he will be straight up with you as to wait time. He builds execellent qualtity 1911's and has some good photos on his website showing some of the work he has done. His guns shoot as good as they look.

You've received very good advice. When the response was "What is bullseye?" it should have sent up red flags. Although there are many fine pistolsmiths out there, like Ed Brown, you want someone who has been engaged in the sport of bullseye. There are several pistolsmiths who know how to build a bullseye wad gun. I'd go with one who will build a gun to your specs rather than buy a "ready-made" pistol. Dave Salyer also has a very good rep. A good used bullseye pistol is another good option.

You also need to ask yourself a few questions about what you want:

1) Do you want a hardball gun that will be legal for CMP leg matches or do you want a dedicated wad gun? A 1911 hardball gun can be shot in the CF and .45 portions of an NRA 2700 match but it's harder to shoot than a pistol optimized for those matches.

2) Do you want iron sights or a red dot sight? The national record was set with iron sights so they're certainly a valid option but they do take a little more dedication and visual acuity to master. You'll probably find that most of the guys beating you at the matches use dots.

3) If you use a dot, do you want a frame mount or a slide mount? Shooters and gunsmiths all have their preferences.

4) Do you want a GI grip safety or a beavertail?

5) Do you want a flat mainspring housing or an arched mainspring housing? (I've gone back and forth on this myself. Right now I have arched MSH's on everything but my ball gun.)

6) Do you want a long trigger or a short trigger? (Unless you have small hands you'll probably want a long trigger.)

7) Do you want a crisp trigger release or a "rolled" trigger? Trigger feel and quality are critical for a bullseye gun but there's really no right answer to this question. If you can, try to dry fire some other shooters' pistols to get a feel for what's available.

8) What do you want on the frontstrap? You can have it checkered or stippled or textured by various other methods to make it easier to grip. Or, to save money, you can have it left plain and use grit tape or a set of wrap-around stocks to add traction.

There are other choices, too, such as using a coned barrel versus a conventional bushing, but those don't make as much of a difference to the shooter.

Gil Hebard guns and Champions choice sell Les Baer bullseye guns, These are some of the best guns available and they usually have them in stock or getting them soon as they have standing orders for pistols every month.

TCNTN wrote:One requirement I have is that I don't want to wait a year for gun, 4-6 mths might be ok. The only place I know to get one that quick is Les Baer. Does anyone have any other options?

I'd suggest starting by giving Dr. Abrashamian a call at Mountain Competition Pistols to see what his turn around would be. He's probably got everything in stock, for an immediate turn around, but he seems to like to test his guns pretty thoroughly before he turns them loose.

I recently got a .45 wadgun from him. It took a little less than 4 months but it is absolute perfection inside and out. As far as the turn around I think I just caught him at a bad time where he had a lot going on between some issues with some suppliers in Europe and standing up the Gunny Zins ammunition production.

Sometimes it pays to be patient, but one thing for sure to be said for Dr. Abrashamian, is that if there's a delay he will be in constant contact.

+1 for George Carrell. I don't know Mr. Carrell, but I've been shooting a Colt 1991 he worked over that I picked up on gunbroker (based on the test target) before I knew anything about 1911's. It was an 1 1/2 at 50 which I figured would get me started until I could get something built. The trigger on it is sublime. It was accurailed which I guess has fallen out of favor, but I've had no problems with it and it shoots fantastic.

I guess he and MCP are in the same town. Dr Abrashamian had good things to say about Mr. Carrell as well.

The MCP wadguns are something else. A lot of R&D has gone into them, and for what you get I think they're about as close to a bargain as you're going to find. I doubt you can wear one out.

Orpanaut

Thanks for the list of things to consider. I was aware of some but not all.

I talked with several gunsmiths including some mentioned in this post. I went with http://kcskustomcreations.com/index.htm

He was already on my list from pouring over other posts on this subject. Another bullseye gunsmith who had a year wait recommended KC if I wanted a gun sooner. I talked with some of his customers and decided he was my guy. The wait is 4 months. I hope it passes quickly.