I cheaped out on my pistol when I started shooting 3-gun to make sure it was going to a hobby I was going to stick with. Ended up with a Polymer80 that I've been shooting in open - aftermarket Glock 34 slide, compensator, RMR, Timney trigger. I've been shooting reloads at the bottom of minor power factor, but really just to give me a reasonable target to aim for also being new to reloading. I'm not shooting anywhere that checks / cares (2/3gun and random outlaw pistol matches just really for fun and to compete amongst friends). This has kind of quickly led to me sliding in to open just for certain "fun" upgrades - Offset red dot on rifle, 12+1 shotgun, etc. However, I've ended up enjoying it more than expected and am tired of constantly tinkering with a poylmer80. So it's time to get something a little nicer.
I've been looking at used open setup czechmate, or a new platypus. However the aluminum frame is kind of a bummer to me on the platypus, and I'm just not thrilled about the idea of being an early adopter. I bet rev2 is going to have a lot more bells/whistles.
The more I window shop though, the more I keep coming back to buying a used open 2011 set up. Frame mounted optic, compensator, etc. I am looking at the $2-3k price range. Which brings me the purpose of this thread: If I am looking for a used 2011, I have a couple questions:
I am not really looking to take on someone else's tinkering, so I'm planning to stay away from anything where the core pistol was a DIY build. Any major red flags / things I need to stay away from?
Anything major that is going to be non-adaptable if I decide to leave open down the road? Only thing that came to mind that wasn't just swapping parts was potentially having to get the slide milled if it's using a frame mount for the optic.
I very much enjoyed the squirrel fart minor 147gr reloads. If I were to purchase a gun set up for major, is there anything outside of swapping recoil springs I would really need to do to set it up for minor? (Previous advise on here has told me no).
Any general advice you would you have for someone looking to get in to their first 2011, particularly something set up in this configuration?
If I wasn't looking to hold out until after the holidays, this WTB thread is an example of something that definitely caught my eye:
Thanks everyone!