longinc

Thank you everyone for your great recommendations and advice!

Thanks for the suggestions Bigzeke!

RowdyB, thank you very much! This is super helpful information, insight and advice. Much appreciated!

Thank you everyone for the great advice. What triggered my desire to "buy a better gun" was when I shot a friend's nicer gun (an STI DVC classic) and i was getting tighter grouping than my SA at 25 yards So that got me thinking (or rather desiring) for something better. But sounds like based on what folks are saying here is I have price pragmatic options (like upgrade components on my existing gun) to "ego stroking" options like a full $6K custom to something in-between in the $3-4K range. I am leaning to the latter 2 options ( i admit it, i am yearning for a new gun). Before I start down the path of contacting the suggested gunsmiths, can anyone point me to where I can get smarter (short of taking a full on gun smithing class) on what makes a 1911 more accurate (and at the same time sufficiently reliable for competition)? (i seem to have this perception that accuracy and reliability are conflicting in that when you get more of 1, you get less of the other. i might be wrong on this....anyways, now you know my state of knowledge). I tried googling this, but haven't found great information. Does anyone know of a reliable knowledge source on this? Thanks again!!

Hi There, I currently shoot a Springfield Armory 1911 - A1 45ACP for uspsa single stack and limited 10. It is a pretty decent first competition gun. I am looking to upgrade to a much better competition grade 1911. Budget's up to $6-7K (happy to pay less too). Any recommendation of gunsmiths (custom or off the shelf) that specialize in high end competition guns? There are a number of great gunsmiths out there that do really nice work (e.g. Stan chen, Cabot, Nighthawk, Ed Brown etc) but they seem to have less of a competition focus and more of an aesthetic refinement focus (i might be totally wrong). And I'd rather spend most of my budget on getting the features and labor/work done to get the best competition gun in my budget. If this topic has been covered somewhere else, please point me in the right direction. Thanks in advance. Andrew