jtaylor996 Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 I'd go with the trojan.the grip area is undercut and has checkering. That's already at least $250 of upgrades not including refining charge. What this guy says. Get the gun with the checkering and fit you want. Everything else can be modified easily later. Adding checkering later ain't gonna happen, and you're going to want it. I shoot a kimber team match 9mm, and it was good out of the box. Well, mostly. All kimbers need a good extractor and FPS upgrade (like $70 for EGW parts). I still modified it a lot later, but it was a good game gun from day one. I think stock trigger on it was 3.5 and crisp, bomar rear sight, good 30lpi checkering (which I prefer over the coarse stuff from STI), and a magwell. The trigger guard isn't undercut, but my hands don't need that. Fit around the grip and thumb safeties is more important to me, so that's where I changed things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArrDave Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 I will definently check out Brazos, I can change the front sight for less than 40 dollars to a fiber optic sight. I have to say the Dan Wesson pistols are above my price range. The STI and CRP RO are at the top end of the spectrum for me. I will still need a new holster mag pouches and 3 more mags. Anybody have a recommendation for a good holster and mag holders? CPWSA sells ready tactical stuff. The mag pouches are great at a great price. The holster represents a good value, but I'd prefer a method of attachment other than a slide. He sells USPSA variants as well as IDPA variants. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OPENB Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 The Trojan isn't checkered. It has STIppling, kind of a scalloping. Absolutely useless for aiding in gripping the gun. I put skate tape over it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motosapiens Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 Adding checkering later ain't gonna happen, and you're going to want it. I don't mind good sharp checkering, but for race guns I prefer grip tape on the front strap, so checkering doesn't really add any value for me. Especially non-checkering like the trojan has. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cakedog02 Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 I own the SA range officer 9 and it's a great gun. I put grip tape on the front strap which is more aggressive than checkering or stippling. After 300 rds the stock trigger feels good. I installed a Dawson FO front sight & VZ grips. Overall I'm pleased with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cherryriver Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 I'm no fan of "Springfield Armory" but... the Range Officer series are probably, and this hurts to say, the best of low-mid 1911s these days. I had a Target and there've been Loadeds around here. The Target was poor, went back to Geneseo, and was not better. It tore its link in two, between the pin holes. Sheesh. But the Range Officer is a new day. The missus has one built by Rich Dettelhouser as her newest minor-power Single Stack gun. Rich is picky but he raved about the frame and slide quality.He's settled on building a run of smallbore Single Stacks using the Range Officer as the base. That's a high recommendation. Our buddy Mike Gnyra (6th place at the Single Stack Classic!) won an RO in the Bluegrass, took it home for the GF, and had the same to say: great frame/slide. Fire control parts, well, a bit sketchy but serviceable. With retail tags running in the $800 range, that's a helluva value. Can't tell you how painful it is for an old Colt guy who bleeds blue to write that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunBugBit Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 For a holster try the Blade-tech Revolution and for mag pouches try Safariland 771. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NateTSU Posted May 15, 2015 Author Share Posted May 15, 2015 Thank you to everybody for the replies there is some great information in this thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cohland Posted June 15, 2015 Share Posted June 15, 2015 (edited) Currently I'm cobbling together my third Springfield RO for SS Minor, and thought I would pass along a couple of observations. The big constraint in what you do to the gun is weight, because the smaller 9mm bore in the standard 1911 barrel makes the barrel heavier. The good news is that with a light load, adding a lot of weight to the gun to improve control isn't that important. I really bought my first RO for three reasons: low cost, overall quality, and the fact that it has a ramped barrel. I then started to upgrade the gun for a lot of use in competition, learning about modifications, cost, and weight management along the way. My current recipe is as follows: Springfield Range Officer 9mm Local Gun Store $799.99 Cylinder & Slide Tactical II Trigger Kit Brownells $123.99 Reduced power mag catch spring #3 Brownells $1.59 X-Long Hammer Strut Brownells $9.99 Hi-Grip Ambi Safety Brownells $57.99 Hardened Pin Set Brownells $14.99 EGW Premium Mainspring Housing/Magwell EGW $74.99 ProMag Polymer Grips MidwayUSA $12.49 Dawson fiber-optic inserted front sight Dawson $39.00 Dawson 9mm Magazine Dawson $37.95 (6) $227.70 Total spend $1,362.72 If you don't want to do the work yourself, you might ask a gunsmith for a quote to assemble one. I'm no gunsmith, believe me, but it takes me about four hours to assemble the gun described above, working at a slow and steady (and careful!) pace. The only steps that take time are fitting the hammer strut and front sight: everything else is just assembly. I'm left-handed, so the Ambi safety is a requirement for me, and you will need a magwell. With this configuration, the gun is just under 43 ounces. An alternative I'm exploring is using a Dawson aluminum ICE mainspring housing and magwell to get the weight down, maybe enough to allow some experimentation with grips, again working against the weight limit. Having bought three of these guns, I can tell you that there is a bit of variation in slide-frame fit from the factory. I just don't like slide rattle, so I have had to go through a few guns to find ones I like. Two were rejected for slide rattle at the store. The consistency of the Springfield ROs that I have is excellent. With a new gun, I install the front sight, set the rear sight to the same height as the sight on a sister gun, and then take the new one to the range: it's on the money. Honestly, I zero a new 9mm RO with fewer than 10 shots. Chris Edited June 15, 2015 by cohland Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vixty Posted June 25, 2015 Share Posted June 25, 2015 What size tenon does the ro take. I want to get a dawson night sight for it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cohland Posted July 8, 2015 Share Posted July 8, 2015 I don't know the size, but Dawson does. If you look at the Dawson website, they list front sights for the Springfield RO. https://www.dawsonprecision.com/ProductDetail.jsp?LISTID=80001844-1388518384 I've bought about five sights for the RO from them, they all fit. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vixty Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 Thanks, now I just have to figure out how tall of a sight to get. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishsticks Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 Thanks, now I just have to figure out how tall of a sight to get. If you have calipers it is pretty easy to just measure. Dawson has info on their website showing how to calculate needed sight height if you need to change it from stock. Finally, they are very helpful by phone as needed. I've been working with them on a FO front for a Dan Wesson that's a bit of an oddball and they have been very helpful and responsive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunBugBit Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 +1 one Dawson Precision. They are a nice information and product resource for sights, among other things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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