First open gun for $2K?

[lfine]

Coming from the production side want to try open with a budget of $2000. There's a lot of advice out there but how about some quick, lightning round answers of just what hardware you'd recommend for the newbie to open coming from production.  Let's just keep it short and light-hearted. Thanks! And Happy Almost Thanksgiving!

[dvc4you]

Buy used something that runs, until you know what you want.


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[Explosiveo]

My advice would be save up more money
Everything to do with open is expensive. Want a couple more mags. Boom $300. Want a extended mag release. Boom $60. And on and on.
Go get that home equity line of credit. Sell your first born and buy a Altas.
If you need a referral for a good place to sell a Kidney, let me know.

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[zzt]

For $2k you can buy a full race Open gun from Carver Custom, based on an M&P.  You may be able to buy a well used 2011 Open for that.  My advice is to buy used no matter what you decide on.  It would be a minor miracle if you decided you wanted to shoot that gun for the rest of your life.  More likely, you will discover what you do and don't like about it, and make those corrections on your next gun.  Plus you should be able to sell the used gun for pretty near what you paid for it.

[B_RAD]

11 minutes ago, dvc4you said:

Buy used something that runs, until you know what you want.


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This!

 

This is what I'm currently doing. Best advice ever. End thread!

[MemphisMechanic]

6 minutes ago, zzt said:

For $2k you can buy a full race Open gun from Carver Custom, based on an M&P.  

 

Open M&P. The only way to ensure a more frustrating experience than Open Glocks.

 

 

[Nevadazielmeister]

That's easy, take any firearm that has a barrel length of at least 4 inches, drill as many holes as you want from the top of the slide into the barrel. Hold the gun really tight during this step. Then add a sight mount to the frame. This will leave you with a good budget left over to buy a quality optic. Be sure to have a friend video tape your first few rounds and post it on youtube if you are still capable. I'll bring popcorn. 

[Hi-Power Jack]

1 hour ago, lfine said:

  want to try open with a budget of $2000.  

 

If that includes the mags and holster rig, it will be tough.  If it

doesn't, you'll have to add another $800 + for the mags/rig.

 

Perhaps a CZ clone type gun - pls don't try to shoot 9mm Major

in a plastic gun - terrible experience.  The CZ's are good, and

much less expensive than a 2011.

 

Another alternative is to shoot 9mm Minor in OPEN - just to try

it for a year, this will open up some additional options for you.

 

Another alternative :   Shoot a .22 semi auto with a dot for a

while - see if you like that.   That will fall within your budget and

you'll learn all you need to know about whether you like to chase

dots around the range, or not.   

 

And, Happy Thanksgiving to you, also     

[Foxbat]

A working $2K open gun?  Hard, but not impossible.  Just don't rush, keep looking, and you will find it. 

[NoSteel]

Not to rain on your parade here but you really don't want to work with a $2K budget for open..  Wait / Save another $1K and you'll be working with a much more realistic budget still for a used Open gun but something that is going to be much more serviceable / Reliable.  This is important as shooting open with a gun you can't finish a stage with is not going to be an enjoyable experience for you....I get beat by better competitors all the time but,  I still enjoy myself knowing it's my fault.  Doing terribly because the equipment sucks,  you just be forced to throw more money at it...

[B_Seehawer]

Keep your eye out on the classifieds here. I’ve struck gold on a few occasions from guys getting out of the game or other reasons.

[scooterj]

Got a little more room in your budget?

https://ckarms.com/the-open-solution.html

[Trent1k1]

If you can get to $3k, a CK arms is a good 'starter' gun.  Pretty reliable, and cost effective.  The STI DVC is an option and now that Dave Dawson is in charge of Quality control at STI the guns coming out are decent.

 

As others have said, you don't know what you want in a gun. Long? Short? 9mm?  39 SC? All have pros and cons.

 

The gun is the cheap part, mags, Race holster, etc. and you better be ready to reload if you plan to shoot major.

 

Do NOT buy a 1-off type of gun that nobody at your club has.  If everyone is running a 2011, you should buy one of those.  Don't buy a Checkmate if no one knows anything about CZs.  I get asked questions about CZs, and I've never even shot one.  If you want to talk about sear angles on a 1911/2011, or what mag combination will get you 29 rounds, I'm happy to chat with you.

 

Don't spend the money on a plastic Open gun.  That is not going to give you the Open experience you are craving.

 

 

[Trent1k1]

Also, late December is a very good time to watch the classifieds.  People often offload their backup Open guns to pay for Christmas, or the new gun coming from the gunsmith.

 

Patience is the key (and signing up so you get notified on EVERY post in the classifieds by email, instantly)

[obsessiveshooter]

The SPS Vista would come in under 2k. I love underdog equipment, so if I was on an extreme budget and wanted try open, I'd think hard about one of these or a used cz checkmate.

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[Trent1k1]

1 minute ago, obsessiveshooter said:

The SPS Vista would come in under 2k. I love underdog equipment, so if I was on an extreme budget and wanted try open, I'd think hard about one of these or a used cz checkmate.

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Not knocking the SPS or Checkmate at all.  Hopefully the OP or you are handy with troubleshooting problems.  Open "almost always" has some sort of issue to work through.  Having knowledgeable help is handy.

[Aircooled6racer]

Hello: find a used STI Trubor and it will take you as far as you want to go. I have shot alot of these production type guns made into open guns and they are not that great. The Checkmate and SPS are both not bad but you have to do some stuff to them to make them run 100%. Same goes for some of the other open pistols, that is why I suggested to buy a good used one since the bugs have been worked out. Ask around your club since someone may have one you can try to see if you actually like shooting open. You may find someone who has an old Caspian or other pistol they may sell. Thanks, Eric

[dvc4you]

Old Caspian are always a good deal, and MBX solves the magazine issues.


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[Shmella]

Keep watching the classifieds. They come up. There’s a Brazos gun for 2600$ish right now. That’s a good gun but you still need mags and rig. I snagged a used open gun with 4mbx mags on here for 2500 so the deals do come up

[kneelingatlas]

What are you shooting in Production?

[Jfitz427]

I think 2k is doable. It’ll be tough though, you have anything you’d be willing to trade? That’s what I did, my budget was also 2k. I ended up paying 1450 in cash plus a pistol I had bought for my wife that she never used and was like new. I think it was worth about 500 bucks. I ended up getting an sti trubor totally ready to go, and  1 170mm mag. It was a great deal. 

 

On another note, the SPS are great guns. I’ve kinda regretted not buying the Vista. I really looked hard at it. I have a sps pantera for limited and it’s really a piece of art. It’s incredibly well built. I had one issue, the mags that came with it are really short, 120mm, and the base plate was kinda hitting the magwell so it wouldn’t fully seat. New sti and mbx 140mm mags cured this. I can’t tell you how happy I am with my pantera. Its nicer then my sti, and my sti is a nice gun. The sps is just that nice.  Maybe it’s not fair compairing used gun to a new gun, but the trubor supposedly had a very low round count. The sps guns run right out of the box. Again, I kinda regret not buying a brand new vista. But my trubor is nice, and runs perfectly which is what’s most important. I think buds had the vista for 1600 bucks. It’s a steal. Pretty much the only reason I didn’t buy it was because I wanted something different then my pantera. Should have just bought it, but I didn’t know how much I’d like my pantera until later. 

Edited November 20, 2018 by Jfitz427

[Fo0]

Tanfoglio

 

EAA Witness Elite Gold Team $1,700

[36873687]

4 hours ago, Explosiveo said:

My advice would be save up more money
Everything to do with open is expensive. Want a couple more mags. Boom $300. Want a extended mag release. Boom $60. And on and on.
Go get that home equity line of credit. Sell your first born and buy a Altas.
If you need a referral for a good place to sell a Kidney, let me know.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
 

Lol this cracked me up but very true

[lfine]

Shooting CZ Shadow 2s in production. Thanks for all the good words. I've got a lot to look into, already, especially the classifieds as we get closer to #000000 Friday.

[aandabooks]

I'm probably into each of my open guns for right around $2000 each.  That is me doing almost all of the work myself with fitting barrels, threading, making comps, slide rackers, drilling/tapping frames, etc.  Start having to have a gunsmith do all the work and $2k is not even a possibility.