Which 1911 wad-guns are doing best at major competitions

First topic message reminder :

Is there a listing somewhere of which gun were used for the top 10 competitors at one of the recent major competitions?  Perhaps for Camp Perry?

A question came up in a discussion I had with a relative, where his opinion is that an over the counter gun from one of the major companies selling high-tech guns is "good enough" to win.  My opinion, thanks in part to what I've learned here, is that it's not good enough - it should be sent off to one of the top Bullseye gunsmiths, who will turn it into a competitive Bullseye gun.

Names that immediately come to mind to me are Dave Salyer, Jon Eulette, KC Crawford....  I don't recall that many other names, but people have been talking about six or seven gunsmiths in that category.  

I was thinking that it would be interesting to see if all the top competitors are using custom guns, or if any are using "over the counter" guns.  That would answer his question.


As a side question, do any of you feel the gun is secondary, it's really the shooter, and the winners would have won anyway with an over the counter gun, perhaps changing the springs?

Bullseye gunsmith like Kc,jon will make great custom built bullseye guns or will accurize a Range officer with kart barrel,bushing,slide stop,weld or peened rails,trigger job,RRA scope rib, a dot but how tim say,you need practice on the range,Dry fire. I was practice three days on week,now i dont practice in the last 6 months because my work. On this 2019 one of my resolutions is visit more the range and practice a lot.

This has gotten silly. I'm out.

I'll repeat what a Distinguished HM told me once when I was shooting Service Rifle, 

you don't need a benchrest gun to win matches or score high, 

you need a gun that will shoot the X ring, not any better, or any worse, 

however you need to be able to hold the X ring, 

while Service Rifle and Bullseye are apples to oranges,  the basic principle applies, 

from my personal experience, I have seen folks go from unclassified to Expert using a basically stock gun (some started out like myself with a stock gun) and improve once they get to the level that the additional addon's or modifications help,

There are over the counter guns with great trigger, fitted barrels and bushings out there. None come with optics if that’s what you want.
You need to search thru them all to find that needle in the haystack. Statistically speaking, it’s out there, probability says you won’t find it.

lyman1903 wrote:I'll repeat what a Distinguished HM told me once when I was shooting Service Rifle, 

you don't need a benchrest gun to win matches or score high, 

you need a gun that will shoot the X ring, not any better, or any worse, 

however you need to be able to hold the X ring, 

while Service Rifle and Bullseye are apples to oranges,  the basic principle applies, 

from my personal experience, I have seen folks go from unclassified to Expert using a basically stock gun (some started out like myself with a stock gun) and improve once they get to the level that the additional addon's or modifications help,

As a Dist HM Pres100 Highpower shooter, he is correct.  

As to which 1911 pistols do well at big matches, you’d have to look at the AMU and USMC armorers.  The problem is that these gunsmiths seldom do outside work until they retire.  For “off the shelf, big name builders”, any of them CAN build a national champion level pistol, but they seem to fall short most of the time.  If you want the best pistol money can buy, you should only consider a true custom from a big name like Salyer, Sams, Derr, Crawford, Eulette and others.  In the old days you had Day, Chow, Clark, Giles and some of their pistols are still competitive.  

But buying the best gun won’t make you instantly better.  You still need to be able to hold and see.

Thanks to some tips up above, I sort of got to what I was originally trying to find...
https://www.ssusa.org/articles/2018/9/17/2018-nra-national-precision-pistol-championships/
...but for the most part, there's hardly anything there that resembles what I was trying to find.

I guess it wasn't as reasonable a question as I expected, since nobody seems to care what guns the competitors were using, unlike most sports I've been involved in.


The topic came up because I was trying to explain to a relative why many guys involved in Bullseye shooting buy one from the various rebuilders, and he seemed to think that buying a new over the counter 45 from Dan Wesson would be just as good.


I didn't mean to upset anyone - sorry if I did.  

I also started to wonder if people use the equipment they do, because they are sponsored by that company.  I have no idea how many people in Bullseye are sponsored.  

What I think I've learned in this forum is that people buy from Dave, Jon, and KC, because of the wonderful reputation they have earned.  People who aren't aware of that might be most impressed by the beautiful photos and wording on a company's web page.  Buying from Dave, Jon, and KC is likely to be a one-on-one discussion or conversation, for a personalized gun.  Very different from selecting a model number out of a catalog.

I guess someone can close this discussion, if that's appropriate.