hardball pistol

First topic message reminder :

What would I need to do to a springfield mil spec to make it a competitive pistol

So what may be a dumb question is about to be asked, but it is on topic, so I apologize in advance.

Do hardball pistols accurized by talented gunsmiths like John Hallston retain their level of performance as long as the full customs or nearly so as to be irrelevant?  Understood that aside from a small savings you get a beautiful trigger.

Thanks for the tolerating the novice questions.

Do hardball pistols accurized by talented gunsmiths like John Hallston retain their level of performance as long as the full customs or nearly so as to be irrelevant?  Understood that aside from a small savings you get a beautiful trigger.

Yes. Absolutely. They will retain their level long enough to be irrelevant. Of course the real question or the one you should have asked is will they start at the same level as a full custom job?


Len

Roger,

I assumed the 3" guarantee from some of the BE focused gunsmiths would result in the same or nearly the same accuracy as the Springfield National Match or Les Baer National Match Hardball, which seemed to be other viable options.  Getting an accurized MIL-SPEC would be slightly cheaper, but not much for service competition.  Everyone I spoke with was using a Les Baer or Springfield and a few with accurized springfield MIL-SPECs.  All of them fine marksman, and better than me. 

I am speculating a full custom from a BE gunsmith, working from the ground up like Mr. Marvel, Dave Sams, or Mr Salyer would be slightly more accurate but also considerably more expensive.

JayhawkNavy02 wrote:Roger,

I assumed the 3" guarantee from some of the BE focused gunsmiths would result in the same or nearly the same accuracy as the Springfield National Match or Les Baer National Match Hardball, which seemed to be other viable options.  Getting an accurized MIL-SPEC would be slightly cheaper, but not much for service competition.  Everyone I spoke with was using a Les Baer or Springfield and a few with accurized springfield MIL-SPECs.  All of them fine marksman, and better than me. 

I am speculating a full custom from a BE gunsmith, working from the ground up like Mr. Marvel, Dave Sams, or Mr Salyer would be slightly more accurate but also considerably more expensive.

David Sams is a bit pricy, but puts out a fine product.   Dave Salyer does wonderful work at competitive prices.  Bob Marvel, has a great reputation as a gunsmith, but I understand he is difficult to maintain contact with, and the wait times are long and unpredictable in a lot of cases.

I know you are setting this up to get points and become distinguished.Look at the Sticky post by DavidR .You do not need to send a pistol off to be accurized to win LEG points.If you start with a Springfield Range Officer and spend less than $100.00 on E-bay getting the parts to make it EIC legal you can be shooting it two weeks after you get it.  It will be capable of expert scores. Expert scores are all you need to win points.I do not know what the turn around time is in your area but in this part of the country you can expect to have your pistol gone a long time to have the kind of work your talking about done to them.Think about shooting it in 2016. You can shoot 270s + with it right out of the box. Just a thought.

Len    (270s + if you can shoot 270s) 

Great Advice!  This forum is a large part of why I bought a RO and everything mentioned was spot on.  I couldn't find one with tight slide to frame fit, but the barrel lockup looks to be pretty good. 

I have a RO and it's terrific, the short term plan was to do exactly what you recommended.  I thought about waiting for a MIL-SPEC to be accurized or buying a Springfield National Match later to have a seperate hardball pistol and one to use for a 22 conversion so I don't have to swap back and forth at some point.  I had a barrel bushing installed and a trigger job by SACS on my RO and it's a great pistol IMO, especially for a novice like me starting out, I couldn't be happier.

Truth is a full custom gun is great, but we have installed Kart barrels and bushings in stock 1911s and they ransome tested at 2'' @ 50 yrds with hand loads so accuracy is not limited to high dollar guns. The range officer is very accurate as is, with match grade 230 it will probably shoot sub 3'' groups. Plus a full coustom gun is usually a year up to four wait, even a les baer if ordered direct is 6-8 months.

DavidR wrote:Truth is a full custom gun is great, but we have installed Kart barrels and bushings in stock 1911s and they ransome tested at 2'' @ 50 yrds with hand loads so accuracy is not limited to high dollar guns. The range officer is very accurate as is, with match grade 230 it will probably shoot sub 3'' groups. Plus a full coustom gun is usually a year up to four wait, even a les baer if ordered direct is 6-8 months.

+1