R/O, R1 or Kimber Custom II?

If you had the opportunity to purchase a new SA R/O, Rem R1 or Kimber Custom II all for about the same price, which would you purchase for beginning BE wad gun and why?

Range Officer hands down. There are several threads here about it.

I like to buy American when given the chance to ... but ... I also want to get the best value for my dollar too. I have read several threads here that give the R/O a significant amount of support. I had narrowed my choices down to these three largely based on reviews and the accuracy tests printed in American Rifleman reviews, from a Ransom Rest. The R/O had one of the tightest groups of these three but as we all know each pistol varies one to the next.

Range officer is bullseye ready out of the box if you shoot iron sights, its accuracy has been documented by many shooting bullseye loads not the fmj factory stuff used by AR magazine, If i were buying it would be the only viable choice for the money.

David,
My eyesight is rather poor so iron sights are out of the question. I have Burris FF-III Red Dots on my other pistols. I assume I could remove the rear sight and mount a red dot on the slide's rear dovetail?

Is the stock RO barrel rifled for lead or copper plated or jacketed projectiles or does it really matter? I own Glocks now and can only shoot copper bullets from the stock barrels. I do reload so I am sure with some research, could come up with some loads for the RO. What bullets do you suggest for target shooting paper, lead or copper?

Thanks,
tim...

Most guys shoot lead. Even guys that shoot jacketed at 50 yards, tend to shoot lead at 25 yards.

Of those three, I would buy the Range Officer. Springfield has been good at helping support bullseye.

SA barrel will shot either lead or full metal jacket,its not like the glock which has a barrel designed only for fmj. lead is the mostly used for bullseye, 160, 185 or 200 being most popular, as for the dot, several ways to go, you can drill and tap slide for a rail sold by clark or bob marvel or rock river arms, or you can buy a mount that replaces the right grip from brownells, or BME makes another type.

I went with the RO. Mine still need trigger work, but I would still choose the RO.

I just started with a new RO. I had the slide drilled and tapped and had a Clark sight rail installed and mounted a dot. I am still working up its favorite load and spring set but it is obviously a better shot than I am right now. I don't think you could find a better 1911 that has all you need to start and be competitive with it.

I have a SA set up for hardball and a Kimber for wadcutters. Both shoot equally well, with roll triggers.

Springfield all day.

I have no experience with the Remington, have had my Kimber Custom(I) for more than a decade and bought my RO 4 months ago. I was very happy with the Custom but wanted the adjustable sights (and an excuse for a new gun) so based on several threads here bought the RO. If you are a 1911 guy 'from way back' it might be a non-issue that the current Kimbers are of 'series 80' design but for me the simplicity of the RO's 'series 70' trigger was a plus. Following advice here I did some spring swaps and got a very acceptable trigger pull. I swapped out the RO's mainspring housing 'on principle'. Recently, encouraged by what I had learned here (and from Clark's 1911 video) I did a detail strip of my Custom (never dared before) and learned that my 'all steel' Custom had a plastic mainspring housing so that needs to go. Since my shooting ability does not qualify me to offer opinions as to accuracy, I can only say that at this point I can shoot the 'new' gun better than the one I have shot for many years. Now I may have to start swapping springs in the Custom to see if it can 'keep up'.
Long story short - I vote for the RO!

Bruce

Thanks for all the replies folks. I ended up purchasing the RO and so far I am really pleased and pleasantly surprised by the box stock accuracy.