New Colt Gold Cup Trophy group-How bad is it?

Amanda4461 wrote:

only_8_ring wrote:Amanda4461,

I experienced similar issues when I bought a used Gold Cup National Match. The accuracy just wasn't what I wanted out of the gun.

I'm going to assume that your sight picture is good and you know what you're doing testing the gun off of sandbags. If you're not sure you did it right, it's worth asking a resident known-good bullseye shooter to get a second opinion. I'm not being patronizing, I just don't want you to spend lots of resources pursuing what might not actually be an issue.

That said... The issue you showed with your sandbag rested target is not good. Even for expert or marksman class, you really want your gun to be able to hold the 10 ring or 9 ring as an acceptable standard for 95% of your shots. At least then you know the gun isn't costing you more than 0.5 or so points per shot in the worst case. 

I fixed my issue by fitting a Kart EZ-Fit barrel kit to my gun, which took about 6 hours plus whatever that kit cost, and hammer-peening my frame rails (which was pretty stressful, honestly). I would say most people can do the Kart EZ-Fit barrel procedure themselves, but I would really not recommend the layman attempt rail peening. That's really something a bullseye pistolsmith should do. I can provide more details if you're curious.

My gun improved from "unacceptable" as in your case to more reasonable, something that will get 99%  of shots in the 10 ring at 50 yards from a ransom rest.

8-ring,
I shoot my Pardini SP with the stock irons. No trouble keeping all in the ten ring from a bag rest. Folks I shoot with all have given poor feedback on the Colt, so I’ll keep working on it. When my $475 Remington R1 Enhanced 9mm provides better groups than the Colt, improvements are needed. 
I like the idea of putting a red dot on the Colt, but the grip scope mount is either OOS or on extended backorder everywhere. I’ll find one eventually, or get the Colt D&T for a Rock River rail.