RO work, am I going to far?

You all know I'm a serious newbie at Bullseye.  Just picked up a Springfield RO and sent off an email to Dave Salyer to see about some work.

I got an email back and he proposed the following

Trigger Job
Rail for UltraDot
1" Ultradot
Rings
New kart barrel and bushing
Misc small parts

800.00 ish for the whole works.

I have no idea what this pistol is now capable of shooting.  Being so new I don't think I could shoot it at 50 yards and hope to even know how well it does.  I'd like to have this work done eventually and am wondering if  should just do it now and bit the bullet, Or do I have maybe just the dot put on and start shooting the pistol the way it is and see how I do.

Looking for some New to all this advice.  That 800 bucks or part of it could go a long way for bullets and other gear...

Or, forget the 2nd pistol and get the work done!

Thanks Gents

Joe

Joe, 

I am surprised that he did not want to redo the slide to frame fit and put an oversized slide stop in it. Did he offer you a 50yd ten shot test target?   

My vote would be to get the trigger done and start shooting it. Open sights, learn the sport and have fun while you decide how to spend your money.

First, I'd get a good idea of how it currently shoots.

Actually, sounds reasonable to me, given the individual cost of the components you listed.
If' he's fitting the barrel, the existing slide stop might be just fine...
I'm not sure that slide to frame fit is of the highest order for a new shooter and a slide mounted dot.
If it's frame mounted, I'd want the slide to frame tight....

I would like to see a test target though for reference.

JMHO

He did say he Guarantees X ring at 50 yards.  My thing is I like astroimage suggestion.  That thing could be  a laser and at my skill level would never know it.

I have NO doubts the price is fair.  I'm just not sure my skill level "needs" it yet...LOL  The trigger job sounds like the right deal and I like using the dot (have one on my 22/45) and love it

It's not a significant amount of money for the accuracy guarantee, so you might as well spend it now and remove some variables.  I would have to agree with the idea of learning to shoot iron first.

just sayin

If you are thinking of two .45s I would say get the work done and hold it to one gun. You will make progress faster with a proper target gun. Your problems and mistakes will look exponentially worse with a gun that is not capable and you will not know if it's you or the gun that is the problem. Doing it that way you also build a relationship with a good gunsmith who can give you good advice if you have questions and need the gun serviced.

I shot a Range Officer with iron sights last year(which was my first year shooting bullseye). I'd say its had 5,000 rounds through it and it will hold the 10 ring off a sandbag at 50 yards. All stock, I did eventually polish the sear and tweak the leaf spring. I say get the trigger cleaned up, shoot it until you can consistently get all shots on target then worry about accurizing.

Dave Salyer's work is top quality, and he is definitely capable of making the best judgment call on what needs to be done to your stock RO to make it a long lasting X ring bullseye gun.

It's going to be difficult for you to test that gun on your own at your skill level.

Can you find a master or expert class shooter who can help you? It would give you confidence to see your guns true potential.

If you can't, $800 is a good value for the list you gave us. The investment of that work will not be lost. You will be able to resell the gun for close to what you have in it.

Sounds like a great path, Dave does great work and I think you will be confident in your pistol and not doubt your equipment.

I'm sure Dave will give you a good load that the gun will work well with so you won't have all the problem of working up something that shoots well in it.

My two cents, not being a pistolsmith by any stretch of the imagination...

...an inaccurate gun multiplies the difficulty in learning to shoot well. Whether your shot was a 10 or a 6, you have to know that you put it there. If not, you can't analyze your performance, and you'll get into the habit of making excuses for bad shots instead of learning from them. Accuracy and confidence are crucial.

That said, spend what you feel comfortable spending.

Hi

One of the most frustrating things is having equipment which is not up to snuff.  If the range officer holds a five inch group at 50 yards, you will likely not know if a shot out of the black was you or the gun.

If that gun holds x-ring, there is no doubt where the issues are AND what you did wrong when the shots go astray.
 
Even though I'm only a marksmen, I've been shooting on and off over a long time.  I would take one tack driver of know exceptional performance over 15 so-so guns any day.

$800 for all you listed is a bargain by the way.

OK, I will be the dissenting opinion then. Don't do it.
 If you bought a mid price (rather than an expensive ) pistol to see if you like precision pistol shooting, go ahead and shoot some to see if you like it.

A very good way to find out if you like precision/three gun bullseye shooting, is to start shooting in a bullseye league.
  The competition is gentle there, but you should find out quickly if you enjoy that kind of target shooting.

If you think you might stick with it, buy a Nelson .22 conversion for about $ 500.00. Then you only have $1200 tied up in basically two pistols. Those two pistols would carry you well into the Sharpshooter class, by which time you will know if you want to spend lots more money on this sport. Also, by then you would know what you want to spend lots more money on.

I'm old school and think that if you ever want to pursue distinguished pistol shot and have good eyesight, you might as well stick with iron sights. With a good trigger job a person can make master with a gun that'll hold 3" or so at 50 yards. OTOH, if you are sending the pistol off (shipping costs) you may as well get everything done that you think you'll need (or the bullseye pistolsmith thinks you'll need). I bought my first accurized 1911 when I was a sharpshooter and started realizing that my shots at slow fire weren't on call with the pretty much stock Colt Gold Cup. I shot in a match with the All Guard team. My Gold Cup developed a problem and Ken Buster asked the team pistolsmith to fix it and loaned me his back-up pistol to finish the match. Shooting Ken's pistol and listening to Ken about the drawbacks of my Gold Cup, convinced me to go with a bullseye accurized 1911. I've never regretted having to sell some guns to get enough money to buy that accurized 1911. I made outdoor master with that pistol and it has been tuned up, re-barreled, etc., but I still have that pistol and it still shoots well.

Good vision...Hmmm, thats part of the problem.  However with a good script I can see the sights pretty good.  I have some Knoblochs I use for service rifle and they are a godsend!

My 5" RO is getting 3/4 to 1 1/4" groups on a bench and pistol rest at 25 yds.  After 500 rounds of frustration with 3 to 5" groups I sent the gun back to SA and they refit the slide to the frame and put in a new barrel.  I was then shooting 2 to 3" groups with Berry's bullets and iron sights.
I followed Jack Wiegand's tutorial and got my pull down to 44-48 oz by Arkansas stoning all the flat MIM surfaces and bending the mainspring per his instructions.  EGW provided me with a custom angle bore thick flange bushing and I mounted a Fastfire3, 3MOA sight for my 74 y.o. eyes.   The total cost was around $325.  SA was free warrany work.  My RO certainly can't hold a candle to Mr. Saylers's work but I'm happy with the results.

If you can find a way spend the 800 now! Even if you have to brown bag your lunches get the work done.

Bigtrout wrote:My 5" RO is getting 3/4 to 1 1/4" groups on a bench and pistol rest at 25 yds.  After 500 rounds of frustration with 3 to 5" groups I sent the gun back to SA and they refit the slide to the frame and put in a new barrel.  I was then shooting 2 to 3" groups with Berry's bullets and iron sights.
I followed Jack Wiegand's tutorial and got my pull down to 44-48 oz by Arkansas stoning all the flat MIM surfaces and bending the mainspring per his instructions.  EGW provided me with a custom angle bore thick flange bushing and I mounted a Fastfire3, 3MOA sight for my 74 y.o. eyes.   The total cost was around $325.  SA was free warrany work.  My RO certainly can't hold a candle to Mr. Saylers's work but I'm happy with the results.

Can I ask you what pistol rest you are using?  I need to put together some loads and go sandbag this or pistol perch it to see what it "May" be able to do.

Just spoke to KC customs and he pretty much got me on the track of what I need to do before I do any work to the thing.

Time to break out the 2 year old bottle of N310...LOL

If you plan to shoot bullseye outdoors, be sure you group test it at 50yds.  A lot can happen between 25 and 50, and the inconvenient truth is that good 25yd groups do not necessarily mean good 50yd groups.  So tests at 25 are only meaningful if you are going to shoot only indoors or short course bullseye.  You can test at 50 using sandbags and iron sights, but it will be more useful to you if an experienced bullseye shooter can test it.

Lablover, my rest is home made; basically a boxy wooden structure with a firm cushioned elbow/armrest and a frame rest about 4" above the cushion with a u-notch in the center and a 1/2 piece of foam pipe insulation which snugly holds the frame underbelly.  It is made so it fits the level of seat/bench and target level at my local range.  Maybe wouldn't work at all benches and ranges like a Caldwell would, but I like the armrest feature. 
I forgot to mention I custom load for those groups.  Everglades 115 JHP, 1x fired sorted brass, 4.1 grn. Titegroup and a 1.120" COL.  I,m also experimenting with Alliant BE-86.

Get the work done. This will remove the doubt of whether the problems are you or your equipment.

Joel

Regardless of what you decide to do, What Dave offered you is a great deal because the parts he will be putting in run about 400.00, so another 400.00 for all the work and a accuracy guarantee is a real bargain. I had him do that same package to a new RO and it is a fine shooter. I will say he will also send you the load info that you can use to duplicate his test ammo so you can go forth with complete confidence  that your gun and ammo are capable of high master scores, this alone is worth the price! Then you just have to work on your progress as a shooter.

Yea, I have no qualms about price.  I need to get back to the range and then make some decisions

You just need something that will shoot on call... Ask a expert or better to shoot your gun and ammo. Shooters that have made it to that level will tell you if your gun is on call and if it groups. They don't change their process or point of aim to shoot the gun, if it prints a group in the six ring they will tell you and they will tell you that it don't group if it don't.