I want to make my 1911's real nail drivers.

[rangeofficer]

My comment was not meant to impinge upon Rock Islands quality, but merely to suggest that poor or milsurp ammo would reduce even the most accurate hand fitted pistol down to mass produced levels, essentially leaving a lot of accuracy on the table. My other point was that any pistol, Rock Island or Wilson Combat, is only as good as the hand that wields it. The most expensive, hand fitted and well tuned pistol is no match against good technique and skill with a base level pistol. Practice makes accurate.

I second that .. Sorry if I took it out of context.

[Brian Ahearn]

tonyfac and DClan nailed the issue on the head the pistol will only be as accurate as the shooter. Your best investment would be quality ammo and a lot of training. How many rounds of ammo do you shoot in a session, what kind of pistol training course if any have you attended. Are you a combat style shooter or are you more into bullseye stlye shooting. I personally use my 1911 pistols to shoot from 7 to 100 yards and that requires practice and lots of ammo. How much ammo can your wallet stand. If I have the time to spend on shooting I can often shoot 300 to 400 rounds in one session,if I take my sons and wife with me my wallet really starts to hurt. I don't complain about it because one I believe in training and two if they ever have to use that firearm to defend themselves I know that they will be prepared and accurately hit the target. Case in point I had a good year last year so I bought myself another CZ custom shop 9mm with the accu bushing and Short reset trigger system guaranteed 2 inch groups at 50 yards from a ransom rest! That does not mean that I can stand there and shoot 2 inch groups at 50 yards all day,what it really means is that I bought myself an expensive toy $1800.00 bucks worth. I like CZ custom shop pistols they are very accurate but I can only achieve good groups based on my skill level- hell I am 52 and wear bifocals that affects my shooting as well. Just remember a high priced pistol will not guarantee that you will be a better shot that requires training. Ps my favorite 1911 in my collection is a Regent 350CR compact 4 inch with rail,bull barrel, adjustable sights, mod. features -made in Turkey cost $490.00 I could buy five of these for what my custom one cost ,this one was a tack driver right out of the box. Brian /EFR

[9_shooter21]

Thankyou all for tour imput... i ushally shoot 100-200 round every range trip. im really very accurate with them myself, I can shoot the whole reddish orange center out of a target at 15 yrds but i want the one 1911 to better than that. My ruger 1911 im not going to mess with.

[sincitynut]

I you can shoot the center out at 15 yds, how much more accurate do you think you can make the gun?? If your gun will do that now, I doubt you will get much better, just keep up the practice.

Just my .02 cents

[xx AG xx]

Thankyou all for tour imput... i ushally shoot 100-200 round every range trip. im really very accurate with them myself, I can shoot the whole reddish orange center out of a target at 15 yrds but i want the one 1911 to better than that. My ruger 1911 im not going to mess with.

If you can do this at 15 yards, your next step is to repeat this process at 25 yards.



AG

[Cornhusker]

I agree that shooter skill is the first thing that needs to be improved upon but instead of just beating that dead horse I'll offer suggestions as to what could be done next when you get to that point or if you're at that point already. I'm going to assume that the only thing this pistol will be used for is bull's eye style shooting (no IPSC, IDPA, self-defense carry)

1) ammo. Try several types/brands of ammo to see what is more accurate to include handloads if you're an accomplished handloader. You won't see ammo cause as much variation in a handgun as you would in a rifle but it will still matter and should be the first thing you do if accuracy is what you're after.

MAKE SURE THE GUN IS UNLOADED BEFORE CHECKING THE REST OF THESE AREAS!!!
2) comfort. Is the gun comfortable in your hand? If the gun doesn't fit your hand well everything else will be an uphill battle. With a 1911 you can change more than you think. First would be the mainspring housing (flat vs arched) you can also undercut the triggerguard and take a lot of material off of the tang to change how the gun sits in your hand. A longer or shorter trigger can be installed or even a rounder or flatter one to give very different "feels".
3) trigger pull. (Do a lot of dry fire practice first) If you can balance a coin on the front sight while you dry fire then you probably don't need to do anything to the trigger. Check it with a trigger pull gauge if you have access to one or take it to a gunsmith. More important than the actual pounds of force required to pull the trigger are things like creep, overtravel and side-to-side or up-down play in the trigger.
4) slide to frame fit. Make sure there is little to no side-to-side or up-down movement between the slide and frame. A gunsmith can fix this by peening the frame rails or installing accu-rails.
5) barrel to slide fit. Make sure the barrel locks up tight in the slide. With the slide closed push down on the barrel hood (chamber portion) to see if it moves. Try to move the muzzle end of the barrel. These problems can be fixed by intsalling/fitting a different barrel link and/or barrel bushing but may require a new barrel.

Handgun accuracy is determined by repeatability. Does the gun lockup the same way every time?

Hope this helps.