Accuracy Cost: Get More Bang For Your Bullseye Buck

Paper-target shooters don’t need all the bells and whistles to be competitive with a .45 auto. We tell you what you should have, and what you can expect to pay.

Springfield, Inc., Model 1911A1 provides a solid foundation on which to build accurate .45 ACP wadcutter pistols.

If you’re shooting at steel plates, running a combat course, or knocking off bowling pins, competitive accuracy is going to cost you plenty. Guns carried to the firing line by action shooters are anything but ordinary. Neither is the gear, including the fast-draw holsters, electronic timers, and super-sophisticated sight systems. I firmly believe that the only action shooters totally unconcerned with how much their equipment costs either have fat wallets or are members of factory shooting teams.

The rest of us, however, must look to the bottom line when we’re buying or upgrading our competition products, and the greatest cost we face are in the firearms. The technological advancements—and costs—that are being built into action pistols are affecting how those of us in other games, especially bullseye shooting, view our own products. But even though many bullseye shooters are being seduced by pricey action-style pistols, they are spending their money unnecessarily. To be competitive in bullseye matches, you don’t need all the speed-related bells and whistles. Determining which options really deliver better shooting performance for the least amount of money is something we can all appreciate. In my experience as a competitive shooter and a practicing gunsmith, I believe making a few upgrades to a stock .45, some of which you can do yourself, will give you the most bang for your bullseye buck.

THE HIGH-END MARKET
Many bullseye shooters spend too much money for their firearm, I think. Some order semi-custom pistols from an original manufacturer’s custom shop. For $1,532, Colt’s Manufacturing Co. gunsmiths will build you a special combat competition M1911A1. That includes skeletonized trigger, upswept grip safety, custom tuned action, custom sights, polished feed ramp, throated barrel, flared ejection port, flared magazine well, and two eight-round magazines. Similarly, a top-of-the-line Springfield, Inc., Trophymaster runs around $2327, depending on the caliber. The Springfield CMC Formula Full Race model is $2,830 irrespective of caliber.

Custom guns from master pistolsmiths like Jim Clark, Bill Wilson, and Les Baer are comparably priced. A Les Baer Master Combat sells for $2360 to $2495. Bill Wilson’s Master Grade LTD costs $2578.66. The LTD has been specifically designed for U.S.P.S.A. “Limited” class competition and contains every advantage allowed under class rules. It is an exact duplicate of the pistol used to win the 1993 Nationals. The LTD has had its slide-to-frame fit tightened, and the rear of its slide serrated at 40 lines an inch. It carries a Wilson Combat ambidextrous thumb safety, high ride beavertail grip safety, ultralight hammer, match barrel and bushing, heavyweight full-length guide rod and plug, magazine catch with oversize release button, a hand-fit and contoured custom magazine well, and exotic wood grips. Also, the slide’s top and grip’s front strap are serrated 30 lines to the inch. It has an ultralight, adjustable trigger to go along with its trigger job. The barrel’s been throated, the feed ramp polished, the extractor polished and adjusted. The front and rear sights are by Bo-Mar. The ejection port has been lowered and flared, the trigger guard has been relieved, the mainspring housing checkered and a heavy-duty recoil spring added.

Exotic pistols like these are built for speed and high velocities. The 9mm and .38 Super rounds put through them are loaded to major factors. Accordingly, compensators are often added to their barrels to reduce muzzle jump and allow quicker target acquisition shot to shot. If you’re into action shooting, you’re not going to be very competitive without one.

THE ECONOMY ALTERNATIVE
However, if paper is your target of choice, the action guns are overkill. You can be very, very competitive without one. A pistol built for paper busting doesn’t need all the bells and whistles found in its combative cousins. It doesn’t ever have to put out more than five rounds in 10 seconds, which is an eternity when knocking down steel plates. It doesn’t need a compensator because what it eats has been downloaded to bullseye velocities. How far downloaded? I’ve called more than one outdoor match where I’ve been able to see .45 caliber rounds arcing their way toward a full-face target 50 yards downrange. They looked like fat bumble bees that had discovered a higher gear and had a mad-on for the X-ring. Scratch the compensator, flared magazine wells, and magazines with bumpers on the bottoms.

Instead, for bullseye shooting, you can start with an unadorned M199A1. A Series 70 is much preferred. It isn’t equipped with a firing-pin safety. (Series 80s are and why they are, I’ve been told, was born in a legal department.) Not that a trigger job can’t be performed on a Series 80. It’s just more expensive and has been known to include deactivation of the safety. The liability risk for deactivating the safety has caused more than one pistolsmith to give Series 80 trigger work the cold shoulder.

A gun that serves as a good base from which to begin building a competitive bullseye product is the Springfield, Inc., M1911A1. This Series 70-style .45 is a parkerized, Mil-Spec model that runs about $450. Except for three-dot sights, throated barrel and lowered ejection port, it’s pure GI—with a trigger pull that will have you wondering why you bought it.

Nonetheless, the Springfield .45 is solid foundation on which to build a bullseye gun. Here’s what to do next.

PREPARATION
You begin constructing your bullseye gun by shooting a couple of hundred rounds of hardball to break in the pistol. This gets all its parts familiar with each other and instantly indicates to you or your ‘smith of choice if there’s any rubbing or interference going on inside.

The object of any accuracy job is to achieve as high a degree of mechanical repeatability as possible, which in a M1911 means returning the barrel to the same position every time it locks up. Depending on the pistol, this can call for multiple refinements. Usually, eliminating excessive horizontal and lateral play between the slide and the frame is a must, but I’ve worked on a few M1911s where the fit was optimum right out of the box.

Conversely, I have yet to encounter an original-equipment barrel bushing that totally satisfied lock-up requirements. They must be replaced with a match-grade bushing that is fitted to the slide and barrel and relieved as necessary front and rear.

The need for trigger work and a new recoil spring is also universal. Neither come over the counter suited for wadcutter use. The spring weight needed will depend on the load used. Also, the trigger should be replaced with a lighter one adjustable for overtravel and taken down to a crisp 3- or 31/2-pound pull. A Videki match trigger lists for $16.50 in Brownells catalog, a Gun Craft pivoting model for $125, and there are eight others with prices in between.

Also, you may want a match barrel. But if you got decent groups with the factory barrel during the break-in period, you may not need one. Besides being expensive, match barrels are oversize and require a fair amount of precision hand fitting to marry them to a slide. Consider having the factory barrel and slide worked over first. The barrel that came with your Series 70 has already been throated.

It might need to be opened up a bit more for better semi-wadcutter feeding. Usually a polishing job on its existing throat is all that’s needed. I know a former military armorer who never installed anything but standard-issue barrels in his personal .45s, and he was a Double Distinguished Master. I’m not promising you’ll be as good as he was, but the bucks spent finding out whether a factory barrel will outshoot your skills will cost less than a match barrel.

Other niceties, but not necessities, are an ambidextrous safety, oversize mag release button, and ultralight hammer. A beavertail grip safety can spare the web between your thumb and index finger, but unless your shooting hand is really fleshy you can skip it, too. A front grip strap is serrated to give you a better grip on the gun. Serrating takes time and money. A better choice is a Pachmayr wrap-around grip, which replaces the existing inserts and is textured where it covers the strap. It also has a built-in thumb rest for either a right-hand or left-hand shooter.

You’ll definitely want, and need, new sights, but there’s no way I can recommend which one you should buy. It’s too personal a decision. Some of the products you should consider, however, include Bo-Mar’s full rib sight with accuracy tuner, the Millett dual crimp-front and adjustable rear product, and any number of telescopes and electronic dot sights. The best way to test a few of them is to put a few rounds through your buddies’ pet target pistols.

Specifically, then, what do you or your pistolsmith need to do to produce a quality .45 bullseye gun (but not necessarily in the following order): Fit the slide to the frame and throat the barrel, if it isn’t already, and polish both the throat and the frame’s feed ramp. Also fit the barrel to the bushing, the bushing to the slide, and the barrel to the slide. Flare the ejector port, fit and polish the extractor, and bevel and polish the ejector. Install your choice of a full-length recoil guide or Wilson Group Gripper to aid barrel/slide lock-up and install a recoil buffer. Also, install a Wolff variable-power recoil spring and extra-power firing-pin spring. Reduce the trigger pull to 3 or 31/2 pounds (but only in guns that will shoot just target loads). Install and fit a match disconnector for better, long-term integrity of the trigger job, and install new sights.

Once this work is done, which should run from $250 to $600, you are ready to test fire. At this point, you’ll be ready to face a decidedly uneconomic factor: The world’s greatest artisan can only build so much accuracy into a gun. How much it actually delivers depends on the skills of the shooter.

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-By Chick Blood