Originally Posted by
neil0311
So forgive this newbie question, but what is a gunsmith or one of these boutique 1911 builders going to give me for 5, 6, 7, or 8 times the money? I get that they may use slightly higher grade parts or the finish will be hand done with more care.
But does any of that actually translate into a more accurate and more reliable pistol for all that money?
The first big batch of improvements comes in the form of getting all of the parts up to a higher specification in terms of hard use capability (forgo MIM, extractor that is both fitted and correctly tensioned, better barrels, actually usable sights, trigger face that makes sense, hammer/sear that will actually take work and stay reliable), which along with the requisite fitting work, surface treatments, and factory QC/QA tends to bring things closer to the $1500-2000 mark depending on features. That's not to say that more reasonably priced setups can't be as good, but you are the QC/QA tester, and if you're not running hundreds of rounds through it to break it in and rectifying every issue that comes up, then that's why the work grade 1911's really start at that higher price point (but at least come with some magazines and usually more modern features).
Beyond that, every improvement does enter the diminishing returns zone, where hand checkering, top notch trigger work, flawlessly hand-fit barrel touchpoints, dehorned edges, fancier surface finishes, blended magwells, etc. - these are all improvements but ones that aren't necessarily cost-effective to fit into a production gun, and the honest answer is that because there is a finite number of gunsmiths who can do a genuinely excellent job with these tasks, you end up transitioning a little bit into the boutique pricing end of things because they are one of a kind works of art as much as they are utilitarian fighting tools (sometimes more of the former than the latter), so a little bit of that pricing equation is driven by the fact that there is finite output from all of the shops that do that type of work, and you're competing on cost with well heeled collectors who enjoy gorgeous functional art.
For me, the sweetspot I've found has been finding gently reworked factory semi-custom guns. Basically finding used, well cared for 1911's that started life as limited production run semi-custom units (with the features I wanted, but from a proper production run), and for the most part on the used market these show up with some additional work done to them. If I like the direction that work went in, the value is just there because it's a narrower market for anybody wanting to buy used firearms that conform to somebody else's dream... but I've wound up making a lot of inebriated gunbroker purchases that have netted me 1911's with much nicer triggers, excellent surface treatments, my odd pile of desired features, and impressive reliability from some great names at a price that is entirely in line with their actual utilitarian value. I've had to do some part-swapping myself to get them all there and sorted out, and lived without a couple of features I still need to get properly sorted out, but you don't have to spend north of $3k to get something in that performance range, especially if you're willing to spend a little bit more to finalize them.
Practically, it's still really hard to beat a factory semi-custom Springfield unit with some light modifications (barrel or trigger work, as needed), you can very quickly get to an extremely reliable setup that is far more of a tack driver than most any human can make use of. To me, that's the ultimate goal, the 1911 platform excels at, so once it outshoots me completely with a duty load and an affordable FMJ load, job done.
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