TargetTalk

I'm thinking about trying bullseye in the next few months. My hope is to buy a decent gun, have the trigger improved, mount an ultradot on the slide, and spend some time shooting. I don't want to pour money into a really expensive gun until I'm capable of making it shoot well.

What's the general consensus on a decent entry level platform?

I've seen some comments that the Taurus guns are good.

FYI, I've got a S&W 41 for 22, and that gun will definitely tell me when I'm getting better.

Ive heard from a few people that the Springfields or a good place to start...but as they are good guns there's the accuracy thing ....slide to frame fit .....barrel fit , barrel bushing ....I already have a"loaded "that I would love to turn into a target gun....so I as well would like to see someone answer this, I think I would leave the taurus alone ...Ive heard that some of the internals are there own and not compatable with the standard 1911-A1 part.......A freind of mine just got a Springfield loaded target.....Ive shot it a 25 yds and it seems to shoot well ....I believe he paid like $ 1200 for it......I just have the loaded combat version...I use for IDPA and carry......I paid $ 820 or so .......If I could Afford to I would go buy another 1911 but it would be the loaded target....match barrel and target sights and it is noticly tighter than my combat version and the trigger will go down to 3ish lbs......Keith

I would go with a used bullseye gun. You can usually find one for sale every few weeks or so if you follow the bullseye-L list. They hold their value very well so if you decide that you don't want to do bullseye you can sell the gun for what you have in it. Going with a Tarus and putting lots of upgrades on it will not give you a gun that will hold much of its value.


http://www.lava.net/~perrone/bullseye/

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Taurus are crap!

Take the above good advice and buy a used Bullseye gun. If you don't know what you're doing you can drop a lot of cash trying to turn a gun into a competition piece.

You can't polish a turd!

+1 on Isabel's advice.

Additional comment. One of the big issues with learning to shoot a 45 well is that you will go through a LOT of ammo. If you are buying and shooting commercial ammo you will have gone through the cost of a good used bullseye gun in less than six months unless you are really disciplined and spend much of your practice time dry firing. You probably should go to a few 2700's in your area and shoot the rim fire portion of a match for the first few matches or pay for the entire 2700 and shoot your 22 throughout the match in order to get a feel for how the matches run if you have not done that already. While there, you can talk to the other shooters and find out what they have in the way of guns and set up. Many of them will have extra guns that in this economy they might be willing to sell for a pretty reasonable price and a lot of bullseye shooters are also fairly competent gunsmiths, (or know someone well who is). Most of the shooters I know will offer to lend you a gun and provide ammo for the first match so you can figure out if it would be worth the investment to get your own competition 45 and a reloading set up which is pretty much a "must have" to shoot bullseye unless you are either incredibly wealthy or a supported shooter (military) Also, the big difference between a rack grade 45 of any type and a true bullseye gun is going to be, first the trigger, and secondly, the accuracy work that will allow you to shoot at 50 yards which is what you will need for an outdoor match. A lot of rack grade 45's will do fine indoors until you are getting close to Master class. Where they won't cut it is for slow fire at the 50 yard line when you are outdoors.

Isabel's advice is outstanding.....shoot the .22 and then decide. I almost never agree with Rover - but he's right - stay well away from Taurus.

I think I'll work with the 22 and find a used wad gun. After reading Isabel's advice, that makes the most sense.

Thanks for everyone's replies.