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Looking for a 1911 with a 4" barrel or shorter

.40 Cal

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I "need" a 1911, maybe a Springfield Champ, after reading about how much most of you love yours. My issue is that my wife refuses to let me pay more than $450 for it. She is a NY'r, need I say more? The fact that I have a few gunsreminds methatI was once single. Regardless, it will be father's day soon. I would be happy with a used one. I've been to Gunsamerica.com and found one that I really liked, but the guy hasn't gotten back to me. What would be the best bang for my buck? Where should I go looking? Does anyone have an extra 1911 with 4" barrel or shorter that they may be willing to part with? I'm sure I don't need to point out that I would be going through an FFL dealer and paying the shipping, so that would probably have me at $500.
 

67390FE

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I paid less than 500 for my Champ (parkerized). I'm fortunate, my bride likes to shoot and doesn't mind me buying guns. As a matter of fact I bought her a Detonics Combat Master (3.5" barrel) for our 25th anniversary.
 

Drewesque

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[align=left]Any reason for going for the shorter barrel? Personally, I prefer the 5" barrel. Of course, I assume you have your reasons for looking for a 4". Have you checked gunbroker.com? You can sometimes find a pretty good deal there. I suspect there aren't a lot of people here willing to give up such a gun, even with compensation.
In any case, good luck.
[/align]
 

.40 Cal

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Drewesque wrote:
[align=left]Any reason for going for the shorter barrel? Personally, I prefer the 5" barrel. Of course, I assume you have your reasons for looking for a 4". Have you checked gunbroker.com? You can sometimes find a pretty good deal there. I suspect there aren't a lot of people here willing to give up such a gun, even with compensation.
In any case, good luck.
[/align]
I like the shorter barrel for CC. Gunbroker.com is usually more expensive than gunsamerica, I've noticed.
 

.40 Cal

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Cut And Shoot wrote:
You make a couple ATM cash withdrawals and stash it.

Find the gun you want and write them a check for what you wife will allow.

Pay the balance with the ATM cash you've stashed away.

--------------

The other one is where you put an empty hard gun case in the car and tell your wife you're going to pick up the gun the smith is working on. Then you bring home the new gun and put it in the safe along with the rest.

I can't keep track of what I have, how can she?

--------------

Ask her how many pairs of shoes she has.

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No wife, no kids, no dog. I get to buy anything I want.


I have a SA "loaded" Ultra Compact" that I don't want to sell. -- Wives are easy to come by. They stopped making these . . .


Good ideas all the way around. As far as getting another wife, aside form the fact that she's an anti, I can't find another one like her. I don't know if that's good or bad.:lol:
 

possumboy

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Cut And Shoot wrote:
You make a couple ATM cash withdrawals and stash it.

Find the gun you want and write them a check for what you wife will allow.

Pay the balance with the ATM cash you've stashed away.

--------------

The other one is where you put an empty hard gun case in the car and tell your wife you're going to pick up the gun the smith is working on. Then you bring home the new gun and put it in the safe along with the rest.

I can't keep track of what I have, how can she?

--------------

Ask her how many pairs of shoes she has.

--------------

No wife, no kids, no dog. I get to buy anything I want.


I have a SA "loaded" Ultra Compact" that I don't want to sell. -- Wives are easy to come by. They stopped making these . . .

Start making unreasonable demands about what she can spend money on or how much. Pro/Anti has nothing to do with it. It is something you want and she needs to give up what she wants, or you are getting what you want.

Had a similar problem with my wife, the discussion was along the lines of you don't have to like my guns, you just have to love me. In that not what this marriage is about anyway.

Now, saying that, how much do you spend on guns anyway? Does she have a reason to limit you to $450 besides being "Anti". I spend around $1500 year. I don't have top of the line cases, get cheap ammo, and look for sales. I probably spend around $1000/year for guns themselves. Over the past few years, I am very happy with what I have purchased, there are more expensive guns out there that I want, but they can wait until the kids are in college - I am already prepaying for college with about 1/4 of my income monthly + we give family the account info for birthday/Christmas/hanukkah. It will be paid for for all my kids. That is when I'm look at getting a .50 cal.
 

.40 Cal

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I think her big problem is that I just picked a P22 a few weeks ago, and she knows that was $300 when all was said and done. She also knows that my buddy bought a Car 15 pistolfor 600 (gunsmith, put it together himself), so she assumes that a .45 should be in the middle. Personally, I'm willing to go to $600, but that won't get me what I want either. And I still want that PLR 16! Wait till she gets a load of that bad boy :what:
 

.40 Cal

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Thanks, HF. I just took a look at a Springfield Champion in stainless. Slightly used, but looks great. it has combat sights, ambi safety, and a ramped barrel. After taxes and transfer fees It should be around 690. Too much?
 

.40 Cal

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Does anyone own a High Standard Crusader? It looked nice in the shop and the price :what:, un believeable at $470 NIB!

(edited to remove any negative ideas i had in my head about this gun)
 

Hawkflyer

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You might also want to take a look at EAA.

These are well made, and a lot of competition shooters use them. They have a number of excellent features. The slides are mounted inside of the frame, which lowers the barrel and slide reducing recoil, and it also allows for a full length rail for the slide improving accuracy. The grips are very comfortable right out of the box, but there are after market ones if you prefer that.

They can be carried condition 1 or double action first shot.

The best thing is the ability to caliber convert these for whatever shooting you might want to do.

I have both the full size and the witness compact. I have not tried the polymer frame model, but I am told they are very good.

These can be had at shows for between $375 and $500. They are made by Tanfoglio of Italy, but they are based on the CZ 75 and CZ 90 designs.

Regards
 

.40 Cal

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Definitely a nice looking pistol, but not a 1911. I think I'm just going to deal with an angry wife for a few days and pony the extra dough for that Springfield. I really liked it.
 

Hawkflyer

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.40 Cal wrote:
This is it!  Springfield Champion, stainless, ambi safety, rubber grips, combat sights: $600 out the door.  i'm sold, but is this a good price?:question::question::question: 

Well there are a lot of different prices on every firearm. There is the asking price, the MSRP, What it is worth to someone who does not want one, what it is worth to someone who wants it bad, and on and on.

That is certainly within the normal price range for that particular model. I am certain if you look around you could find one for less. At some point you just have to say, I want it now, and that seems like a fair price. That is of course your call.

The bottom of the Springfield market would kind of tell you that for $600+ it should be very tricked out. It is at least twice and in some cases three times what I have seen base Springfield 1911 A1s sell for. But I have no information on that particular model to judge it by. Mine are mostly Colts, and Remingtons, with a few other makes thrown in. Most are pre model 70's. I have some Springfield's but they are all from the original Springfield, not the Springfield of today.

Most of my work-a-day .45s are para-ordinance, and I am very happy with them. I also have the EAA models mentioned above, and I am happy with them as well. For ME personally the Springfield is too expensive as I would prefer to start with the base gun and build up my own. But it would cost more in the end, So $600 does not really look that bad.

Regards
 

.40 Cal

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Thanks Hawk. I'm waiting for the purchase permit to come through. Hopefully it will be back by Tuesday. I just put in for it. You have to get a new permit every time you want a new pistol if you buy them one at a time. I should have applied for my 3 gun limit last time, but I didn't think I'd have the extra cash.
 

Hawkflyer

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.40 Cal wrote:
Thanks Hawk.  I'm waiting for the purchase permit to come through.  Hopefully it will be back by Tuesday.  I just put in for it.  You have to get a new permit every time you want a new pistol if you buy them one at a time.  I should have applied for my 3 gun limit last time, but I didn't think I'd have the extra cash. 

Well as you know Virginia has the one handgun a month law. This is beginning to produce a real financial hardship for some of us up here. I almost did not make the quota last month.:lol:
 

Goliath

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I own a Rock Island Armory .45 which is a copy of the Colt Commander. After breaking it in, what a hardship to have to shoot, it works great. The Colt parts that I have bought as add ons, new grips etc, drop into place without and issue. They run anywhere from $350-$399. For the money they are very reliable. Guns and Ammo did a torture test of them against some others like the Kimber and they stood the test well. They even cycled while fired under water 50% of the time. Here is the link to the article http://www.advancedtactical.com/sweeneyarticle.pdf

Goliath
 
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