One Gun for Bullseye, Steel Plate, & Pin??

[huntingnt]

I was looking at getting back into bullseye and also happen to enjoy pin and steel plate shooting.
Any suggestions on off the shelf guns or should I have a smith build one?
I'm not looking for optics and even a hardball service pistol would be good.
Am I asking one gun to do too much?

[Corey ACP]

I don't think you are asking to much for one gun to be able to preform at all.
As you are asking for suggestions, I will offer mine. Les Baer Premier II .45 You can get it in 5" barrel or 6" barrel. My 5" model out of the box will constantly shoot a single ragged group at 25 yds as well as 2 1/2" group (when I can do my part) at 50 yds. using my handloads. All with Iron sights. I use it for PPC, IDPA, Steel, and Pin shoots at my club, www.udpl.net If you have the $$ (Les Baers are not cheap)
YMMV

[ACP230]

I've shot all three with a custom Para-Ordnance with a Caspian "Hybrid" top end.
It's a better pin gun than a bullseye gun, but works just as well on plates as on pins.

[HSMITH]

I don't think you are asking too much of one gun.

If it were me I would pick up a NRM Colt Government and send it to a good Smith for barrel fitting and sights after I had taken care of everything else.

[Archie]

All three disciplines require a certain degree of accuracy. A 45 hardball gun will deliver all the accuracy needed for either pins or plates.

About the only drawback I can see is the rear sight. I believe a hardball gun has to mount the rear sight in the original dovetail; I don't think the rear sight can be 'sunk' into the slide - restrictions on 'original configuration'. The higher front and rear sight might complicate your holster selection, but probably isn't an insurmountable problem.

Still, good sights, a clean trigger, the ability to produce small groups and function with full charge ammo is a pretty versatile shootin' iron.

[Justin]

Hardball gun =/= Bullseye gun

I speak from experience.

Shooting an EIC hardball gun is something that can be done for bullseye, and is, in fact, what I do. But it still puts you at a bit of a disadvantage- iron sights, heavier trigger pull, etc.

Though I'm toying with ordering a pair of Nil Grips and just swapping them depending on what I'm shooting.

Or I'll just man up and learn to really shoot the .45...

[Canuck-IL]

I think you can, surprisingly, sink the rear sight. Below is from the Bullseye reference url
==========
EIC Service Pistol Mods - from http://www.bullseyepistol.com/dcm.htm

Trigger pull must be at least 4 lbs.
Grips, right and left, must be "mirror image" no thumb rest.
Pachmayr style wrap around grips are legal as long as they do not have finger grooves. [ed. I believe there is also a total width restriction]

ADDITIONAL RESTRICTIONS:

LEGAL ITEMS
Extended Triggers
Adjustable Triggers
Vented Triggers
Trigger Shoes
Bright Finish
Colt "Gold Cup" (no illegal items)
Front Strap Stippled
Gold Cup Dimple
Lowered Ejection Port
Rear Sight "Melted" into Slide
- - -
ILLEGAL ITEMS
Allen head or torx head grip screws
Ambidextrous Safety
Beavertail Grip Safety
Combat style hammer
Covered Mainspring Housing
Extended Magazine Release
Extended Magazine Well Funnel
Extended Slide Stop
Extended Thumb Safety
Magazine Base Pads
Ribs

The reason most hardball guns don't have a sunken rear sight is for the longer sight radius the high mount allows. You can't have the comfort and higher grip of a beavertail if you want to shoot service pistol but it would be ok for conventional BE. Other than that, BE allows a 3.5# trigger pull while service is 4#s...the rest of the variations among the disciplines (pin, plate, BE, service) would be in bullet wieghts, powder loads and recoil springs.
/Bryan

[huntingnt]

I was thinking of starting with a series 70 gold cup as a base gun. Would it be good enough until I could have some work done on it(barrel/bushing, slide tightened, and a trigger job)? Are the Eliason sights decent?
Am I starting too high, or should I get a very base gun and go from there? I'm not really bent on shooting EIC, it's just something I did when I was in the Navy and the only frame of reference that I have.
I was actually thinking of going with a beavertail safety for the plates.
Any other suggestions would be appreciated.
Any recommendations on leather for the pins and plates?

Thanks again for all the help

[Magnumite]

Your Gold Cup is actually designed to shoot bullseye matches, though it does not qualify as EIC hardball match pistol. It will work well for all three disciplines if you desire. If you don't care for the Elliason sights you can get a replacement rear sight from Millett.

If you soft spring your Gold Cup for speed shooting with 825-900 fps 230 grain loads for shooting bowling pins, then you are set up for softer shooting steel and bullseye loads. The softer recoil spring prevents the front sight from dipping too much when the slide goes into battery. These lighter recoil springs are usually rated from 12 to 14 pounds, standard force spring is a 16 pound spring.

[GTOShootr]

Any recommendations on leather for the pins and plates?


Yes, start with a quality Kydex, like a BladeTech, and then think about a faster "race" holster later, Ghost or Safariland 012.

[tjtucker]

I like the Hardball gun not a bad defense pistol either. How about a David Sams Hardball 92 F. Legal in hardball, bullseye, and all the rest. I have one it's great, easy to shoot and the ammo is cheap. The gun is match accurate 1.25 inch groups of 10 at 50 yards from a rest.

[Justin]

Also, if you wanted to use the same pistol for shooting Bullseye and IPSC, you could always get a Pardini GT45.

GT45 brochure. warning: bandwidth heavy pdf (http://www.pardini.it/download/DepliantTIRODINAMICO.pdf)

[Igloodude]

I've been working on the same concept, one .45 for Bullseye/pins/steel/IDPA/IPSC. In the end I decided to stick with my existing wad gun for Bullseye and get an EIC-legal hardball gun that'll also work for everything else. I got a milspec Springer that I got a trigger job and Bomars on, and I'm going to be sending it to Clark for accurizing soon.

I think Springfield just came out with a 'milspec' widebody 1911, so if EIC doesn't matter to you, you could go with that instead.

[Sunray]

My old Colt Series 70 with Millet high visibility sights does it. Stock everything else, but the trigger job, grips and sights. Used it once for a club bullseye match using 230gr cast flat points and 4.5 grains of Bullseye. It shot a one hole group. Not where I aimed it, but a one hole group just the same.
I've used it for pins too. IPSC/IDPA is too much running about for me, but I wouldn't think twice about using it for that either. Holsters aren't an issue for me. I make my own.
One pistol is a very good idea. A change of load makes it ready for anything.