New Gold Cup Trophy

[Delmar]

A good friend of mine sold me a NIB GCT, serial number GCT111XXX with a blue finish, what looks like a Videcki 3 hole aluminum trigger, checkered flat mainspring housing, Elliason adjustable rear sight for $810. It seems complete, right down to the plastic baggie containing the weapon, bushing wrench, owners manual, and the warning from the New Jersey Attorney General's office. Oh boy....

As this is my first Gold Cup ever, I was wondering if anyone here owned one and what their experience with it is, and particular thing to watch for.

Really nice blued finish overall, of which I am an admitted sucker for. I noticed the slide is not super tight-in fact, there is a bit of wobble in it, and the bushing wrench supplied is not needed as the fit is similar to the 1991A1 I bought 2 years ago. I get a bit of small parts rattle when I shake it too, which kind of made me smile.
Some might think that means inaccuracy, but I'm not going to throw rocks at it until I shoot a few rounds through it. Is this normal for a Gold Cup? The book is telling me about sight adjustment at 50 yards-something about one click equals 3/8ths of and inch. I have heard stories about the roll pin leaving its station on the rear sight, but I do not plan on shooting anything through it much stronger than standard pressure loads, my thinking that the pin should be able to take the abuse.

What difference, if any, is there between the Trophy and the National Match?

I think it was a good buy, and if I paid a bit more than what it might be worth, I'm OK with it as he was laid off a couple of months ago-typical in the telecom industry these days.
I'm almost tempted to play hookey today and take it to the range just to see what it will do in my hands.

Any handload direction would be appriciated-I currently have some 200 grain lead semi wadcutters and W231 and Accurate #5 on hand. I made up 50 rounds with the 231 last night with 5.6 grains and 1.250" length. Two springs came with the weapon-the book tells me a wadcutter spring to be used along with the 7 shot mag, and a longer spring for standard pressure ammo to be used with the 8 round mag. The manual does not indicate the weight of either spring however.

I adjusted the the overtravel screw according to the manual by turning it in until the hammer would not fall, and then turned it back out until it just did, then added a quarter turn to make sure the sear nose would have plenty of clearance, and cleaned off the packing grease, lightly oiled the parts and put a dab of moly disulfide in the barrel link groove.

 

[farscott]

I have both the Gold Cup Trophy and a Series 70 Gold Cup National Match. The biggest difference, aside from the Series 80 parts, is the lightweight trigger in the GCT versus the "kidney" steel trigger and sear depressor of the GCNM.

Some Issues:

The rollpin in the rear sight will work its way free even with light target loads. It is best to replace it will a solid pin.

Eventually the rear sight may break. I have lost the springs and detents out of my GCT. You may decide to have the slide milled for the Wilson adjustable sight.

 

[mec]

My gold cup is a series80 enhanced just a bit older than your trophy. The roll pin in the rear sight did break in two after a couple of thousand rounds. I tooled down an allen wrench for a replacement. Mine has been extremely reliable and was accurate out of the box with 185- 200 grain bullets ranging from target velocity to +p. it would at least touch the x ring from the bench at 25 yards. With anybody's 230 grain ball, however, it threw five to seven inch groups at the same range.

Later I had it tightened a bit by Alex Hamilton who also applied some nice touches such as a videki trigger and the Wilson sights as well as a nice front strap checker. The factory trigger pull settled in at something between five and six pounds and was re-worked to 4.5.
this is about as good as i can do "NRA" slow fire at 25 yards:

 

[Delmar]

Thanks for the replies-I had heard the roll pin was shaky on these types. Why Colt continued this practice all these years is one of the reasons why Colt has the rep it does on an otherwise fine looking firearm. As I still have the warranty papers in the box, I am tempted to fill it out and in the meantime, run a lot of loads through it and see if Colt will repair it correctly.

Anyone know if a reputable company makes a replacement rear sight which does not require any machine work?

Nice 25 yard group sir! If you had been in my deer stand last year, that group would have nailed you a nice Texas hill country 6 point buck that wandered almost into my stand!

 

[mec]

thanks.

The sight on mine is a Wilson Combat made to fit the old, pre-dovetail gold cups.

 

[Delmar]

I jumped the gun, so to speak yesterday afternoon. I was supposed to go this weekend with the fella I bought it from and wring it out. Couldn't wait-took it to a local indoor range and fed it 100 rounds of handloaded Hornady 200 grain XTP's over 6.5 grains of 231 which have traditionally been good performers in my government models.

At 7 yards, 2 holes for 8 shots, and the 2nd hole was entirely me.
At 15 yards, one ragged hole at POI
At 25 yards, a 2 1/2 inch group nicely centered at POI.

My government models would do pretty much the same at 7 and 10 yards, but after that, this GCT was all over them!

I lie in wait for my buddy who bought one of those Kimber "super match, electronic turbo-hydramatic" target pistols because he thought the comparative looseness of the Colt slide would not give him the groups, and paid double the money for it.

The stock recoil spring seems about right for the load-the brass is ejecting about 6 feet to the right-rear and the firing pin strike is dead center.

I did a complete teardown last night and noticed a strange lump on the hammer, just below the sear notch which seems to pass through a mathcing cut on the sear. I have no idea of what it's for but I do know the trigger was very consistant shot to shot. Does this have something to do with the sear reset on firing?

 

[mec]

Mine looks better with these grips, I believe.

 

[Handy]

Delmar,

Sounds like you're describing some of oddness that is involved in the Gold Cup sear. It's very different than any other 1911 sear set up and has an extra spring and other differences.

Maybe someone could post a picture?

 

[BigG]

The Gold Cup has an extra little flapper piece and tiny spring called "anti bounce" IIRC. This has to do with the fact that the trigger of the 45 ACP actually stays put while the gun recoils and resets, in effect it can pull itself thru inertia. The normal trigger is light enough that it is not heavy enough to trip the sear while the humongous wide GC trigger is, hence the anti-bounce sear.

Delmar: enjoy your new piece. I enjoy my GC National Match pistols and shoot them often. Never have been able to wring the full potential out of those bullet launchers but that always gives me something to strive for. Enjoy!

 

[Delmar]

This hammer must be the vestiges of the old Gold Cup trigger set up, using the old steel cutout trigger-there is no spring, although I have the hammer of a GC, and a Videcki style aluminum trigger- no spring depressor on the sear itself. Still and all, it shoots verrrry well, and I am very happy with the way it launches bullets, at least the 200 grain XTP's. I bought a box of 230 grain XTP's yesterday and put 6.7 grains of Accurate #5 as a starting load to see what the heavy duty models will do.

 

[BigG]

Is the trigger slot wide or narrow like a std Colt? The National Match has a slot about twice as wide as a std model.

Unless Colt changed to a light trigger on the Trophy you may have a replacement sear and trigger in your pistol.

 

[Delmar]

The trigger is wide like a National Match model, but is made of aluminum. A3 holer like a Videcki, but the trigger is slightly longer than the long Videcki trigger. It was my understanding that Colt went to the sear depresser in order to prevent sear bounce with the older style steel trigger with the kidney shaped cutout, but I am not certain of that. The lump I described on the hammer is a triangular piece, but no hole drilled for a spring there or at the sear, and no additional link piece for a spring to fit on.

 

[BigG]

The triangular piece sounds like the vestige of the half cock notch. Colt went to the ledge in Series 80 instead of the captive half cock notch. If your thumb slips off the hammer it will be caught by the ledge. A trigger pull can drop it off the ledge but it doesn't fall enough to set the pistol off. In other words, sounds like you got a std Gold Cup hammer.

The trigger on the GCNM had more mass than the sear spring could take, hence requiring the depressor as a safety feature. Sounds like the new less massy alum trigger dispenses with that which is OK by me. Enjoy your pistol!

 

[Delmar]

Yes, it does have the 80 series ledge, just like my other two government models. I briefly took out the firing pin safety parts just to see if it would affect the trigger pull weight and could not tell any difference at all-the edges of the trigger safefy links are highly polished rather than what my G models showed. This is the first Colt I have ever bought that I did not have any inclination to fool with and it is a honey! Just ordered up 1000 new cases and some various bullets to load-next day air, of course! Just have to leave enough money to make the range fee this weekend!

 

[BigG]

I think the dissatisfaction with Series 80 trigger parts is greatly overstated. I can't tell a lick of difference and I shoot all kinds of Colt autos. There are some factory triggers that are better than others but I've never seen a Gold Cup of any color that I didn't like the trigger pull on.