My first 1911 45

I looked at buying my first 1911 off the shelf, semi-custom or custom. Dollars count but so does value. After reading many reviews I went for semi custom, full size, 5" match barrel, 45 acp from Fusion Firearms last week. The all stainless gun (including small parts) is set up for bullseye competition only. Set up includes 12 lbs spring, 3.5 trigger pull and frame mounted scope. Hard to wait the 12-16 weeks but winter leagues are done for this season. Getting ready for my 2nd year in BE. I can still change my custom order, any suggestions welcome.

I own several Fusions, and with the exception of a Fusion built lower with a marvel Unit 1 none are currently used for bullseye competition. In my opinion (based only on the ones I own, .45's and 9mm's as well as the .22) they are fine pistols, decently built with quality parts certainly worth their cost, especially since you get to choose among so many build options. Generally, the fit and finish is nice, well fit slide to frame, bushing to slide and barrel, nice crisp triggers. However on all but one of my Fusions the barrel lockup leaves something to be desired - especially for the consistent accuracy required by bullseye. The one that does have good barrel fit (a .45 long slide) IS consistently accurate and I would not hesitate to use it for bullseye if the need arose. For me they are fine general range, self defense and (club level) action shooting type competition pistols. That said if you can get them to assure you (and it actually happens) that the barrel will be "hard fit" with no movement when you push downward on the barrel hood you'll likely have a good "out-of-the-box" bullseye capable pistol.

I've also found the time completion estimates to be a little optimistic despite their best effort. You will find the Fusion people reachable and easy to work with. My thoughts based on my experiences. /MK

Thanks for the help.
If Bob knows this is a single task gun will he automatically make the lock up better? My original request was to produce 1 1/2" groups at 50 yards.

Just wondering how much to push.

that you want the barrel "hard fit" with no movement when you push down the hood in battery. He may or may not "automatically" do it. Actually on a semi-custom at these price levels ALL of the pistols barrels should lock up tight. I'd make sure he KNOWS that you are insisting on this tight lockup and have him check for it (as he likely will not do the fitting himself) before completing the pistol. Bob and his team are great, cooperative, flexible and easy to work with but they have, at times, "forgot" things that we discussed or that were (written) in the original order as they are very busy and tend to do things in "batches". For example, I had specifically noted in the original order on my wife's 9mm that it have NO front serrations and, Low and behold when he sent me pictures it had the front serrations. He offered to replace the slide but after waiting 38 weeks for the pistol I just told him to forget it and send it as it was.

If you want to talk about this further end me a pm. /MK