RidiculousMetacarpus;n6632444
Never shot a les baer said:
jack[/U] to do with mechanical capability, i.e. reliability).
Actually, that's not true... unless the gun was built very capably, a tight slide to frame fit can be
detrimental to reliability. In fact, tight slide to frame fit (on a standard 1911 with iron sights) doesn't buy you much/anything in terms of accuracy, either, as long as the barrel's lower lugs are fit correctly. The barrel locking consistently into the slide is really what controls accuracy, and it's possible to do that without a ridiculously tight slide to frame fit. If you have a frame mounted red dot sight on the gun (ala an IPSC racegun), you need a tight slide to frame fit to ensure that the slide (and by extension, the barrel) is pointed to the same place as the frame - but that's a different story overall.
There's a few different ways to make the slide to frame tight, too, and some of them shoot loose after a few thousand rounds... so tight slide to frame fit can be deceptive in terms of the skill of the build.
I've handled some Baers. They're built and finished nicely, but in a practical sense you're correct - as long as both run, there's not a huge difference between it and an SA or Kimber from a reliability standpoint.
The bigger concern with the SA and Kimber factory guns, to me, is all the MIM crap in them. I haven't looked into it super recently, but for a while there, both manufacturers were using MIM parts for all the small parts in the gun - safeties, extractors, etc - and those parts have a history of early breakage. But, generally those parts are easy enough to switch out (minus the thumb safety, which requires some skill and knowledge to do well and not ruin the part or the frame of the gun while you're at it).
Youre kidding yourself if you think you're going to get 1 or 2 MOA out of a damn 45 cal pistol in any practical sense.
I've seen and shot 2 MOA capable .45s, but they were purpose built bullseye guns, and were fairly finicky. I've also handled and shot 2 MOA capable competition 2011s (wide body 1911) in .40 - these were highly reliable, in addition to being accurate. There's no reason why you can't build a .45 to do the same thing, and those guns are definitely out there. I have what used to be a 1 MOA capable 2011 (ie, 1/2" groups at 50y) - but it's a .38 Super racegun, and isn't "practical" from a carry gun standpoint (and it's also way more money than I would spend on a carry gun). I say "used to be" because I haven't sat down and tried to shoot a 50y group with it since it was new, about 12,000 rounds ago, so I don't know that it will still hold 1 MOA.
1 MOA out of a handgun is pretty damn stellar accuracy, BTW.
