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Ordering a Colt Gunsite Pistol

19K views 87 replies 24 participants last post by  Onegoodshot 
#1 · (Edited)
That's it, tired of waiting for a Colt Defender! And my new Ruger Gunsite Scout rifle needs a suitable companion. I've sold my Les Baer Thunder Ranch Special (gasp!) and am using the cash to buy a stainless Colt Gunsite Government Model.

I am calling Gunsite tomorrow. Hopefully they will do some minor alterations to the pistol before they send it. I'm going to see if they will change out the slim grip bushings for regular, put a long trigger and an arched mainspring housing on it. I'll pay the up-charge of course. I'm just wondering if they will do that. It's hard to find a gunsmith in my area. Anyone know if they will do this?

So I'm looking forward to giving them a call tomorrow. I hope they are still on sale!
 
#36 ·
Okay I'm back with an update. I ordered the pistol last week of May. It seemed that Gunsite wasn't used to handling orders for pistols over the phone. I kept re-verifying my order through various emails to make sure the specs I wanted were not forgotten or missed. This didn't bother me too much since I understand Gunsite is a training school that happens to sell guns occasionally. And I don't have a local gunsmith so I was appreciative they were willing to do the custom features I'd requested. And the fact that Cory Trapp was doing them was certainly a bonus.

Three weeks or so after I ordered I emailed to check on the progress. The response was short, parts had to be ordered. Ok. No prob.

Couple weeks later my card is charged, so I'm starting to get excited they are working on the gun! But I don't want to be a pain by constantly bothering them for updates so I let a few more weeks go by before I contact them again, this time last Thursday. The email response I got was that someone signed for my pistol on 7/11. What????

I called my shop and they did indeed have it. I know those guys and I'd even made at least 2 trips there since they had it and no one told me it was there. Their prices are good, sometimes service isn't the best. I think when they get in transfers they just put them on a shelf and wait to be contacted. Add to that Gunsite never informed me they were shipping the gun and it has been sitting at the gun shop for about 3 weeks. :grumble:

I was unable to retrieve it this past weekend, but I will be picking up my new Colt Gunsite Pistol tomorrow after work. :D
 
#40 ·
I got the pistol in stainless. As for changes, I had them put on an arched mainspring housing, long solid trigger, regular bushings and screws and the darkest set of Gunsite grips they had.

Can't wait till tomorrow to check it out. Sounds like a great looking pistol!
 
#42 ·
It did indeed! I ordered it with regular size grips and an arched mainspring housing and an extended mag release, I believe. It was a great gun, I'll give it that. That is my old one, it was only on Bud's for a few days before it was purchased. That thing has about 200 rounds through it, I ordered it through Crazy John about 2 1/2 years ago. Make no mistake, it never gave me trouble, it just didn't click with me.

I think I scratched out my name or phone number with marker on one end of the box. The box has all the goodies that came with it. I'm happy it went to at least the sibling of a forum member. He's got a great gun there that has many many years of life left in it.

Ok, now I'm starting to miss it...
 
#43 · (Edited)
...okay, not missing it anymore!

Just picked up my new pistol. It looks great, fit and finish are very nice. Gunsite performed the modifications exactly as I asked.

The hammer is not Chip McCormick anymore, it is the same hammer used on the XSE series pistols. I like the current one better than the McCormick.

One problem I'm having is the magazines do not fall free from the pistol. And when you are inserting the mag you can feel it dragging on something. From what I'm reading (I'm no gunsmith by any means) I believe it is the trigger bow. For instance, with the mag inserted, when you takeup the slack on the trigger, the trigger stays in that position when you release it. When you remove the magazine and do the same thing the trigger will return to its normal position. This is pretty disappointing. If I hadn't run into a gunsmith at my local shop I'd be pretty upset since I didn't think I had anyone local to fix it.

The only other thing so far that was a surprise was the $100 shipping charge. That was unexpected. Shipping costs were never discussed. Wouldn't have stopped me from ordering but still...

Anyway I hope to get it out at the range in the next couple days to make sure everything is working right. After that I'll talk to my new found smith and see how much it'll cost to fix the trigger.

So, I was super excited when I finally got the gun today, yet once I examined it closer and discovered the trigger problem, it brought me down again. This entire process has been ups and downs. I'm determined to make this story have a happy ending, however.

...maybe missing that TRS a little. Just a bit...
 
#44 ·
I own a TRS and a Colt Gunsite, would not part with either one. My son has the blue Gunsite and I the Stainless, we ordered them at the same time, had them swap out the slim stocks for the smooth full size that they sell. Great gun, I carry either the TRS or Gunsite every day, and shoot them weekly. Enjoy.
 
#47 · (Edited)
Hello zenner, I was just reading through this thread and thought i'd add my .02 worth. I'm a gunsite graduate and was looking at both the blue and stainless versions of the Gunsite pistols quite a few years ago. Even then they were $1200.00, at least in the shop I was in. I have to say I was Underwhelmed. They had sights, the gunsite type low thumb saftety, matte finish, Gunsite logo on slide and grips and not much else that I could see. I think some folks really believe they are buying some finely fitted and tuned custom gun, but as you know, that's not what the Gunsite pistol is. The ones I examined displayed the regular production type loose fitting, production Colt type trigger pull, etc. Now days though, as prices have risen around them, their prices seem more reasonable in comparison. I think the main attraction is that the guns say "Gunsite" and "Colt". I have seen photos of Gunsite pistols also built on the Springfield chassis. I admit I'm not completely immune to the Colt/Gunsite mystique involved. One would think that though, even though it lacks the Baer's build quality, there should be no trigger/magazine interface issues. At least that is something easily addressed, just that you shouldn't have to be the one to fix it IMHO. $100.00 Shipping ??? I was within a few miles of there yesterday. If I ever decide to buy one, and that could happen, I'd definitely have to run over there and pick it up...ymmv
 
#64 ·
Your experience differs greatly from mine. I was not even familiar with the existence of the pistol till I ran across one in a store. I played with it and did some online research and made an offer. They in turn made a counter offer I accepted. Based on my examination in the store and my experience with pistols from certain other periods in time, I felt like this one was particularly well assembled. I was not disappointed. I might have selected other fc parts but the grip safety has pretty much caused me to abandon the others I have used. Like the op, I ditched the thin grips and short trigger. The flat MSh I retained.
 
#52 ·
zenner22,

Congratulations for your new Colt Gunsite pistol!

I have observed that Gunsite managed to match the beadblasted finish of your pistol in the arched mainspring housing and standard stcok screw. Could you confirm this point?

By the way, I still miss my former Colt Gunsite Pistol.

Javi
 
#53 ·
Sweet lookin Gunsite. That would have been my own first choice. My brother was asking my advice and I recommended the Gunsite to him for his first 1911 a while back. We also discussed LB and low and behold his first 1911 kills all the twenty or so previous 1911s I'd ever bought. I'm still likin' the Colt Gunsite. I have a shop nearby that has two Smith and Wesson 1911 Gunsite commander sized pieces used. Are these any good?
 
#54 · (Edited)
I'm back from my gun shop. I am extremely thankful they rehired a darn good gunsmith over there who knows his 1911s. He took my pistol, checked the trigger and in seconds had the whole thing detail stripped in front of me. Took him about 5 minutes to take the pistol apart, fix it and put it back together again.

He said the trigger bow had been bent inward around where it meets the trigger. He bent it back to its normal position and the trigger is fine now. One simple thing for someone who knows what he's doing but I would have been lost.

So I'm back to having good thoughts about that Colt Gunsite Pistol.

javichin, the mainspring housing and screws do match perfectly to the bead blast finish but I was given no information on what brand of parts they used. And Javichin, what happened to your Colt Gunsite?

Pythonman, I also own a S&W Gunsite Commander. I love the fact it's a full 4 1/4" barrel so it takes the GI plug and bushing. It's a geat lightweight Commander, the Scandium frame makes a huge difference when it's in you holster all day. Recoil is pretty soft, nowhere near what I thought it was going to be. More than a full sized gun but very manageable. Mine has been a very good performer, I'm happy with it. So, yes, go get one! You'll like it.
 
#57 ·
Unfortunately I had to sold the Gunsite pistol to a good friend of mine in order to raise funds to pay for my two Colt Custom Shop Model O package series 70. These two ponies are a beauty but believe me I still miss my beloved Gunsite Pistol.

Again, congratulations for such fine pistola
, with the standard cocobolo gunsite grips and the arched mainspring housing the pistol is just the perfect combat pistol!

Take care,
 
#58 · (Edited)
Took the Colt to the range today. Started out a bit scary as I was unable to feed the first two rounds of ball ammo by hand, they failed to feed out of the provided Wilson magazine. Third round went fine. I fired about 75 rounds of WWB through it. Had one more failure to feed with the Wilson mag and one failure to return to battery with a Colt mag. It appeared things were smoothing out, however I will need some more trigger time with it to make sure everything is working ok.

Onto the plus side, it is a very soft shooting gun. It has black Novak sights and I liked them just fine. I may at some point replace the front blade with a night sight. Trigger pull was great, very little takeup, clean break. Accuracy was very good as well.

I am assuming the failures to feed I had will work themselves out with some more rounds down range. If that happens there is no doubt this Colt Gunsite Pistol will take on a major role in my carry rotation. Now all I've got to do is figure out if I'm going to get the flats polished or not...

 
#60 ·
Would love to see some pics of that Yost Gunsite!

As a follow up to mine, I put another 70 rounds through mine. Had two failure to feed on the last round of a magazine. Believe I have traced that problem to the Mecgar magazine. I've marked it to verify next time I'm out. But once I removed the mag from my rotation I stopped having feeding issues.

And the trigger on this gun is fantastic, really like it. I am very happy with the gun so far. Need to put more through it to ensure the feeding problems are gone, but I am really liking this Colt Gunsite.
 
#61 ·
Those very minor and simple changes that you're wanting Gunsite to do for you are within the skill level of even the greenest 1911 shooter. If I it were me, I'd do these very simple tasks myself. If you don't know how to swap out a main spring housing, change out a long trigger for a short one and screw in new grip screw bushings. It's high time that you learned and the guys here on this forum can walk you through it.

7th
 
#62 ·
Can you simply swap out for a shorter trigger without having to have it fitted or gunsmithed in? I mean, I for one have detail stripped my 1911s down to the bare frame and back many times but I thought the trigger parts had to be honed into place. If not I'd dearly love to swap for a shorter trigger as well when I order my arched mainspring housing on my 1991A1
 
#63 ·
Hi Zenner, love to post pics when I figure out how. I'm not much of a computer guy. I'm old school. A question for you. Is the barrel of your Gunsite fully throated or semi throated with the so called dimple at the 6 o'clock position. I looked at 2 Colt Rail Guns at my dealer and they both have the dimple. Just curious if the factory fully throated the barrel. Thank you much.
 
#66 ·
You know, as easy as everyone seems to say it is to change the trigger, I had the experienced Gunsite gunsmith do mine and he did not do it correctly. My local smith had to fix it by bending the trigger bow into place. So while it may be easy to do, the attention to detail still needs to be there.
 
#67 ·
I think today, lots of gun plumbers are in a big hurry. They install part x, the hammer falls in the shop and it gets sent. Now, if they missed something they will make good on it, but the insertion of a magazine and shots fired into the barrel does not seem to be sop today like yesterday.
 
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