Just got off the phone with the local gun shop. They have a Colt series 80 m1991a1 .45 acp for $849.00can which is about $740.00 Us. Does this sound like a reasonable price? Any opinions about the series 80 are welcome.

That doesn't seem too bad if it's a real clean weapon. New Kimbers can be had for about $900+ here in the states. Being a Colt doesn't mean much to me, have had 3 gold cups and everyone of them had to have work done on them to be able to shoot hollowpoints. It's harder, not impossible, just more work to get great trigger pull on the 80 series compared to the 70 series. Don't let that keep you from buying it if you really like it. Check for looseness on slide to frame, buggered up screws, scratchs @ left side by slide release (shows sloppy handling in takedown), feed ramp smoothness (see if anyone has done their own dremeling to open it up), and wear of finish. Your looking at a good chunk of change for a used one, when a new one isn't much more then a couple c notes on top of that one. Good luck

That's probably as good as you can do on a clean one in Canada. CHeck out P&D's (Edmonton) prices for some comparision shopping. I think you could dicker on them.
http://www.p-d-ent.com/pages/firearms/5-Pis-Res.htm

There's more ways to Bubba a 1911 than you can count. I'd ask a lot of questions about anything that isn't original equipment.

Bye
Jack

I should have mentioned it was new. I'm curious about the issues with it possibly not shooting hollow points without work. I don't want to have to get any work done on it because I live so far from any gunsmiths that would do that type of work.

The old Speer 200 grain flying ashtray was the cause of most of those hollow-point problems. It was so wide up front that it jammed on GI spec barrels. Speer discontinued it and replaced it with the reliable Gold Dot. The bullet on the left is the Flying Ashtray and the one on the right is the Gold Dot.

Don't know for sure about the Colt, but most factory barrels have a wider throat now than the old GI barrel had.

Bye
Jack

I bought a Gold Cup Series 80 NIB.
I've shot every type and brand of ammo I could find through it and have never had a jam. I have approximately 2000 rounds through the gun. The slide feels like it is on ball-bearings, although it has developed some minor play since I bought it new.

I have compared it to my friends 70 series, and I cannot tell the difference. I am not an expert, nor am I a life-long handgunner. Maybe I got lucky in my purchase, but I wouldn't trade that gun for the most expensive custom 1911 on the market.

Well I went to the store and checked it out, I instantly liked it. Tried the slide a bunch of times and it seemed fairly tight to me, but I don't have any real basis of comparison. I did notice that if I shook the gun the slide would rattle enough to be audible, is this normal? My only other concern was the grips were plastic, and I was hoping for wood.

A little slide to frame play is normal for a duty 1991. A match gun is tight but you give up reliability. Barrel to slide fit is more important for accuracy, as this is what keeps the sights and barrel aligned. You want a good trigger, but not too light. A cousin of mine fired the whole magazine on the first trigger pull, and he doesn't want a repeat performance.


There's quite a variety of grips available. Rubber, wrap around, plain to fancy wood and more. Check out the banners at the top of the M1911.org page. Esmeralda has some very nice wood.
http://forum.m1911.org/index.php?

Bye
Jack

Wow, grip heaven. Thanks for the link Jack, I'm usually not big on aesthetics, but real wood is nice.