"You win 100% of the fights you avoid. If you're not there when it happens, you don't lose." - William Aprill
"I've owned a guitar for 31 years and that sure hasn't made me a musician, let alone an expert. It's made me a guy who owns a guitar."- BBI
I agree entirely! Unless the seeker/researcher has some understanding of the subject he/she will have no idea if the presenter is a quack or FOS.
I'm referring to any and all topics, not just firearms. It's kind of related to reading product reviews online. We have to read through them carefully to figure which people sound remotely qualified to make an assessment. If the reviewer doesn't know anything about that specific product and those in the same market, he/she may be making a crap assessment.
Just shoot it.
The internet would have you believe that it is standard practice to buy a gun - especially a 1911 - and immediately start throwing parts away. The Silent Majority doesn't do that.
Code Name: JET STREAM
OP why not just get a Tisas Build Kit or their cheaper guns or something along those lines?
Gunshows worth going to seem to have disappeared around the time our betters banned people from smoking in virtually all venues, and that is going back a ways. I am a non-smoker and used to damn near gag from the atmosphere at most gunshows back in the day, but it was usually worth going into the tear gas because there were things of interest and deals to be made. If I am particularly bored, I may attend one now and again for old times' sake, but I go in with the certainty that:
1. anything there is overpriced and/or crappy
2. there may be worse smells than tobacco smoke.
I agree with the others that in this age of the internet, gunshow 1911s are generally clapped out junk that is not worth the time and money that would need to be put into them. The local gun shops seem to get a fair number of nice trade-in 1911s from people who got buyer's remorse after discovering they required effort to use and maintain, and occasionally one will find an example that is not priced ridiculously.
gn
"On the internet, nobody knows if you are a dog... or even a cat."
I got my stainless Super Blackhawk, with a nice Simply Rugged holster, for $350, but that was at least two decades ago...
I know this sounds like something my dad (RIP...) would say, but from a quick peek it looks like a beater 1911 costs about the same as a case of brass case ammo. No question that you would learn and benefit more from shooting a case of ammo than tinkering on a second pistol.