hi, just started shooting a 1911 about 2 yrs. i went a bought a DW Valor after many hrs. of research
on what to buy. i did not want to get a low end 1911 and not have it be very accurate. and at the time,
i did not have enough cash to buy an Ed Brown or knighthawk custom or something like that.

i really love this valor and it shoots better than myself. ( in. groups @ 25 yds.)

but now i want to give this a rest and shoot another 1911. heard a lot of good things about the range officer
and was thinking about getting this one as a practice pistol.

i never shot one and don`t know of anyone around my area who has one to shoot.

can any of you guys tell me a little about this pistol? its accuracy, reliability, will it feed about anything?( i reload my own stuff )

thanks for any replies!

Mine has only been fed homemade 200gr hadcast (over titegroup) and 200 rounds of 230 fmj reloads.  only feeding issues (3 in 1,000) has been with bad reloads as the ammo did not pass the chamber check die as I dont always cc 45 acp.

A EGW hard sear and trigger w/ trigger job would help mine a little as I have slight creep.

Dont know a GS in this area so I deal with it. If  Iwas back in PA I may of had trigger job done by know.

Mine is one of the first 500 made if that means anything.

thumbsaftey can use a dehorn

no idea on group size as I only ever once shot for groups to zero the gun in the A zone at 25 yard.  It had no problems holding the A zone.

I have one.  It may be the most accurate pistol I own.  For the money these are impossible to beat.  My only issue so far has been with some gun show reloads and I wrote that off to so so ammo and breaking in the new pistol.  With factory ammo its been 100%.  I have no issues with the trigger on mine.

The creap is not really an issue, I can just notice it if I'm doing slow fire. It is small enough that I won't pay for a trigger job to fix it. I'm one who does not believe in stoning mim  parts, so the sear and hammer would be replaced with higher quality parts from egw.

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I have a RO in 9mm, and it's been nothing but awesome.

I have a RO and its ate all the standard 230gr ball without a issue, the gun is probably capable of better accuracy than I am

I have both. The valor is the better gun but the RO is no slouch. I am just as accurate with one as I am the other and both exceed my capabilities. I think the Valor may be more accurate but I just cant get used to the straight 8 sights.

I'm not a huge fan of adjustable sights, so I had mine sent back to SA to have the Heinie ez lock installed. The RO is quite a bit of gun for the cost (around $725 from buds right now.)

I only shoot factory loaded ammo and it has never hiccuped with 230gr fmj. I use Wilson 47d, SA 7 rd mags, and Chip Mckormick 10 rd mags, never a problem. (My valor has had a few issues with the 10 rders, but seems to have worked it out now)

Here is a picture of the ez locks.




I now want a RO in 9mm, the disease continues.

The RO is a good pistol, but for the money I would look at a Sig 1911

Even with the EZ Lock, the target sight cut on the RO is still a deal killer for me. The Ez Lock is nothing more than a ugly bandaid for the target sights IMHO

I have 3 DW 1911's, a Custom Caspian and a 9mm RO.  The 9mm RO was bought for some plate shooting that a club I am in does frequently.  The DW's are fit better/smoother and with better quality internals.  I went with the adjustable sights on the RO because I want to be able to dial it in for competitions with different loads or reloads.  The RO is made to be a range gun, not a carry gun.  If you don't like the adjustable sights, don't get it.  I can't understand when people get the RO and then complain about the adjustable sights???  It's not like they didn't know it came with them?  The rest of the gun is pretty much the same as the Loaded and other models except for the sights, so why get that model and them complain??  Makes no sense to me.  It's like buying a car where you don't like the color and then complaining about it when they had the color you wanted there as well, or buying a manual instead of auto transmission and then bitching about it.

Yes, the DW's are nicer, but the RO is pretty nicely fitted as well.  My dad has one, too and his is fit more like the DW's, but not quite as slick.  Mine has a tiny touch of slide/frame play where his has none.  I will either upgrade the internals as I go to better quality parts or trade it when I find a DW Pm-9 in my area.  Mine has been 100% reliable with the 9rd factory mags and 10 rd wilson ETM mags through over 300 rds (got it less than 2 weeks ago).  I have put numerous different types of ammo thru mine, no problems.  The 9mm has the fully ramped barrel, not sure of the .45 version.  My dad's had a hitch in it the first several mags where it wouldn't go fully into battery.  I took it apart and saw it was pretty dry oil wise inside, oiled it and cycled it by hand a bunch, running fine now!

hey guys, i know its been about 2 months since i posted here.
i went and bought the RO. i think its excellent! shoots very well w/ my 200gr. cast handloads.

and i love!.. the adj. rears. wish my DW V. had them on when i bought it. ( i`ve since put kensight fullly adj. rears on it )

i love it so much, i going to sell my valor now. maybe use the money toward an ed brown.

thanks for the replies. thats why i went out and bought the RO.

I have an RO and I'm very happy with it.  It is a fine pistol and the price is right.

According to SAs website the RO is built to the same specs as the TRP and Loaded line of 1911s minus night sights, ambi safety, checkered front strap and mag well.  Its on my list, next I think.  I have the TRP Operator and I like the adjustable sights.

I have the RO and a TRP. Get the RO. You won't be disappointed.

I have an RO, a Loaded Stainless and a TRP half rail and call it luck or whatever you want but I can't find a single flaw of any kind in any of them. Slide to frame fit is the same in all 3. No movement of any kind except forward and rearward and like glass on glass. Triggers are really sweet, but I must say just a bit heavy for my liking but I took care of that pretty easy. Accuracy is simply awsome. All 3 have been 100% reliable with anything I can feed them. (Factory Ammo). I don't reload of shoot anyones reloads.I my opinion, if you can find fault with the RO for the price point, you probably could and would find fault with perfection.
  I own 10 different 1911's and number 11 will definatly be an RO in 9mm then I can't see ever wanting to buy another 1911.

I have the RO 9mm and really love the gun.  The one issue I had was the lack of contract with the sights.  I fixed the problem with by applying day-glo orange nail polish to the front sight with a toothpick.  Having a contrasting front sight was a tremendous difference in sighting and aligning my shots.

Can anyone recommend a more permanent fix?  I'm looking for something visible, not a standard tritium night sight...

Dawson Fiber Optic.

Love my range officer. Going for the RO compact soooooon.

Bought a 5" RO last fall after being away from the 1911 platform for a long time.  WOW, this is a great gun.  

The R.O. In .45 and 9mm have both been great shooter in my experience.

Recently bought a range officer for uspsa (45acp). I really do like the gun and it shoots several loads really well. Last match I ran into a light primer strike issue. I had replaced the mainspring with a 19 lb spring from wilson combat i believe. Worked fine for about 250 rounds but then the gun got dirty enough that it wouldn't light primers off.

I'm sure replacing the firing pin would remedy this situation but at this point I'm not interested in going that route. Couldn't get my hands on a 21 pound so I purchased a 23 pound spring and trimed a couple coils off. Seems to be doing fine. Will run its through its paces before the next match

I've only shot 230gr RN hi tech coated bullets from MBC over wst. Shoot great! Will be working up a load in 200gr swc over wst next week and solely shooting those through the range officer. I don't anticipate a problem but you never know.