My trusty Springfield .45 is getting pretty sloppy after shooting over 20000 rounds down range. I'm thinking it might be about time to consider a new barrel and bushing.  

Any recommendations what gunsmith I should send it to for this?  It's my primary carry gun. I want it to be reliable and reasonably accurate, but I don't want to break the bank to pay for it.

Any suggestions for a barrel and a bushing?

Send it back to SA

John Harrison

You could do it yourself. Worked for me.
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Springfield or Alchemy.  

Personally, I'd go with a Kart barrel by Alchemy.

20k is nothing for a pistol barrel. New hand fit bushing and barrel link perhaps but you are barely broken in on the barrel itself. What kind of groups did it get new? Compared to now? If the 25 yard group ( anything closer gives you almost no true indication of the pistols accuracy or lack there of) has doubled in size since new then bushing and maybe link makes sense. Most bullseye shooters ( where barrel fit and accuracy is king) rarely replace a barrel before 60 k and most will wait until machine rest groups at 50 yards will no longer hold x ring

It's never been too terribly accurate from the time it was new.  Of all my 1911's it has always been the worst. It's been good enough for close up defense work, but no competition gun by a longshot. As a result, I always figured one of these days I would try to do something about that to make it a better shooter, but I have continuously put it off for the last 15 years.  Then recently while I was cleaning it, I got to looking at how much slop is in the barrel while its locked in battery and realized why the accuracy could be better.  It's pretty damn loose.  Most concerning to me is how much vertical movement of the barrel hood I have while in battery. It's excessive. Also there is some slop between the bushing and barrel too while in battery.  It actually shoots better than I would expect for as loose as it is.

Why not tighten it up a bit, instead of replacing the barrel? A previous poster is correct, in that 20,000 rounds isn't a ton of rounds through a barrel. Have the smaller parts replaced first and see what happens.

I love pics of workhorse 1911s.

I bet SACS would do a good job and not take forever doing it.

If you feel confident I'd try fitting one myself.

Send it back to the Springfield Armory Custon Shop.  Maybe it just needs something as simple as a tune up.  They will evaluate it and the great warranty might cover it.

Sounds like you'd be well served with a gunsmith fit Kart.  When there is excessive movement at the barrel hood, it's going to be difficult to get good accuracy out of it and there's no cheap and easy way to fix it.  Welding and recutting the lugs is an option but rarely worthwhile in my experience.

Given the amount of guess work going on here as to what the issue is, it sounds like it would probably be cheaper and less time consuming to take the gun to a smith and let them figure it out and fix it.

Send it to SACS.