I picked up a used Gold Cup National Match Enhanced for cheap. But, the finish is quite worn and the GCNM isn't exactly how I would configure a 1911. Besides the finish, the front sight is loose and the rear Elliason cross pin seems kind of weak.

Do I have Wilson sights & Speed Chute installed, checker the front strap, and have the pistol gone through?

Or do I keep it how it is and buy the 1911 in the configuration that I want?

Or do I sell it knowing that I would shoot my other 1911s more often?

I really like the Colt Combat Unit, but it's missing the mag well. The Dan Wesson Specialist checks all the right boxes. As does the Springfield TRP Operator, but I can't support a company that throws gun owners under the bus.

A Wilson rear can be made to work, but because it's a Series 80 the elevation screw is further back to the rear and the sight blade will be hanging way behind the rear of the slide.

Those Gold Cups never came with mag wells.

The grip tangs were usually way over cut for the duckbill and would have to be welded up to fit a beavertail.

They had a big steel trigger and sear depressor spring that was a clusterfuck.

I wouldn't waste any money on it personally.  If it was in new original condition it would be worth decent money.  If you had if fixed up, it would probably not increase in value at all.

I say flip it and get what you want.

It already has the vertical lines on the front strap so I wouldn't checker it, as to the roll pin on the Elaison sight, they always walk, I had a slightly larger one put in mine.

Since it's not what you want, rather than put money into making it into something it isn't, I'd sell it and buy yourself something more in line with what you're looking for.

That's my view.  The GCs don't make a good base gun for several reasons.  They're like a museum of bad ideas.

That is only true if what you want is a tackicool 1911. The original purpose behind a GC was to shoot bullseye competitions, a discipline where they do very well. The relatively recent trend for everyone to want to pretend to be operators and have guns that make them think they are a high-speed, low-drag kind of guy, requires a totally different set of specs in a pistol.

If you are planning on shooting some kind of competitions where you need the  flared magwell, super-dooper sights and other stuff, you should look into what the shooters at the top of the game use and then tailor a gun to those specs. To condemn the Gold Cups because they don't fit you wants and desires, just shows your general lack of knowledge.

To the OP. If the gun in it's current configuration is not what you want, sell it and get what you think you need. From what you seen to be interested in, you should do some research and spend the money to get the gun that will fit your needs.

Yes, an original Gold Cup was a bullseye gun.

The Gold Cup Enhanced is not a legal bullseye gun.  The museum of bad ideas is a better description than I could come up with.

Once upon a time it was a bullseye gun.  A lot of the things they did to make the gun more shootable were unique and arguably poor design choices which have been adopted as innovations by nobody else in the bullseye game.

I will say the latest Gold Cup Trophy models look pretty good; they finally figured out how to mount a Bo-Mar so that it wasn't hanging off the back of the slide so much and actually checkered the frontstrap instead of those ugly and limiting 20 LPI serrations.  I believe they also ditched the sear depressor lever long ago too.

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There is a lot good stuff in this thread. There are sight options, Kensight, make a drop in replacement for the Elliason. There are a few others. You’ll have to dig in at the 1911 specific sights. If you got for a solid price, try and flip it and put money into something else.

I kinda like gold cups. I've never owned one but like shooting them. I also liked the survival blog books

I like a blued NM Gold Cup.  The enhanced ones were not my cup of tea.

I've owned two Gold Cups, I wouldn't they are bad ideas but rather the idea they were designed to fill is no longer in vogue.

My last one (both were Series 70s) was hard chromed and had an Ed Brown beavertail (duckbill?) safety that was fitted as well as any other 1911 I've owned along with an Ed Brown slotted hammer and solid NM bushing. I kept the factory trigger and it provided a great break. As far as the mag well, I used the S&A one piece backstrap/mag well, it worked great, it is easy to put on and easy to take off.

I shot it in USPSA for years and every now and again I'd replace the rear sight pin with another drill bit of the proper size. It ran great and other than the drill bit pins it was never a problem.

What *I* would do.

My .o2