Hey,

I bought a SA Gi .45 1911, and I love the look, but it has alot of feeding problems, almost 1 round per mag has a feeding problem... is this the gun or the mag? or the ammo?

Also, at 10-15 yards, I have trouble hitting a torse sized piece of paper... what is going on? I can take my Dad's Browning Hi Power 9mm and hit pop cans at this range...

Any good 1911's that will shoot 5-10" groups at 25 yards?

-David

Send it back for repair.

Most likely a mag problem but also try different ammo to make sure.

As for accuracy, SA uses two-piece barrels in the lower priced guns. Two-piece barrels are much less accurate than their one-piece brothern.

On my mil-spec SA, I replaced the barrel with a Wilson NM & replaced the trigger. Now it shoots 2-3" groups @ 25 yards with cheap ammo if I do my part. So for less than $200, I made my mil-spec shoot as good as a Gold Cup costing twice the price.

My .o2

I've had my GI for a few months now. It shot regular hard ball perfectly all the time, when I switched to my handloads (semi wadcutters) I had ftf's all over the place. I simply polished the feed ramp and chamber to a mirror finish and solved the problem. Now it eats any type of ammo.

I hated the damn tiny  sights on mine but at 10-15 yds,  but I could still get decent grouping. Usually all 7 rounds touching, so I changed out the sights to kings hardball. That made shooting easier but still didnt give me the accuracy I wanted. So I installed an adjustable straight trigger, cleaned up the sear and lightened the pull a little.

Today, I can shoot 1.5 inch or less groups at 10 yds. I recently shot with a buddy who has a new kimber that cost about 2 grand or so and easily outshot him...

WOW! I have never realy had a problem with my G.I. and factory mags. The only time I had a problem with mine was when I tried to shoot the 100pak rem hps out of a shooting strar 8rd mag and it jammed. The same ammo worked great in my factory 7rd mags. I would try to polish the feed ramp area and make sure the pistol is cleaned and properly lubed but not over lubed and hed back to the range with some 230grfmj and see how it does.

EDIT: mine is also a tack driver. I actualy shoot more accurate with those small sights than with my other SA that has night sights. It just takes to long to get on target for my carry gun.

My GI runs perfectly and did right out of the box.   It's also 2liter pop bottle accurate at 80 yards so yours is broke, send it back.   Ditto on the tiny sights, I shoot very well at distance with them but it takes awhile.

Mine shot flawlessly no matter what I did to it.  It by no means resembles a WWII mil spec anymore but I wont hesitate to buy another one to keep bone stock because of how great of an experience I had with it.  Try a 18 1/2 recoil spring and winchester white box 230 gr. fmj's, if it doesnt work after that, send it back for warranty, itll probably come back with a custom shop certificate and run better than a lot of the semi-customs out there.

As for accuracy, SA uses two-piece barrels in the lower priced guns. Two-piece barrels are much less accurate than their one-piece brothern.

The two piece barrel should not effect accuracy at 10yrds,  maybe 50yrds and only slightly.

If the gun is a jammomatic and nobody can group at 10-15 yards you have two problems and should send it to Springfield to get fixed.

Quoted: The two piece barrel should not effect accuracy at 10yrds,  maybe 50yrds and only slightly.

My experience with the two-piece & the results of the one-piece replacement are the opposite. My groups dropped to less than half of what they were before. Brownells sells SA two-piece barrels for approx $65 or so each, you're not going to get a quality barrel for that amount of money.

Quoted: Hey, I bought a SA Gi .45 1911, and I love the look, but it has alot of feeding problems, almost 1 round per mag has a feeding problem... is this the gun or the mag? or the ammo? Also, at 10-15 yards, I have trouble hitting a torse sized piece of paper... what is going on? I can take my Dad's Browning Hi Power 9mm and hit pop cans at this range... Any good 1911's that will shoot 5-10" groups at 25 yards? -David

I have this model SA GI .45 (GI .45 4", Champion PW9142L)
I had feed problems right out of the box. I sent it back to SA for repair. It was back in 10 days and hasn't acted up since. It will eat anything I feed it, from the crappiest hand loads to Winchester Ranger 230gr +p JHP
It is amazingly accurate for a 4" .45 It will defenately shoot better than 5" @ 75 yds! The stock rear sight leaves alot to be desired though. I replaced it with this rear sight from Chip McCormick.
It's a simple drop in that really works well. Don't forget to Lock-tite the set screw!
Hope this helps