Different world/time when I was in it...
Oh, and I'm not going into assachusetts with my firearms since I don't have a PRM permission slip...
Plus, I'm out of this thread. The guy asked a question, I suggested he outline what he wants to do with the 1911 in order to get better information. You decided to rant about cheap 1911's... IMO, I'd rather spend a bit more to get a much sweeter pistol. Especially for competition shooting. Even to carry, I'll either tune the pistol, or have it tuned to be exactly what I want. That means paying a qualified, quality smith to do the work. If you have issues dropping a few bills to have sound work done, you have deeper issues that won't be solved here.
/out