I have a Springfield 1911 loaded 9mm Stainless Target model. It has about 300-400 no-so trouble free rounds through it using factory Springfield mags. It was used and I paid $650 or $675 (can't remember) for a local sale.

- First time to the range, 35 rounds into the session the hold-down screw comes out of the rear sight and flies over the bench, while at the same time one of the two little tension springs falls into the dirt to be lost forever. I asked Springfield to send me new spring and hold-down screw as it was an easy fix. No can do, must send in the whole slide. The gun was down for 2.5 weeks.

- The gun had occasional (every other mag) fte issues which I fixed by adjusting the extractor.

- From day one grouping and accuracy was an issue with this gun, which I use for bullseye at 25 and 50 yards. It was simply all over the paper (and sometimes off the paper). I tested it in a rest, with different ammo, and with different shooters before giving up and sending it back to Springfield. I called to check on the gun and they said they verified the poor grouping and were working to fix it. The gun was at Springfield for 9 weeks. They replaced the entire slide and I think the barrel bushing as well. They fixed the grouping issues as proven by an included test target, but...

- Back at the range and the gun has serious failure to chamber issues. Sometimes it would be minor enough that I could hit the back of the slide with my palm and it would chamber the round, but most times the round would jam hard while climbing the ramp (as shown below) and the round would have to be racked out of the pistol. Again I tried multiple mags, ammo, and shooters. I thought about trying to fix it myself as I did not relish the idea of sending it back to the factory yet again. But by this time I was a bit disgusted with the gun so I sent it back to Springfield and told them to make it right.

The gun was only gone 5 days this time and they replaced and tuned the extractor and polished the feed ramp. It now sits in the safe until I have a chance to go to the range again.

The good news = I'm not the original owner of the gun and through it all there was no charge to me, including shipping both ways each time. Good on Springfield for that.

Not so good = Up until this point it has been one of the most trouble prone pistols I've owned over my 28 something years of shooting. I hope the problems are behind me now.

Target at 25 yards.