With the exception of the Series 80 I had in the late 80's and early 90's (which I NEVER should have sold) I'm a little "new" to the 1911's. The recent purchased 1911 I bought was WAY more than a home fix. Even if if needed a new barrel (and not the original reamed, which should have NEVER happened), I would have wanted it replaced by the factory rather than spending the extra $$$ on a gun that I was trying to get a discount on. If I wanted to spend the extra $50.00 or so, I would have bought a better model. Ahh, we live and learn.....and I also agree, we all need to know a little about "do it yourself" when it comes to guns, cars, home appliances and more. There are a lot of real HACKS out there and it's hard to believe that they actually get paid to do the crap they do to our property. I rarely trust anyone with my cars etc. In this case, being new to the 1911 and it was BRAND NEW, I figured I'd leave it to the manufacturer or distributor. While I agree that none of the out of the box 1911's will work perfectly prior to a good break-in, the thing I bought wouldn't even chamber. It was terrible.
Thanks to this site, if I come across any other problems in the future, I know where to look first.
I'll let you know how the new pistol works whenever I get it. Heck, maybe it'll work great and I'll have some good info for you on a new one. (hopefully)
Blackhawker