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One of the most attractive pistols i have ever held in my two hands...the grand raptor shoots as well as it looks. When it comes to 1911's few are perfect but this one is definitely close. I know some will say but no $ 1400 pistol should have any plastic parts (the mainspring housing) did they do it to shave savings, most likely they did it to shave weight. Others will say its got mim parts in some key places...and yes it does....but both these issues can easily be worked out by a competent gunsmith. Thankfully here in Georgia we've got Ray V. One of the very best. And after all $1400 is still a far cry from $3100 and a year's wait for a WC or a NC. So I got my baby home cleaned her up and off to the range we went. I searched for flaw and couldn't find one. She ran beautifully. Sorta like those old singer sewing machines. While there were a few changes I knew I wanted to make I must admit they were not out of necessity but personal taste. The plastic mainspring housing had to go besides I wanted to add a magwell, so ed brown's maxiwell came running to the rescue and took out two birds with one stone. The slide to frame fit was awesome just as much more expensive offerings. The trigger was good but not great. So to my gunsmith's advice... C&S ultimate match trigger group and Wilson Combat speings. To which he then applied his bag of magic...out came greatness. A beautiful two toned (the blueing on the grand raptor is outstanding) hunk of metal, wood, and sexy. The "Vand Raptor" as I call her now sports a 3.25-3.5 pound glass rod break trigger(with less than 1mm of creep and no over travel) , a blended magwell, a slide that floats over the highly polished hood, barrel and feed ramp like glass. Not to mention the match grade barrel that was 11° match crowned barrel that was then trumpeted flush with the custom fitted stainless steel barrel bushing. So yes I did make a few changes to a nearly perfect weapon. But what I ended up with is truly perfect for me. And still did not cost as much as a custom Les Bear that it heavily resembles. (Had a chance to shoot one recently a fellow at the range saw my Kimber and thought they were twins... so we traded for a moment... we both admited his L.B. was more expensive but my custom Kimber had a better trigger...guess I have my buddy Ray to thank for that.)
Could not be happier.... grand raptor fan for life.!!

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