best 80% handgun

[Sigmund Sauer]

Hi, friends, can you give me pointers on which (legal) 80% handgun kits are the best, and easiest to build for a novice.

There are so many online.

Thanks,

[flhxxx]

Legal is the tuff part these days with the end of SSE as codified by the good folks in Sacramento. Some people believe they can get around it by building a standard single shot firearm, some people believe it requires a break action single shot "upper"... It depends on who you ask, but you better cover your bases, you do not want to be found on the wrong side of these laws, the penalties are very steep.

The 80% handguns I like are from 1911builders, stealth arms and limited-10. Matrix Precision makes some great tools to complete them. Do your homework before you start, don't do anything that would violate the law, it's not worth it.

[flhxxx]

BTW - If you go the 2011 route with the limited-10 they can sell you a break action upper and you will absolutely be good to go from a legal perspective.

[lanzer]

Hi, friends, can you give me pointers on which (legal) 80% handgun kits are the best, and easiest to build for a novice.

There are so many online.

Thanks,

As others have mentioned, 1911's are pretty much what's out there for 80% builds. There's less work required when you buy quality parts, but majority of the work is done on the frame itself, and all parts require some hand fitting either way, so I often question if the price premium is worth it. Even with a good kit (which I think are rather expensive, at more than $1000), you still need some good quality tools to complete an 80% frame and for fitting various parts together. You can save a few bucks by buying generic tools but otherwise you're looking at around $400 to $500 for tools alone.

If you're ready to spend that much money on building your handgun, then perhaps you would want to buy a low priced 1911 just to take apart and study. A functional gun works great as a reference when fitting your own parts. You can also choose to use the parts from the gun when building your own, or sell that gun when you're done learning.