Springfield recommends that you only use manufactured ammunition in their Range Officer 1911 competition pistols. Is this a fact or are hand loads not a good idea for this pistol? Maybe just a liability issue with Springfield? Does anyone have suggestions for the best 45 ammo to use with a Springfield 1911 Range Officer?
Pretty much every manufacturer says to use manufactured ammo. They know the specs the ammo is manufactured to and they know what the pistol can handle.
I’m pretty sure using reloads invalidates the warranty.
Combine one idiot with reloading equipment and you could get a big boom.
Yep, that’s a standard disclaimer used by most manufacturers for liability purposes. There is nothing dangerous to the firearm or user when using properly prepared hand-loaded ammo. Those two words beginning with “p” are crucial, however.
Some manuals will warn against using “hot” +P loads, which are available for some calibers either as factory or hand loads.
If someone spent the money for a competition/match grade pistol, 1911 or otherwise, I don’t know why they’d shoot anything but.
Anything but what?
Manufactured or match grade ammo??? 
A lot of handloaders do so to work up more accurate loads than they can buy. The lower cost is a bonus.
Not sure why you’ve come to such a conclusion. I compete in USPSA and have lots of friends in this sport and others. Many competition shooters reload their own ammo for a myriad of reasons. It’s a fallacy to assume that factory ammunition is more accurate than custom ammunition tailored by the owner to the gun he or her will be using. It’s also cheaper once you get your set up and running.
As far as the OP, most manufacturers put such disclaimers in their manuals to cover their ass in the event someone blows something up through their own mistakes, incompetence, etc. Easier just tell people to use factory ammo as it’s a known quantity, more or less.
A few things:
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There is nothing wrong with handloaded ammunition, with the proviso that you stay within the SAAMI limits for chamber pressure. The firearm is proofed to that pressure anyway, so that’s OK, and handloads with match-grade components are often more accurate. For example, no common manufacturer 10mm load even approaches the chamber limits of my Glock 29, it’s all substantially downloaded. Handloading allows for the operator to achieve the optimal performance out of a given caliber/gun combination.
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No manufacturer will ever recommend the use of remanufactured ammunition for liability purposes. If it blows out your gun because you double-charged the ammunition they don’t want to be blamed for saying handloading was acceptable.
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Be careful firing unjacketed lead through guns with polygonal-rifled barrels. In fact, don’t do it. It can build up and increase pressures to unsafe levels. If you want to fire unjacketed lead reloads buy a traditional rifled barrel with lands and grooves. Glock, in particular, is a known issue with unjacketed lead bullets. KaBOOM!s are bad.
In your gun, following standard reload tables, with proper maintenance, should have no issues with reloads. If anything abnormal happens, though, it’s on you, so pay attention to what you’re doing and how your gun is behaving as you fire it.