As always, someone has to ask what you want the gun for. What do you want to do with the gun? You've listed NO requirements at all--it's like someone asking 'what truck should I buy', but not saying they want to 'look cool', 'get 40 mpg', or 'tow my 13,000 lb RV'.
For carry, accuracy, cost, competition (IDPA), feel and general pleasure, I chose the M&P 45 Compact. It's a cheap plastic gun that I happen to consistently shoot more accurately (and faster) than the Les Baer and Ed Brown customs I've fired...at 1/5 the cost. Plus it's an 8+1 I can actually carry.
If you're willing and able to spend a mortgage payment to get the orgasmic sound of a 1911 slide dropping home on a new round in the chamber, I'd go that way. DA/SA is not a problem or me and I owned a gorgeous P220 ELite Stainless for years that I felt was the finest handgun money could buy--until I eventually realized it was the finest useless handgun I owned, and sold it.
I definitely can understand the feeling of naked vulnerability that comes with not have a 45 auto handy. I also understand the satisfaction that comes from a small 8+1 cheap plastic gun that comes out of the holster and puts two in a 1" circle everytime..and believe me, I swore I'd NEVER buy a plastic gun.
The proof was in the shooting, and I chose cheap plastic gun--that shoots like nothing I've ever shot before or since.
For carry, accuracy, cost, competition (IDPA), feel and general pleasure, I chose the M&P 45 Compact. It's a cheap plastic gun that I happen to consistently shoot more accurately (and faster) than the Les Baer and Ed Brown customs I've fired...at 1/5 the cost. Plus it's an 8+1 I can actually carry.
If you're willing and able to spend a mortgage payment to get the orgasmic sound of a 1911 slide dropping home on a new round in the chamber, I'd go that way. DA/SA is not a problem or me and I owned a gorgeous P220 ELite Stainless for years that I felt was the finest handgun money could buy--until I eventually realized it was the finest useless handgun I owned, and sold it.
I definitely can understand the feeling of naked vulnerability that comes with not have a 45 auto handy. I also understand the satisfaction that comes from a small 8+1 cheap plastic gun that comes out of the holster and puts two in a 1" circle everytime..and believe me, I swore I'd NEVER buy a plastic gun.
The proof was in the shooting, and I chose cheap plastic gun--that shoots like nothing I've ever shot before or since.
Going back further I suppose some caveman was very suspicious that copper or bronze could ever have the natural feel of a good old fashioned stone axe. As long as there have been new materials there have probably been folks complaining that the old proven ones were better. I know a lot of archers were contemptuous of those absurd gunpowder weapons. Ah, the bow and arrow; an elegant weapon for a more civilized age.
