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My son emailed it to me.

74novaman wrote:

The Annoyed Man wrote: But, I'll add that if you look hard enough, you'll find a rash of complaints on the Interwebs about every gun make or model ever made....

This is probably the biggest lesson people who read gun forums should learn.

When it comes to guns, especially handguns....the choice is intensely personal. What fits you, feels good, is a good size for you to shoot/carry/conceal...may not fit someone else AT ALL.

Someone, somewhere will bash any gun possible. Best thing you can do is go by your own experiences.

gigag04 wrote:Springers are good, and can be found at a decent price point. A commander sized Springer would be great.

I'll second that. My Springer has been very reliable, and I bought it used at a fair price ($650). But, I'll add that if you look hard enough, you'll find a rash of complaints on the Interwebs about every gun make or model ever made....Kimbers included. I own a Kimber. My son owns one. His fiancé owns one. A couple of friends of mine have each bought one based on having a chance to shoot mine. None of us has ever had a single problem with them except for one minor issue with mine when I first bought it, and Kimber's customer service took care of it with one phone call at no charge. The gun was back up and running within less than a week, and has fired a couple thousand problem free rounds since then.

The point being, don't put too much stock in what people say about a particular brand of 1911.....unless everyone is saying that they are junk. Gun owners in general and 1911 owners in particular have tremendous brand loyalties, and to them anything else is junk. I had one very bad ownership experience with a Sig GSR Carry Stainless, a Commander sized stainless gun. She was a beauty, but she was also an unreliable and treacherous wench. I'll probably never buy another Sig 1911.....and yet there are a lot of people that swear by them. Are they good pistols? Very probably yes. Love or hate Sig pistols, they have an excellent and well earned reputation.

I would base my decision less on brand reputation, and more on whichever brand/model gives you the best combination of features at the price which you can afford. BTW, at the lower end of the price spectrum, RIA 1911s have a good reputation, but just be aware that they do have issues with the dovetails they cut into the slide for sights. They seem to use a proprietary cut, and the aftermarket for sights for them is somewhat diminished as a result.