[Quentin]

Welcome, Dogomatic, nice to see a fellow Vietnam Vet here! And sorry I missed your thread until now. I'm also 5'9" with medium hands and through the years have carried a Colt Government Model Series '70 with confidence as it never has failed to fire. Besides being nearly 100% reliable it is reasonably accurate. It is the perfect bedside gun when things go bump in the night. I would lean toward a looser, more reliable gun instead of a tight accurate one. With just normal maintenance and a few spring changes this 35 year old Colt is as reliable as when it was new.

My only real complaint is the grip is a little skinny, I like the fatter Browning Hi-Power or even Para Ordinance grip better. If that also is the case for you try the $19 Hogue rubber 1911 grips, they really give you something to grip. I also tried a flat mainspring housing but like the rounded A1 housing that came with my Colt better.

I would grip as many different styles as you can but it's hard to beat the full size 1911A1 with Hogue grips. Great suggestions already made in the thread and Springfield is a good choice but there's something about a Colt. Don't forget to try the hi-cap Paras which would be great if you really want rapid fire and more than 7 rounds per magazine. Being an older guy I'd stay with single action because it's so familiar but no doubt there are good DA 45s out there.

Last year a friend who was one of the Army's first female helicopter pilots said she wanted to buy a 45 and her dad always told her to buy Colt. She had a Python but now wanted a 45 and we found a used Colt 1991 and I checked it out before she bought it. Stripped it down and it looked like new. We took it out in the desert and fired 200 rounds through the 8 military mags it came with. Some was pretty rapid fire but most was measured fire. Anyway, with 7 of the mags the gun was 100%. One mag did have issues and I marked it so she'd only use it for practice. Great gun and she's real happy with it. She also put on a Hogue grip. Her only problem is she's not quite strong enough to field strip it and get it back together with the recoil spring it came with. She can with a lighter spring but I'm not sold on that either, we're still thinking about that problem.

[hunter Joe]

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The indoor firing range I work for is a Springfield Stocking Dealer. I shot just about every 1911 produced before I purchased my Loaded Operator.

As an employee we can buy one Springer a year at a pretty nice discount and that in itself makes me feel obligated to let other people shoot mine. I have been told by almost everybody that has test fired it that it's the nicest and most accurate 1911 they have ever shot. I let a fellow with a souped-up TRP shoot it yesterday and he E-Mail me today calling me many unpleasant names because he liked the Operated better which retails for around $600.00 less.

At around $1200.00 it's really worth a look IMHO, and by the way, I think it's just about as sexy as I am. Good luck, Joe

[HOKIE_FAN]

If you have $1200 to spend i would go with the Springfield TRP. If you have a few hundred more...LES BAER all the way.