advice on buying "one and only" gun

Of those four, my pick would be the 1911. But, I am strictly a revolver guy so, my advice is easily worth what you paid for it.


Kevin

I would pick the Glock 17. I would also shorten the frame to make it a bit more compact, and use Glock 19 magazines in it.

Unless things have changed quite a bit since my time, the 1911 pattern is the one to beat in most gun games. It has the potential for the best trigger, and aftermarket support is ideal, at least in the states.

The downside is that if you are looking at an actual Colt product, it will need a lot of work. That's not to bash Colt, but rather to point out their basic 1911s are farther from race-readiness than are many of the copycats.

IMHO: Personally, for your intended use, the CZ Shadow is best out of the box. The others can be modified.

I don't own one of these but if I were to buy a pistol for your purposes I would give the CZ A01-LD a serious look:




https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/cz-a01-ld-your-impressions.864617/page-2#post-11495216

https://www.ammoland.com/2019/08/new-from-the-cz-custom-shop-the-czc-a01-ld/#axzz6PfWBS4uF

https://gun.deals/search/apachesolr_search/806703917313

A Glock is easy to work on lots of after markets parts and customer service is outstanding and I'm a 1911 guy if I was looking at a new 1911 I would be looking at a Ruger They have great Customer service also I'm not saying that Colt's are bad but think you paying extra
for the pony

At this moment Smith & Wesson is taking 8 to 16 weeks for warranty repairs. All other gun manufacturers are probably similarly slow. For this reason and parts availability to fix almost anything yourself, I’d get a Glock 17. Magazines and parts are cheap and they are as reliable as anything.

I suggest the Glock. My first choice would be a Glock 45

Your experience should tell you if you like Glock triggers or not.
If you do---Glock is for you.
If not, I'd look more closely at the others on your list.

I'm a 1911 guy, but of those I'd pick either the Glock G17 or the Beretta 92.

The 1911 was designed around the .45 Auto round which is longer than the 9mm round and work arounds have to be made to get the 9mm to function in the 1911. In addition, the 1911 slide is the same for 9mm, .45 Auto, 10mm, etc. While you can find 1911's that run great in 9mm, they aren't as common as G17's or Beretta 92's that run great with a round they were developed for.

Two other 1911 issues would be cost, and user ability to modify the guns.

The typical 1911 would be a $1,000 gun (some wiggle room lower, and lots of options significantly higher), while the G17 and Beretta 92 are generally $500 - $800ish guns.

While there are all kinds of parts available for the 1911, practically none of them are drop in parts. Nearly all of them will require fitting to get them to work, and there are several different 1911 sight dovetail options and not all of them will accept all sight options. Glocks and Beretta 92's are pretty much Lego sets. Buy a part and snap it in. Glock's have always had a lot of parts availability and with Wilson Combat and Langdon Tactical Technologies getting into the Beretta game in a big way, there are lots of parts available to tune your Beretta the way you want it.

I prefer revolvers but have my share of 9mm semi-autos. My favorite is the CZ 75b. It's accurate and has been utterly reliable. Also, CZ offers the Kadet 22lr conversion kit. Takes about a minute to install the conversion and back to 9mm. If this is a factor, the CZ 75b is comfortable both for my wife with her little hands and for my gorilla paws.

Jeff

Do you have a specific IPSC class you want to stay in?

If cost was truly not an object for me, and I was operating under what I understand to be the rules in Australia, I’d get a Czechmate.

Considering IPSC
The trend is to heavy guns, scratch the Glock
Single stack guns are a narrow niche, scratch the Colt.
Beretta is trying to get competitive, see 92X Performance not plain 92SF.
Leaves the CZ Shadow.

Ed Ames said:

... what I understand to be the rules in Australia,

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I completely overlooked the Australia part.

I'd really look into parts availability on all of your options. My guess is the Glock would probably still be the easiest to get parts for.

I suspect our typical US sources that we in the US rely on for parts, such as Brownell's, MidwayUSA, Wilson Combat, Langdon Tactical Technologies, and a bunch of other's won't ship parts to Australia.

CZ75 would be my choice, or a Tanfoglio "clone" thereof.

The Glock and Beretta are both pretty good.

I have a 9mm 1911 that functions perfectly and costs about $400-$450 new. (It's made by RIA.)



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All 4 listed will serve you well. It would boil down to what fits you the best and what you shoot the best along with parts availability in Australia. I like my 1911's have a few to include a Rock Island Armory full size 1911 in 9mm that has ran great straight out of the box. I have smaller hands and never could shoot the Beretta M9/92 well, it just doesn't fit my hands. I had no choice in the matter since we switched from the 1911A1 to the M9 while I was in the US Army. The only Glock I own is the G44 22lr pistol which is very similar in size to the Glock G19. I am slowly getting use to and warming up to the Glock. I don't have any experience with the CZ pistols. There is definitely a lot of difference between the trigger of the Glock (and any striker fired pistol) vs the 1911 single stage trigger. Best I can tell you is to shoot all four if you can and see what fits you the best.

The shadow is an impressive gun Out of the box and you pay for that. Glock is a very simple and easy to work on design that you can build up yourself easily. 1911 is a proven game gun platform that is not easy to tune properly without a lot of experience and/or a lot of money to send to a gunsmith. The beretta 92 is a great gun but it’s a compromise in every respect, and not a gun known to be overly accurate, and it is not at all easy to build into anything else for other classes.

I despise the things because of how ugly they are, and how poorly they fit my hand, but the obvious answer is Glock. They just keep working, are easy to improve, and if you want to use it in other classes you can easily just swap a different slide (Or barrel, or trigger, or attachments, or mag well funnel) onto the frame. It’s just about the perfect gun for starting off. The only downside I see to it is that it doesn’t have 2nd strike capability so any light strike means a jam clear drill which eats time but that’s a trade off worth making for all the other good you get. I wouldn’t buy one, but it IS the obvious answer.

Glock.
It'll be chugging along when the others are in for repair or burried in the scrap pile, it's just the way it is. A monkey with brain damage can fix just about any glock issue that may arise, parts are universal and don't require fitting, they're impervious to the elements, have excellent and inexpensive magazines, aftermarket support is far beyond any other handgun and when you get used to the trigger you'll be able to shoot most handguns well (trigger takes some practice) . to me this would be a no brainer.
If there were no stipulations, it say a 4" 357 but since that's not what you want I'll keep that to myself... Did I say (type) that out loud?- couldn't have, I didn't hear a peep.

Obturation said:

Glock.
It'll be chugging along when the others are in for repair or burried in the scrap pile, it's just the way it is. A monkey with brain damage can fix just about any glock issue that may arise, parts are universal and don't require fitting, they're impervious to the elements, have excellent and inexpensive magazines, aftermarket support is far beyond any other handgun and when you get used to the trigger you'll be able to shoot most handguns well (trigger takes some practice) . to me this would be a no brainer.
If there were no stipulations, it say a 4" 357 but since that's not what you want I'll keep that to myself... Did I say (type) that out loud?- couldn't have, I didn't hear a peep.

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The last part made me laugh.

I will admit that I am not a Glock fan or much of a revolver fan either. Both have been growing on my lately

WestKentucky said:

The beretta 92 is a great gun but it’s a compromise in every respect, and not a gun known to be overly accurate, and it is not at all easy to build into anything else for other classes.

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I agree with that. I always shot the 1911A1 way better than the Beretta.

I like the deuce. 1911 is second choice. But i dont shoot ipsc

JTQ said:

In addition, the 1911 slide is the same for 9mm, .45 Auto, 10mm, etc.

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What does that mean? Are you saying the same slide, including breech face, is used for all calibers?

fxvr5 said:

What does that mean? Are you saying the same slide, including breech face, is used for all calibers?

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I was thinking the weights would be the same, but breech faces would be cartridge specific.

fxvr5 said:

What does that mean? Are you saying the same slide, including breech face, is used for all calibers?

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chicharrones said:

I was thinking the weights would be the same, but breech faces would be cartridge specific.

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I'm saying 1911 slides weigh the same. You are using a slide designed to be driven by .45 Auto rounds on guns shooting 9mm rounds. There are some adjustments that need to be made for that to happen. While they are figuring it out, not all manufacturers do a good job with it.

Consider the other guns in discussion within this thread, the Glock G17, Beretta 92, CZ75.

Compare those guns with their respective family members in .45. The G21 is significantly larger than the G17, as is the CZ97 larger than the CZ75, and Beretta never even made a Beretta 9X gun in .45 Auto and used all kinds of tricks (Brigadier slide, slanted dust cover, integral buffer) to extend the life of their 96 guns in .40 S&W to little avail.

Are Glock 34s available to you? If not then the Glock 17 is your best option.

If you can only have one gun and need it to do it all, I'd have to opt for a Glock 17 MOS. It has a long track record for reliability and the MOS option would allow you to mount and remove an optic as needed. Need a comp, put it on and take it off as needed. It's kind of like the AR15 of pistols.

Of the four that you listed....
I really don't care for Berettas. Things may have changed since a Beretta was a regular part of my life, but when I was messing with them, I found that their frames definitely have a lifespan. It isn't ultra short for most owner/shooters, but if you're looking for something that will eat 50K+ rounds and keep on chugging, I don't think the Beretta is it.

The 1911? Are you talking about a single stack or a wide body? If you go single stack, I think it won't be long before you're wishing that you had gone for more capacity. If you go wide body, the magazines are expensive. $100 per mag would not be unusual. Also, almost any sort of modifications you are going to want to do will cost a lot more money and be more difficult to do.

The CZ? I recently had the opportunity to run drills using a CZ "Orange," whatever that is. It's just what my friend told me is was. He had it rigged up for "Carry Optics." It shot very nicely. I mean, VERY nicely. Sweet trigger, nice recoil impulse. Very easy to shoot quickly. I can't speak to it's longevity though.

That brings me back to the Glock. Anything that might need repair, you can fix. Parts are relatively inexpensive. Unless you are going to be competing in some sort of precision shooting, the Glock will do everything you will need it to. It will also still be running long after many others have quit. I've had Glocks that had over 80K rounds through them when I sold them and the new owners continued to shoot them. As mentioned, if you get one with the MOS option, you could convert it to fit any roll you'll need it to.