Until very recently I owned at least one of every just about type of .45 that had been produced in the last 10 yrs. I had 47 non-1911 style .45 acps. Some were very good guns (USP, Glock 21, etc.), some were absolute crap (AMT Backup, Patriot Arms, etc.), some were great deals for the money (EAA Witness, Taurus 945, etc.). One day I looked around and realized that the only guns that I really liked and shot a lot were my 1911s. I have spent the last few months getting rid of all of my non-1911s and replacing them with various Colts and Colt clones. I could not be happier. I can make any 1911 exactly how I want it by simply changing out a few parts. I enjoy tinkering with guns and I have some basic gunsmithing skills, thus the 1911 is a lot of fun for me to customize. That being said, most of today's 1911s are ready to go right out of the box. I simply do not think that you can do better than a 1911 and things have finally advanced enough that even the 3" models are reliable.
ranburr