My goal is to have one solid handgun in a larger caliber, and one .22 handgun. The .22 is taken care of....and now I'm wondering what .45 ACP platform would be best to invest and stick with, long-term. I have an XD-45 Service model that has a Springer Precision trigger job and Trijicon night sights, and while it is a great gun I'm wondering if it is a worthwhile "one and only" as far as a .45 ACP pistol goes. By that I mean, as I grow and develop as a shooter, if I'll find myself selling it off and wishing I'd invested more time/energy/money in a different platform. I've done this many times before (guitars, drums, recording gear, blah blah blah) and don't like spending $$$ moving gear around that I later find doesn't cover the essential bases. For pistols, specifically my "one and only" large caliber pistol, that "base" would be home defense/target/general enjoyment, and most importantly, dead crazy indestructible reliability. Pretty is nice....flashy is okay...but I look at it, at this point, as a tool I want to be fully reliable upon should need be. Aesthetics come second to reliability/functionality/accuracy, in my mind...though I don't see that they need be mutually exclusive, necessarily.
I'm inclined to stick with my XD and continue to maintain/modify as I go along, but I'm wondering if any of you more experienced shooters would have recommendations. The 1911 comes to mind as I find myself constantly drawn to time-tested, old school designs (Gibson/Fender guitars, vintage tube amps, old school cymbals, etc...), yet I know with firearms, there have been some significant changes since 1911 AD. To continue the analogy, transistors still suck compared to vaccum tubes, but perhaps polymer pistols aren't analogous to solid state amps?
I'm inclined to stick with my XD and continue to maintain/modify as I go along, but I'm wondering if any of you more experienced shooters would have recommendations. The 1911 comes to mind as I find myself constantly drawn to time-tested, old school designs (Gibson/Fender guitars, vintage tube amps, old school cymbals, etc...), yet I know with firearms, there have been some significant changes since 1911 AD. To continue the analogy, transistors still suck compared to vaccum tubes, but perhaps polymer pistols aren't analogous to solid state amps?