Well I carry and plink with a Glock G26 and a G19 would do both jobs as well. A Ruger SR or S&W M&P would be fine as well. My personal opinion is if your carry is unsuitable for plinking its not going to be that good when you need to defend yourself either.
Here is a simple truth, a 1911 is an experts gun. You need thousands of repetitions with it just to be sure you remove the safety when you need to shoot. Otherwise you may find yourself with trouble in your face wondering why your gun did not fire. Get yourself a DA/SA like a SIG or Beretta or one of the strikers like Glock/M&P/SR. You pull the trigger and it goes bang.
All steel guns are heavy. They are really heavy when carrying one all day long inside your waistband. Polymer is light. Compare the weight of what you want to buy.
Thickness is an enemy of carry. A 1911 is thin. High capacity is thick. Common sense will tell you double stack is going to be thicker than single stack.
Caliber is not that important as long as you stick with a service caliber; .38, 9mm, .40, .45. They all stop things pretty similar with modern hollow point bullets. Another truth. The larger the round the less rounds the same size magazine well will hold.
Another truth, the more recoil a gun has the longer time there will be between your first and second round being fired. Training and practice will bring that time down over time but there will still be a difference.
I carry a 9mm Glock G26, Its small enough to be easy to carry and large enough to be easy to shoot and fight with. I shoot 100 rounds a week through it and its easy and fun to do.