My experience would suggest a Ruger P90. It has been around since 1990-1991 and has proven to be a reliable, durable and inexpensive .45 ACP. For a bit more money, I would suggest the standard model SIG 220. Lately SIG has caught "Smith & Wesson-itis" and been throwing out more and more variations to it's basic line. That's fine from a marketing standpoint: There are plenty of us gun-goons out there who have to have the latest and greatest, but for defense I prefer to stick to proven designs in use by agencies and/or independent owners who have had time to prove the worth of the gun. The standard SIG 220 is proven. While not nearly as popular with law enforcement, the Ruger P90 has "design maturity" meaning that it has been in production long enough to have had the bugs worked out. The Ruger P97 is out of production. The Ruger P345 is a new model with teething problems. Give it a few years before spending good money on it.
HK offers excellent weapons, but again, stick to the models which have been in production for enough time to prove that they function properly.
Taurus and I don't like eachother. I have had problems with Taurus, and I wouldn't own another one. It's too bad, as they have some spectacular features on some of their autos. I just don't trust those guns. Others folks have different opinions.
As far as stripper 1911's like the Mil-Spec Springfield, Colt, etc. Keep away from them unless you're comfortable shooting ball ammo. I think the Para Ordnance is the only 1911 I know of which has a one-piece feed ramp (as do most non-1911 models) which greatly enhances feed reliabilty with hollow-point loadings. Please correct me if I am wrong about this. I have shot plenty of 1911s and have heard plenty of stories about how utterly reliabile the 1911 is. Possibly so, with ball ammo. The gun was designed for ball ammo. Yes, some are reliable with hollow-points. But what if your gun isn't? I suppose if you prove to yourself that your particular specimen is reliable with a certain chosen defensive loadking you may be ok, possibly. If you are in a life or death shooting situation and your gun happens to jam on hollow-points, what will you do? Will the Cult-1911 rescue squad come and save you? Better to stick to a model designed to shoot hollow-points, in my simple view. Or get the Mil-spec and feed it with ball ammo. I hear, however, that many folks swear that high-end 1911's will feed hollowpoints well, but I am sceptical. You 1911 folks out there who have shot enough defensive loadings through your 1911s chime in here and help us out. We have a brother who is in need of facts.
Can any of you 1911 folks out there confirm if Springfield or Wilson have any disclaimers in their manuals about not guaranteeing reliability with non-ball ammo? I thought I read something once.
While I much prefer to shoot autos 10-1 over revolvers, I have to say that a good double-action revolver will serve you very well as a defense gun.
Thank you,
Steve A.
It's nice to see people give suggestions. Call me a traditionalist, but I just prefer metal frames
