Rate these gun manufacturers for me

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Is_That_A_Gram?

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I am talking strictly from a pistol standpoint. i am leaning towards a springfield XDm 45 (when it becomes available). my brother has an xd 45 and i love it. My dad has a les baer .45 and it is amazing, but out of my price range. I do not own a gun of my own yet and this would be my first purchase. so, i ask you, how do you feel about the following companies' handguns:

Ruger
Kahr
Springfield
Glock
Taurus (not a big fan of the one's I have shot)
S&W
FNH
Colt

Which is the best overall?
 
It's hard to rank a gun manufacturer without looking at a specific model. Most if not all of these companies have turned out great and not so great products.

In regards to your XDm, I have the original (Unless you count the HS2000) XD 40 service model. It has served me well without any major malfunctions. The chrome did flake off the firing pin indicator and gunked up the firing pin on mine, but that was easily remedied with a cleaning and a quick phone call for a new part (free).

I say go ahead and get the XDm and not worry about the others.

If comparing polymer based pistols I'd rank them as follows

#1 tied SA and Glock
#3 S&W (M&P only)
#4 FNH
#5 Ruger
#6 Kahr

I left out the Taurus polmer pistols for a reason, although I can't complain about the revolver I have of thiers. I don't think Colt has a polymer pistol, but I could be wrong.
 
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Get ready for the flaming war to begin. Might as well go over to one of the car boards and ask which is better? Ford, Dodge, or Chevy?

We will now hear response that list every one of those manufacturers as the absolute best. And from those who will tell you that every single one of those is the absolute worst company to buy a gun from.

Let the fun begin...;)
 
i was speaking more to the reliability of the listed manufacturers AND I was asking mainly about .45's. Sorry for the confusion.

I was gonna see which company was given the most praise and go from there. Like I said, I feel like Springfield XD is the way I am leaning. I am new to this, so that's why I started this thread. The gun industry has so much to learn about, it is a bit overwhelming.
 
Are you asking for build quality, design, shooting qualities or customer service? I would rate Glock and Smith & Wesson as outstanding, Kahr good (both of mine needed some work to make them run right), and Taurus very poor. I only have experience with Ruger revolvers, not their pistols, but these have always been outstanding. The one Colt 1911 I had functioned poorly, but this was a 20-year-old used gun and not representative of new production Colts. I have no experience with the other makes.
 
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For a revolver, I would say that Colt + S&W are the top two, and have been for a very long time. 10/12 of my revolvers are Colts + Smiths.

Springfield also has/had alot going for them, the XD, Garands, M1A, etc. However, no revolvers that I know of. I've heard mostly good things about the XD series.

Ruger has some solid Revolvers, but I can't speak for they're autoloaders. I own a Ruger Security-Six in .357, and it has well-engineered action and handles/shoots very nicely.

Only Taurus I have is a Judge, that I bought this winter and have yet to try out at my summer home. We'll see about this one......

Never shot a Glock, FNH, Kahr, but I think glock dominates the autoloader industry from what I see on forums, magazines, and at ranges.
 
Ruger - Reliable but big and bulky.
Kahr - Slim and nice looking but some have reliability issues.
Springfield - XD = Top notch. 1911s are good too but not top notch.
Glock - Great reliability.
Taurus (not a big fan of the one's I have shot) - reliability?
S&W - which one...they have so many models. M&P = Darn good. Revolvers = Darn Good.
FNH
 
Still too broad of a question. Price range would help determine what you want.

For example, if it was under $500, I'd go with Glock, btw $500-1000 I'd choose Springfield. Over $1000 I'd go with Colt.

Actually, if it was over $1000, I'd look at Dan Wesson or Wilson Combat.
 
Glock is perfection in self defense. Thats coming from one that resisted them all my life until last fall. As now I only carry a G30 45 & G26 9mm in the summer. The only S&W I own and like is the M41 .22 target pistol. A colt diamondback .22 would be nice too but expensive.
 
What is it going to be for, carry, home defense, range? Out of those listed I have a Springfield XDM9, a G19, a G27, a Ruger LCP(never handled one of the full size Rugers), a Taurus 24/7 in .45, and a Taurus PT709 Slim. Thus far I haven't had much of a problem with any of them. If I were going to recommend the best first pistol and best all around pistol it would be the Glock 19.
 
You'd have to narrow it down a lot more. These companies have been around for many generations and their production has changed. I'd pick a Ruger current production wheelgun, but not over an older Ruger wheelgun. And probably not over an older Colt wheelgun. And I'd rank old S&W over new S&W. Springfield has a very narrow range of products. That doesn't even get into the issues of semi vs. revolver. Or various types of revolvers.
 
You can not really rate them like that. Too simplistic.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I should have pointed out that just Ruger makes over 100 versions of pistols.
 
If I had to rate them I sould say:
SIG
Kahr
Springfield
Glock
FNH
Colt
S&W
Beretta
Taurus (Only older models made prior to 1996)
 
Since it seems you're looking at .45 ACP semi-auto pistols, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND the FNP-45 from FNH-USA.

I have one and love it. It is about $200 less than comparable service-size SA .45s and every bit as good as the best - flawless. It is the latest to come out, of their FNP series and has all the little improvements that started 10 years or so ago with the FNP-9. It is also an extremely smooth, low-felt-recoil shooter, for what it is. Very well engineered in every way.

The only drawback is that, since it is new-ish, there are not a lot of aftermarket holsters, magazines, sights, etc. available. But is comes with an excellent Blade-Tech hard-side holster that is nicely adjustable for retention force.
 
If you like the XD45, go ahead an buy it with the knowledge that it is a well made product and marketed by a company with a stellar customer service reputation.

If you find another pistol from another one of the listed companies, it will also probably work well. If it doesn't, they will most likely make it right.
 
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