Well, a little more detail... I had it pretty much narrowed down to either the Kimber Custom II or the basic Colt Series 80 Government. I had set an upper limit budget of $1000 for myself, but was planning on spending closer to $800.
I had also looked at a few DWs, a few S&Ws, and a few Springfields. Very few of the dealers in my area stock Springfields, or at least what I was interested in. The DWs seemed abundant either in 10mm or with target sights, but I wanted .45 ACP and combat sites. Plus, every dealer that had them was selling the DWs for $100-$200 over MSRP. The S&Ws I just didn't really get on with. I was almost derailed by a beautiful Browning Hi-Power in polished blue yesterday, but it was selling for over MSRP and was just a bit more than my budget. What a sweet gun, though!
I went up to the local Cabela's this morning and handled all three Colts again (Series 80, XSE, and Elite Combat and the Elite Combat pretty clearly identified itself as the one. It was a little more, obviously, but still in my budget.
The funny thing about the Colts... Kimber is a much "nicer" gun in almost all respects, and I have shot a number of range-rental Kimbers with perfect reliability, but they just seem like toys instead of tools to me. Again, this is no bash against Kimber because I truly have nothing bad to say about them, but a Colt feels like a tool in the way that a Glock or Sig does, and the Kimber just doesn't.
Hopefully I'll get it to the range this weekend, but I field stripped and cleaned it this afternoon. I am not sure what MIM parts Colt uses, but the only thing that seemed like it might be (that I could see, anyway), is the thumb safety. On the other hand, the thumb safety, slide release, and grip safety all have an identical raw metal finish, so it may just be cast. The hammer looks to EDM wire cut.
The slide and frame have clean machining inside and out; the inside is only slightly rougher than my Beretta M9, which is a very finely-machined gun. The bottom outer edges of the slide are sharp, but not as sharp as the Springfield guns. The barrel is has a polished and throated feed ramp and the chamber is about as tight as the M9's. The extractor seems to be barstock and is perfectly tensioned. The barrel is *very* tightly fitted to the slide and to the bushing, and the bushing to slide fit is moderately tight. Slide to frame fit is tight and fairly smooth, and I'm sure it will smooth up with some use. Lock-up is TIGHT with no movement at either end of the barrel.
The trigger pull is a tad heavy (5+ lbs) but very crisp. The trigger is loose and rattles and the grip safety is too, but otherwise that gun is tight and solid. It has nice cocobolo grips and genuine Novak's rear sight. Takedown with the FLGR is not as arduous as expected, so I will probably just leave that as is.
Overall, very impressed! I will post some pics shortly.