New GI 1911
I just noticed that nobody has mentioned this. The folks that first brought us the Thompson .45 subgun, Auto Ordnance-Thompson, have a really nice, about as identical to a WWII 1911 as you can get, .45ACP now.
When they were owned by Numrich they put put some pretty crappy stuff. Some think they just got components from Numrich and then assembled them, without much concern for fit and what not.
Since Kahr took over, they seem to have gone back to basics, putting out a really nice and reliable 1911 .45 ACP which is a dead ringer for the WWII GI gun, except they're using the post-WWII thumb safety.
Besides the outstanding reviews the new 1911 has gotten from testers, I compared mine with a Numrich era A.O. 1911, and, even visually, they're two different guns. The Numrich version is slimmer, and just looks less military overall. One of the easiest ways to tell immediately if it's one of the ones made under Numrich or one of the new ones is that the Numrich 1911s have slanted grooves on the slide, while the new ones have the original 1911 vertical ones. Also, the new one has the lanyard loop in the right place, on the bottom of the butt behind the mag well, instead of on the mainspring housing.
I haven't had a bit of trouble with mine, and the only problem I could find in any of the reviews was that one reviewer ran into some occasional feeding problems with JHPs when using the factory magazine, but using normal 1911 mags cured that.
The earliest test and review I could find of A.O's current 1911 used a straight from the factory gun in 2007. Anything made from then on will be the good one. But although Kahr bought the company in the late '90s, the Numrich version apparently kept being made for some period of time, and I have no idea when they actually changed over to the new pistol. I do know that there are still Numrich A.O. 1911s in some gunstores, so you have to be careful about which one you're buying.
Another good thing about this pistol is its price. I saw where the '07 was quoted at about $425, but they've raised it some since. I'm guessing they sort of low balled the price at first to overcome the lousy rep A.O. developed under Numrich. But I was still able to get one for just over $500 a year ago. This thing is absolutely the closest to an original military 1911 that I've seen in any from the factory 1911 nowadays.