I wasn't aware of the corporate ups and downs at Kimber, but I have heard and read that the quality of their pistols can vary greatly.

I think machining improvements in tightening tolerances in building 1911's which usually makes them more accurate, has been an improvement, but it's one that requires you to keep them cleaner to avoid jams and malfunctions, more the case than with older models.

Case in point, I was going to have a guy named Krebs do custom work on an AK 47 or AK74 for me. Well, the AK's are like Mossberg 500s---drop em in the mud, never maintain them and they'll still shoot---no, not as accurately as an AR or S&W15 assault rifle or Saiga shotgun, but you have plenty of cheap ammo to spread around and get the job done. It's a crudely built gun with sloppy tolerances and 'so so' accuracy, but is utterly relaible and is the weapon of choice in 3rd world hell holes all over the world. BUT when you tighten up the tolerances on an AK to the level of an AR or M&P 15, you get the same finicky performance, as it's suddenly more prone to sand and dirt causing malfunctions, etc. If you buy an AK,might as well leave it 'as is' I figure and/or buy an AR or M&P 15 that you can shoot grapes off the vine with.

A lot of people look at Para Ordnance bring a double stack magazine design to the 1911, effectively doubling capacity, as being a major improvement. Only having seven round capacity in a gun that can weigh over 40 ounces was seen by some as too big a sacrifice. Of course with a gun that heavy, if you ran out of bullets, throwing it at someone's head would probably kill them just as well!

Springfield and probably some other companies as well, have adopted double stack magazines. I never thought I'd be sort of recommending a Taurus, as my first gun was one and should've been called a 'stove pipe special' but they have improved the quality of some of their guns quite a bit. Some people more knowledgable than me, say their 1911 is pretty good and a bargain at that. Their stainless model looks pretty cool. The new Ruger 1911 looks great on paper and price, but I have seen too many new Ruger models come out and within a year, require factory modifications in their construction.

With this being the 100th anniversary of the 1911, a lot of companies are producing a lot of cheap as well as a lot of very fancy and expensive 1911s--from the Philippine made Rock Island for about $360, to ones costing 5 or 6 thousand bucks and at that, will probably never be shot, but kept in their presentation boxes.

Yea, I like to get a hot new pistol and I wanted a Kel-Tec PMR-30--that pistol was fairly small, light and held 30 rounds of the blazing fast 22 magnum, only to be cancelled due to problems they were having. All too often, buying a hot new model of a gun, makes you their 'beta tester' and within a year or two, they improve it, but won't do the same to your early production model under warranty.