There is plenty of debate across the intertubes about this century old design. It is not really a century old now because the design by John Moses Browning, PBUH, preceded 1911 when he led his followers to the promised land. It was in in 1911 that the US Military establishment officially adopted the design as an official sidearm. There was an officers version that was more compact than the original design. It even comes in a 10mm design called the Delta Elite that is one heck of a kicker.
There are those who will tell you that anything other than the original design is unreliable. Even a number of people say the design is unsafe because it was designed to be carried with one in the chamber, with the hammer cocked and the thumb safety engaged. I can tell from personal experience that that is a load of BS. I put the Springfield pictured above left through the gas tank of my motorcycle into the frame while cocked and locked. It didn't go off even though there was bark from the tree that it hit pushed into the hammer serrations and beaver tail safety. There are those that will even tell you the design is outdated and even the original does not work without significant modification. Well, the design works just fine until someone starts monkeying with it. Either by design or with a Dremel in their garage or basement. The one change and improvement that actually works is the work undertaken by Virgil Tripp. Thus was born the 2011 and this post about them. In the beginning there was Tripp Research. 
I have the fortune of having one of their guns setup as an open gun. Through various incarnations there came STI and SV 
that are both this design. I even have an AirSoft licensed copy of the SV for practice. I wrote about sub caliber practice and that is something that I preach and practice. One of the STI frames I built up into a .22 trainer. That trainer is fitted with two top ends, one in Open Class configuration and one in Limited configuration. The cool thing about the Open setup is that it recoils with .22lr about the same as the .38Super with a comp on it. Gives a really good feel for how the gun shoots in practice. You'll notice in all this about the different calibers and my comment about 
different top ends. That is the absolute best thing about this design. Some call it the Windows PC of the hand gun world and some call it the Small Block Chevy of the hand gun world. All depends on your background and tastes. The point is that everyone and the brother (except Glock) makes a version of the 1911. If you want a different caliber all you have to do is change out the top end. Be it .22lr, .38Super, .40S&W, 10mm, 357SIG, .45ACP or .50GI. It matters not, you can shoot one caliber and then convert over to another caliber in about 2 minutes and be on your way.Love it, Hate it or somewhere in between, it is a timeless design that still serves it's purpose of protecting and defending free people the world over for over a century.
UPDATE: Welcome readers of FARK.com. I'd be curious who linked me over there but thanks and stick around. Have a look and see if there is anything else of interest. Maybe even comment.
Found the linker and he has a post of his own 1911.
So what other 1911 owners are out there?
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