Springfield makes a very good selection of 1911's, and won't break the bank. Rock Island Armory is entry level, as is ATI, but both have been spoken well of by gents that I shoot with. I've also heard good things about the new Ruger, and Remington 1911's. As is my usual suggestion, get your hands on some and see what you think. By way of an inquiry at your local gun shop, you should be able to find a shooter close to you that has some 1911's for you to play with.

Both the Dan Wesson 45s and the Colt 45s seem like good values. The Gold Cup from Colt is very accurate.

Dan Wesson was bought by CZ (not a bad thing at all), and they have more financial backing now. So expect more models to be available.

And of course Colt has the heritage. The only down side to the Colts as I see it, is that they don't seem to pay much attention to the sharper edges that can snag clothing--they still seem to have the military mind-set in that regard.

Dan Wesson has a round butt model that will conceal well.

And S & W has some scandium models that are very light and very strong--much stronger than the aluminum alloy frames you see that are milled from billet.

Kimber's full sized weapons are supposed to be good; there are too many horror stories on their smaller weapons for me to consider them, though there are many that are very pleased with these weapons.

The Range Officer is a good gun. It checks most of the boxes for a good range/target gun. One of the guys I shoot pins with has one, it's performed well and he's quite happy with it. Worth a look also, is the S&W E-series 1911s. Another guy I shoot with liked his so much, he bought another one for his daughter. Good looking, good performers, & decent value. Dan Wessons are great, but I suspect they are well above your $900 price ceiling.
FWIW, I own & shoot a SA Trophy Match and a DW CCO.

thanks guys but im not an entry level shooter, this will just be my first 1911, so i think ill skip the ria and ati, as im looking for a good quality gun but i have seen the new remington up close but not the ruger(ill have to check that one out) if i remember correctly the dan wessons are alil over my budget but ill take another look at them as well. and thanks for the advise on the range officer as thats what ive been looking at, and ill have to check out that s&w too. but the things im looking for (sorry for not explaining it better in the op): fully adjustable rear sight, quality finish blued, parkinized, or stainless, lemon squeezer or manual safety(cuz i dont care), full sized a1 or consider a 4 inch barrel as well, and something that i could eventually use in a competition setting(target not racing)

My Mister has a Colt Government model, which he LOVES. He's also getting a Sig Sauer 1911 Scorpion tomorrow, so after we shoot it I'll give you an opinion on that one... It's kinda pretty.

Speaking of pretty, I'll admit that I think the Range Officer is kind of pretty.

Yeah its sharp so that's a plus for me

i have really been looking at the colt gold cup 1911s so im thinking either the colt or springfield, unless i get hands on with the sr1911 ruger as it is a sharp pistol too plus im partial to rugers as well

I had a Gold Cup (stainless). Here are some of my observations:

On the pluss side:

• Very accurate
• The recoil is very manageable (even with hot loads)

On the minus side:

• You need a wrench to remove the barrel bushing (provided with the gun--but a nuisance)
• Not dehorned. There are many sharp edges and it is really rough on the linings of suit jackets and other outerwear.

If you get the stainless steel version you can dehorn it yourself. But if you get the blued version you would have to have it re-finished afterwards.

Of your three choices i prefer the ruger, because i don't like the way adjustable sights look.

to add another suggestion to the pot have you looked at sig sauer for a 1911?

I just got my sig sauer scorpion. it was around $1000 here in north dakota however my wife did find it for $880 at Guns - Online Gun Auction - Guns for Sale at GunBroker.com and she decided that having now was worth the extra money as apposed to waiting 2 more weeks.

I'm supper impressed with the fit and finish of my sig. It is a very tight gun compared to my colt govt. if you want a tight pistol. This pistol has about all the features i want on a pistol for extras. the magwell grips are awesome. the beavertail safety has virtually no gap between it and the frame.

so the negative would be that around round 225 of 250 shot the first trip to the first time shooting the pistol started to be troublesome and the slide didn't want to always travel all the way forward, I assume this is due to the tightness of the slide to frame. I didn't clean the pistol or wipe it down during this firing session. Up until that 225 mark there was only on failure to feed, but that was due to my magazine and not the pistol

thanks guys ill check out the sig, but from the op im looking for one with fully adjustable sights so i can shoot pennies out of the air at 78.2 yards lol (i jest of course) but thanks packard i appreciate the hands on pros and cons on the gold cup and thank you ponzer for suggesting the scorpion and your experience with it

As I recall, it was the hammer that did most of the damage to the jacket linings. A Commander style hammer would help a lot. I guess I could have gone to the gun smith and had him switch out the hammer; I didn't think of that at the time.

My Sig 1911 easily out shoots my Kimbers. Just saying.

Might be a reasonable idea to compare using a Ransom rest, and take the shooter out of the equation. Most current production 1911's will out-shoot most shooters.

can never go wrong with a colt......

No, you can't. They're great. I may wind up with a Range Officer or a Loaded myself, though, and I've got to say it looks like an SR1911 might be a lot of gun for the money as well.

I'm another for the SIG. The target versions come with adj sights, but if they shoot like mine with fixed sights you'll never need to adjust a thing!

I have two Kimbers and love them both. My ccw is a Kimber Covert.