Snubnose, if it gets ugly, it will not be from me insulting you, because I don't intend to do that. But here is what you said:
"Yeah, don't waste your money. I've owned just about every 1911 on the market and they're all pretty much dogs. But I must especially agree with RikWriter, if you insist upon taking the plunge get a Baer or Wilson. One of the really high dollar 1911's. That's the only way you'll truly be satisfied. Now some will disagree with that statement, but if you buy a Kimber, Springfield, etc, you're gonna have to spend that extra money to get them up to par anyway. So just be prepaired no matter what route you go with a 1911 that you will be forking out some serious cash."
Now that is not you saying "There's a possibility you might have to spend some extra money to get a stock 1911 to be as reliable as you want" that is you flat out stating that all the 1911s on the market are dogs and that getting one to work will require several hundred dollars. That's an inclusive statement that says unequivocally that all the stock 1911s on the market will need major cash investment to work.
If you make a statement that says "All of X is bad" and someone else can show that just ONE of X is good, your statement is wrong.
Now, I have owned over two dozen 1911s personally and not one of them needed any work to be a reliable, accurate gun. Some were more accurate than others, some preferred certain kinds of ammo, but none needed major work to be reliable with factory defensive hollowpoints or FMJs. I have many friends into shooting, including two SOT manufacturers and I am casual acquaintances with several dealers with large personal collections.
Many of these people are 1911 shooters, and I have not heard a report out of one of them that any modern 1911 by a major brand manufacturer needed hundreds of dollars of work to be reliable.
Some of them HAVE 1911s with hundreds of dollars worth of modifications, but these guns are for competition, not defense or casual target shooting. Some of them build their own 1911s for fun and sink a grand into the job before they are finished just because they CAN.
But none ever had to do major work just to get a modern factory 1911 reliable.
I know ONE person who KNOWS a person who had to do major work to a 1911 to get it to work and it still doesn't...but that gun is a Llama, not a Colt, Para Ord, Kimber, or Springfield.
Now, of these many friends and acquaintances, we are talking literally hundreds of 1911s between them. I think that is quite a represenative sample.
Also, though I can't vouch for them as I don't know them personally, I have read dozens of posts on message boards such as this and on rec.guns from people who have owned multiple 1911s that didn't need work to be reliable.
So, the upshot is, if you want to tell someone "I had a bad experience with the 1911s I own and you might too" I won't say a word...you're absolutely right. ANYONE can have a bad experience with ANY brand of handgun because lemons get through, and when there are SO many manufacturers and SO many individual 1911 pattern guns made over SO long a time, there WILL be lemons.
But if you state categorically that "all stock 1911s are junk and will need work" I can say without hesitation that you're wrong.
I hope you don't take this disagreement personally as that is not how it is intended. But I would appreciate if you could find the flaw in my reasoning here...if there is one.