Ok, here's the deal. I suspect the OP does not own or hasn't owned any or at least very few 1911's up till now.
There's lot of 1911's out there. Now, price range 1000 to 1500 gets us into some pretty good guns. Colt's, Springfields, Kimber's, Sigs, Yep, Ok, Ruger's too, etc. The problem with many of the copy cat brands, is that they are mostly pretty good guns in that price range, but and this is a big "BUT", mostly the other brands deviate from the original Colt in various little and not so little ways. Some of them use external extractors "Sig", smaller firing pins "Springfield", different recoil spring assemblies (various makes), and various safeties in both the main spring Housing "Springfield" and others have firing pin safeties, different then Colt, examples: Kimber, and I think Sig at least.
This is reason enough to go with a Colt, either 4.25" Commander or 5" Government model, but not necessarily the GI model. The parts are more standard and more aftermarket parts will fit. Some of the other brands require brand specific parts in some areas.
It not that hard to find a good brand new Colt in 800 to 12 or 1300 dollar range and have money left over for better grips, and probably better magazines. And it's a Colt. Get a blued model because it's easier to find aftermarket parts that will more or less match the finish better, if that matters to you. The newer Colts are usually throated for hollowpoints, as opposed to many of the older Colts that would sometimes only feed ball ammo without modifications.
That would be my recommendation. Either a Series 80 or a few Series 70 models like the Wiley Clapp guns. I have both, and my main carry is one of my least expensive Series 80 Colts Lightweight Commander, which I only gave in the range of $700-800 for about 4 or 5 years ago. This one doesn't even have a beavertail grip safety and I am perfectly happy with that. And for the record, I own Wilson's, Kimber's, Springfields, and even a Dan Wesson. They are all pretty good guns, some are great guns, but practically all of them have been tweaked on by me or other's, mostly me.
That's the one thing about 1911's IMHO. They are kind of like Harleys. They are a mechanic's gun. And I have never bought a single one, that I was happy with until I had worked on it a little bit. But being left handed I almost always had to add an ambi-safety and the grips usually didn't suit me, and the mainspring housings usually got changed especially the ILS ones on the Springfields, and I usually removed the Swarts firing pin safety on the Kimbers and sometimes on the Colt Series 80's but not on my Series 80 carry guns, I leave them stock.
Just get a Colt, a newer one.
