For a frontal assault, nothing beats a tactical shotgun with a 18.5" barrel--don't have to aim it, just point it in the general direction of the victim(s) and down they go.
agree with the choice, but disagree with the technical aspects, as you do indeed have to aim. a 00 buckshot round fired out of a shotgun with an 18.5-20" barrel with an open choke at a distance of 21 feet, roughly across the room distances, is generally going to pattern about the size of a fist, with about a 1 inch wider spread every yard thereafter. basically, you are throwing softballs. now the pattern is naturally going to expand with smaller shot, but the stopping power is also going to decrease as well.
A 1911 is the best all-around self defense weapon, but it's not concealable.
modern 1911's seem to be real hit or miss. while they have a proven combat record, things are different today. keep in mind that i don't own one, nor do i have all that much experience with them, so take what i have to say for what it's worth. the ww2 era pistols were built with very loose tolerances, one of the main reasons they were so reliable under the demanding conditions of war. the problem lies in the decades after where they started to be mass produced for the civilian market. they took a gun renowned for its ruggedness and started messing with it by trying to turn it into a precision tool, yet on a mass scale, which just doesn't work with that type of design. this caused alot of the problems that we see today with them being finicky with regards to ammo, parts wearing out quickly, stuff like that. plenty of magazine concerns as well, but wilson combat have fixed that if you are willing to pay a bit more!
there are alot of decent entry level 1911's available, but just a short browse on any of the many gun forums will make my case for me as far as the many problems. it seems to be hit or miss with alot of them, as even kimber, which is what you'd call an entry level custom setup, have mixed reviews. another problem is the proliferation of the compact and subcompact models in 4 and 3 inch barrels, as opposed to the original 5in setup. the design, well over 100 y/o, doesn't always perform well with these changes, similar in a way as trying to half a baking recipe, just doesn't come out the same. it seems that if you want to have a 1911 that is as close to 100% reliable as you can get then you have to fork over the big money for a real custom job by ed brown or wilson, but some of them are more than $4000! the .45acp is a great round, but given the choice i would rather go with a high capacity polymer model like the glock 21, even if the trigger will never be as nice!
