/johnny
Agree. Never liked Glock personally. My favorite .45 is CZ.
Originally designed for the Austrian army it had to meet certain criteria to pass the test..
Glock 17 outperformed 8 different pistols from five other established manufacturers (Heckler & Koch of Germany offered their P7M8, P7M13 and P9S, SIG Sauer of Germany bid with their P220 and P226 models, Beretta of Italy submitted their model 92SB-F, FN Herstal proposed an updated variant of the Browning Hi-Power and the home-grown Steyr entered the competition with the GB).
Used by over 65% law enforcement in America..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glock
As JRandom says, try before you buy. Lots of people will regale you with their favorite gun, but that means nothing when it comes to what actually fits your hand. Find a range which rents a variety of guns and try them out to see what suits you.
I would put in that you should consider a .357 revolver. While most everyone who wants to buy a gun goes out and buys the sexy semi-auto (did the same thing myself), there are significant advantages to a revolver. First, they can be appreciably cheaper for the given quality of gun. Second, a .357 is quite versatile in that you can shoot either full power .357 rounds (and that round is surely a man stopper) or lighter, cheaper .38 special rounds (good for range practice to get the basic skills and muscle memory down). Revolvers are harder to jam, and simpler in basic operation.
Agreed. Glocks are cheap but not for me since I don’t like plastic pistols nor the action, and I sold my 9mm G17 a few years ago. Anyway, my .45 autos consist of four 1911s and a Sig Sauer P220ST with a Crimson for nightstand duty.