Reminds me of my early days as a young MP.
Standard issue .45, day in and day out, 8 hour per day gun.
I was jealous and in awe of those that carried the S&W .38 Snub, for concealment purposes.
I became a Provost Marshal Investigator (forerunner of MPI) and was issued a .38.
Sitting on top of the world.
Until I went to the range to qualify.
Couldn't hit squat.
Pistol jammed every other round, to the point of my having to actually break it open and physically rotate the cylinder to the next round.
Took it to the armorer and he says: "Oh that used to be ______'s weapon. All he ever did was sit around and cock and decock it all the time and twirl it like a gunslinger."
Believe it or not, this damn fool had managed to wear the pistol so bad that the lever mechanism that rotated the cylinder was worn out.
And the barrel was bent. (I assume from dropping it several times during his Wyatt Earp imitations.)
I requested and was granted, permission from the PM to carry my old 8 hour pistol, my old .45, in a shoulder holster, even though there were many other .38's available, hopefully in better condition than my first.
I never carried anything else, for the next 18 years. And during that time, had to draw and fire on three separate occasions, with no misfires, jams or malfunctions whatsoever, even after having not cleaned my weapon for months or having dropped it in a mud hole or had it fly thru the air from the roof of a patrol car onto concrete paving and slide 200-300 feet down the road.
But those are stories for another time.
Been retired 15 years now, but my CC gun is a .45, presented to me by my son.
Heavy, hard to conceal, but I know, I know it will not fail me, even after months of being cocked and locked, with a compressed magazine.
When and if the need presents, I will pull that trigger with all the confidence of over 30 years association with Mr. Browning's wonderful and timeless invention.
I agree with your kind words on the 1911. I carry one most of the time and I too became fond of it early in my military career.