http://www.stiguns.com/guns/Escort/Escort.html
As y'all know, I'm a fan of the commander style of 1911; mostly because I like the balance and carryability better than a full 5" gun. Even the commander though restricts carry options somewhat because of its length. Colt (and other) have a solution for this, an even shorter version often called the "Officers model", with a 3" barrel and shorter butt.
Unfortunately, in general I don't like officers models; because their grip frames are too short for my big mitts.
The solution then is to have an officers model length slide, on a commander frame, or even a size frame in between commander and officer size (as kimber has with the ultra carry models). Colt has one (the defender), and various other manufacturers have brought mdoels in and out of production, but none of them have said "buy me" to me.
Well... I'm REALLY liking this STI here.
According to STI it's the lightest 1911 they've ever made; at 22.8oz it's even lighter than their polymer guns which is a hell of an achievement; because of its forged aluminum frame, and shortened slide.
It's got a double captured, buffered recoil setup as I prefer on shortened 1911s (wellll, I could do without the buffer, but I like the captured recoil spring), novak type low profile sights, a textured but not checkered front strap, ultralight trigger, ramped fully supported bull barrel... pretty much everything I want in a small 1911. Most importantly, it's got all of STIs quality and accuracy built in, as well as their excellent factory support.
Oh, and it's priced very competitively with Kimber and other high end factory 1911s with an MSRP of just over $1000... I wonder what it will street for. If ti's less than the Ultra CDP II I've been thinking about, I may change my mind (though the Kimber is a bit smaller and more concealable in the butt; even with the magwell that I need to add to it so I can get a good grip - the standard butt length of the Kimber Ultra series is too short for me without the magwell).
My only objection is that the Novak style low profile three dot sights, aren't tritiums. I wonder if they'll have them as a factory option....
