First of all, THANKS to everyone that responded to my post.
I have narrowed my decision down to two 1911's. The CD and the RIA 1911A1's.
I am really leaning toward the CD because of this. The gun is blued, it has a dovetailed front sight and a low profile rear sight (three dot system) that I could always change later, it also sports the extended beavertail grip safety that I wanted to change out in the first place, it has the combat (lighter) trigger and the combat (lighter) hammer AND just flat out "looks" better than the RIA. And it comes with an extra mag.
I've read some bad reviews on the CD but this is by people that but several hundred or even thousands of rounds through it. I won't be doing that anytime soon. I do want to use it as a carry/hone defense weapon and possibly a beginner competition shooter. But for the short term I might put 300 rds through it.
However, I have read that the RIA is a much better accurate weapon but would cost me another 125.00 to upgrade to the CD's base price.
Could anyone that has owned or knows of these two weapons please jump in?
Thanks a million,
Toby