This is just my personal experience, so it should be taken for what it's worth, just one isolated story. But last year I purchased a Springfield Ultra Compact, and had nothing but trouble with it. Jams, misfeeds, hang-ups, extraction failures, etc. Now, I'm well aware that 1911's always require a good deal of "breaking in" and tweaking as a rule, so I stuck with it. Over a period of months I probably fired more than $200 worth of ammunition through it, bought a new custom magazine on the chance that that was the problem (it wasn't), etc. And I wasn't firing JHP's of any kind through it either--strictly factory load ball ammo.
Finally, I'd had enough, cut my losses, and sold it (With full & fair warning to the new owner of all the problems I'd had with it, BTW!). For what I'd spent on both the weapon and attempts to "break it in" I could've purchased a top-of-the-line Kimber.
A short time later, I did just that. Purchased a Kimber Ultra Carry II, and have had precisely TWO jams after 500+ rounds and counting. And I'm firing JHP's, blunt nose, and ball ammo in different mixtures just daring it to jam, at that. As I said--two jams, both very early on when it was new out of the box.
Now, I know some are going to tell me I should've taken the Springfield to a gunsmith, polished the ramps, adjusted this and tweaked that, etc., and it would've probably worked just fine after that. And I'm sure the vast majority of Springfield owners don't have the same problem with theirs that I did with mine. But the bottom line is I needed a large-bore carry weapon to reliably CCW, not an ongoing work-in-progress for my local gunsmith. I was willing to invest a reasonable amount of time and ammo ($$$) to "break it in," but after a certain point it was time to move on.
So my two cents would be to invest the extra bucks and get a Kimber.
