I'm considering selling both my Kahr K-40 and my HK USP Compact .45 and putting the funds toward the Wilson.

Any owners of the CQB Compact have any opinions on the firearm, good, bad or indifferent?

Well, at least then you'd have a real gun.

Sorry, I couldn't resist. I've spent too much time on the 1911 snob forums.

My honest opinion is that all of the above pistols are great weapons for what they are. It just happens that 1911s have a feel the others can't match. I'm a newby at this, but personally I see the largest difference between the Wilson, Brown, Baer and Nighthawk is in the price. All are supurb weapons built on a classy platform.

If you spend some time on thehighroad.org and the 1911forum.com, I don't think you'll find anyone badmouthing the Wilson CQB.

My Wilson is not the CQB Compact but the slightly smaller (and discontinued) Sentinel. I also have the HK USP Compact. I would sell the Wilson before the HK, but that is to some degree a question of personal preference. The Wilson does have a fabulous trigger and is quite accurate.

I like their pistols, the one I've shot, and the ones I've coveted in their catalogs. In the end, I went with an innocuous-sounding "Premier II" made by somebody else. I could have gone either way, but I had bad dreams about a burglar's plaintiff's attorney asking my why I had a pistol called a "Devastator" or and "Avenger" or something made for "Battle".

"You bought that pistol to kill people with, didn't you?"

I have mixed feelings about giving a candid answer to that question in front of a jury.

H. C.