It's an ambi safety. Note the extractor (the circle cut) is on the right side of the back of the slide. Also note the extended top of the grip safety and the long hammer spur, indicating that it's a 1911-A1 rather than an old model 1911.

I'm guessing it's a stock safety, because of the lack of other improvements that would indicate a competition or tactical weapon. For example, the hammer is mil-spec and not lightened. Comp shooters need the slight boost to cycle time from a lighter hammer. Also, the profile of the mil-spec hammer, the grip safety, and the rear sight would drag on clothing, indicating that it's not been modified for concealed carry.

My guess at first would be Kimber, but the grooves on the slide (which are used for getting a grip when you have to clear the action quickly in a malfunction) aren't the standard slippery-ugly Kimber style. I'd have to see the hammer to be sure. Based on the grooves on the slide alone, I'm gonna go with Colt or Springfield for $1000, Alex. Cuz I have one. And it looks like that. Only black and with cooler parts. :D

I am telling you, I can be pedantic with the best of em. AND I'VE GOTTEN TO USE THAT WORD TWICE THIS WEEK!

I'll post pics of mine tomorrow maybe. I took my pill tonight, and I don't touch any weapon unless I'm sober. So it remains locked away, safely hidden under the kid's bed.

I'm not saying it is not that gun, not arguing with you... but you can order left-handed guns from several manufacturers. A separate thought.

yah i didn't feel argued with. s'all good. it happens to me constantly. And come to think of it, you're probably right, except that the stock lefties will have stock safeties, and that one seems to be aftermarket to me. Just the shape of it, really.

I'm split 50/50 on leftie model or aftermarket ambi.

Ok.

I was thoughtfully pulling my lip over that little pin end visible between the safety lever and the grip panel... seemed familiar. Where had I seen that before...? Yeah, I should have picked up on the extractor being on the right side where it belonged.

I tend to regard minimal-mod 1911s as "tactical," per the KISS plan. Ambi safety lever, your favorite fixed sights, being choosy about your magazines and a 4-to-5-lb trigger pull. Maybe beveling the mag well if it's in the budget. (That doesn't apply to double-stack 1911s like Para-Ordnance and the modulars, as there's a bigger well to shove 'em in and the mags taper a bit at the top.)

But you make such an entertaining bitch. :p

Honestly, I just started on pistols not too long ago. Had revolvers most of my life.
I want to get a Glock 6 for my next, I can't handle the larger grips now. I like .45s.
We, on the ranch, always used Glocks or revolvers because of weather.

There are a few small gunmakers who've figured the lefties deserve a pistol set up for them too, which can be rather a thing in a basic design nearly a hundred years old. Modern fighting pistols like the Kahr or the Glock are less, uh, handed. Curiously enough, the venerable Colt Peacemaker revolver may be better laid out for use in the left hand than in the right, with its loading gate on the right side.

Kahr Arms/

I'm pretty sure Rossi makes lefties to order.

Well, since we aren't allowed to have (and I obviously wouldn't want to have) handguns here, it really makes no difference to me which handed they are. :)

To your list I would add "profile reduction" -- bevelling or rounding surfaces that have a tendency to grab on to things when you draw. Back of the slide, the hammer, the spur, the front site (that's one that gets ignored till they whack it off on a brick wall during a chase and suddenly don't remember how to aim without a front sight.). Obviously, in the field, you have to be able to replace broken parts, so you want to stay standard as possible. They're not going to send your mercury filled recoil reducer in the mail to iraq if you lose one.

But spec ops guys are special. They get to take their OWN sidearms on trips :D And before they go, they load em up with a wide assortment of goofy shit that is basically for pimpin dey gun.j

The old schoolers snarl at them of course, but i always enjoyed talking to both camps.

That last was to UG. Damn you kids and your fast typin. ciggie break, brb.

The photo is simply reversed for the purposes of the graphic designer.

Nah, it's straight. Just has a safety for lefties.

And/or weak-hand firing... just in case your strong hand isn't working, or some crocodile just Steve-Irwinned it, and you without your chainsaw and the Army of Darkness still closing in...

...wonder if Nood has finished his ciggie?