The Choice is Made

My brand spanking new Taurus PT-145 Millennium Pro came in yesterday.
I was nearly decided on the Kahr, but I had a nice talk with my friendly neighborhood gun dealer, and he put things in to perspective for me. I have been doing a lot of reading on the various pistols that I was considering, and found that the Taurus had some quality issues at about 500 to 800 rounds. The Glock and the Kahr did not have these issues until well over 1000 rounds. This really concerned me, because I need my carry pistol to be 100% reliable. I had nearly put the Taurus out of the running. Then the dealer asked me some questions:

Dealer: How many rounds did the testers put through the pistol before the failures?
Me: I don't know...

Dealer: Check again. I know for a fact that in the torture tests they put all of the rounds through the pistol with out cleaning the gun.
Me: Ok.

Dealer: How many rounds do you think you would put through your pistol?
Me: I don't know... Maybe 500 to 800 at the very most.

Dealer: All at the same time?
Me: No.

Dealer: How often would you clean your pistol?
Me: I kind of like to clean them, so I normally would clean immediately after every time I shot it. After that I suppose I would clean the pistol every other week or so, depending on how much I carry it.

Dealer: Good thinking. So with all of that care that you put in to your pistol, you could buy the cheapest crappiest pistol that is sold anywhere and it will be reliable for you. I own several Taurus pistols myself, and I know they are not the crappiest pistols around. So keep that in mind when you make your final choice. Just so you know, I can sell that Taurus almost immediately. If you don't like it, and want to get the Kahr, I will buy it back from you at a good price, and you would only be out about $50, less than the price of a good range day with ammo, plus you would know that the Kahr is the right gun for you.

That did it for me. While I still believe that the Kahr is the absolute best carry pistol, I just do not want to haul out the $700+ cost of it. The Taurus carries 5 more rounds than the Kahr and the Glock, and is about $300 and $200 less expensive respectively.

The drawbacks are the Kahr is about 1/2 and inch shorter (5.67" to the Taurus' 6.125"), the Kahr is about 1/2 an inch in height shorter (4.49" to 5.125"), and the Kahr is about 3 ounces lighter(19.3 oz to 22.2 oz).
The Taurus and the Glock are virtually identical, with the Glock being a little over 1/2 an inch longer (6.77" to 6.125), and about 1/4 of an inch shorter in height (4.76" to 5.125").

Despite the cost difference, the Taurus wins in overall capacity holding 4 more rounds (11 to Kahr and Glock's 7), and safety (the Taurus has an additional mechanical safe, with a lighter trigger pull, where the Kahr has a heavy trigger pull with no mechanical safeties. The Glock has no real safeties, but uses its double trigger "save action" to essentially make it so that only a direct backward pull fires the pistol).

Shooting was a lot of fun. The .45 has a lot more kick than my 9mm. Of course the new pistol is much lighter, has a shorter barel, uses more powder, and is throwing a much heavier round through the air. For the time being, the nice grouping on my accelerated pair or "double tap" is completely gone. I will need some serious practice before I can get that back.