Thanks for all the info and feedback. As a long time 1911 owner and shooter I've know about cocking the hammer to make racking the slide easier in the mid 1970s.. I taught that to the female deputies who elected to shoot 1911s instead of 357 Magnum revolvers starting in 1978. Also, rather than go to the S&W "easy squeezy" models as someone called them I'd stick with the 7 shot 357 Mag (386 NG) I'm carrying now. This whole idea appealed to me as a way to get back to the clean breaking and crisp trigger the 1911 is famous for.
I hadn't thought of the Ruger so appreciate that suggestion. Any other information, recommendations, or suggestions are sincerely appreciate.
Dave
In all seriousness - the 9mm 1911 was first bought upon this earth by Colt engineers in the Commander format - it's the whole reason the Commander came into existence in the first place, for a 1949 Army solicitation for a 9mm sidearm of some kind. Colt figured "hey, they got 1911s in 45acp, a slightly shorter one in 9mm would be the ticket!" ...never mind the solicitation required a double action gun (like a P38), hold more than 9 rounds (more than a P38 did), that it weigh a certain amount (which the Commander did not meet), etc etc etc...
A 9mm 1911 Commander is the perfect size, because it was engineered to be Less cycling issues, etc. It's not as super pillowy soft shooting as a full size Gov't model, but it's also paradoxically got a better operating envelope in that size format (while 45acp is the opposite). Springs, mags and extractors are probably the biggest gotchas for a 9mm 1911 Commander. I think Colt got the spring rates correct but the magazine...achilles heel.
Quite a number of years ago when ToddG was running his springfield torture test, Jason Burton of Heirloom Precision recommended 14# variable rate springs IIRC. I have a 1911 government 9mm that I purchased used. Prior owner ran 14#variable springs and recommended that I did the same when I took ownership. I have run about 2,000 rds through it with that spring and never had a malfunction/stoppage or a failure to lock back on an empty mag. Prior owner had about 4,000 rounds. He did not have any malfunctions either.
If you decide to give a 9mm 1911 a try and experiment w/ recoil springs you can always install a shock buff from Wilson to reduce the probability of frame damage.
https://wilsoncombat.com/accessories...arts_type=4610
After Todd ran his test, I had a bout of the sillys, sold some guns I didn't use and bought a Wilson CQB in 9mm. It ran very, very well.
I installed one of Wilson's flat-wire recoil setups in the gun after they were introduced and it still works well.
3/15/2016