BTW how'd your 97 hold up in that comparison?
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It's all apples n oranges n bananas. The Les Baer has blacked-out adjustable LPA target sights, a single stack 8 round magazine, being very flat and thin traditional 1911, with a killer 2.5lb single action only trigger, no tac rail, and has a hand-fitted barrel/link, yielding 1/5" groups at 50 yards from a rest. It is a total laser beam, and shoots exactly where you point it every time. Frame-to-slide fit is ultra-tight, no play. But to me, although an amazing target gun, and very sleek, the 1911 platform is simply outdated by today's functional standards, in all honesty, and is not the gun I would choose for home defense or combat. More felt recoil than the CZ or Sig, too. A phenomenal target or range gun.
My Sig P220 all-Stainless is a German mfg gun, and is ridiculously tight for a production gun. Being an older gun, it is all high-grade tool-steel guts inside, before they switched to MIM junk. It's quite heavy since the frame is also stainless steel. It is nearly as easy to shoot accurately as the Les Baer at distances under 20 yards. It is heavier than the 1911, has very little recoil, and is the easiest of the three to rapid-fire. It has a great tactical rail you can mount a light on for home defense, along with its very good stock tall, blocky night sights that are very easy to pick up on, and has a decocker. It does have a single stack magazine limiting it to 8 rounds if you want the magazine to fit flush, but I also have factory 10 rounders that stick down about 1". It is da/sa, and I have the SA down to about 3.5 lbs clean, no creep. DA is a little heavy but very smooth, about 9 lbs, stacks a little at the end of its travel. This gun is stone reliable, ejects like a mad man, and would eat cigar butts and sea weed if I shoved 'em in the magazine along with the bullets. It's a workhorse and a very functional, precision machine. It doesn't care what ammo you feed through it, and has never once bobbled.
The CZ 97B Cajunized has a slightly nicer trigger than the Sig, but even with the Cajun barrel bushing, it is not as accurate as the other two guns in this particular peer group. Its sights are still stock, and could use a little improvement. It does hold two extra rounds in its double stack magazine but its grip is also the largest of the three by a big margin. Has a little more felt recoil than the Sig, but less than the Les 1911. Of course it's DA/SA, with the SA down around 3lbs and the DA at about 8 lbs. It lacks a rail for tactical applications, and its biggest enemy is its sheer bulk and huge grip circumference, even with slim Nils grip panels on it. It gets an extra point of "cool factor" because it is high glossy blued unit!
In all, even though CZ's are my favorite 9mm platform, I have to give the nod to the older german Sig P220 SS in this 45acp group. Refinement, features, function, style, finish, ergonomics, accuracy, reliability, use-ability, strength, simplicity.....I can find a few areas for improvement for upgrade in the big bulky CZ, and the 1911 is just too limited without extra capacity, without a light rail, without night sights or DA, etc etc. But I cannot fault the Sig anywhere. All three feel and run very differently from one another, but if there could only be one 45 in the house ready to roll in the night stand, or in a skirmish, the P220 SS would get that distinction. The only way you could screw up with the Sig in a pressure situation would be forgetting to load it beforehand LOL! Granted, the CZ97 would be my second choice here for defense work, or the range. But taking second place in this company, and 2nd overall in the whole world of 45 acp platforms out there, is no dishonor! I would, however, choose the all-steel CZ97 OVER a traditional Sig P220 with an alloy frame, which I find especially undesirable in a 45acp......
