Not as much CZ love as I would have expected .
Many great suggestions here though, many of which I currently own.

If you want to stick to your budget a CZ Shadow 2 would be my suggestion. Accurate as hell, great ergos and sights, very good trigger and very responsive to inexpensive tweaks. AccuShadow 2 and S2O are just more so!

If you don't mind blowing out your budget though, a TSO is sublime! Trigger is crazy good oh, very soft shooting and extremely accurate.

I can also suggest a Beretta 92X Performance, although it is a bit above your budget.

CZ Accushadow 2, or maybe the 75 TS Checkmate a bit more but the Accushadow is darn near perfect.

If I never had to carry it, my P30v3 9mm is what I shoot best. At least in single action.

My favorite combinaton carry and shoot pistol is my Walther PPS M2, but you'd have to buy 3 of them to get into your price range.

P220 Carry SAS

CZ Shadow 2.

However if you wanted to carry, an SP-01 with some Cajun Gun Works goodies, or even just springs, is very close for me. I prefer to carry the SP-01 Tactical because of the hammer block safety and de-cocker.

Next would be a CZ 97 in .45 ACP. I don’t have one but had been looking at hard at one.

I have a TSO in 40 that is awesome as well but more like $1,700.

P229 Legion is at the upper end of the price range but an excellent choice to consider.

SIG p226 MK25

P320 Legion, or possibly P226 with upgrades.

A little north of 1k but a CZ Shadow 2 or Tactical Sports Orange or TS2 are outstanding in my opinion.

Currently this Wilson 320.
Like someone else said that can change though.
I got a good deal on it at Rainier Arms, they had them for $1050.00 plus tax. It was an impulse buy I walked in and saw the price and said yes!
Now they’re back up to $1255.00 though.

This one...

I like my Legion 226 SAO, but this one gets carried the most. I've since replaced the grips with Hogue G10s.

Recommendations are pointless not knowing what your intended purpose is. Are you buying for competition, self-defense, plinking or carry? Or do you just want a safe queen that you can post photos of?

I'm defining "favorite" as the one I enjoy taking out and shooting the most. All other factors and considerations are secondary at best.

The one that tops my list is my Custom Shop Shadow T-SA, long out of production. Ordered over a decade ago; took nearly a year to deliver. And it was well worth it, and still is to this day. At the time it was $1200ish after government got its pound of flesh. More traditional CZ 75 look instead of the modernized, full dust cover SP-01 look that dominates the current Shadows from both the factory and the Custom Shop. Certainly doesn't hurt that it has a truly superb trigger. I like the current crop of Shadow 2s and all, but the older style 75B frame captures the East Bloc commienista in me more convincingly than the SP-01 look does. Plus I do prefer how it balances for my mitts, something that has always nagged at me since I bought one of those early examples of the blockier SP-01 Tactical all those years ago (in addition to Tactical's less-than-refined, wonky trigger action).

Honorable mention: HK PSP. These days any P7 is hard if not impossible to find in the $2k range let alone for a grand but I bought mine for $800 some four years ago and was more than glad to hand over the money. The ultimate hand warmer and lookin' damn sweet doing it.

quote:

Originally posted by Tordon:
Recommendations are pointless not knowing what your intended purpose is. Are you buying for competition, self-defense, plinking or carry? Or do you just want a safe queen that you can post photos of?

For what it's worth It'll probably be a range gun. Something that's just flat out fun to shoot. I've got my carry set up fairly nailed down.

If you can find one, my preference is the P226R SAO Elite.

Years back I wanted the then new, soon to be imported, CZ Shadow. None were to be had here in the USA.
I contacted Matt Mink and asked him to build me a Shadow from a SPO1. What a GREAT gun he made.
After shooting that I put all my other handguns away. I stopped even looking at any other pistols.
To this day If I had to buy a new handgun it would be another CZ Shadow.