[BlueSkyJaunte]

I, too, would stay away from Taurus. In fact, I have.

"The bitterness of poor quality is remembered long after the sweetness of low price has faded from memory."

Buy a solid platform to start from. Colt, Ruger, S&W, Dan Wesson, Springfield, and STI are all excellent options. Either buy basic and upgrade from there or cough up the $$$ for a factory version of what you want.

These days I would avoid:

1) Taurus (unmitigated crap)
2) Philippine makers (Armscor/Rock Island Armory, Citadel, etc. etc. etc.)
3) Remington (horrible QC problems with their recent org changes)
4) Kimber (always been wildly hit-and-miss on QC)
5) Para-USA (have sucked since they left Canada. Recently purchased by Remington's parent company...not good)
6) Sig (hit and miss - but better than Kimber)