I took my 3 daughters shooting last Saturday.  Ages are 14, 17, and 21. Fourteen year old had never shot a pistol and my older girls have only shot on a few occasions but never a 1911.
I brought my Glock 26, Glock 19, Springfield XDS in 9mm, and a 5" 1911 in 9mm that I built.
I let them shoot a few magazines from each pistol and asked what they liked best.
My 14 year old latched on to the XDS but my older girls said the 1911 was by far their favorite one. They said it was easy to handle and keep on target. Recoil was more manageable, too.
I smiled as I watched them shoot it. They could not put it down and they kept reloading the magazines and shooting more. When I said we had to go all I got was frowns.
1911 wins this one

Awesome. So glad you take your kids to the range. They won't forget it

Mine gets taken away from me from time to time. This kid is not afraid of recoil. She says the kick is part of the fun.

Shooting SA Professional


Shooting AR

I had a student that was an immigrant from Brazil, never handled a handgun prior to taking her carry permit class. We let her shoot .22, .38s, .380s, 9mm, and she asked to shoot my 1911 during "warmup/practice" time. She seemed to enjoy it more than any of the others we had out for students to try out.
When it came to shooting for the score I asked her what she wanted to shoot (thinking it would be the G17) Without hesitation she said the 1911. She scored 2nd highest in class.

The recoil impulse and ergonomics of the 1911 make it easy to shoot for pretty much anyone

I shot my Kimber yesterday, about 400 rounds.  JMB was/is the man.