Quoted:I would choose the Colt.
I am also quite suprised you have even that many choices on the Island of Malta.
ETA;, Do you folks NEED a gunsmith, enough business to keep one gainfully employed???
I am in the market for a nice place to spend my 'golden years'.
Well if you had enough cash to retire and do nothing and smith on the side I say you would find enough to do to keep busy, we mainly get European brands here due to the ITAR restrictions in the US, and the licensing and gun laws are no where as free as you're probably used to. The only smiths on the Island specialize in shotguns mainly due to the popularity of bird hunting and the clay sports. Our 'rifled firearms' laws only came into effect in 2007, this covers pistols and rifles, so we are pretty new at it.
The population over here is about 400,000 and there are over 100,000 registered weapons, 15,000 hunting licenses, and abour 2,000 sporting licenses. We are restricted to 10 firearms in the sporting license so do math and see if it is viable. Most of the work like replacing parts is covered by the dealers, it's the actual polisihing cutting shaping of the steel or parts which we lack hence the lack of popularity for the 1911 over here. The Glock, CZ 75 and Revolvers are king over here.
Looks like I'm crossing the Les Baer and STI off the list.
To give you an idea of the scope of firearms available go to the dealer section most of it is in English:
http://www.maltashootingsports.com/shootingtalk/You will need to be a member of the forum to see the section.