A few questions to get me started?

[Aged_Cheddar]

As mentioned, we need to know what your are planning to use it for.

I covered that in my first post, but basically I'm looking for a gun to take to the range a few times a month for practice, and to use for home defense, not going to be a CCW or EDC type situation.

 

[Dobbinsky]

For home defense, the most important aspect of your search, the Springfield XD Mod.3 has the best reputation for reliability.

 

[Aged_Cheddar]

....i don't understand the Glock grip angle "hate", if you can shoot one gun, you can shoot a Glock......actually, the Glock grip angle positions your wrist in a bit downward position for better wrist/arm alignment...at least this is what i have found....and i am a very old man, and i have no issues shooting ANY Glock......my carry is a G-19, not large, NOT small..."just right sized"...and NO, i am NOT a Glock fanboy.

I totally get what your saying here, I know Glock makes great guns, but they they don't make great guns for me...

I just don't like the feel, I'm not holding it wrong, and I know which way the business end goes, I can also hit targets with it (terribly), could I practice to proficiency? sure, or I could find a gun that feels right from the start.

I'll use my bass guitar analogy again... There is a company called Ernie Ball that makes a bass called a Stingray (@BassCliff knows what that is)...anyway for all intents and purposes it's an AMAZING US made bass...that for whatever reason (string spacing I think) I just can't get comfortable with it....would I gig it? Yes if I practiced on it all the time and worked through my issues...or I could just grab my US Fender Precision bass and be done with it. YMMV

 

[SimonRL]

I can’t believe no one has said HK VP9 or Walther PDP. As much as I love my VP9s, and by the way, I spent $715 for my latest VP9A1F, I believe that the 4 inch PDP Compact is the best value of any striker fired pistol. Very accurate, great trigger, great ergos, nice looking, optic ready, easily concealable, $575 from Grab a Gun.

And for the sake of a rant, it baffles me that with all the pontificating that goes on around here about caliber, capacity, training being paramount in defending your life, anyone would encourage someone to put ok their life in the hands of a $300 gun. I don’t care how good you reckon your LC9, Kahr or Miami Blue SCCY is and anything is better than nothing is horsesh-t. RANT OVER.

 

[Aged_Cheddar]

OK, so thanks to everyone that has chimed in here! Keep em' coming!

I did get out today to a local shop & to a friends backyard range, I had a great time, we probably went through 400-500 rounds between the two of us..good times were had.

I even got to test a few guns on my list, and some I hadn't thought of.

So far:

Springfield Echelon - Great trigger, comfy grip, felt oddly nose heavy?

Springfield XD Mod.3 - Absolute barn burner for the price, probably my favorite today.

Canik TP9SFX - HUGE gun, insanely accurate, amazing trigger, overall just too big though (length)

Canik Mete SF - I really wanted to love this gun, amazing trigger, just a bit small overall, maybe I need to try the SFT?

SAR USA Sar9 - Never seen one of these, it shot good, great trigger.

Glock 17 (Gen 5 I think) - Meh, neither good nor bad, but my least favorite trigger by a country mile...Oddly enough, this was my buddies favorite of the day, go figure?

Walther PDP Full Size - Damn nice shooting gun (my 2nd favorite today), preferred the XD Mod.3 a little more.

Beretta APX A1 Compact - Smallest gun shot today, I wanted to try the full size, but the store owner said the triggers were the same, so I could at least get that sorted, nice gun, looks bad***, still would like to shoot the full size.

All in all a productive day!