If you want a 1911, but you want high capacity 45ACP, what you want is a Para Ordnance P-14 45. True pure 1911, the only variance from the John Moses Browning design is a wider grip frame. Mine is even based on the original Series 70, there's not even a magazine disconnect. Out of the box smooth, clean, crisp trigger, no creep, no overtravel. The two MecGar magazines work fine, so for $20 each I have two more high capacity magazines. The only drawback is that it does not like extremely cheap lower power ammunition, especially when it burns dirty. It does not like cheap white box crap.
For the average person, with proper hearing and eye protection, recoil from a 45 ACP is not even remotely an issue. My wife is smaller than petite. She prefers my 1911 pattern P-14 45 in 45 ACP to any smaller round she has shot. She prefers her 44 Special to a 38 special or 357 Magnum. And she is not a hard core shooter in the least. She likes guns, more as a tool, not quite as much as a hobby for fun. That's probably because she is so small, and most of my weapons are large and powerful. I only have a couple of rifles that are not magnums, and they're still fairly large and heavy, the only thing I have that is light is a 50 caliber Knight muzzle loader, and it kicks hard with the magnum level loads I keep for it. My shotgun is too big for her too. Being over a foot taller than her and a 100 pounds heavier makes it hard to have stuff of mine that she can shoot. Although she can tear stuff up with my 44 Magnum and my 1911. I'm betting she'll warm up to some lighter stuff I'm picking up just for her. But if she can shoot my 1911 well, anyone can.
Until you get into fairly hot loadings, or magnums, recoil is mostly between the ears, not between the hands. The majority of recoil issues for most shooters come mostly from poor eye and hearing protection, followed by poor gun handling. The truth is, unless you are shooting +P, +P+, or some of the defense rounds, the vast majority of factory ammunition is considerably downloaded from the SAAMI standard. There are some rounds that are just not friendly by their nature, their design makes them less pleasant. For the most part, they are the smaller rounds, mostly sub 40 caliber, and usually because they require a fast sharp pressure curve to generate power. That makes for a sharp recoil and excess muzzle blast. When you get to the 44 and 45 caliber cartridges, the recoil is slower and smoother, and the muzzle blast is deeper, and duller. The smaller stuff gives your hands a "smack" and your ears a sharp "bang", where the heaver stuff gives your hands a "shove" and your ears a "boom".
As to hunting deer, I switch to a 180 grain JHC bullet for deer, it clocks right at 1800 fps from my 6" Dan Wesson. It shoots flat, it hits hard, and it drops them quickly. Just don't hit them where there's meat you want to eat. Even at around 100 yards, it goes all the way through, and makes a huge hole.
