My business was the distributor nationally here in Canada for both the Kimber and STI handguns from the late 90s to mid/late 2000s, and while 3" were under the legal limit to import here, I've shot a lot of the Kimber micro 1911s as their HQ was just South of us in Calgary down into Montana and I was there pretty much every month on business for years. Either company makes a decent 3" 1911, just be aware that in my experience when you get down to those really short sub Commander length barrel 1911s, the pickier they become regarding ammunition. That isn't to say you can't find extremely reliable ammunition in all types, be it defensive or FMJ/Etc loads, you just need to do some research and test shooting with whatever you buy.
Like others have said, just be sure it's comfortable for you to shoot with, and you should be fine - if you already shoot a 1911 well, and most should as I've found it's grip's dimensions, angles, ergos, etc, to be about the most universally comfortable and compatible of any handgun, you certainly shouldn't expect any issues with the 3" micro 1911 type handguns.
STI overall make/made excellent 1911s. I put a lot of Winchester 230 gr white box .45 through a couple STI 1911s I had, easily a case a month through each for a couple years when instructing, training at other schools, and competing until my company (Sig) came out with their own line of 1911s.
Kimber on the other hand did have some QC issues in later years, I'm not all that current on that state of affairs, as when we first carried their line they were easily the most trouble free units of everything we sold other than perhaps Sig's 226 line. I'm talking about 1000s of Kimbers sold, and 100s of thousands of rounds on our rental line through Super Matches, Gold Matches, Kimber IIs, etc, with the lowest number of parts and catastrophic failures of anything other than the 226s we ran which it was a draw with in that department. As they grew and expanded something happened, but today, from all I've heard and read it isn't that hard to find a good quality Kimber 1911, just check it out closely before you buy it.
Whatever you buy, again, really check it out, if you look at Kimbers check the barrel crown, the fit and finish, and look around the chamber areas for rough tooling work and marks, that sort of thing. It's pretty easy to find the "Monday and Friday" built guns in any line if you take your time and do proper inspection. I've seen Smith 1911s that looked like the barrels were cut with a hacksaw, and others in the same batch that shot darts and felt smooth as a sewing machine and would group 1.5 inch groups at 25m all day off a bench. Same with STI, although typically it's harder to find a "bad" one, they still are capable of producing a lemon, so really, really inspect the crap out of whatever you decide to purchase. While your purpose sounds like long range shots aren't all that important, good quality should be something you always demand in any firearm you plan to use, and who knows, you may need to make a shot on a charging hog or other dangerous animals someday with that 3" handgun.
Last thing, you're absolutely going to notice more muzzle flip and general recoil with a 3", I'm sure that's obvious, but until you shoot one, you'll not realize how much more you need to adjust your shooting and timing compared to a 5" standard 1911 using similar ammunition. It's no big deal IMO, anyone with good fundamentals can handle and adjust to it.
