Congrats on your first love.
Just my 2 cents here.
I see a lot of chatter about buy 1,000's of rounds, expensive ammo, shoot, shoot, shoot.... but you can become more proficient without spending the money or travel time.
DRY-FIRE !
Any instructor worth their salt will tell you to Dry-fire more than you live fire.
Get your self some snap caps and practice, practice, practice in the comfort of your own home.
Builds muscle memory, you can practice charging, firing, reloads, tactical reloads, malfunctions whenever you feel like it as often as possible.
(Do not have live ammo in the same room you practice in !)
Also investing in the .22 conversion is REALLY smart idea.
Get the model of similar weight to your .45 action
The Kimber is noted for FTF on Springfields, Advantage Arms (under $300) gets good reviews and I know personally that their service is EXCELLANT, but the Marvel Precision Unit 1 (steel starts at $700
) seems to get the best reviews for Springfield 1911's
Shoot more for less and still build the muscle memory, then blow off a box of .45.
It will pay for itself almost immediately, at least both of my Advantage Arms did ).
Happy Shooting.
K.I.P.I.A.S.D. !