The Colt 1911 is a great pistol. It has superb ergonomics, excellent accuracy, a svelte body, a long history of supremacy as a fighting pistol, and a magnificent trigger. Many people find that they are simply more accurate with a 1911 than with other more common designs.
The main reliability weakness of the 1911 centers around the internal extractor. I have six 1911’s and generally any problems are due to extractor adjustment. The extractor tension is critical. A low extractor tension results in failures to extract and stovepipes, while tension that is too high results in failures to feed. Every gunsmith has their own method to adjust this tension using various rules of thumb. Even 1911 fanatics will admit that the extractor needs to be adjusted every 500 rounds or so while pistols with external extractors and separate springs will go thousands of rounds with no extractor problems.
Various manufacturers of 1911 clones have chosen to switch to an external extractor. The first was Smith & Wesson with the SW1911. SIG came out with a 1911 with an external extractor. Now even Staccato and Wilson Combat have external extractors on some models.
A puzzling fact is that in the 1980’s Army testing comparing the 1911 to the Beretta and SIG, the 1911 had a fault in less than 200 rounds while the Beretta and SIG ran thousands of rounds without a problem. But, in 1911, the original John Browning design ran 6000 rounds without a problem, far better than competing pistols like the Savage and Lugar. A possible explanation is contained in this product description from the Cylinder&Slide web site:
“Our Ultimate 45 ACP 1911 Extractor is the only extractor that is made from the correct spring steel called out by the military print. I have had every extractor that I could purchase tested to determine the steel alloy. All of the extractors that I had tested were made from the same incorrect steel. The Ultimate extractor has the correct nose shape and the proper radii for the most reliable function. The Ultimate extractor will maintain its tension long after the others have failed. Tensioning instructions are included with every Ultimate Extractor. Every Ultimate Extractor is Rockwell tested to insure correct heat treatment. The Ultimate Extractor is not only heat treated it is Austempered for maximum wear resistance.”
Here is a more detailed description of this issue from Cylinder & Slide and what they had to go through to make these:
https://cylinderslide.com/PDFarticles/ExtractorHistory.pdf
By the way, if you need to replace the thumb safety on a Smith & Wesson SW1911, a “standard” safety will not fit as it interferes with the sear. Smith apparently changed a critical dimension in the frame that affected this. Their manufacturing solution was to buy commercial safeties and hand fit them to each pistol. The safety to sear interface in the 1911 is very critical and a replacement safety needs to be fitted by a gunsmith who thoroughly understands the geometry and interaction. I don’t know if S&W has corrected this on their SW1911E models.
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