Ok, ok, ok, this is getting ridiculous.
I said I was a 1911 'smith... and there WEREN'T any S&W 1911s to work on. During that time the only Smith autos there were to work on were the M-39, M-59, and lastly the M-69. (Duty-gun wise; not counting their target pistols).
Now, whether Colt or Smith made better guns isn't a matter of personal opinion. It's empirically true that Colt made far superior handguns from the 50s to the early 90s, when mistakes in management screwed things up thoroughly. Earlier Smiths were the equivalent of Colt; very few guns are as nice as Smith revolvers dating up to the early 50s.
About that time Smith quality fell and Colt remained about the same. Ask any TRUE expert what the greatest snubby of all time was, and I'll wager a good deal they'll say the Detective Special or one of it's variants, using the D frame. The Smith frame equivalent would be the K.
All D-frame Colt revolvers had a 3-point lockup system that froze the cylinder in place as the hammer dropped. No other gun's done this, exept the Python, which still does.
When the Detective Special was released, Smith hurried like maniacs to counter the move, and the model 36 Chief's Special was born. It allowed the revolver to be smaller by only accepting five rounds. This is still the basic design used for all J-frame Smiths.
Smith made a few errors, though, that persist to this day.
One fault of the J-frame 2-inch snubs is the lack of a full-length ejector rod. It's not long enough to push the empties completely from the chamber... often you have to shake the gun or use your hand to remove the cases. The Colt always had a full length rod.
Getting back to 1911s. The slide to frame fit is the LEAST important obstacle to good shooting and performance. It's the slide to barrel fit that really counts. Yep, you could shake a Colt and make it rattle... that's also what made it so reliable. "Loose as a Goose".
When I went through the Ohio Peace Officer's Academy the 1911 I would use to carry was off being reblued. Instead, I shot the course with a Remington-Rand 1911 my dad brought home from Korea.
Not only was I the only one to shoot perfect scores using it against Sigs, Berettas, Glocks, etc., it was the ONLY pistol that never, EVER jammed. Not once.
Again, it's not my opinion Colt and Springfield make the best of the full-production 1911s... it's a FACT. They are fully forged, better quality weapons. The two Smiths I saw break at the range had a broken safety lever, slide stop, and the second pistol had a crack develop at the botton front of the frame.
I never said Colt or Springfield were MY favorites 1911s, either. I prefer Les Baer over all others, and since they're made on a vastly smaller scale than the other brands, I didn't include them.
Colt and Springfield Armory have the 1911 DOWN PAT. They know how to make them right, and make them well.
Smith simply doesn't. Neither does Sig, for that matter (I saw one of their new ones and the accessory rail made me feel ill).
There's no reason to be offended by this. If you're a Smith fan, that's fine and dandy... I like almost all of their modern revolvers. Fine guns.
But go in with your inside calipers and micrometer and take measurements. Maybe someday the Smith 1911 will equal the others... but it doesn't right now.
Flyer
