A commanding configuration: this scandium/aluminum framed S&W 1911 is a light, touch, durable and reliable Commander-sized pistol

Guns Magazine, Jan, 2005 by Charles E. Petty

Way back in 1950 Colt introduced the Lightweight Commander and began new era for both the 1911 type and handguns in general. By using a strong aluminum alloy for the frame and reducing the barrel length to [4.sup.1][??] they shaved about 13 ounces of weight off the gun. Detractors and naysayers said it couldn't be done or that the pistol would rapidly self-destruct. Of course neither was true and somebody has made an alloy framed 1911 ever since.

Then a couple of years ago Smith & Wesson learned of an aluminum alloy that contained a small percentage of Scandium and, using it coupled with a Titanium cylinder, gave us a 10.5-ounce .357 Magnum that can ruin the day of both shootee and shooter. The history of the gun industry teaches us that there are rapid spin-offs to any technological advance so it was really only a matter of time before S&W employed the Scandium alloy to join their new 1911 pistol. And they did it with the 4 1/4" barrel length. Hoo-rah.

One of the most persistent myths about alloy-frame 1911s is the frame's feed ramp gets deformed as bullets pass over it from the magazine to the chamber. The hype is so bad sometimes it seems nearly miraculous to get a few hundred rounds through the gun. As I'm sure you know, the truth is far removed from the gunshop grapevine. It is surely true that feed ramps get battered sometimes. The myth usually blames one brand of ammo or another but most of the time the guns live long, happy lives with never so much as a burp or dent. If there is a problem, I think it is mightily exaggerated.

One of the real issues with any lightweight firearm is how practical--or comfortable--it is to shoot. But in broad terms, reducing weight generally also reduces the number of rounds we fire in any given period of time.

That said, the addition of a small amount of Scandium can almost double the tensile strength of an aluminum alloy. That would seem to be the ounce of prevention needed in case frames really do get beat up.

When S&W entered the 1911 market with the full-size gun, they wisely used many parts from other vendors. After all, there are plenty of good aftermarket small parts and enough wheels are re-invented anyhow. They continued this practice with the SC. Several of the parts such as the hammer, sear and disconnector are made by the MIM (metal injection molding) process. Contrary to what some folks say there is nothing automatically wrong with parts made that way and there is rarely any need to replace them. Strangely though, the people who say you should are the same folks who (coincidentally I'm sure) would be happy to sell you the replacements. The beauty of MIM is that you get parts that are almost ready to use and often need only a little polishing. Sometimes you can see a little round spot left over from the molding process where the material is injected into the mold. Those were present on the hammer and sear of this gun.

A couple of years ago I visited the S&W plant and was shown a new seven axis machine center that was being set up for barrel manufacturing. Now they've got a bunch of those and the 1911 barrel is made there. If you look at it there really are a bunch of complex cuts in a 1911 barrel and these really smart machines do them with ease. The other cool process they use is an Extrude-hone. This machine pumps a mildly abrasive viscous mixture back and forth under high pressure and produces an incredibly smooth surface finish. The actual rifling can be either cut by a broach or done by an electrochemical machining operation where a carbon electrode with the rifling pattern is passed through the bore. The news here is that the most modern machining technology is being applied to a gun whose basic design is over 90 years old and has been pronounced dead many times by fans of "wondernine" pistols or some other fad.

I don't know about anyone else, but even after all these years I get a kick out of opening the box when a new gun arrives. The wow factor for this one is pretty high.

When you consider that we have an aluminum alloy frame and a carbon steel slide, getting the finishes to match is a neat trick. Anodized aluminum can be pretty much any color that you want but S&W has matched it with a matte black slide that is more of a grayish black. Ichi's pictures will show it better than any words I can muster but it is a very appealing look.

The right side of the slide is laser etched with "1911Sc" in large type and following the tradition begun with their first Titanium revolvers there's a little atom with the correct number of electrons orbiting the nucleus. Of course there are Novak sights and matching forward serrations on the slide. There are also some shallow grooves on the front strap of the frame that provide just a little traction for your grip. The checkered diamond grips provide a nice color contrast. As we've come to expect the gun has as standard equipment all the stuff we used to pay extra for. There's a nice beavertail safety, extended thumb safety, aluminum trigger with overtravel adjustment, beveled magazine well and a full-length guide rod.