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

There are two mechanical innovations that carry over from S&W's full-size 1911. Internally is a firing pin safety that operates off the grip safety and also S&W's version of an external extractor. I am, at best, neutral about the external extractor because I view it as fixing something that wasn't broken but am very high on the firing pin safety. It is a derivative of the Swartz Safety Colt had in the 1930s and does nothing to interfere with the trigger pull.

Speaking of trigger pulls: after a visual inspection the next thing I do is check to see that the safeties function properly and dry fire it couple of times. Maybe I should say tried to dry fire it because I pulled and pulled before it finally snapped. The Lyman digital trigger pull gauge read 7.5 pounds. I guess that proves that they don't cherry pick guns sent to writers. This one needed--and got--professional help to bring it down to a more manageable five pounds before any other testing was done.

Then I followed my normal three step testing procedure of 50-100 rounds for break-in with cleaning and inspection. Whenever possible, I like to do accuracy testing with the Ransom Rest with a representative cross section of factory ammo. This time I did three 10-shot groups with five different loads at 25 yards. As you can see from the table, accuracy ranged from very good to graphically dismal. It isn't impossible for a gun to truly dislike one specific load over all others but this is also a relatively new load from Speer and might have a bug or two. With that one taken out the average becomes 3.3".

The final step in the process is just to simply shoot the gun with as wide a variety of ammo as possible. Usually this takes place over several weeks and must include ball, hollowpoint and lead bullets either factory or handloaded. My goal is to shoot 500 rounds for this type of test and that was done. I also made sure to shoot plenty of hollowpoints that are alleged to damage feed ramps. There were no stoppages of any kind and the feed ramp, other than being very dirty, was undamaged.

When all is said and done there is much to like about this pistol. With the sole exception of the rather awful trigger pull (bear in mind we're talking about a sample of one here) there is nothing to criticize. Any time I select ammo for a test of this type it is a crapshoot. My policy is to include at least one load from each of the major ammo makers and sometimes that is dictated by what is on the shelf when I need it. Still, the pistol is more than accurate enough for defense or plinking and you'll be hard pressed to find one that looks cooler.

1911SC
SMITH & WESSON
2110 Roosevelt Avenue
Springfield, MA 01102
www.smith-wesson.com

ACTION TYPE:      Locked breech
                  semiauto
CALIBER:          .45 ACP
CAPACITY:         8 1
BARREL LENGTH:    4 1/4"
OVERALL LENGTH:   7.95"
WEIGHT:           28 ounces
FINISH:           Matte black
SIGHTS:           Fixed 3-dot Novak
                  Lo Mount Carry
GRIPS:            Checkered wood
PRICE:            $1.029

ACCURACY RESULTS

AMMUNITION                VELOCITY   GROUP SIZE (INCHES)

MANUFACTURER       LOAD          (FPS)      1      2      3      AVG.

BLACK HILLS        185 JHP        741      2.82   3.55   2.67    3.01
FEDERAL            165 PD         965      1.91   2.41   2.72    2.34
REMINGTON          230 GS JHP     795      3.11   3.98   4.14    3.75
CCI BLAZER BRASS   230 TMJ        738      7.00   5.68   7.90    6.86
WINCHESTER         230 FMJ        781      4.16   3.88   4.72    4.25

AVERAGE GROUP: 4.04

Accuracy results are 10-shot groups at 25 yards from a Ransom Rest.
Velocity is the instrumental average of 30 shots as measured with a
PACT Professional Chronograph with the screens at 15.