1911 - Internal vs. External Extractor, Pro's & Con's?

Neither here nor there, as long as its not on a Kimber (They failed miserably with their attempt at external)

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As with most absolute statements, this one is incorrect.

The first ExEx 1911 I owned was a Kimber Pro CDP. It worked just fine, as have all of the other (eight or so) Kimbers I've owned.

Would I have preferred the InEx version? Sure.
I even called and asked if they would replace the slide with en InEx version.
Their answer: Sure...if your ExEx version is giving you problems.

Unfortunately, I am an honest person by nature, and could not/would not mislead them in order to get what I wanted....

The second 1911 I bought is a Sig Nitron Target model. Very reliable. Very accurate. Then one day on a local forum a 1911 "guy" totally and thoroughly dressed me down for calling my Sig a 1911 because of the external extractor. Didn't bother me in the least.

I would buy another Sig 1911 or buy a S&W 1911 and call it a 1911.

I've got a considerable amount of rounds through both of these and have had zero issues with them.

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I've had 2 SW1911s myself, still have the 2nd one, and I've never had any problems with either one. I've never liked the idea of a FLGR or a FPB on a 1911, and these have both, and again never had a problem! So I guess we can conclude the darn things work!

I'm a self-admitted purist when it comes to the 1911. Only internal extractors for me. A couple of friends have S&W and Sig 1911 pattern pistols and they run fine. I've heard a lot of bad stuff about the external extractors that Kimber were using for awhile but have no first hand knowledge.

Oh, and since owning that perfect ExEx Kimber mentioned earlier, I now have two ExEx S&W 1911s.

Would it surprise you to find that they both perform perfectly too?

Bottom line (from my experience): either extractor design can work fine if executed correctly.

In all honesty, I have had troubles with several internal extractor 1911s.
On the plus side, internal extractors are cheap and easy to change.