I'm surprised at the problems. I have an earlier S&W 1911Sc. Not bobtailed. Thumb safety only on the left side. The slide serrations (front and rear) are angled grooves, not scallops. Wish I could change THAT, just for the appearance.
Mine has not experienced a failure to feed or extract. I've used lead, jacketed, hollow point, truncated cone and ball, as well as frangible loads. One day we shot until it was dripping grime. Still no problems.
Four of us got together with my Sc, a Springfield Operator, a Sig Scorpion Carry and Sig1911CA-45-BSS. We all liked the Scorpion, probably due to the weight helping control recoil, but it also had the best trigger of the four, we felt. We all felt that if we had to hang one on a belt all day, the lighter Sc won. The Sc sights were right on at 30 feet, as were all except the Scorpion, which hit almost an inch high. All of us prefer ambi thumb safeties, but can't give a real reason why. Except for my oldest son, who is professional military and demonstrated operation of ethier safety with either hand with equal dexterity. I'm gonna hafta take him out back and bust his fingers for showing me up. If he doesn't break my arm first.
I'v practiced with and cleaned the Sc so many times I felt as though I was reading about a different gun when I read criticisms of the fit, finish and internal workings. Safety touches the plunger tube? Not on mine. Breach face scoring or steps? Not on mine. Loose extractor pin? Not mine. I thought the stocks were rather plain, so I put on a hand-made set with an oak leaf pattern. Bit grippier and waaay prettier. Not that THAT matters, but this early gun is rather plain looking, methinks. I do like the ones on the bob-tail, but suspect they would look funny fitted to mine.
Not doubting Skylerbone, I can only say the two guns sound as though they came from completely different makers.
One thing, the grip safety has a notchy feel to it but never failed to operate correctly, and all agreed that when drawing to fire, that feeling was not noticable.
OK, one more. The backstrap checkering is quite sharp. After some 35 rounds I was seeing a red area on my palm. I had forgotten about that from previous shoots. I am MOST tempted to try softening it somehow. Front strap has vertical lines, no checkering, and feels fine.
This is the very gun that Gun Tests Magazine tested in '05. I bought it from them. You can see pix of it there.
-Backpacker