"Aluminum wears out faster than steel"...Ugh!
Some things just seem to come around every once in a while. This one has been bouncing around for at least 50 years with some pretty notable people on both sides of the issue. I once read an article that Skeeter Skelton (remember him?) wrote where he put 10,000 rounds through a Colt Commander as fast as he could. Seems like there was one minor failure where the plunger tube controlling the safety and slide release had to be re-staked. I've had to do that on some steel frame guns too! The bottom line is that there was no appreciable wear on the frame of the pistol. On the other hand the frames of the Beretta Tomcat seemed to develop a high incidence of frame cracks...Now there you go! It's the aluminum frame...that's proof of it right there!!! NOT! The Mauser HSC in .380 (steel frame pistol) has a high incidence of frames cracking...this one has a high incidence of not working at all but that's another story. So what are we to think? Simply this: Anything can be misused or abused to the point of failure. Some things that are not misused break anyway. Probably due to either poor design, poor quality metal, poor workmanship or some combination of the three. Period. End of discussion. All things being equal a good quality aluminum framed pistol will last just as long and give just as good service as its steel frame counter part. Push either beyond the limits of its capability and you'll regret it. With firearms everything is a trade off. Polymer and aluminum frame guns are lighter and more comfortably carried. They're going to kick harder because they're lighter and on and on and on...