I worked for years as a Range Officer at one of the best indoor and outdoor shooting ranges and gun stores in the Country, so I was able to see a lot of bad and good in firearms. All of the brands mentioned have both good and bad features, and a few have made changes to John Brownings original 1911 design.
The extractor and sear are 2 areas that 1911 fans argue about endlessly, but I'll do my best to state things factually.
The original Colt patent was an internal extractor. The best way for us to think about how it works is to compare it to a Mauser 98 extractor. Everything works perfectly until an untrained shooter (at a BBQ maybe) closes the slide on a chambered round instead of letting a round feed from the magazine. The internal extractor design was made to allow ammunition rim to slide under it as the slide closes and chambers a round. Allowing the slide to slam closed on a round already in the chamber forces the extractor to bend around the rim of the cartridge, and will eventually break the extractor.
To remedy this, several companies make 1911's with external extractors, like S&W. Some purists consider this an abomination to John Brownings original design. Keep in mind though, that FN in Belgium changed the P35/Browning Hi-Power extractor in 1962 because it was a problem with Police and Military forces around the World that issued these pistols.
I'm not trying to preach that one is better than the other, but pointing out that there is a difference when choosing between Mil-Spec and a proprietary design.
Another issue with the 1911 design is the relationship between the trigger, sear, hammer, disconnector, etc. When John Browning designed the 1911, he assumed that the trigger would be pulled to the rear, the round would fire, and the gun would cycle another round into the chamber before the shooter could release the trigger. In other words, the trigger would be held to the rear and the trigger/sear would be out of contact with each other while the pistol cycled to chamber another round. If the trigger is left in its forward position and the slide allowed to slam closed, it can damage a fine trigger job.
For this reason many of the older generation shooting courses taught this sequence to load the 1911.
1. Place safety in FIRE position.
2. Lock slider to the rear.
3. Insert loaded magazine.
4. Pull trigger to it's rearmost position and hold it there.
5. Release the slide to chamber a round.
6. Release the trigger to it's forward position.
7. Place the safety in the SAFE position.
Getting #4 and #5 out of order usually results in more excitement than the Range Safety Officer will allow, especially if the rules of safe direction are not adhered to.
The best way to avoid having to worry about this scenario is to avoid any "Bullseye" type 1911 trigger job less than 2.5 lbs, and avoid any 1911 that is less than $600.
Buy the best you can afford, you won't regret it
