I like older Rugers, and I carry a Ruger SR 1911 LW Commander, which has proven to be reliable and well made.

But...it's the only positive experience I've had with a new Ruger, and if it breaks most of the small parts are fairly standard 1911 parts.

In contrast, I bought a new SP101 a couple years ago and had to send it back to Ruger twice for severe leading. The customer service was awful.

The first time was in a period where they were not sending shipping labels but were instead reimbursing for shipping. Unfortunately, I've never been reimbursed for the $72 it cost me to ship to them the required second day air. I enclosed the receipt per their instructions, they lost it and now won't honor my reimbursement claim. That means, in the end, I paid what amounts to a S&W price for a Ruger.

It was also a waste of time as they "adjusted the ejector star", which had nothing to do with the improperly cut forcing cone that was causing the leading.

On the second "return it us" lap (this time they sent me a shipping label), they decided it was not factory repairable and promised to send me a new one. They left out the part about "6 months or so from now, when we make another run of them". They apparently could not even arrange for one to be shipped to my LGS from one of their warehouse or one of their wholesalers. The end result was that I paid for a new SP101 and then didn't have a shootable revolver for about 8 months.

But more alarmingly, think about their factory repair people's response for a minute. An improperly cut forcing cone was "not factory repairable". Best case it was 15 minutes of work with a reamer, and worst case, it would have needed a new barrel, but apparently that's beyond their ability to repair.

So consider what happens a few years down the road when you need a repair for a Ruger firearm that you bought new. Ruger is quite likely going to tell you a) "it's "not repairable", and b) "it's not under warranty and not our problem".

That makes Smith and Wesson a much better long term value.