In the Diehard 1911 World, of which I am a member, there is a debate as to whether or not the aluminum frame 1911's, like Colt's Commander, are more subject to wear than the steel frame guns. The issue isn't frame cracking or rail failure, like one might predict, but some kind of wear in the feel ramp area while using jacketed hollowpoints. There are many that believe that shooting a large number of hollowpoints wears or somehow otherwise changes the dimensions of the frame in this area. There are some big name 1911 gunsmiths that insert a steel feedramp replacement in this area to combat this.
I am on my third lightweight stainless slide/silver anodized aluminum frame Colt Commander. I carried them at work for over 20 years. They were Series 80 Colts as my department regs demanded the firing pin lock and specified only Colts. I shot mostly hollowpoints, lots of hollowpoints, mostly Federal 230 grain Plus-P, as there aren't a lot of Plus-P FMJ offerings and I believe in practicing with what you carry. It ran flawlessly initially. After a few years and several thousand rounds, the feeding/chambering cycle became erratic. I went through the usual new springs/magazines/etc. and stuff drill, including inspection of a well-known 1911 specialist without really fixing it, so I bought another new Commander. Same thing, a few years' of flawless service and a few thousand rounds and then, problems again, failure to feed. More diagnosis, new springs, new magazines, no difference. Again, another new Commander. A few years later... This last time, new Wilson mags fixed it, after 2 varieties of new Colt mags and 2 varieties of Chip McCormick mags.
Then, I retired.
There was no visible damage to the feed ramps, no new roughness, nothing I can see or feel. The Wilson mags seem to hold the top cartridge higher than any of the others when inserted in the gun, so it looks like it misses more of the frame when chambering, but...
I own an awful lot of perfectly good 1911 mags.
Meanwhile, my old aluminum Commander, made about 1970, that has only had a few thousand rounds of mostly round nose bullets, and most of that jacketed, chugs along fine on it's original Colt magazines and any other decent mag I put in it. None of my steel frame 1911's of any make have experienced this.
Fuel for thought.
