In the interests of more discussion, I would like to add a little to A-B's points
The first thing would be that 'hard slides' were not introduced until 1947, well after Model of 1911 production ceased, and also, while experiments in hard slides were conducted in WWII, they were not standard issue. Add to that that military contract 1911A1 production ceased production in 1945
Prior to the hard slides, slides were heat treated to varying degrees of success. When new, given the expected lifespan of a pistol in say, wartime, the needs of the services were different than the needs of a recreational or competitive shooter- as A-B says, we don;t have stockpiles of spares hanging out 'for free'
I have seen photos of the next thing I'd like to mention, on improperly-made slides on modern 1911 type pistols- recession or peening of the breech face, in a ring around the firing pin. This seems like a dangerous thing to me. I know some people don't want to hear it, but this was a problem large enough for Colt to address the issue in the '30s, and at the time, the oldest 1911 was "only" 23 years old. They installed a recoil plate. But steel does not get stronger with age- another thing people don't want to hear- and if a 1911 didn't get the recoil plate, the 'soft' breech face is a real consideration in my opinion. Not all of them had or have this issue. Mine doesn't, it's from 1918 and was used as a target pistol. Shot very often before I bought it. No pitting or peening is present on the breech face. A slight discoloration is present but that's it. I have had people question me on that, saying they never heard of this peening or that it was considered an issue. I offer this image
Let's look too at the time difference between the present and time of manufacture. When, for example, my 1911 was used for target shooting, it was the 1950s, 60s, 70s, 80s, maybe even the '90s. We've added for the sake of argument another two decades to that time since it was made. That was 93 years ago. can I expect the steel in the pistol to be as strong as it was in 1918 forever? When can I expect it to fail? Just how many rounds has it had through it?
Yes, the pistol
was made to shoot. But it is not 1930 or 1950 or 1970 or even 1990 any more. Was the pistol made to be an everlasting object that time would never effect? The answer must be 'no', mustn't it?
And in regard to the pistol as an object, this is part of what I touched on when I asked Tim O'Heir to expand on his comment: the pistol is only original
once. more use equals more wear, by definition. You cannot use a thing and not cause wear to it it to some degree. In Tim's example, I believe he means that it is irrelevant because it shouldn't be used anyway. But to me, I recognize that I cannot control what has happened in the time when I did not own the thing, so it has been fired before and, as he mentions, the thing is "not an everyday shooter". The heat treatment, to me, absolutely makes a difference, since 1 round or 10,000, I cannot predict what can happen to the pistol, and therefore I am risking it's condition and value to one degree or another even on a pistol I only shoot on rare occasions
That said, I shoot my own Model of 1911 every July 4th. Calculated risk to condition on a non-perfect example is acceptable to me, and the pistol shows no sign of damage