I'm always amazed at how much dirt and lint a carry gun can pick up.  This is what mine looks like after about a week of being in the holster:

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Click on the picture to zoom in and really get a good look at how dirty a carry gun can get, especially around the muzzle and the trigger and trigger guard.

All the lint's a good reason to keep up on drawing and dry firing exercises — it knocks it off, if nothing else. But it also reminds me of another choice I made for my carry gun: to keep the standard GI ejection port, instead of going with the lower, scalloped version that's pretty much ubiquitous.

Here's the standard. And for those who have no idea what I'm talking about, it's the port in the slide through which you can see the barrel. After the gun fires, that's where the empty brass gets kicked out of. (The gun shown here, by the way, is a Springfield GI model, exactly as mine was before my first round of modifications. Most everything else has been internal.)

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Here's the lowered and scalloped version. The gun shown here is Springfield's slightly more upscale 1911, the Mil-Spec.

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Most people will tell you that the lowered and scalloped version has something to do with reliability, but as far as I've read, that's not really the case. It's true that if you're firing hand-loaded, under-powered rounds in competition, then having a little extra space for the brass to dribble out can be helpful — and, as I understand it, that's why folks started having them lowered. The only reason it really became standard is because it signified a custom job, sort of like the swiss-cheese triggers you see around, and people wanted guns that looked custom. As for the scallop, the only reason that's there is to help keep the brass from getting dinged up, to make it easier for reloading.

However, as I've said before, I don't compete and I don't hand-load. And one thing that's fallen by the wayside is the purpose for that original higher port: to keep dirt out of the linking system — something that can turn the gun from a useful self-defense tool into a really awkward club. That photo above is after a week of me carrying in pretty clean conditions. I can only imagine it after a camping trip, or some hiking, on top of normal wear. I tend to get a little dirty here and there, and I imagine my gun will, too.

On a side note, I can't speak for everybody's 1911, but it looks like the extractor's the key for reliability in mine. Since I put in the Ed Brown Hardcore extractor and firing pin stop and tensioned the extractor properly — I keep it at 1 and 1/4 lbs. on the dot, checking it every time I clean the gun — I haven't had any reliability issues. Now, granted, I've only fired a few hundred rounds through it, but thus far, no problems at all.

Also, I do apologize for showing the same gun over and over again, but it's pretty much the only one I deal with right now. There's an old saying that goes something like, "fear the man who has but one gun, because he probably knows how to use it," which I always like to think I'm all about. But I'll be the first to admit that it has more to do with poverty and the price of ammunition than personal purity.