The Art and Science of Keeping Your 1911 Running

[FrankB]

I don’t have 5,000 rounds through each of my 1911’s, but I’ve only ever had two problems. The first was with the slide not locking back on a Ruger Lightweight Cmdr in 9mm. Mecgar mags solved that. The other was my wife’s Colt Government Competition in 9mm. The stock Colt mags wouldn’t feed the top round from a fully charged Colt mag. We download by one with the Colt mags, or just use Mecgar mags. I shoot them, clean them throughly, and use Tw25 grease.

[JonInWA]

Does anybody still sell those? I didn't see them on the site I linked, and while I think there were a couple of other retailers that sold them, I can't think of anybody that does now.

I checked in with Christopher Prevost (pronounced "Preevo") the owner of p3llc.com and Cerberus Tactical; we had a nice conversation bringing each other up to date, and the CerTac magazines are available through him; he can best be reached at p3llc.com.

He's the designer and manufacturer of a pretty well regarded line of 1911s, and it's his 1911s (and CerTac magazines) that the Connecticut State Police SWAT use.

Feel free to use my name in vain when you contact him. I've been long-term road testing a set of CerTacs for years, with complete satisfaction.

Best, Jon

[awp_101]

Bump to keep this current and relevant (and easier for me to find )

[JohnO]

He's the designer and manufacturer of a pretty well regarded line of 1911s, and it's his 1911s (and CerTac magazines) that the Connecticut State Police SWAT use.

About 2 years ago I was in a Pat Mac class and a bunch of CT State SWAT guys were in the class. A few just got their 1911's back from Cerberus after getting refurbished. There were a couple guys with nice single shot 1911's. Their slides were locking back after every round and couldn't understand why. I asked if I could take a look and the problem immediately became apparent. The lobe on the slide lock lever was protruding inboard too far. It was copper colored because the FMJ rounds they were using were bumping into the lobe as they rose up in the magazine causing the slide to lock open. Definite No Go for duty use and mostly useless in class.

CT State Police SWAT no longer uses a 1911.

[ChaseN]

My personal secret sauce that has kept my 1911s running 100% in rough conditions around skeptical people:

1. STI or Dan Wesson
2. 9mm +P Gold Dots
3. Commander length
4. Wilson bulletproof extractor
5. Wilson ETM mags
6. Ramped barrel
7. Keep it hosed it down with SLIP 2000 EWL

I have an STI Duty One 4.0, DW Guardian and STI Shadow that are no-shit 100% over 1000s of rounds. I can't vouch for any other recipe to make a 1911 run though. I messed with a brace of .45s for years that I could never make 100%, one a Springfield Loaded and the other a Special Combat Government.

[Robinson]

About 2 years ago I was in a Pat Mac class and a bunch of CT State SWAT guys were in the class. A few just got their 1911's back from Cerberus after getting refurbished. There were a couple guys with nice single shot 1911's. Their slides were locking back after every round and couldn't understand why. I asked if I could take a look and the problem immediately became apparent. The lobe on the slide lock lever was protruding inboard too far. It was copper colored because the FMJ rounds they were using were bumping into the lobe as they rose up in the magazine causing the slide to lock open. Definite No Go for duty use and mostly useless in class.

CT State Police SWAT no longer uses a 1911.

The fact that those guys took untested pistols to a class and had failures isn't a fault of the 1911 design.

[Dave Williams]

About 2 years ago I was in a Pat Mac class and a bunch of CT State SWAT guys were in the class. A few just got their 1911's back from Cerberus after getting refurbished. There were a couple guys with nice single shot 1911's. Their slides were locking back after every round and couldn't understand why. I asked if I could take a look and the problem immediately became apparent. The lobe on the slide lock lever was protruding inboard too far. It was copper colored because the FMJ rounds they were using were bumping into the lobe as they rose up in the magazine causing the slide to lock open. Definite No Go for duty use and mostly useless in class.

CT State Police SWAT no longer uses a 1911.

I've been interested in the Connecticut 1911 issue since I heard about it. I'm assuming the gun guy in charge was a 1911 fan. How does an unknown company get a contract for expensive 1911s from the State Police? How does one guy build 80 identical 1911s? In a timely fashion? It all seems super fishy to me. I suspect the guns were built by a 1911 custom shop, I suspect GI. Do you know what handgun they've switched to?

[JohnO]

The fact that those guys took untested pistols to a class and had failures isn't a fault of the 1911 design.

I'm not blaming the design. I drove a Dan Wesson Valor in that class.

A class is a good place to checkout a new pistol (or back from a rebuild) given that a basic amount of reliability testing be conducted prior to the class.

In my opinion if one is contracted to provide weapons, refurbish and maintain those same weapons to a tactical unit they should work out of the box. It is possible the guns were test fired after refurbishment with a round or rounds that had a different bullet profile and there was no interference. However the FMJ rounds they were using in the class were not working.


What was interesting while these malfunctions manifested was the reaction of the drivers. A total look of bewilderment. They couldn't comprehend why their guns were not working. I initially asked one of the cops if he was possibly contacting the slide lock lever during recoil. He thought not and demonstrated his grip to me. I asked him to shoot it while I watched. Then asked him to shoot left hand only. The gun locked back every time. It was pretty clear that these guys were good shooters but had zero knowledge beyond trigger pressing. (I'm not trying to imply one must know what makes their machine tick in order to run it.)

[Greg]

I was going to give you a link, but what I knew as CERTAC doesn't seem to be there anymore. Perhaps they are Cerberus Tactical now? https://cerberustac.co.za/shop/

In any case, I believe they were a CheckMate 8 round extended tube, wadcutter feed lips, and I think used the CheckMate Patented Follower (CMF) with no dimple. By the way, the Tripp "flex" follower (not the Tripp hybrid) originally didn't have the pimple either, which is also the CMF, though I don't know what they use now.

Here's a 1911forum thread with them https://forums.1911forum.com/showthread.php?t=223596

I purchased 10 of those from “joes1911magmania” on EBay and they run very well in my Colts. The seller lives right down the road from the Checkmate factory so he seems to be an online Checkmate outlet.

[Robinson]

I'm not blaming the design. I drove a Dan Wesson Valor in that class.

Nice.

A class is a good place to checkout a new pistol (or back from a rebuild) given that a basic amount of reliability testing be conducted prior to the class.

Yep, I've done that myself -- after running hundreds of rounds through the new gun first. The "...given that a basic amount of reliability testing be conducted prior to the class" part is the point I was trying to make.

In my opinion if one is contracted to provide weapons, refurbish and maintain those same weapons to a tactical unit they should work out of the box.

Agreed. But still, would many of us go to a class with a pistol that had just been modified or refurbished without giving it a pretty thorough shakedown first?

(I'm not trying to imply one must know what makes their machine tick in order to run it.)

But it's probably a good idea to have a decent level of familiarity with your pistol's operation, especially if committing to the 1911 for serious use. I'm probably preaching to the choir here at PF though.


Anyway, I didn't mean to sound confrontative and I think we are pretty much on the same page.