The Art and Science of Keeping Your 1911 Running

[Rex G]

Personal 1911 Mag Random Notes:

McCormick Power Mags seem to feed fine, for me, but sometimes require being pulled-free, as the follower sometimes seems to try to feed itself to the pistol, as the slide locks open on an empty chamber. (Multiple 1911 pistols, over time.)

Wilson 47D mags’ plastic followers are consumable items. Replace often.

Metalform 7-round mags, with metal followers, were THE thing, in the 1997 to 2002 time period, my second 1911 “phase.” They still perform flawlessly, today. (I went all-in with .40 and 10mm Glock, 2002-2004, then all-in with SIG P229 pistols in late 2004. I started phasing-in the 1911 again, in 2012, for personal-time carry, when I found that I could shoot my all-steel Baer TRS pain-free, as .40 S&W recoil was becoming too much, when fired from my high-bore-axis P229 duty pistol. In early 2016, I was able to again carry a 1911 on duty, due to a very-welcome change in PD rules, starting my third 1911 duty/personal-carry phase, which, while not all-in-1911, seems to be permanent.)

I am very much liking my Wilson 8-round ETMs. I just took delivery of two of the ten-rounders.

[JohnO]

Personal 1911 Mag Random Notes:

I've been using the same 10 Chip McCormick 8-round Power Mags for 8 years. These are training mags that are kept in my range bag. Normally I load them all the night before a class. I usually have about 5 on me and the others ready on a bench. Some get used more than others by virtue of my loading practices. If I have time I load the empties and reuse. If I need a quick turnaround I grab the ready mags but that isn't as frequent. I've never had any magazine related failures or malfunctions.

99.9% of what I shoot are reloads. I've used nothing but Alliant Unique which many say is dirty. I'm doing better that 10K rounds per year and disassembled and cleaned my mags once about 2 years ago. Why? Just because I felt like doing it. Aside from that I will occasionally wipe clean the follower face but that's it.

Here is evidence of my one time malfunction out of countless tens of thousands of rounds fired through my 1911's.



The extractor in my Ed Brown 1911 broke while Larry Vickers was watching me. It went out right during a drill. The weekend prior I was in another class and I'm fairly sure I damaged the extractor doing Type 3 (double feed) malfunction clearance drills. I switched out the 1911 for spare and continued on. A short while later during a break I tensioned and installed a new in the wrapper Ed Brown extractor and the gun was back up and running 100%. Even Larry was surprised to see the gun back in action.


This one here never malfunctioned but I didn't like the look of it. The roll pin that holds the ejector in the frame on a Dan Wesson Valor was cut too short. It slipped out of position and off the front leg of the ejector. This allowed the ejector to move around and enabled it to get deformed. I replaced it with a new Bulletproof Stainless Wilson Combat ejector and new roll pin.



No matter what you shoot always give it a good inspection when you clean it.

[JohnO]

Here are a few pictures I took to document a 1911 that wouldn't run. My gun and it was replaced by the manufacturer as the problem was not repairable.

Take a look at the pictures and see if you can identify the problem.








If you said the feed ramp was cut too deep you are correct. This gun would not feed well at all. I purchased it from Bud's so I didn't have the opportunity to inspect it prior to purchasing.

Kuhnhausen Shop Manual specification.

[Shorikid]

Dremel-fu used to polish a feed ramp maybe. Was this a new pistol?

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[RevolverRob]

Here are a few pictures I took to document a 1911 that wouldn't run. My gun and it was replaced by the manufacturer as the problem was not repairable.

Take a look at the pictures and see if you can identify the problem.








If you said the feed ramp was cut too deep you are correct. This gun would not feed well at all. I purchased it from Bud's so I didn't have the opportunity to inspect it prior to purchasing.

Kuhnhausen Shop Manual specification.

Damn that’s ugly. Did they drop a round in the chamber and snap the slide shut to test fire it?

That’s one of the things @M2CattleCo is talking about with 1911s that have shitty barrel fit and thus timing.

I’d ask if that was a Les Baer, but frankly none of the Baers I’ve seen had feed ramps that out of spec.

[JohnO]

I’d ask if that was a Les Baer, but frankly none of the Baers I’ve seen had feed ramps that out of spec.

I didn't want to throw anyone under the bus so I didn't initially give the manufacturer's name. But since it came up. It was a Dan Wesson Valor. I explained what was going on, what I saw and the measurements I took to Keith Lawton at DW and he sent me a return label. The gun was promptly replaced. I'm sure everyone lets a clinker slip through occasionally.

[Trukinjp13]

No matter what you shoot always give it a good inspection when you clean it.

This is a prime example of why in the 1911 world it is a good idea to at least pop the slide off and do a inspection. I know that some of the higher end guns will run thousands of rounds. But shit happens and it does not take long to take the slide off. Too me if you using a lower end 1911 it would be worth it to have a stricter breakdown policy. The parts simply are not made as well. One hairline crack can lead to some ugly failures. Grease/lube her and go back to work.



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[Rex G]

That pistol’s frame is toast. It might be salvageable, if re-cut for a ramped barrel, or used to host a .22 LR conversion unit, but I am guessing.

HEAVILY EDITED. My apologies for mistakenly thinking it was Trukinjp13’s 1911 being discussed.

[MGW]

Mainly the base plates coming off, springs and ammo flying everywhere, and also allowing the over-insertion of the magazine, locking up the gun. This was across the board with about 100 magazines.

Of course, I warned the higher-ups about going to 1911’s to begin with, and told them that magazines were expendable items and we needed to budget money every year for replacements. They looked at me like I had three heads. At least they listened and bought the Wilson ETM mags for duty.

So now I'm doubting my magazines for an upcoming class. Have a couple 8 round PowerMags on hand and will test them Wednesday in both pistols. If they work I'll pick up a few more. If they don't I'll try some ETM's. The Wilson's I tried previously were 47's and didn't work but that was a different pistol.

[Trukinjp13]

Trukinjp13’s pistol’s frame is toast. It might be salvageable, if re-cut for a ramped barrel, or a .22 LR conversion unit, but I am guessing.

That ain’t my junk [emoji1787]


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