The Art and Science of Keeping Your 1911 Running

[03RN]

03RN:

Years ago I owned a Springer Champ in 45, and found that the gun ran BEST in my case on the Springfield NM mags that came with it and they offered on their store at the time.
Have you tried those?

I have some. I honestly dont shoot enough of the 255s to have used all my mags to check each one. Its only happened 3-4 times total

[gato naranja]

I have 4 types of magazines for my 1911's.

The factory Springfield 9 round.
Checkmate 9 round.
Ed Brown 9 round.
And,
Wilson/Vickers 10 round.

The same experience with the Wilson mags, wherein at times, I've had a 'bobble' whilst feeding the last round.
Both 1911's are Springfield 9mm Champion Range officers, both factory stock, except for the parkerized model has a Wilson ambi added, the RO Elite came with the ambi.

Springfield mags run fine, but even after years with the gun, to feed that 9th round into the mag takes the strength of Godzilla. Got 6 of them, every one of them is the same. I leave them at 8 rounds at this time without failure.

Zero issues with the Checkmates.

Same thing with our SA 9mm ROs. All of the factory mags (Checkmates or Metalforms) they came with run fine with 8, but when we tried to up the round count, reliability dropped off. Getting that "lagniappe" round in is as much fun as trying to cram a large, feisty dog into a tiny pet carrier, and gata naranja very early in the game said, "@#$% it"... which was unladylike, but not uncalled for.

So with 9mm 1911s, "eight is the number, and the number is eight" as far as we are concerned- no matter what the advertised capacity or who makes it. The majority of the troubles I see at the range with .45 1911s also involve magazines taking more than seven.

"Is there a little similarity here? Oh-h-h, I think there is."

[Evil_Ed]

Same reason I do not use eight-round magazines is the reason I do not use ten-round magazines except for range usage. To get the last round in the magazines to feed, the spring has to be stouter than the original seven-round design. So a fully loaded magazine exerts more force on the magazine feed lips and on the disconnect rail. Ever try to insert an eight-round magazine on a closed slide and find the magazine difficult to seat? Yet lock the slide open and the magazine seats with no issue. That difference is the extra force on the disconnect rail which further compresses the magazine spring to get the magazine to seat with the side in battery. So now the magazine is seated at slide lock and the slide release is depressed. The slide starts forward and is slowed and/or stopped by the extra force pushing on the disconnect rail. Stoppage.

Then you "tap" and the inertia of the whole stack decreases to reduce the force on the disconnect rail enough to allow the slide to go home, chambering the round.

With a round chambered, a full magazine should not need excessive force to seat. If it does, the magazine is likely to induce stoppages. it is also likely to contact the ejector when being slammed home unless the ejector has been relieved to avoid that issue.

There's a few magazines that are built with 8 rounds of 45ACP in mind (i.e. longer tube) - the Wilson HD/+P mag is the only 8 rounder I would trust for anything more than plinking at the range, assuming you can get past the whole feed lip and smooth follower thing. There's enough space in the system to allow it to seat with all 8 rounds without undue force, and the flat wire extra powerful spring will happily shove rounds straight up every time with force to spare. I would not / do not trust any 8 round mag in a standard length tube; the compromises that have to be made to make that work are not conducive to a reliable magazine, especially at the edges of the reliability envelope.

[JonInWA]

Same reason I do not use eight-round magazines is the reason I do not use ten-round magazines except for range usage. To get the last round in the magazines to feed, the spring has to be stouter than the original seven-round design. So a fully loaded magazine exerts more force on the magazine feed lips and on the disconnect rail. Ever try to insert an eight-round magazine on a closed slide and find the magazine difficult to seat? Yet lock the slide open and the magazine seats with no issue. That difference is the extra force on the disconnect rail which further compresses the magazine spring to get the magazine to seat with the side in battery. So now the magazine is seated at slide lock and the slide release is depressed. The slide starts forward and is slowed and/or stopped by the extra force pushing on the disconnect rail. Stoppage.

Then you "tap" and the inertia of the whole stack decreases to reduce the force on the disconnect rail enough to allow the slide to go home, chambering the round.

With a round chambered, a full magazine should not need excessive force to seat. If it does, the magazine is likely to induce stoppages. it is also likely to contact the ejector when being slammed home unless the ejector has been relieved to avoid that issue.

Some good points here. I agree with the magazine seating difficulties with 8 round welded baseplate magazines, but have not had such issues with 8 round extended tube magazines (all of mine are Check-Mates). I may have mentioned it earllier in the thread, but my recipe for 1911 .45 ACP magazine reliability involves extra-power magazine springs and a fully skirted follower(dimpled or undimpled doesn't seem to make any difference). While I generally prefer a hybrid feedlip configuration, mine with wadcutter or semi-wadcutter feed lips run just fine. I also prefer carbon steel tubes to stainess steel, as I think that carbon steel is less likely to encounter feed lip spread over time. Seven round magazines in the format above are excellent, but for competition (IDPA) I prefer 8 rounders. For carry, I usually run a 7 round as my loaded magazine, and reloads are 8 rounders, either Check-Mate or CerTac extended tubes.

Best, Jon

I've given up on .45 ACP Commanders-the juice simply isn't worth the squeeze in my opinion and experience. If I go to a 9mm 1911, however, in that case I would be predisposed to a Commander.

[Robinson]

For practice/training with my 45s I mostly use Ed Brown 8-rd magazines and they work great. I keep my carry gun and HD gun loaded 7+1 with Wilson Combat 47 magazines.

For my 38 Supers I use Ed Brown 9-rd magazines and again they work great. I got a bunch of them via their trade-in program when I got out of 9mm 1911s.

[JTQ]

... with 8 round extended tube magazines (all of mine are Check-Mates). I may have mentioned it earllier in the thread, but my recipe for 1911 .45 ACP magazine reliability involves extra-power magazine springs and a fully skirted follower(dimpled or undimpled doesn't seem to make any difference). While I generally prefer a hybrid feedlip configuration, ...

For practice/training with my 45s I mostly use Ed Brown 8-rd magazines and they work great.

For the trivia lover, these are the same magazines

[Robinson]

For the trivia lover, these are the same magazines

Yes, Ed Brown mags are made by Checkmate.

[dsa]

I'm a lowly USPSA A class SSTK shooter. I recently switched to the Wilson Vickers HD/+P mags. I reload like a gorilla and from time to time with CMC or Tripp mags I get over insertion problems and the feed lips eventually spread. I picked up 1 of the HD/+P mags off of a prize table a while back and was pretty impressed with it in a couple of practice sessions. I heard that Wilson warranties the tube and spring for life. I verified that with a phone call to Wilson customer service and was told that if I ever experienced problems with them to call and send the tube in and they would send a new one; competition shooting did not void any warranty. Followers are considered a consumable item and, per the folks at customer service, should be replaced annually for those who shoot a lot. I am now running the Wilson/Vickers HD/+P with Dawson base pads (an expensive combination but worth it to me) exclusively, I shoot 200gr SWC at 175PF and have not had any problems. This mag set up is a little heavy, I hollowed out the back of my grips with a Dremel to comfortably be under the 43oz weight limit for USPSA SSTK Division. In my opinion the Wilson/Vickers HD/+P 8rd 45 mags are the best option available of any 8rd mag currently on the market. My opinion is worth exactly what you paid for it, your experience may vary.

[19852+]

While the official SA line is as was told, I would not be surprised if they offered a very friendly price for new night sights. The restriction on night sights has to deal with broken sights and tritium.



If you want the pistol to not be refinished, I would add that to any letter sent with the pistol. I would also not be surprised if the grip screws are replaced. Back in 2014, I sent in a four-inch Defender PDP from 1991 that had a tendency to have the guide rod rotate, locking up the pistol. That was my only issue. SA replaced a ton of parts on the pistol, including the grip screws, the recoil system, and the sights. On a pistol made more than twenty years before.

Springfield honoring it's warranty and then some ??? Here is my surprised face.. Springfield and Dillon in my experience are top notch in the warranty department. Good experience with Wilson Combat too.

As for magazines; my Colt .38 super with Brown drop in 9 x 19 barrel run great with Tripp, Wilson and Mecgar magazines.

[JohnK]

I have a theory but I would like to get some opinions as to what I experienced today with 10 round mags (and in the past, therefore I dont use them for duty)

We had a training day and I used my personal MCOP. Some of the drills were going to be in the 10 round range..... so I grabbed a couple of my older CMC 10s and a couple of older WC 10s.

99.9% of the time, I chamber a round using the slide stop and I know yanking the slide back by hand gives you a touch more oooomphhhh.

I have zero issues feeding with 10s when shooting, but when I first load with a 10 using the slide stop..... I get a fail to feed. I "tap" the mag base (ok, slap) and it goes forward into battery.

It does it with older CMC, my older WC and I have one new CMC RPM 10 and it does the same thing. The all run fine when I shoot.

So to wrap up, this only occurs slide stop load with 10s. I did a couple of slide rack loads with the 10s and no issues surfaced today.

No issues with my CMC 8s. I carry those on duty.

I run 16 lbs recoil and 23 lbs mainspring. I change my recoil spring about every 2-3K. I lubed last night.

This piece has 15K through the tube and the slide to frame fit is not snug but barrel fit is tight. I dont recall this happening early on when I first got it but for the past few years... I wont use 10s on duty for this particular issue.

My MCOP is not stock but tuned by SACS back in 2009 and then Hilton Yam filed on my extractor in 2012.


So what is the deal with 2 extra rounds? additional friction placed on the stripper rail? Does the mag base "slap" cause the rounds to "spring" in the mag body thus reducing friction on the stripper rail allowing that top round to feed? I have never tested this using 10s downloaded.

Opinions welcomed.

Have you tried going with a 17# recoil spring to see how that impacts reliability and pain in the joints? I like running slightly heavier springs for reasons stated somewhere earlier in the thread. My carry guns get 18.5#. Maybe a little heavier but not 18.5 will be a good compromise?

Also, am I the only one that has good luck with the ETMs? I used to use them for carry and would rotate them out every few months (9-12) for new ones and rotate them back in until I thought perhaps it was time to retire them to the practice bin. I have since switched to HD/+P mags but wouldn't hesitate to use the ETMs again. I toss them if I need to but in the last 8 years and approximately 35,000ish rounds of shooting competition, practice, dry fire and training classes along with being dropped on gravel, concrete, tile, snow, and mud, I have tossed less than a dozen due to them getting worn out. CMCs, Baer mags, and 47d are a different story. But the ETMs are consistent no matter what 1911 of mine I use them in.