The Art and Science of Keeping Your 1911 Running

[JAH 3rd]

My Ruger P 90 has 8-round magazines with the Devel follower. My understanding is that this follower was used in order to get 8 rounds in a 7-round magazine. I'm firmly in the camp that an 8-round magazine should be designed from the beginning as an 8 rounder. That said, my question.....will the Tripp Super 7 upgrade kit fit the Ruger P 90 magazine? The most obvious difference between the Ruger magazine and 1911 magazine is the slot in the magazine for the mag catch. I'd like to try the Tripp kit, but would like feedback from those have actually tried this combo. I did see a man on YouTiube that used a follower/spring kit from Wilson Combat in his Ruger single stack magazine. It fit fine but he never shot the pistol. Strictly a tabletop review.

[Evil_Ed]

I don't have a Ruger to try it with but realistically, there's really only so many ways to make a single stack 45ACP mag...I'd bet followers are largely compatible, though slide hold open may be impacted. I know you can shove a 1911 mag into a Sig P220 though it won't lock in and for sure won't lock the slide open at empty.

[JTQ]

That said, my question.....will the Tripp Super 7 upgrade kit fit the Ruger P 90 magazine? The most obvious difference between the Ruger magazine and 1911 magazine is the slot in the magazine for the mag catch.

I don't know the answer, but I think the magazines are different angles, which may cause problems with a tall follower like the Tripp hybrid follower. If they were close enough, I'd think over the years you would have seen folks using 1911 mags in a P90/P97/P345 and I don't think I've ever seen that.

[JTQ]

If you're at Tripp placing an order, you may want to look at their "Flex" follower and spring set. It is the CheckMate Patented Follower (CMF), which is similar to the Devel follower, but with a front leg that will keep the follower in the tube, and it may allow you to keep 8 rounds in the tube.

https://www.trippresearchinc.com/sup...204.1680221553

I don't know my way around Tripp enough to tell you what spring/coil to order, though.

This is the Flex follower on its' own https://www.trippresearchinc.com/fol...204.1680221553

Chances are good you'll need to get the spring from Tripp, or CheckMate, as it won't be the same spring for the Devel follower.

[JTQ]

No real downside to a Devel follower dinging a P90. The P90/P97/P345 all have ramped barrels, and the follower contact point is usually below the barrels feed ramp. For those guns it ends up being a cosmetic issue, on the inside of the gun.

[JAH 3rd]

Thanks for your feedback! I was sorta considering the possibility of different followers. Tinkerers need to tinker probably summarizes my thoughts. If I go with the Tripp follower/spring combo, I'll let you know how it turns out.

[Elwin]

Finally, in a major first for me, I've fitted a 1911 safety correctly, and I learned something that I didn't know and figured I should drop here.

In my first go trying to fit an ambi safety to my Ed Brown EVO, I took too much off the sear engagement surface and the gun would not pass safety checks. This happened because I kept removing material but still felt a hitch in the travel into the safe position, so I figured it needed more relief. Fortunately, that safety worked in another gun, resulting in an unplanned upgrade and at least some return on the $150 to buy the part.

This time I ran into the same issue where I thought my sear engagement was correct or at least very close, but there was still that hitch. I ruled out other internal surfaces using black sharpie, finding no wear marks anywhere besides the sear engagement surface. Looking for other places that could be binding, one suspicion was the clearance with the plunger tube. A good thought, maybe, but not the culprit in this case. Then as I was considering more filing on the sear lobe, I realized it was the gap between the slide and frame in the safety notch - I figured this out because I finally (huhr duhr) tried the safety travel with the slide off the gun - no hitch. Apparently a combination between those surfaces not being perfectly flush and the safety having a bit of a sharp edge at the top corner of the plate was creating the hitch as it moved over that space into the "on" position. There was even a pair of wear marks there when I thought to look. A little bit of filing on that corner of the plate fixed it, resulting in a properly fit safety that passes checks and moves as it should (pretty damn firm in both directions, which is my preference).

Long post but I'm stoked because after the first failure, this became a bit of a white whale for me. I'm also glad to finally have all three 1911s in the house set with ambi safeties. And, this one will come in handy as I hopefully take this gun through No Fail Pistol, which I understand has a fair amount of weak hand shooting.

If I'd known to check that area before, I may have had better luck with the first go, so hopefully this is helpful for someone.

[CSW]

Yesterday, I brought the RO elite to a local outlaw match.
In the first stage, it was 3 mags of 6 shots, on 6 staggered targets:

6 strong hand only
6 weak hand only
6 freestyle

On the second to last shot, the gun locked up, and would not cycle the slide. Tried clearing the weapon, but the slide would not budge. Forfeited that string and switched out to the LTT 92x to finish the match.

Upon arriving home I clamped the slide in my wood vice, and was able to wrack the slide. The extractor rode over the stuck casing, but the slide worked.
I had to use a dowel to drive the casing from the chamber.
Disassembled the entire weapon, and found nothing wrong. Cleaned and lubed again, cycled 9 snap caps, and 9 live manually, no issues.
Went out in the woods behind the house and fired 3 rounds, no issues.

I'm going to chalk it up to Freedom Munitions reman'd ammo at this point, as there are no visual issues with the gun.

Very weird. This is the very first problem I have ever had with this 1911 since I purchased it....first ever.

[Caballoflaco]

Yesterday, I brought the RO elite to a local outlaw match.
In the first stage, it was 3 mags of 6 shots, on 6 staggered targets:

6 strong hand only
6 weak hand only
6 freestyle

On the second to last shot, the gun locked up, and would not cycle the slide. Tried clearing the weapon, but the slide would not budge. Forfeited that string and switched out to the LTT 92x to finish the match.

Upon arriving home I clamped the slide in my wood vice, and was able to wrack the slide. The extractor rode over the stuck casing, but the slide worked.
I had to use a dowel to drive the casing from the chamber.
Disassembled the entire weapon, and found nothing wrong. Cleaned and lubed again, cycled 9 snap caps, and 9 live manually, no issues.
Went out in the woods behind the house and fired 3 rounds, no issues.

I'm going to chalk it up to Freedom Munitions reman'd ammo at this point, as there are no visual issues with the gun.

Very weird. This is the very first problem I have ever had with this 1911 since I purchased it....first ever.

Stuff always breaks when you add a timer, folks watching and freedom munitions…it’s science.

[CSW]

I've got 2 boxes of Remington ball, and today's quest after work is to run it thru the pistol at the range, on the way home from work.