Am I unusual - no failures

[williamd]

I have a baker's dozen plus 2 1911 type's dating from 1916 to 2011. There are a couple that seldom see sunlight but none are 100% safe queens. 9mm's, 38Super, 40S&W, 10mm, 45ACP's. Mostly Colts and SAs but a LB and a Brown. From mil-spec to GC to semi-custom. The single 1911 type I ever had problems with was a Kimber Ploymer Custom. I truly think this gun was a mistake by Kimber ... maybe a shot at Glock?

New or used, I disassemble - completely - inspect, polish (if deemed necessary), lube and reassemble. I shoot various factory ammo and my reloads (WST pushing 180 - 230 g pills). I will change sear/trigger springs to lighten pull and recoil spings if I do not know condition or want to go heavier or lighter. And, have been known to tweak the lips on a magazine. Oh, use several different magazine brands. Do not even check what before I shove it into the gun. Otherwise, shoot them.

I did swap a bbl in a 38Super as it was the old Colt headspace-on-the-rim type and the gun was inaccurate. Ran good but shot horribly. Nowlin solved that. Do it all myself.

Am I just lucky? I read about a lot of problems. Are we just hearing the bad and ungly while the good just keep quiet????

[Shooter45]

Yep.

[JLA]

another yep..

[lonewolf204]

I can't complain out of 4 1911s only one has given me a problem.

[Inthewind1976]

I have never had one fail to feed or stovepipe with milspec 230gr ball. But thats what they were designed to eat. I will go out on a limb here and say..............most of the new production higher end 1911 pattern autos tend to feed most anything pretty well out of the box. Many of the "cheaper" copies of 15-20 years ago or more DID have some issues with "non ball" - as did some of the Colts over the years. But all in all - you simply GOTTA love the 1911! And so many have been built and rebuilt and so many many people have all sorts of experience with em, damned near ANY "issue" has happened to someone here before, and the cure is usually only a "keyboard stroke away."

[Crpdeth]

William

I love Kimber, I really do, and even though I watched my cousin have a ton of problems with his. (A custom carry w/melt job) I still want to try my luck with one...

Lots of 1911 types have passed through my hands with little to no problems, like you, I shoot factory and handloads.

The two exceptions were after installing an adjustable trigger on my Colt and while taking my CCL course, since I hadn't used any kind of adhesive on the set screw, it moved while qualifying and the trigger wouldn't pull. Fortunately my wife (at the time) was qualifying as well with her .9mm and we had a ton of ammo in the back of the vehicle, so I finished up with her firearm and quickly fixed that embarrassing blunder of MINE.

My latest was a RI in .9mm I've always wanted a .9mm in this platform and was itching to get out and try it, the salesman had talked me into an extra Wilson mag that I was using. The thing would fire once and the next round would stovepipe every time, I was getting pretty anxious about it and switched to the factory mag which functioned flawlessly. So what I quickly figured out, was that he had sold me a mag for a .45

That one kinda blew my mind... Luckily that was all that was blown that day.

Anyway, after spending some time with it, I went back and picked up a friend for it, since it looked so lonely.

Lucky? Perhaps, but when I hear about all these failures, like you suggest, I wonder about many things, from the cleanliness of the piece to mags and ammo.

Good topic! Here is a pic or two of those 9 mils.

[williamd]

Crpdeth,

I have two 9's. Both Colts - a S70 and a S80. The S80 consistetnly shoots a bit better! Will try for a pic.

Like the knife. What is it? I have well over 100 dating over many years.

[Crpdeth]

Thanks, William... Looking forward to that pic.

That knife is an El Cheapo, no name that I got off Ebay, I had bought my father one for a work knife since I saw that it opens easily one handed with the swing guard and is also spring assisted, after oiling it, the thing functioned so well that I had to buy one for myself as well.

[JUNKKING]

I don't want to jinx myself here but i have never had a problem with a gun out of the box. I didn't even realize a break in period was necessary. I buy them a good cleaning and off to the range.

[myfriendis410]

I read once where some expert said that up to 90% of malfunctions in a 1911 could be attributed to the magazine. I don't know how true that is, but I do know that once I started buying Chip McCormick mags (and comparable), I never had another problem.

[Bigbill]

Well Colt was having big problems with there quality back in the 70's and the 80's which still continues somewhat today too. Not only did i have two bad 1911's from colt i also had a 70's colt pythion that was out of time(new also). I call it my curse. Then my brand new 90's series 90 it was called back then springfield armory was stove piping 1rd per mag till this year. I would take it out fire it let it jam then oil it up and store it back in the safe for all these many years. I regret getting rid of the two colts but i wasn't getting rid of this springer in blackpark it is just too purdy.

Then my last shot was to try one more 1911 to see if i could get by my curse and get a good one. If this one didn't function i was all done wasting my money on the slama/jama matic 1911's and i would never buy another one. If you were me you'd feel the same way too.

I chose a well ridden Chinese norinco 1911a1 that i been reading about how awesome they are. After a few mags thru this norc i seen what all the 1911 hype is all about. It renewed my faith in the 1911's and i just got the bad ones. But if there is a bad one with any product i purchase its me that gets it. But my curse is broken with the 1911's now. I felt so good after getting a 1911 that functions the way it should i wanted to try another new one. In 2005 I purchased the brand new Auto-Ordnance Army WW2 copy 1911a1. I cleaned it and lubed itwith moly and installed the full length guide rod kit with the 18# recoil spring. Off to the range we went and the 3 of us hammered it for 250rds on the first outing and it was flawless in operation. The second trip to the range we hammered it agin for 250rds and again its another flawless outing with no jams or ftf's or stove pipes of any sort.

Now while looking at the new AO to purchase it for $389 at the time my dealer had stacks of the new springer GI mil-spec model at the time for $424 too. I was torn between buying one or the other so i always end up getting both anyway. I went back a week or so later and I got the 2005 new springfield armory GI model too. I shot and tested the new AO but after my bad experience with the 90's springer i was gun shy to shoot the new GI mil-spec model. It sat in the safe all oiled up with no where to go too.

Then i wanted to get an education on how to make my norinco 1911 even better so i got the Jerry K shop manual and his armorers video. After working on my norinco a light buld lit up in my slow mind(lately) about looking at my 1990 springer to see if i could fix the stove piping. I also did searches on the net for info plus i asked on the 1911 forums too trying to find out whats causing the stove piping. The word "extractor" kept on comming up in my readings. Inbetween all this since the norc is shooting way better than i ever expected it to be shooting one cloverleaf per mag i'm itchin to dig into the 90's springer more and more. Now i went for the wilson combat dvd's too. I wanted more knowledge on building the ultimate 1911 plus fixing them too at the sametime. After buzzing thru these dvds i got bored again and ent after the AGI 1911 dvd's next mainly because i heard they cover more about doing the frame and slide rail work which my norc needs next. I finally took out my 90's springer and seen the brass was loose in the slide when the extractor tention should be holding it snug. I went to brownells and ordered the tools to work on the extractor and adjust it so it has tention. I also read in the Jerry K shop manual about tuning the extractor and flaring the bottom edges were the case rim feeds into the slide so it can enter the barrel/chamber and go into full battery. Then i printed out all the info from the net too on tuning the extractor too incase i missed something. I got all the knowledge now infront of me so i got out the victum and went to work. Ok the untuned extractor had no tention on the case rim at all. The case would fall out when i turned the slide over. One of the simple checks is when we install the case rim into the extractor and slide and then turn over the slide the case should stay in the slide while its captured by the extractors tention. Mine does not, it falls out like the extractor isn't even there its that loose. I took out the extractor and bent it like the instructions and pics showed. I installed it and used the pull gage with the draw plate that takes the place of a case and got the tention that it needed to function right away it was that quick. My 90's springer sat in the safe growing roots all these decades when a few minutes of work and knowing what to fix repaired it. After seeing how my reworked norinco shoots after working on it and repairing and tuning my extractor in my 90's springer i was ready to test fire my new '05 springer now. Well my new '05 springer test fire went flawless too it functions and cycles the way a 1911 should right out of the box. Now i did clean and lube it with moly and installed a FLGR kit in it too w/18# recoil spring. I swear by having the FLGR kit w/18# recoil spring because the 1911 cycles faster and smoother with less cycle timing because it shortens the cycle timing by the over travel time that it wasted before. Plus it has way less recoil and jump with the added weight up front with the FLGR.

My point is getting a bad 1911 your chances are few and far between of getting one. Anyway there are forums and info on the net we can go to for help to get it up and running if need be, there are books and dvd's too. So there is plenty of help out there. If you on the fence about getting your very first 1911 i say go for it. Its an awesome pistol to shoot and plink with. It doesn't take too much to fix it if you have problems. Plus there's help here on the net too. Bill

[Bigbill]

Btw; I feel that stove piping is happening on the extraction of the fired round so its the extractor thats the problem. Now with feeding problems is the bullet going from the mag to the chamber so its a mag problem. But keep in mind the extractor not being flared or tuned orrectly on the bottom can effect the feeding of the round into the chamber too. The next round has to also pick up the slot in the extractor so it will load correctly. We just need to nail down the problem and fix it.

I purchased 10 brand new 1911 GI surplus mags. Out of the 10 only 8 of them function correctly thats on my list of things to correct too. I've repaired the non functioning mags before in the semi auto rifles its no biggie they can be made to work properly.

[Bigbill]

Originally Posted by JUNKKING

I don't want to jinx myself here but i have never had a problem with a gun out of the box. I didn't even realize a break in period was necessary. I buy them a good cleaning and off to the range.

Break in period or break in time is needed when the machining and proper fitting wasn't done correctly. Then they send it to the customer for us to so call "break it in" by wearing it in by shooting it. I don't believe in it were fixing there poor quality control. In the gunsmith/armorers dvd's there are sections about lapping the slides if you slide is binding in spots or its too tight. I'm thinking with todays machining operations and assembly / fitting processes if there followed correctly the 1911 should function right out of the box the way it should. Its when the bean counters say we need to cut production costs is when we the customer gets a bad product and the manufacturer calls it "break in time" to cover there poor quality / workmanship. We get thrown the hot potato. Bill

[Old Grump]

Be patient my friend, there are people who have had or are having failures and there are people who will have a failure. Just be patient and try not to let it upset you when it finally happens.

[Bigbill]

Originally Posted by Old Grump

Be patient my friend, there are people who have had or are having failures and there are people who will have a failure. Just be patient and try not to let it upset you when it finally happens.

I don't care how reliable or flawless your 1911 has been we can have a failure at anytime. Actually its how fast you can get it ready to fire again if you have a failure in a bad situation, think about how fast you can unjam it and get it back into full battery ready to fire. Do you ever practice this??? Bill

[Casey]

Who was that that said "failure is not an option"? Thats one thing I wont ever do again and thats brag about how good things are running. Kiss of death!

[JUNKKING]

Originally Posted by Bigbill

Break in period or break in time is needed when the machining and proper fitting wasn't done correctly. Then they send it to the customer for us to so call "break it in" by wearing it in by shooting it. I don't believe in it were fixing there poor quality control. In the gunsmith/armorers dvd's there are sections about lapping the slides if you slide is binding in spots or its too tight. I'm thinking with todays machining operations and assembly / fitting processes if there followed correctly the 1911 should function right out of the box the way it should. Its when the bean counters say we need to cut production costs is when we the customer gets a bad product and the manufacturer calls it "break in time" to cover there poor quality / workmanship. We get thrown the hot potato. Bill

Agreed! I think every time I hear this I never had to do this. I have some less expensive guns even an old Kel-Tec 40 that they discontinued after a few years that have never given me a problem or a reason not to trust my life to it. I also agree with you on the matter that any gun or machine could have a failure at any given time, I wouldn't think of this in a critical situation but it could always happen. With the Kel-Tec 40 the only real failure this gun has ever seen was my buddys kid limp wristing the gun.

[williamd]

Originally Posted by Casey

Who was that that said "failure is not an option"? Thats one thing I wont ever do again and thats brag about how good things are running. Kiss of death!

Probably good advice. BUT, took a few to the range yesterday. Total of 5 boxes of Wally-World Federal downrange. Not a burp from any. I do do all the tune up stuff Bigbilll mentions, then some. Have not had to touch the LB TRS or the SA TRP. Also, have a S70 GC and a SA Champion that have been unusually nice from day one.

[Dirty]

I've had my Springfield Operator since 2008, have fed it over 5000 rds of assorted .45 by this point, and still have yet to have a malfunction. I love its look, feel, handling, and accuracy. Theres a reason it rides my hip everyday.