NIB 9mm 1911 won't eat

I have two 9mm 1911s, a RIA GI and a STI Spartan IV. I have 9 magazines. The GI likes only 6 of them while the Spartan shoots fine with all. Using the appropriate mags in the GI, it is 100% reliable while the Spartan has been 100% from the get-go.

I can't comment on your RIA because I don't know enough them to even hazard a guess. But I've got what I call a RIA "GI" type 9mm with the Mec-gar magazine that came with it (used) that works more or less perfectly. (It's a range toy for me, so I've never bothered to get another magazine.)

The "less" part comes from a small lot of 9mm reloads I had that the overall length was a little short. Even those functioned most of the time, but when they jammed, it was in the "nose down" position like your pictures. Could that be a consideration with your snap-caps? I don't know, because I've never used snap caps. I've got some dummy rounds I loaded for function testing and I made sure they were the proper length. They chamber just fine in hand cycling, as does factory ammo and proper length reloads when firing.

If the gun still jambs with the new magazines, I would look closely at the magazine catch assembly and slide stop.

Mine did the same thing with snap caps,

I suggest you go fire it with the original and other mags. Then reassess. I bet the problem sorts it self out, me I use the 9 mm mags from kimber with nary a problem

What a drama queen!

tipoc

About the 6th magazine went with no failures to feed.

Halfway through the 7th magazine the safety fell off. I went home.

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...Where I replaced the safety with one I had on hand and headed back to the range. I only had time to put another 50 rounds downrange. I aimed with this new gun to get adjusted to the point of aim and how it shoots in my hands and with the two different boxes of ammo (Federal and American Eagle) that I had went though. I had no further problems. But knowing that the RIA is cast and has cast and mim, sometimes the small parts don't hold up I'll get a few replacements to have on hand.

I went out again a few days later and put 150 rounds through her with only one issue that was likely mag related. I'll have to mark my mags to keep track of em.

Skribs out!

(well actually tipoc, riding skribs like he's a Shetland)

Did you work for Century?

I would simply install a new safety. A phone cal to RIA may be in order, or you could have a local gunsmith install another.

*scratches head* How does a safety fall off?

Edit: Ah, its an ambi safety. Sloppy fit in the tongue and groove. Unless you're left handed, I would recommend a single side safety. The last one I bought was an STI extended safety, the thumb pad is about the same shape and size as my Series I Kimbers, and the Chip McCormick safeties from long ago.

No need for a hammer...

Cock the hammer and put the safety in, in a postion halfway between "safe" and "fire." Use a paperclip (or something) to push the detent in, and the safety should pop right in.

Being an ambi safety, you'll have to fiddle with the right side lever to get the tounge and groove lined up.

Edit: Hit youtube. There is bound to be a decent detail strip video.

And don't worry about the MIM parts. The MIM parts on our SA 9mm 1911s are fine after 30K rounds or so. We only changed out the ignition parts because SA required same to go below a 4 lb. trigger pull.

Skribs ... hard for me to accept what you're saying since you still haven't responded to my question in a previous thread when you also referred to

I saw the back plate of the slide fall of a Sig P938 before.

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At this point, I'm sorta in agreement with Tipoc.

What a drama queen!

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Because if you are incapable of explaining what you "saw" when the "back plate of the slide fell off a SIG P-938," I'm thinking you perhaps need a bit more education on the parts and operation of semi-automatic pistols.

Tipoc, this is my first 1911 that I have no spare parts for, nor any expertise with. This is my first handgun with a manual safety. What would be more useful than telling me that I'm annoying you with my problems would be to tell me what I should do to fix this.

Keep in mind I have the gunsmithing abilities of your average orangutan.

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Well the obvious thing to do is to take it back to the store you got it from and show them and explain what happened.

Your problems don't annoy me at all. It's just you remind me of a kid I knew when I was a kid. He'd show up at school with one shoe on. What happened to your shoe I'd ask. It slipped off, he'd say. Were you running and it came off? No. It just slipped off? Yeah, he'd say. Were the laces loose? No. It just came off in that kids hands. What kid? The one who pulled my shoe off. A kid pulled your shoe off? Yeah. Took people 4-5 minutes to get a straight story oughta him.

Same here. "My 9mm 1911 won't eat!" Folks are suckered in as usual and offer help. After maybe a page folks figure out you haven't shot the gun yet. You're just playing around with it in your lap. You could have said that from jump, told the story from start to finish. But ya don't provide all the facts. Fellas were even recommending mags for ya when you hadn't even shot it. Mags that could help clear up an issue that did not exist.

When finally that "issue", that never was an issue, is cleared up...

Halfway through the 7th magazine the safety fell off. I went home.

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Try this...just explain what happened. Did it break off suddenly? Did it slip out gradually? Did a strange man walk up and pull it out? That woulda been me...riding you like the 3 legged Great Dane you are. Against my better judgement I asked you what happened. This is how you have such long threads. 7 or 8 folks just trying to get a description out of ya.

tipoc

I shot one round out of it and the firing pin stop (looked it up) fell to the ground, rendering the pistol inoperable.

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Gosh, now you know the proper terminology (after I asked in that thread, to which you never provided a response). I specifically asked the question, noted that this is not by any means a common problem, as well as queried as to whether the actual owner of the pistol in question had attempted a full disassembly (NOT a simple field-strip) and you did not reply. Thus, your credibility is called into question. Particularly when you are speaking of a highly-regarded pistol, of which that particular problem had not been previously noted on any internet firearms forum.

Skribs,

I'm letting it go. Sorry to get on your case and make it seem personal. I have nothing against you. I wish you luck.

tipoc

I don't know how it happened. I tilted the firearm slightly to the left and it fell out due to gravity.

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I'm still trying to get around this part. On RIA's the right side safety is held in by a grooved sear pin. The left side safety is held in in the usual way by the safety lug.

From your description it sounds like the left side safety fell out? Which is good, I guess, because it means the sear pin didn't break. But those safeties don't normally fall out. They are retained by a groove in the lug that rides in the frame, and only comes out when the safety is about half way between on and off. A position that the lever has to be held in, because the plunger wants to push it one way or the other.

Can you post pictures of your safety and frame? If it "Fell out due to gravity" something is probably pretty wrong.

Good to hear the feeding seems to be settling down a little bit. It was probably just slightly rough rails and slightly rough breechface slowing everything down a little. Parkerizing isn't the smoothest finish.

Folks are suckered in as usual and offer help. After maybe a page folks figure out you haven't shot the gun yet. You're just playing around with it in your lap.

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My attitude is that if I offer information, regardless of the OP, somebody somewhere is going to get smarter as a result. That can't be a bad thing.

It bears noting, for posterities sake, that the 1911 thumb safety has to be fitted properly to be sure that it correctly blocks the sear from movement. You cannot simply swap one out for the other and expect that it will be 100% correct. Sometimes, you can get really lucky, but usually not so much. The safety needs to be fitted by someone who knows how to fit a 1911 safety.

^^
While that is true, fitting a 1911 safety is stupid easy, and takes only eyes and a file. I have fitted, hell I don't know, 10 or 15 of them.


However, we don't know what happened to the old safety yet, so fitting a new one seems premature.

This is very useful topic. We can take few lessons from it: shoot the gun at range with ammo instead of worrying needlessly and spending extra money in the process and secondly one gets what they pay for.