1911 locking up

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My shooting buddy and my self were going through some point shooting drills when his colt 1911 locked up. The slide was only half way back and the spent case did not eject. The slide could not be moved by hand. The only way he could free it up was to give it some love taps on the rear of the slide with a rubber mallet. He then field stripped the gun and gave the chamber a good cleaning along with the rest of the gun and lube it. We went back to shooting and after 30 more rounds it did the same thing. The gun has a high round count and is on its second barrel. It was his father's gun. I admit that I know very little about the 1911s so I have no clue as to what may be happening. Also they were reloads that we loaded but there is no sign of case buldging and the spent cases that were fired when the gun jammed would drop into the chamber as normal.

 

[Lonestar49]

Ammo IF.. one possiblty

...

Missed the part about re-loads..

But, sounds like underpowered rounds here and there..



Ls

 

[rcmodel]

The slide could not be moved by hand.
love taps on the rear of the slide with a rubber mallet.

Under-powered reloads may not eject, but they most certainly will not lock up a 1911 to the point you need a rubber hammer to beat it into submission!

I'd pull the slide off ASAP and look for a broken collet barrel bushing finger, a collapsed recoil spring, a broken barrel link, or other obvious breakage or wear.

It is something bad mechanical going on inside to lock up that tight.

rc

 

[Lonestar49]

Oversize/out of round per say

...

Correct, I should have added a bit to a story I had with reloads, a buddy's, and it only took one.. with my EMP 9mm 1911

First round, sling-shot it in and it chambered, solid, with about this__ much of the slide shy of going into full battery.

What threw me with the OP was luv tap pushing slide, via rubber hammer, forward to complete the full battery on a spent casing, to then get the casing to then come out, the way I read it, vs what I had to do, the opposite, to unlock the stuck slide hitting front side of slide with Nylon hammer, back, in order to release the stuck slide, first, then get stuck bullet in the chamber out, namely by the "casing" via off spec bullet was too wide and she stuck .. good (really bad). Then using a wooden dowel and same hammer with gun, still in vice, to knock the stuck bullet out of the chamber.

As I had, what sounds like the same issue, a bullet now and then, not going into full battery and all the slide needed was a small luv tap, forward, to get, good, new 135gr JHP's to fully chamber.. sometimes, any time, all the time, off and on, no real order of FTFC, but contentious with 135gr JHP's - but never have had a problem with any 124gr JHP's.. whatever make, new, now thru 7k flawless rounds..

Just thinking out loud here..


That was what I should have added, right or wrong, in this, the OP's, problem as a possibly. OMMV

Reloads are only as good as inspected/run/chked.. or, in my case, "weight" of bullets had/has a bearing via "size" and tightness of chamber - in my guns case.

We try,


Ls

 

[JoeMal]

Buy some factory ammo and shoot it to rule out the ammo...that would be my first decision on resolving this issue. Then you can narrow it down to a gun problem if that's the case

 

[Drail]

Consider what is going to happen if you give the slide a "love tap" and the slide closes and the gun fires with your hand still behind it. Never "beat" on a loaded gun.

 

[bobnailer]

Bob here...
Um "love taps", I certainly hope there was no ammo in it when you "love tapped" it with a rubber mallet. Slam-fire is a possible scenario you don't want to have happen. If I'm speakin out of turn, let me know.
Bob

 

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The gun locked up while ejecting the spent case. I will also add that the rounds cycled fine out of my 1911 and were loaded the same day as his using same componets.