1911 not working now

[themic]

I have a nice Colt Combat Commander 1991. It has been working great for quite a while, not a single failure of any sort in the past 1000 rounds or so.

status: wilson grips, wilson full length guide rod (it's pretty & i like it), wilson main spring, shock buff insert.

anyways, i decided, in my infinite wisdom, to change the bedroom firearm to this handgun, instead of my ol RAP, mainly because the trigger's getting a little gritty on the RAP and I want to detail strip and play around with it a bit.

so, given that the colt is in the line of duty no, as it were, i go in, give it a good clean and oil, and take out the SHOCK-BUFF plastic insert thing, and throw it out. it was a little banged up, and they're supposed to be unreliable and all. i keep the guide rod. one change at a time.

so i take it out to the range.

CCI Blazer FMJ and JHP ammo. no +p's or anything special. i live in an apartment and use normal joe-blow loads.

round 7: FTF.
round 8: slide stop failure.

try it with different mags. wilson mag. colt mag. kimber mag.
always the same.

quite consistent, really. i'm impressed.

LESSON LEARNED: if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

time to order fresh shock-buffs. probably a new spring while i'm at it. i guess it could be the spring, not the buff. any input on that?

and time to put the RAP back in service.

 

[1911Tuner]

Colt No Work

Howdy themic,

FTFs come in a couple of different flavors...Describe your burps
exactly.

Last round, top round during a reload or at random through the magazine?

When the FTF occurs...does the round enter the chamber at all...or does it stop at the top of the ramp/bottom of the barrel throat? If it enters the chamber and stops just short of battery...Can you push the slide into battery, or do you have to eject the jammed round and start over?

Technically, a failure to feed is the round not making it to the chamber.
If it enters the chamber...even a little...that's a failure to return/failure to go to battery. If it's a simple failure to return to battery...no stem binding
evident...remove the extractor and clean it and the channel thoroughly and try again.

Fail to lock...Does the follower jump the slidestop lug and tie up the magazine...or does the stop just not engage the slide?

 

[themic]

wow you're up late, tuner.

here's a few more details

the round does not enter the chamber. gets caught by the slide, pointing upwards. always on the last or second to last round.

when all rounds are fired, the slide returns fully, as if the slide stop wasn't even there. if i'm not counting rounds, i'll click, look at it, wait for ten seconds, and open it up, to realize it wasn't a misfire, there simply wasn't a round in the chamber

this has ahppened to me before... and it was the result of dirty mags and a worn recoil spring. these mags are clean, though, so i'm guessing a new spring and/or replacing that shock-buff will put her back into service real quick.

what do you think?

 

[themic]

i guess what i'm REALLY wondering now, is, can the shock-buff slow down the slide's cycle rate enough to give the next round time to get up into the ready position, or to give the follower that extra moment to push up the slide stop?

 

[1911Tuner]

FTFs

Howdy themic...Not up late...Up early! This is my normal day.

You're havin' what is known as a Bolt-Over-Base, or rideover feed...and it's a magazine problem..usually. If you're runnin' a heavy recoil spring, that'll
cause it too...but it's normally a weak mag spring. No...The shock buff
won't slow the slide down enough to help, and may actually hurt due to
reducing the travel. The buffer DOES reduce the rebound effect of the slide
hitting the guide rod head, and may be delaying the slide's return to battery...but it's just covering up the real cause.

What happens during a BOB feed is that the slide outruns the upcoming round and catches it in the extractor groove. You can pretty much duplicate it by pulling the slide back until the breechface is over the groove and turning the slide loose. It may not do it exactly the same due to the different dynamics involved during live fire...but you'll see what happens.
It normally happens on the last round, but I've seen it happen on the next-to-last round a few times too.

A true Rideover Feed catches the case on the side, ahead of the extractor groove, and doesn't stand the round up in a stovepipe attitude.

Get into a Brownells catalog and order the Wolff 11-pound mag springs
for 7-round magazines...or the 5% extra-power springs if you have 8-rounders. FWIW, the smooth-topped follower of the 8-round mags can cause some problems of their own...not the least of which is a push-feed and extractor hook snapover on the last round...or the last round jumping the mag and having the pistol lock the slide with the last round layin' loose on top of the mag.

Since you also have a failure to lock issue...I'll guess that your magazine springs aren't up to the task of gettin' the bottom round or two up to feed position early enough.

Hope this nails your bug...These things are usually somethin' simple.

 

[themic]

ah, so it's the mag springs.

while i'm ordering parts, should i get the regular recoil spring (18 lb) or the heavier spring (20 lb)? are the variable power recoil springs any good? or does it really matter (i.e. go with what works best)?

 

[1911Tuner]

Springs

Howdy themic..Up late or up early?

Too much recoil spring would tend to contribute to the problem rather than correct it. I've never...note NEVER...seen a new Colt Commander with an
OEM recoil spring that tested at 18 pounds. Most fall into the 15-16 pound range...and some have tested at 14.5 or so. I'd order a 14-pound standard
(GM length) spring, cut it down to 25 coils and check for coil bind. Clip
a half-coil at a time until the slide travels the same distance with and without the spring plug. You can make a witness mark on a strip of
masking tape stuck to the dust cover that lines up with the front of the
barrel bushing. You may also want to use tape on the slide, and use a straightedge to make your witness marks. Remove the spring plug and pull the slide fully rearward, and make the marks. Replace the plug and pull it back again. if the marks line up, you're golden. If the slide's mark is
forward of the one on the frame...you gotta clip a little off the spring.
A half-coil or so should do it...but be sure. If the spring stacks up into a solid before the slide stops on the guide rod head/frame impact surface, you'll crack the bushing. Keep the spring as long as possible without letting it stack solid.

A 14-pound GM spring cut to 24.5-25 coils will provide as much tension at full slide travel as a 16 pound, 32 coil spring does in a 5-inch gun because of the greater pre-load in the Commander. Some Commanders will do
well with a 16-pound GM spring cut to 23.5-24 coils, so you may want to experiment with it. I tend to lean toward underspringing slightly than overspringing. Overspringing makes the gun more grip sensitive...and
if the gun is a defensive tool, you can't always count on getting the perfect, rock-solid, two-hand grip if/when you're UTYAIA.

Luck!

Tuner

 

[themic]

i was up late!

the idea of using a government spring and cut it down to a commander's use actually savves me a few bucks - i have one or two lying around from a time when i bought the "wrong" length.

thanks for the tips!