Back to my 1911 roots

[velocette]

Finally decided to return to a 1911 type pistol for EDC.
In a price range I can afford, I found The Springfield Armory Range Officer Elite Compact in 9mm to fit my needs.
Officers aluminum frame, 1/2" shorter than std 1911, Commander length barrel at 4"
yields an easily concealed light weight pistol with an excellent trigger. Picked up my new one and after cleaning & lubricating took it to my club. Function was poor. Very light primer strikes had misfires with CCI primers, fired most of the time with Federal primers, and most of the time with factory Gold Dot ammo.
SO, home I go, to the bench. Pulled out the firing pin & spring. Titanium firing pin and a spring that was both stronger and longer (by 1/2") than my new Wolff 1911 firing pin springs. (See the spring in photo attached) The firing pin channel was rough on the inside so that was smoothed out & a new Wolff extra power firing pin spring installed.
Amazing, now all rounds go off properly. Pistol is accurate with a nice trigger, decent sights and easily concealed.
I was pleasantly impressed with the tight slide to frame fit and barrel lock up, all as good as a tight match pistol. For sure it will loosen up a bit as I get more rounds through it, but overall, a nice pistol for every day carry, even if it had a bunch of lawyers stuffed into the firing pin & spring.

 

[richkratz]

If it feels good, do it!

 

[CDW4ME]

Nice carry pistol.

 

[Reinz]

Congrats on your new EDC.

Glad you got things ironed out.

 

[JR24]

Very nice, perfect carry setup for a 1911 IMO.

Glad you got the reliability sorted out.

I like the Wilson 9 round mags on the officer frame, get that +1 and it doesn't affect concealment for me (the rear of the grip is where my guns print).

 

[Stophel]

I recently got a 1911 from a different manufacturer that had a firing pin spring that was stronger than the mainspring. I noticed that the hammer wouldn't set down all the way because the firing pin spring would hold it up.... I didn't even try to fire it with this spring, and swapped it for a standard one I had on hand. I have no doubt it was drop safe, though...

 

[velocette]

JR24,
Great minds think alike.
The Wilson mags were ordered the day after I picked up the pistol.

Continuing to follow up on the pistol. Both mags that came with the pistol are difficult or impossible to disassemble. I did inspect carefully for burrs and sharp edges, found none. So I just lubricated their insides with a thin film of Eezox.
Then disassembled the mainspring housing, smoothed the inside & top plunger with 1000 grit paper then reassembled with a little light grease.
Polishing the bearing surfaces and tweaking the 3 prong trigger / sear / grip safety spring yielded a nice 4 lb smooth crisp trigger.
Interesting that the trigger itself does not have an overtravel adjustment and it doesn't need one. Overtravel is minimal.
Feedramp has been lightly polished but probably didn't need it.
Back to the stock firing pin spring. Interesting to note that the original spring was 1/2" longer and stronger than the replacement Wolff Extra Power firing pin spring.
As Stophel noted, I think the pistol was drop safe. Actually it was firing safe too apparently.

 

[velocette]

Well, - - - - - I was wrong. Its not like I've never been wrong before (just ask my wife) All of the above adjustments and corrections did not solve the problem. Light strikes and misfires.
So what else could be the problem? I took apart the mainspring housing again & noted that it was not difficult to disassemble. Usually compressing the mainspring and pushing out that little retaining
pin is a pain in the butt. This one was easy. Very easy. Measured the wire diameter of the spring & it matched the other 1911 mainsprings in my parts bin. But it was short & weak. Apparently
the spring had not been heat treated correctly and had lost its mojo/ Replaced the spring with a Wolff spring, it was the usual PITA to assemble.. Trigger pull increased a bit and the misfires and light strikes went away.
It seems that the spring was steadily losing its power making it so that every improvement I made elsewhere just postponed the inevitable conclusion.
Thursday mornings range session with 140 rds of assorted factory and reloads went off with no problem. There's nothing better than the smell of gunsmoke in the morning.

 

[Brutuskend]

Been wanting a 1911 since the early 70s.
It was the first handgun I ever fired.
USMC boot camp.

Been looking for one of the rock island arms 22tcm/9mm. Double stack.

Anyone here own one?

 

[ms6852]

Congratulations on your new EDC. Funny I carried a 1911 for 40 years and just switched to a wheel gun. No reason other than I loved how the 686 looked. Anyway, sorry to hear about your issues with light strikes. I firmly believe that the issue is the titanium firing pin is too light and the reason for the spring being longer is it needs to accelerate the firing pin faster so that it can create enough force to ignite the primer as it has less density than a steel firing pin. If I were you I would put back every thing to factory parts and if the issue continues, send it back to Springfield Armory, they have great customer service. I own several 1911's and they are all Springfield and have been lucky to not have issues with any of them.

 

[roval]

I firmly believe that the issue is the titanium firing pin is too light and the reason for the spring being longer is it needs to accelerate the firing pin faster so that it can create enough force to ignite the primer as it has less density than a steel firing pin.

i am confused isn't the firing pin spring's job is to push the firing pin back in preparation for the next strike in hammer fired guns as opposed to striker fired guns. so a stronger spring there can lead to light primer strikes.

 

[drband]

Been wanting a 1911 since the early 70s.
It was the first handgun I ever fired.
USMC boot camp.

Been looking for one of the rock island arms 22tcm/9mm. Double stack.

Anyone here own one?

I’ve had my .22TCM/9mm 4.25” mid-size (commander size) for several years and I really enjoy shooting it. The TCM rounds really get looks at the range because they are so loud and have a visible fireball. —but recoil is negligible! I find it quite accurate but I had to condition myself against flinch because of the loudness. (Hint: double up ear protection when shooting .22TCM)
I now reload TCM ammo so shooting that round is quite affordable.

In 9mm, I find the pistol easy to shoot with light recoil because of the steel frame. I have the high capacity model, so 17rds compares favorably to many polymer pistols. I particularly like this pistol in 9mm because I prefer the grip ergonomics of the 1911. Yes, it’s a little wider than a SS 1911, but the grip panels are thin and it’s very comfortable for my medium-sized hand. There are aftermarket grip panels available if you want something better than the cheap black polymer grips from the factory. I note that some of the models now ship with g10 grips, though. Stoner CNC is a good source for hi-cap grips— https://www.stonercnc.com/product-page/mil-spec-camo-double-stack

Magazines are not cheap, but are generally available from Armscor or gregcotellc.com

Ammo (.22TCM) is only available from Armscor, but any good 9mm works just fine.

I had 0 mechanical issues and was pleased with all fit and finish as received.

 

[drband]

Double post

 

[Brutuskend]

Thanks for the input drband.
I have bid on a few on gunbroker, one was put together from hand picked parts by the guy that developed the 22tcm cartridge, missed it by less than $20. I was bummed.

 

[drband]

The production models function just fine.

 

[ms6852]

i am confused isn't the firing pin spring's job is to push the firing pin back in preparation for the next strike in hammer fired guns as opposed to striker fired guns. so a stronger spring there can lead to light primer strikes.

I apologize, for some reason when I saw the picture of your handgun with the springs I automatically thought main spring and not firing pin spring since light strikes were mentioned, but I failed to make it clear, I should no better than to make an assumption.
I owe you a beer next time I am in Florida.

 

[spraay]

Finally decided to return to a 1911 type pistol for EDC.
For sure it will loosen up a bit as I get more rounds through it, but overall, a nice pistol for every day carry, even if it had a bunch of lawyers stuffed into the firing pin & spring.

Congrats on the new pistol! I have two Springfield 1911s. Purchased them second hand and I really like them both. I have a Compact for carry and the MC Operator for the house.

 

[entropy]

Been wanting a 1911 since the early 70s.
It was the first handgun I ever fired.
USMC boot camp.

Been looking for one of the rock island arms 22tcm/9mm. Double stack.

Anyone here own one?

No, but I shot one in .22 TCM. As drband says LOUD, lots of muzzle flash, no recoil, and FUN! Accurate, too.

The one I shot was new, it had G10 grips. I was in between rounds of Trap and heard something real loud down at the pistol range, so I walked over and it was a guy who had just joined that day, and another friend of his who'd been a member about a year. (We have almost 700 members, I can't know everybody!) He had just finished reloading the magazine, and said, "give 'er a try!" I only had my plugs in, I wished I would have brought my muffs down too! But it was a blast to shoot, and even though it was only 7 yards, they are .22 dia., so I think keeping them all in one ragged hole (on the right eye in the "T-slot" ) pretty good. I've been thinking about a 9mm Commander anyway......

 

[wiscoaster]

It's a bit irritating when you have to do so much tweaking to a new gun to get it to work right, no? I had issues with my Springfield A1 Mil-spec as well, and had to spend a lot of time with it. Now it's probably my best-performing handgun. Just yesterday I retrieved it out of long-term storage because I missed shooting it. Sometimes I think it's the guns that cause us the most grief that end up being our favorites.

 

[velocette]

Now that the bugs have been worked out, the Springfield 9mm Range Officer compact pistol is an easily concealed, pleasing and accurate pistol. After installing Trijicon Tritium nite sights and finishing the zeroing of them today, I am quite pleased with the accuracy with its carry ammo, my shakey 76 YO hands & eyes that are far from excellent. Pistol shoots almost as accurately as my full sized match 1911.
Another worthy thing of note is that from the start, if a round went off, the pistol cycled perfectly. Now with a good main (hammer) spring, its function is flawless through 2 SA magazines and 3 Wilson Rogers mags using JHP, FMJ; reloaded LSWC, LTC ammo all of different power levels mixed in the mags. Flawless. Best accuracy was with 124 gr JHP.
I have what I set out to get. A reliable, shootable 1911 compact pistol that suits my needs and desires.

 

[Spats McGee]

That's excellent news.