Colt Mustang slide won't lock after last round

[D Rock]

Have been shooting this beauty for a few months (when .380 can be found). Very accurate and functions well. The slide will lock open with the leaver but after the last shot is fired the slide will return to battery. In other words it does not lock open.

There are no feed problems and have had no ejection problems.

Any thoughts on what might be wrong would be appreciated.

Dave

 

[rcmodel]

It almost has to be the magazine follower not pushing the slide stop up, or a weak magazine spring not keeping it up.

Take the slide off and put the slide stop pin back in the frame.

Now put an empty magazine in and watch what happens with the slide stop, or doesn't.

From there, you should be able to conjure up the necessary fix.

rc

 

[D Rock]

Thanks rc, that sounds right. When we first got this the magazines had feed problems. I had to bend the lip at the top of the magazines for all of the rounds to feed thru. Once they did I thought I was done.

The real problem was availability of .380. We got a few of boxes now so I'll give it a try. I've never worked on a Colt and am looking forward to learning a bit.

Dave

 

[TEDDY]

380

I dont have to worry about 380s as I have dies and mold.I make my own.

 

[The Lone Haranguer]

This is such a little gun, is it possible that you inadvertently touch the slide stop with your thumb when shooting?

 

[krs]

I have a Government .380 and had the problem of occasional failure to slide lock when using two of my four magazines. A tweaking of the lip of the mag follower would usually get them working.

The problem, already not grievous, was halved after changing all four magazine springs for new ones. I now only have the sporadic incidence of failure to lock back when using one of the four mags, not coincidentally the only one of the four not marked with "Colt .380" on it's baseplate.

If I could find just one more Colt follower I'm sure that the problem with that one magazine would be resolved. I'm thinking that the aftermarket follower is made of softer stuff than that stipulated by the Mother company, and softer is a failing characteristic in magazines and other things as alluded to by rcmodel in his post #2 above when he perhaps ruefully spoke of "not keeping it up".