Fussy eater .45 ACP

[mountainroads]

@Slamfire: I'm usually pretty generous with lube products Seriously. even in my .177.

- MR

My suggestions: Replace the recoil spring with a new recoil spring. The standard was 16 lb, go buy an 18 also just to see. Your spring is 40 years old and has got to taken a set. This is important in terms of timing. If the slide is moving too fast, the cartridge in the magazine will often be jammed on the feed ramp.

Next, use ammunition appropriate for the pistol. That is, ball ammunition.

The original 1910 cartridge was loaded with a 230 FMJ and 5.0 grs Bullseye Pistol powder for a desired velocity of 800 fps. You cannot go wrong copying this load.

And you can see, the velocity spec found in Clawson's book of the 1911 is verified in period ammunition

Military match ball, close enough

I think this is good

This is a good cast bullet load. A 230 LRN with 4.5 grains Bullseye pistol powder, I set the OAL to 1.250 because I have some short throated 1911's

in other 1911's, it chronographs at 800 fps, on this day, the weather was cold

the standby

Something else, when building a period NM pistol, the gunsmith peened the frame rails, coated the same with grinding compound, and beat the slide back and forth till he achieved a level of resistance that he felt was appropriate for a tight fit. With these tight, hand built 1911's, the advice back in the day was "your elbow is the drip point" . Keep your 1911 swimming in oil. Oil, oil, oil. Oil the rails, oil the locking lugs, oil the swinging link, oil the end of the barrel, and put a drop of oil where it will slide down to the sear surfaces. Never let it run dry.

You might remove the extractor and clean out that recess as mice may have built nests in the extractor hole. That could cause tension issues.

Don't know what magazines you are using, buy the best and see if any are more reliable than others. Government magazines were built by the low bidder, and what you have, who knows if it is real GI or some counterfeit, or its previous history. Mil Spec ain't next to Godliness. Especially if it was rejected by the Government Inspector, and "somehow" got into the market place. You think the OEM maker junked rejected magazines, when they can make profit selling them to gullible buyers?

If your 1911 is only reliable with 230 FMJ, that is fine. The pistol came from the factory ready to run with ball ammunition. That was all you would have received in combat anyway, the Army never issued LWSC target ammunition to front line troops.

 

[mountainroads]

Historical information:
The receiver is an Essex, an inexpensive aftermarket part that was very common 40 years ago.
The slide is a true 1911 Colt, made in 1913 or early 1914 - note the lack of a 1913 patent date.
Adjustable rear sight looks like an Elliason, US stamped, a real military National Match item.
Grip safety looks like a 1911, the flat mainspring housing with lanyard loop certainly is.
Long aluminum trigger may be the military match part.

Any ID information on the barrel and bushing would be interesting.

@Jim Watson: Here are the requested pics of the barrel and bushing. No visible marks on the bushing that I could see. Thanks again for the provided information.

- MR

 

[Jim Watson]

The barrel is probably the newest thing there, the bushing is generic.

 

[mountainroads]

The barrel is probably the newest thing there, the bushing is generic.

Yup. Appears to be genuine NM grade. 1970s, right??

 

[Jim Watson]

Maybe. Does the barrel tang fill the space in the slide? A Gold Cup National Match barrel tang is narrower than a Government Model's.
But Colt has done some funny things since they quit having to go by silly mil-specs.

 

[Rock185]

I have a couple tightly fitted match type pistols, a Clark Colt and Baer HBNM. They are reliable with Ball, JFP and JHP standard pressure ammunition. To be reliable with lightly loaded target ammunition though, I'd have to use lighter recoil springs. So as others have suggested, I'd start with the easiest thing first, and try a lighter recoil spring for function with target ammo. Feeding problems with other than ball, might indicate an issue with frame feed ramp, barrel throating, etc. Best of luck with this, I know how frustrating some of these reliability issues with 1911 type pistols can be..

 

[Alaskamike]

Yup. Appears to be genuine NM grade. 1970s, right??

I'm certainly no authority on original Colt 1911s, but that barrel would seem to be of much more recent vintage than 1970s.

Anything marked "series 70" would seem to indicate production after the series 80 design came out, in order to differentiate it.

Just an observation.

 

[9mmepiphany]

Anything marked "series 70" would seem to indicate production after the series 80 design came out, in order to differentiate it.

Just an observation.

Very perceptive...and absolutely correct

 

[mountainroads]

Maybe. Does the barrel tang fill the space in the slide? A Gold Cup National Match barrel tang is narrower than a Government Model's.
But Colt has done some funny things since they quit having to go by silly mil-specs.

I'm going to display my ignorance by asking if by "tang" you mean the tab that protrudes on top of the barrel at the rear?? If so, then yes, there is room to rotate the barrel a little bit when fitting the barrel into the slide (without the spring) and pushing the barrel to the rear of the ejector port. Probably almost 1/I6th of an inch or so from visual observation. I was mostly basing my authenticity question on the "NM" stamp on the barrel., itself. Thanks.

- MR

 

[mountainroads]

I'm certainly no authority on original Colt 1911s, but that barrel would seem to be of much more recent vintage than 1970s.

Anything marked "series 70" would seem to indicate production after the series 80 design came out, in order to differentiate it.

Just an observation.

Interesting observation. I purchased the gun late 1970's to early 1980's at the latest.

- MR

 

[Jim Watson]

Anything marked "series 70" would seem to indicate production after the series 80 design came out, in order to differentiate it.

Very perceptive...and absolutely correct

Nope. Not at all. Old 70G254XX over here is clearly marked "Mk IV Series 70" on the barrel as well as the slide and it was made in 1972 according to the Colt company lookup.

The marking is to differentiate the flared barrel - collet bushing configuration.

 

[9mmepiphany]

The marking is to differentiate the flared barrel - collet bushing configuration.

I stand corrected

 

[tarosean]

xxxxxxx never mind it seems my comment was 20yrs too late.

 

[Sonnydaze]

M1911 NM. Have had it for years. I'll upload a picture when I get the chance,

Built for me by top-notch gunsmith. It's always been a little finicky about the ammo. Conservatively throated. Tends to smokestack unless I use straight hardball. Wadcutter ammo? Forget it. HP? Maybe yes, maybe no. Hence, I don't trust it for self defense. I don't think lack of cycles is the problem, but that's a possibility. Would love to find some reliable SD loads, as it's a great carry weapon. Any ammo or troubleshooting suggestions greatly appreciated. TIA.

- MR

For a 50th birthday present, my wife bought me a full day's training with my stainless Colt Combat Commander...with Jerry Miculek. I shot over 700 rounds of .45 ACP semi-wadcutters (my reloads)...without any problem. When I arrived at Jerry's gunshop, he immediately had his gunsmith do a quick throating job....before we took to the range. A fine gun...I just gifted it to a grandkid...who appreciates it as I do...
OTOH, my Glock 30 .45ACP will only chamber round-nose ammo....semi-wadcutters are a no-go.

 

[damyankee425]

Hmmmm, think it is d4digned to use ball ammo. So choose a SD round that closely resembles ball ammo. Maybe do some polishing to the feed ramp. I'm not a smith or even a novice. But I work with alot of moving parts. ( auto tech)

 

[Charlie98]

5) Magazines don't seem to make a difference. Some GI issue. Some newer.

You mention only 2 magazines in your early posts... do you have others?

Some 1911's will feed and function with any magazine, some won't. My first Kimber was this way... it fed fine, for a while, then decided it had expensive tastes... and I had to replace all of my magazines with Chip McCormick PowerMags to insure 100% function. Those magazines are still happily spoon feeding my Kimbers 20 years later. If you haven't already, perhaps consider buying one (or a few...) quality, name-brand magazines and giving it a go, again. At least that would be one variable eliminated.

Also, maybe have someone else shoot your pistol. Friend of mine bought a 4" Kimber... it has feeding issues when he shoots it, but not when I shoot it. At my suggestion, he bought the same CMC PowerMags I use (because they worked when I tried them in his pistol...) but he still has intermittent feeding problems. I still don't when I shoot it. Go figure. A second set of eyes is never a bad thing.

Keep it simple-stupid. Shoot some factory 230grn hardball until you a) are comfortable with it's functioning, and b) you don't have feeding problems. If you continue to have feeding problems with ball ammo, just stop right there and solve that problem. Once that problem is solved, then you can move to HP or SWC ammos... and try it again. Like some of the others suggested, the first place I would look would be the feed ramp and the extractor. I have gone so far as to pick up a generic 1911 barrel and drop it in to see if it would fix some issues I was having with another 1911 (not a Kimber.) It did not, but it eliminated the question of the feed ramp or the barrel as part of the problem, if you see what I mean.

It sounds like your pistol was carefully assembled by a competent gunsmith. It's quite possible it just needs a disassembly and a good cleaning, with attention to replacing the springs subject to wear or age. A good cleaning, a new set of springs, and some lube might work wonders...

 

[mountainroads]

Thanks guys for the ongoing suggestions. I haven't been back to the range for a couple of weeks, so unable to report further testing. In answer to some of the above: I have a total of three mags. They all perform equally well.. 230grn hardball seems to feed just fine. More testing required before complete confidence, but looking promising. The barrel was conservatively throated and carefully polished by the builder. He looked askance at "over throating". At this point, I'm going to gain more confidence with round nose hardball target ammo and then try out some modern SD loads which are similarly shaped. Giving up on SWC for this gun. HPs (Winchester SilverTips) have been hit or miss. (Pardon the pun.)

- MR

 

[Charlie98]

Giving up on SWC for this gun.

There's no doubt the SWC is a nice bullet for paper poking. Of my 2 4" Kimbers, which are nearly identical, one will feed them, one won't. I solved that problem by not buying SWC's anymore.

If you are a handloader, The Hornady XTP is an excellent bullet with a reasonable ogive profile, as is the Speer GoldDot... although they can be hard to find. Factory ammos are the same... XTP's, or the offshoot Critical Duty, and GoldDots. I've never had a pistol that did not feed those bullets/cartridges well.

 

[Russ57]

Agree on the Gold Dot being likely to feed without a problem.

You should be able to get it to shoot wad cutters. Lock the slide back. Load up a mag with wad cutters, insert mag, and slowly cycle the slide by hand. While doing so, look through the ejection port and observe how the round is coming out of the mag, interacting with the feed ramp, then the barrel throat/chamber. You would like to see the nose of the bullet hit the feed ramp, just start to angle up, and then jump straight up as the it clears the mag lips. What you don't want to see is the round trying to enter the barrel at an extreme (like 30-45 degree) angle and wedging itself between the bottom and top of barrel chamber.

I'd advise against polishing the feed ramp. However you may have to do something with the barrel throat.

Another area to check that nobody mentioned. Insert and empty mag in an empty gun. Holding it normally see if you can manually push the bottom of the mag further into the gun.

I'm inclined to ask why you care about wad cutters if you looking to use it as a self defense gun?

 

[JeffG]

"Pistolsmithing" By George Nonte is a great learning experience.

Pistolsmithing : Nonte, George C : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

560 pages 24 cm

archive.org

George Nonte

 

[mountainroads]

Thanks guys. Keep the suggestions/opinions coming!!

- MR

 

[NMexJim]

Another issue could be the gap between the feed ramp and the barrel. I carried a 1911 in the Army for 21 years and learned to love the rattling they have because the parts are loose and are not tight. This is what makes them reliable in the field where a little dirt will not cause it to jam. I bought a Kimber years ago and sold it within a week. It was too tight to rack the slide and was simply frustrating to shoot when it shot because it jammed a lot. A speck of dust will jam the rails on this particular 1911. So if you have not put a lot of rounds through it this may be one of the causes. Here is an article I bookmarked for my younger siblings a few years ago. Hopefully it may help you with your problem.

1911 School, Feeding Part 1 of 3 -

In order to effect a better understanding of the dimensions and conditions critical to reliable feeding in the 1911 pistol, I thought this might be a good idea to go into more detail than the average magazine article. The first critical spec is feed and barrel ramp angles. The feed ramp is...

rangehot.com

I thought this was an interesting read. There were only two of the three parts available. I went looking for Pt 3 and John Travis for anything else he may have written, but I couldn’t find much. I did find some hot discussion around him on, I think it was, Brian Enos forum. I didn’t find anything that was other than informative myself.

Magazines and adjusting feed lips seems to be one of those topics that draw heat, but I don’t see why we would want to avoid the subject. Just one more aspect of good shooting practice. There’s a fair amount on 1911s, but as a general topic on pistols, not too much. Atlas Gunworks has some 1911 magazine videos on it (dare I say) YouTube.

Maybe this needs to go over into gunsmithing?

 

[Russ57]

Here you go. Or just change the number in your browser bar

1911 School, Feeding Part 3 of 3. -

The next critical dimension is the cartridge OAL itself. Too short or too long and you’ll have problems. The issues that so many people ascribed to the 1911’s failure to feed hollowpoints came from the old Speer 200 grain JHP “Flying ashtray” in the 80s…but it wasn’t the size of the cavity that...

rangehot.com

 

[NMexJim]

Thank you, thank you.

 

[ms6852]

I thought this was an interesting read. There were only two of the three parts available. I went looking for Pt 3 and John Travis for anything else he may have written, but I couldn’t find much. I did find some hot discussion around him on, I think it was, Brian Enos forum. I didn’t find anything that was other than informative myself.

Magazines and adjusting feed lips seems to be one of those topics that draw heat, but I don’t see why we would want to avoid the subject. Just one more aspect of good shooting practice. There’s a fair amount on 1911s, but as a general topic on pistols, not too much. Atlas Gunworks has some 1911 magazine videos on it (dare I say) YouTube.

Maybe this needs to go over into gunsmithing?

I was a unit armorer for the Army and I never realized how important the gap was. If it is too close to the feed ramp, the bullet will hit the top of the barrel and not feed. To far and you have the same issue racking a round into the barrel. It is like the 3 bears story it has to be just right and the bullet falls into the barrel. Needless to say a large majority of issues do evolve the magazines.