Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns So who has a 1911 that doesn't work?

I put together AR's and completely understand how to run one wet. I am pretty liberal on the 1911 as well, not much runs good dry.

As for my pistol, to be clear it's a series 80 that wasn't shot much at all by the looks of it and is or was all factory except the magazines. Ammo was factory Remington and Winchester 230 gr ball. I bought 100 rounds of the Remington and 600 rounds of the Winchester, fired all the Remington and 50 rounds of the Winchester so far.

With one cheap mag it would not fully load the shell nearly every time and did the stove pipe thing once. I trashed the mag. The other mag is a Chip McCormick 10 rounder that ran most of the time but had the same failure to fully chamber the round. Same with a MecGar mag.

I bought 4 Colt 8 rd mags and thought all was good but had the same issue a few times once it had a few rounds through it. I ordered a Wolf 18# recoil spring and installed it, it was almost an inch longer than the spring that came in it. I also ordered a 20# Ed Brown spring. I will try the 18# spring in the morning and see how it goes, the 20 if needed.

Even my Kimber 1911-22 failed me twice, it failed to pick up a shell from the mag, the first time I thought I just didn't have the magazine seated good. 350 rounds later it did it again but I didn't have my mags marked and don't know which one or ones of the 5 did it. They are now marked and I'll see if it's a single mag issue or what.

While not a problem, I am changing the plastic trigger and ordering a complete Wolf spring kit for the Colt, along with some round Pachmyer followers. I have a buddy who is gonna look it over and change the parts for me. He worked with a pretty good 1911 guy and I trust him. I know from trying to diagnose AR problems on the net that it's really hard to do without seeing the gun but I do appreciate all the offers to help me figure this out.