Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns 1911 ....Why is it..

I've yet to encounter a single S&W 1911 that didn't work. I'm sure there could be some out there, but I've never seen one.

Good article; nothing really new on the technical side, but taken in its totality, is more or less the main reason(s) that many are better off not owning a 1911.

As to his comparison of Glocks to 1911's, that will set off a good number of the haters; I thought it was fairly well balanced in his comments, both pro & con.

MM

The 2 I have, have never hicupped...........add those to your count.

MM

Same here. Two 1911DK's with Lots of major rounds through each. A whole lot. Both are still running strong.

Some good points there, but where he said, "don't grind on the barrel ramp too much" I had to cringe.

Buy Kuhnhausen's book, and he'll tell you exactly much you can grind it

My S&W 1911 never failed regardless of ammo type. Only reason I put it up for sale was its tendency to hit me in the forehead with ejected brass.

[/quote Only reason I put it up for sale was its tendency to hit me in the forehead with ejected brass. [/quote]

I sold an expensive 1911 for that same reason. About one case out of every two magazines came right back at my eyes. Always had shooting glasses on at the range but don't wear them all day every day so couldn't risk getting a lacerated eyeball at the wrong time if I ever had to use the gun for serious business. I do shoot right handed and I'm left eye dominant so I'm sure that contributed to the problem. But still.....I have several other 1911s and none of them do that. Well....except for the Kimber which I now use as a base for the 22 conversion kit.

I had one of the Colt Defenders, and brass to the forehead was a common problem with them.

I reasoned that shortening the ejector a hair would help, delaying ejection slightly. I took a file to the range with me one day, and tried it, shoot, disassemble, file, assemble, shoot, etc - repeat as required. I found it only took a few thousandths removal from the ejector to fix the problem.

Of course, the Defender was a short slide, and slide velocity was high, which meant it fired the cases out...fast. One day a case came out, turned just right, and the case mouth hit my forehead like a cookie cutter. After I quit cussing I could feel the blood running down, so safed the pistol and went to the rangemaster.

He sure was startled when I walked into his office with a round bleeding hole in my forehead, and asked for a bandaid

The glaring omission in that article is the idea of first confirming that all parts of the gun are within spec. MontanaMan and I have gone around before over whether an in-spec 1911 needs all that fluffing, and I'll just leave it at that. But before I invest any time or money in fixing or improving anything, I want to know if it is what it was designed to be in the first place. If not - all that polishing and tweaking may accomplish little or nothing.

The moral of the story is to buy quality in the first place. Watch out carefully for used 1911's. Inspect them closely.

I have the book and many other good ones.

Same here, left eye dominant, right handed. And I also figured that had something to do with the problem (likely someone who's both right handed and right eye dominant wouldn't have had the problem), but like you say, none of my other 1911s (nor any of my semi-automatics) smack me in the forehead with brass, so it had to go.

PS I had the same analysis as you, i.e., at the range you wear safety glasses, but not on the street. A gunfight for your life is the wrong time to get hot brass in the eye.

This thread is doing a great job of proving my point.



Dave

Not really, because all of my five currently owned 1911s are reliable and don't hit me in the forehead. Just shows that, made right, they work great. You can't, however, just pick one up out of the box and be highly confident that it will be problem free, and that's been explained already as a result of the fact that there isn't any such thing as "a 1911." It's a design pattern followed loosely or closely by dozens of makers from parts made by an even higher number of parts makers. You can only compare the one that's in your hand to a Glock, not "the 1911" to a Glock. A Glock is a product made by Glock out of Glock-made parts. Same with the Walther PPQ, the Sig P320, and on down the line. These are all actual products, vs the 1911, which is a design pattern. So it's perfectly fair and reasonable to compare the Glock 19 to the Sig P320 Compact, for example, but not "the 1911" to the Glock 21, Walther PPQ 45, etc., etc..

It does look that way, eh?

Without a doubt, there are many 1911's I would not trust my life with in their current state. Some came that way from the maker. Others ended up that way afterward. Most can probably be fixed by someone who really knows the gun. Some - not within reason. That's why I am dubious about buying one used without the opportunity to disassemble, inspect, and measure.

So Dink - ya grindin' on that Ruger yet? Or you gonna sell it cheap before you bugger it (or cheaper, after)?

Hawk,

When you encounter that problem, start by swapping out to a 1911 style ejector, instead of the extended ejectors. If that doesn't work, buy the longest ejector you can get, and slowly file it back until you no longer have dents in your forehead. Also, vary your recoil spring weight. Just get one of those Wolf "calibration kits" and monkey with that.

FWIW, the pistol that always hit me in the forehead with brass was a Glock 23 I was given to carry in Mexico city. They did allow me to shoot a mag through it before I carried it, and every damn round hit me in the forehead. But it shot to point of aim, functioned perfectly and I only needed it for one day, so I could live with that.

I have read this whole thread, probably a sign of some mental problem.
I have quite a few 1911's, most are military.
All work
Observation is that they work just fine with ball ammo for which they were designed. Issues if any revolved around other than ball ammo.
I remember reading there are over 4000 separate modifications parts one can do to a 1911.
Which leads one to always wonder what somebody has done to one on the used market.
I do remember getting carried away one day, and pulling the recoil springs out of a bunch of them to check length against a new one, and replacing in a number of cases.
Something must be wrong, i even fire speer 200grjcp flying ashtrays out of some of them.
What is funny to me is a test done some years ago. Using the same 200grain H&G swc, and a couple of military 1911A1's, a norinco, a tweaked out springfield champion, and a really customized colt colt cup.
let several people fire all of them at the same target same distance.
Mostly that 200dollar norinco really held it's own.
I didn't see a whole lot of difference between the guns given their ability.
I do agree with the thought they are not for everybody, most should buy a glock or a smith M&P.

Glad to have you back. We have missed those little ZINGERS you come up with.

I'm not all that into messing with them. I've done a little of it, but generally try to avoid it