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

There is likely something else going on other than the weight of the recoil spring and it could be a number of issues. The 1911 is optimized to feed with a stock 16# spring and will feed fine with a 12# spring if everything else is correct.

First thing I would try is as different brand of ammo. WW White Box has been out-sourced in the past, and is often not made in the US. New factory ammo can be out of spec with oversized bullets, thick necks or rims. Make sure whatever ammo you want to try will drop in the barrel when it is disassembled from the pistol.

I think a 1911 should not be too particular so I prefer larger chambers that will feed just about anything, but some lots of factory ammo are just messed up.

Then there are mags...

I would stick with newer Colt 7rd mags made by Checkmate with the dimple on the follower.

That's #1 and #2 of troubleshooting, but there could just as easily be something else going on.

Anything from the chamber, barrel ramp, frame ramp, link down, extractor tuning, breech face, in addition to possible ammo or mag issues...

Most of these, except for ammo and mags, are gunsmith or armorer level issues. These things are normally relatively minor fixes but need to be done right.

You might want to see if there is a knowledgeable 1911 smith in your locale to take a look at it.

had exactly the same thing happen between a ruger and springfield. The ruger did not like the length of the reload. Shoot it in a springfield, no issue. at to those collet fingers, first thing i did upon tripping accross a series 70mark5 a few years ago was remove that finger collet and put a regular collet in it.

A few thousandths of off the feed ramp should clear the failure to feed issue.

Without looking at the gun/magazine/load,there is no way I could make a blanket statement like this.

Not a blanket statement, it is an assessment of the problem as describe. I had the same issue with one of mine.

A true assessment of the problem can not be made without looking at the gun/magazine/loads. Removing metal off of the frame of the gun is not where you want to start.

I know this will go on forever. I have to leave to go somewhere. Others will chime in.

I have tried Remington ammo with the same results, 3 different quality magazine types but I'm ordering different followers for my Colt mags and have a guy who is capable of checking it out and fixing most anything on it.

Thanks guys.

Tha's weird because my smith made the same assessment on mine without looking and I removed a few thousandths and cured the problem. No more hanging up on the feed ramp with any type of ammo.
Again we will have to agree to disagree.

And we would know that how?

No problems with this 38 Super except it won't feed Corbon HP's.



A Para LDA in 45 I had was a sweetheart. Should have never sold it.

Ditto - a gunsmith replaced my broken collet with a solid one and it was 100% after that.

That Series 70 was a great pistol overall. It had that little stub of a front sight and a small blade rear but through good fortune it grouped right on top of the front sight for me right out of the box. Accurate as hell, too, even with the new solid collet. Some SOB took it in a burglary in 1981, I do miss it.

Update, went to the range today with the 18# Wolf spring in a clean and oiled pistol. I ran the first mag fine, the second mag I got this on the last round.

Ran the 3rd mag and got the same thing on the last round. Cleared the pistol, loaded that round in the mag and it stove piped.

A buddy that shoots 1911's competitively was there so I let him look at it, extractor felt fine to him and he couldn't see anything obvious so he shot it. It worked fine for him. He watched me shoot it and noticed I had my thumb under the safety. He wondered if I was putting pressure on the slide with the safety so I put my thumb on top of the safety and it ran fine for 3-4 mags until I engaged the slide lock with my other thumb.

Changed up trying to get a good grip and wound up putting it on safe while shooting and had more failures to feed but always on the last round and all 6 mags did it at least once.

I tried the 20# spring, same thing. Took out the buffer, same thing. My buddy shot 4 mags with no issues so I'm pretty sure it's me but the one thing that has me puzzled is why was it always on the last round?

I have been wrong before, but that looks like a magazine issue to me. Does it behave that way with different magazines or always with that one?

(Top pic. Bottom pic, not so much.)

4 new Colt 8 rd mags, 1 MecGar mag and a McM shooting star 10 rd mag. They all do it on the last round.

If you haven't done this take a magic marker and number all your magazines 1 through whatever. This will help identify which mags might be the culprit.

Well, it's a stumper at a distance anyway. Sorry I can't get you lined out there.

Mags are numbered and all did it at least once but while ordering parts for this beast I noticed this on the Pachmyer's followers description;

"Re-designed follower helps prevent last round malfunctions so common with issue followers. Unique "rounded-top"; replaces factory, flat-topped follower without modification. Polished with smooth corners."

While I think I need to adjust to shoot it, it sure sounds like these reliable pistols have a lot of issues... Even my buddy shooting his race gun had a malfunction today.

But anyway I'm another $122 deeper invested in the platform.

Just from memory, i think there are at least two or three, maybe more different types of followers on those mags.

Just from memory, i think there are at least two or three, maybe more different types of followers on those mags.
One thing that does occur to me is as you empty the mag there I think would be more spring pressure on that last round. Just for giggles load one round in the mag and have an open slide and work it slowly to see how it is going forward. All under safe conditions of course. I wonder if the mags are putting to much angle on the round?

The further you get from Saint John's design the more you will have reliability problems. There a cosmetic tweaks here and there you can do but the basic design is pretty much perfect.