Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Colt 1911 Series 80 Trouble

I acquired a never fired 80s vintage Colt 1911 Combat Commander. When you pull the slide back it does not travel far enough to the rear for the slide lock to engage (probably a little more than a 1/16th of an inch short of the cut in the slide. I disassembled multiple times, cleaned, lubricated and everything appears normal. There are no rough edges, spring appears proper length and construction. I have had these apart many times, but I did consult a field strip video and a disassembly schematic just to ensure I did not miss something.

I am by no means an expert but merely a shooter. This could very well be from the factory and I have yet to swap slides from another pistol. Looking for ideas and options to try from the real experts out there.

I will bring to a qualified gunsmith or send in to Colt if all else fails.

Nothing good to say about Colt’s. Not surprised.

Thanks for the input.

You have experience with Colts I take it.

Is this an issue you have seen from the factory they could potentially remedy?

Larsline, I do not know if this is your trouble but it might be. A number of years ago when I lived in Los Angeles, a good friend of mine bought a new 80s vintage Colt 1911 Combat Commander from B&B Gun Sales in North Hollywood.. He called me later and described the same problem to me. I went to his house and examined his new Colt. It was apparent the factory had milled the slide lock notch about 1/8" too far forward on the slide and he could not get it to lock back, just as you mentioned.

The next day, he returned it to B&B. They gave him another new Colt Combat Commander. He made sure the slide would lock back before accepting it.

That might be your problem. Good luck.

L.W.

Colt certainly isn't immune from screwing thing up now and then. A buddy of mine bought one of those satin nickeled Combat Commanders back in the late '70s, and he was pretty mad when he tried to shoot it. It simply wouldn't feed anything at all. His father, who was an old retired Special Forces guy and knew his way around a 1911 starting looking closer at it. While the slide was marked .45ACP, the breechface was milled for the 9mm/.38 Super. No wonder it wouldn't work! Yes, it DID have a .45 barrel) .Some work on a mill fixed all that, but Pete wasn't a solid Colt guy after that. His dad had built him a Crown City/Colt slide gun previously, and I think he went back to that homebuilt pistol.
I've had S&W revolvers with the wrong markings on them, myself, as have others I know about. A Ruger Tanger 77 I had was sent out of the factory with a Magnum extractor in it, rather than the needed one for standard cartridges (.30/06, in that case).

Those are a small sample of screwups caused by major gunmakers that I know about personally. I'm sure there are a heckuva lot more out there.
'

Will it go back far enough to lock without the barrel and bushing installed? What about with the barrel and bushing but no recoil spring plug? Also, I assume it doesn’t have a shock buff on the recoil spring guide rod.

AND make sure it's got a Commander length recoil spring plug, a Gov't model plug is too long and that would cause your issues, too.

Yep, that’s what really needs to be checked. It is probably something simple like that. Could be from the factory or someone swapping stuff around.

Check for too long a recoil spring as well. A fully compressed spring (coil bind) becomes a steel tube and can cause big trouble. Just assemble without the spring and see what you have.

Commander spring is different than a gov spring. Don’t shoot it until the problem is resolved. Likely a spring or plug.

Thank you for the tips. All good.
I have other commander length that I will compare to.
I will tear down tomorrow and let you know what I find.
My father is a SOG guy from the Vietnam era also that I saw was mentioned above. Those guys know their way around most all weapons and he looked it over a couple times but we did not physically measure any of the components.

Lotta good tips here.

Strip the slide.
Put the stripped slide on the frame, put the slide stop in.
Will it go now?

If not, your notch is probably wrong.

If so, pull it apart, put in barrel and bushing.
Try it on frame.

If it don't work, barrel/bushing is causing an issue.

It it does.

Tear it back apart, try putting the spring assembly in.

Part by part untill it won't work, then you know what caused the issue.

I did just as suggested above and found that either from the factory or exchanged by the previous owner, the recoil spring guide rod was longer than the commander length.
I ordered a new one along with new upgraded spring and complete guide rod kit. Should fix the issue and get it out shooting.
Thank you for the help and “things” I should have thought of on my own; another set of eyes and experience really helps sometimes.

I am glad you figured it out. Always go with the least expensive "fix" first, and sometimes, usually, in fact, that'll clear things up.

I had a feeling it was the guide rod. Glad you have it sorted out. It can happen, especially if cleaning a Commander and a 1911 at the same time.

OK gents.
I replaced the guide rod with a new Wilson Combat 1 piece (long, full length) guide rod in commander length. Still the same issue.
I purchased at the same time a short guide rod (Wilson Combat but same as commander factory length). Gun still has the same issue.
I can put the slide and barrel on and locks back with no issue. I put any of the 3 guide rods in and the slide will not travel to the rear far enough. I will try and post some pictures but this site is not very intuitive for posting pics.
Any help is appreciated.

Is there a recoil guide buffer? When these get old, they get hard and can prevent slide lock. Wolfe Springs, I think specifically says no buffers.

Are you sure you have a commander spring and recoil plug?

Positive on the commander length, I removed the recoil buffer.

How are you determining the recoil spring is Commander length?