Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns What are the 1911's weakness?

other than the new ones various special groups are using and National Match guns any 1911 used in the pre-Berretta days in the military was made in 1945 or before which is also why some of the Vietnam era guys say they were a horrible pistol....the guns they were using had already gone through atleast two wars(WWII and Korea) before they got their hands on them....they were not the new production guns WWI and WWII soldiers got....im sure some soldiers got their hands on lil shot guns but im guessing more than a few got ones at the end of their service life....

So - how about showing us the ponies (the logos) like I asked - and while you're at it, the followers that were there to begin with.

MM - you ever seen a genuine Colt mag of recent production with no pony?

Funny that so many people have magazine problems... I've owned six .45s and at least 20 .38 Supers and 9mms and have never had a magazine problem except for magazines that had the extra round built in by modifying the follower and not extending the base pad.

Colt OEM magazines are made by MetalForm and I believe Checkmate. The MetalForm made magazines can be identified by a M in the upper right corner of the baseplate. If it has a S in the lower right corner it is stainless. I've never had a Metalform or OEM Colt marked magazine cause feeding problems. I've also got at lest a dozen old military contract magazines that have caused no issues...

A lot of feeding issues can be traced to improperly tuned extractors that don't have the correct bevel to allow the case rim to slide smoothly under the extractor when the slide starts forward...

Bob

Twr's problem ain't the magazines.

Free, I sent the gun and mags with my buddy so he could fit the followers. I'll get you a pic when I get it back. Read what I said again the unknown mag only says Colt 45, I'm not calling it a Colt, I'm calling it unknown.

Rjm, funny that I shoot with a few guys that are 1911 shooters and they all have their favorite mags and all have had problems. In fact one of them shot this pistol and had the same problem I had with the last round popping up. The extractor has been looked at and seems to be fine by all.

Jwp care to elaborate?

none. Everything else is blasphemy...

No, but I do understand that there are some counterfeit mags around with a pony.......don't know how accurate that is & I don't use any new Colt mags either as they are just as expensive & Tripp & Wilson & I prefer those.



Tend to agree......as I said earlier, lot of potential issues & interactions of those elements, magazines are only one. But he did report some mags with the last round popping out.



Very true, also. But one needs to know what to look for as well as setting extractor tension correctly. The extractor impacts more than just extraction. Most don't recognize extractor issues for what they are. An Important part to inspect before taking a new gun to the range to shoot it's initial 5,000 non-stop rounds.

MM

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Had my buddy send me the pic, the 4 SS Colt mags.

Have you tried standard 7-round magazines? Every failure I have encounter that was magazine related have been with 8-round mags that don't have the extended baseplate.

When you load those mags and get the 8th round in, how much compression is left....probably little to none. Find a standard 7-round mag and put seven in and see how much compression is left...if it isn't the same then the top round on the 8s is causing a lot of downward pressure on the magazine release and a lot of drag on the underside of the slide.

If you want an 8-round mag go get one with the extended plastic baseplate that will properly load 8 into the magazine.

Those mags I believe are from CheckMate. The only Checkmate I have are two 10-rounders in Super and are about to thrown in the trash...

Bob

Currently.
Magazines bought from Colt are $21.95.

Magazines bought from Colt are not counterfeit.

Magazines bought from Colt are made by Checkmate.

You will be better off with the 7 round magazines.


Buy yourself a Colt T-shirt while your shopping.

The Colt followers
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Seen a couple counterfeits. They had the pony, but the logo didn't look quite like the real thing.

Those and the mags they come in are notorious for causing one of the problems you have described. The cure is not to fit another follower - it's to switch to either a Colt-spec 7-round mag or to the longer 8-round mag as has already been stated.

But you may also have other issues, so don't throw the baby out if that doesn't make it run perfectly. Using a magazine well-known to not cause problems should direct your attention elsewhere. Thing is, you can put a current Colt 7-rounder in a not-so-perfect gun and it may make it run right - or it may not, but it won't be the fault of the magazine.

Just an aside - I have a bunch of Checkmate 7-rounders (current Colt-spec) that I bought bulk at discount and one Colt 7-round made by Okay Industries. Those and the 7-round mag that came with my SR1911 are identical near as I can tell, right down to the follower - and all run perfectly in the SR1911 and in the Rock Island that my son now has. The Ruger 8-rounder with extended baseplate and follower to match, with very similar "hybrid" lips, also runs perfectly.

The Act-Mag eight-rounders (extended base, wadcutter lips, smooth follower) that came with that Rock Island and a few others bought separately would occasionally bobble that last round in the RI - but run perfectly in the Ruger.

Food for thought.

RJM, my buddy had the same comments when I told him I bought 8 rd Colt mags. The Pachmyer follower in there makes em a 7 rounder and they load easier but they maybe junk anyway. These are the only 8 rd mags I've tried, the rest are 7 rounders.

It's good to hear that the problems I'm having that no one ever heard of are all of a sudden being verified.

As I said I know nothing about the 1911 platform but I'm learning, or at least trying to.

I'm not a fan of those Pachmeyer followers either. I don't know for sure, but I suspect that you could make those Colt mags work with the standard G.I. followers and springs. But for now, I would suggest getting at least one current Colt Government size 7-rounder as a base-line.

I did see one colt from the bad days of the mid-80's that had the ramp in the frame cut too deep, so the edge of the barrel ramp was actually hanging out in space creating a step the bullet nose had to negotiate. It would still run feed certain loads reliably, though - even some hollowpoints.

I'd suggest buying a copy of Jerry Kuhnhausen's book on tuning the 1911. It very neatly covers basic troubleshooting and customization - including the extractor fitting, which really is critical.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Colt-45..._DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35e7103973

That is a good book. Kind of like a cook book for some.

I have run into that problem with Caspian frames from time to time, so it's not just Taurus that's making that cut to that spec. Anyhow, makes for a lot of filing on the safety to make it work, but if you know what you're doing it can be made to work just fine.

But of course
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