1911 Slide Occasionally Not Going Into Battery

[KinleyWater]

All,

I have a Rock Island (Armscor) 1911 in 10mm which has an issue with the slide sometimes not going all the way into battery while firing. (pistol review here: https://forum.nosler.com/threads/rock-island-armscor-m1911-a1-fs-tac-ii-10mm.43349/) My assumption has been that one or more springs were not of correct weight, but I have limited experience with 1911s and wanted to open it up for any of your learned individuals to point me in a good direction.

I have not had this issue when manually chambering rounds of any type. I have not had this issue when racking the slide on an empty chamber. I have not had this issue when using the slide stop/ release, either chambering rounds or while empty.

I checked to see if I was keeping a stiff enough wrist, and even tried firing single handed, but found no difference in the frequency of the issue. In other words, I was unable to induce the malfunction (consistently cause it to repeat) by altering how I held the pistol while firing.

This has occurred with:
Hornady Custom 155gr XTP
Hornady Custom 180gr XTP
SigSauer Elite Perfromance 180gr V-Crown
Creedmoor Sports 180gr XTP

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[JD338]

My first thought was your grip. Replacing the springs might be the first step.

JD338

 

[truck driver]

More information could help with a more accurate diagnosis.
You say it is short cycling and doesn't pick up the next round all the time or does it jam the nose of the bullet into the bottom of the barrel hood?
If your shooting truncated bullets that could be that the barrel ramp isn't polished and angled right to feed this type of bullet and probably was factory set up for round nose style bullets.
A lighter recoil spring might help but without having the pistol in hand and seeing it operate it's hard to diagnose the problem.

 

[KinleyWater]

Thank you both.

TD - it doesn't have any problems picking up the next round. Everything seems to work fine, but the slide stops short, maybe less than a quarter inch from full battery. It's close enough that I can just shove it with my firing hand thumb and it pops fully into battery, but distant enough that it prevents firing.

The only bullets I've used in it are the XTPs, the V-Crown, and some Armscor manufactured FMJ. I did not see the cycling problem with the FMJ, but I haven't fired any of those since I noticed the problem.

 

[Guy Miner]

Interested. I like the 10mm, and have fired a few, but I've never owned one.

Looking forward to the rest of this story.

Regards, Guy

 

[salmonchaser]

Next time this malfunction occurs examine the bullet for any evidence of burrs or otherwise somehow didn’t feed correctly.
Does this malfunction occur on a fully loaded magazine. I have a Glock that does that.
can you identify a particular magazine associated with the problem

 

[PJGunner]

If you're shooting handloads, try seating your bullets slightly deeper. The only time I've run into that type problem, altering the seating depth very slightly fixed the problem. It won't hurt to try it.
Paul B.

 

[3 Meter Para Bellum]

I have little hands on experience, but I am a gunsmithing student and have been told by my teachers that most of the time feeding issues are caused by ill shaped extractors. As the cartridge rim slides on to the breech face, it runs into the bottom corner of the extractor, and if that corner is sharp, it can hang up on the cartridge rim and slow the movement of the slide enough to cause it not to fully close. If the bottom corner of the extractor looks sharp, or you can feel it hang up when manually shoving a round up on to the breech face and under the extractor, you can take a fine file or sharpening stone and round that corner. Preferably you would give it a little polish with a fine stone as the finishing touch. Remove very little material at a time and test frequently if you attempt this. If that doesn't seem to be the problem, definitely take your time to look at the extractor for any other issues that might be present, burrs, etc.

The next most common cause of jams is poorly finished or incorrectly shaped feed ramps. This doesn't sound like the problem to me, or at least doesn't sound like it could be the only problem, but it may be contributing to slowing the slide down. I will post again later on how to polish the feed ramp, but I don't have time to get into it at the moment.

1911s also need a specific feed ramp jump between the frame ramp and the barrel ramp to cycle most reliably, but this is not easy to fix yourself so I don,t suggest trying to figure that out, but it could be the problem if nothing else fixes it. Bring it to a gunsmith if you want the ramp jump checked.

Definitely take a good look at the extractor before messing with springs. Springs are not as often the problem, although being a 10mm makes this slightly more likely to be an issue. Again I will post on ramps when I get the chance.

 

[3 Meter Para Bellum]

So on ramps, most ramps benefit from being polished. This can be done with a polishing head on a Fordem or other such rotary tool. On the 1911 there are two ramps, the frame ramp and the barrel ramp, both can be polished, but the important thing to keep in mind is that there are two edges that you want to keep sharp and un-rounded. The top edge of the frame ramp should NOT be rounded, and the bottom edge of the barrel ramp should NOT be rounded. However, where the top of the barrel ramp meets the chamber, it is usually good to chamfer and polish that transition, just a little bit. Don't do too much because you don't want to have so much metal taken off that you end up having unsupported cartridge walls that could bulge or blow out. Obviously if you aren't comfortable doing this yourself, don't, and absolutely check what I have told against any other reliable source of info you may have. Again, I am merely a student with limited hands on experience and can claim no expertise on the subject. The extractor is an easy thing to take a look at though and hopefully it is an easy fix that will solve the problem. Hope this helps and keep us posted.

 

[KinleyWater]

Thank you all so much!

I have only used factory loads in this one, so the next time I have it out, I will check the extractor, check the bullet for marks, see what I can do to make the feed ramps shine.

 

[jimbires]

a dirty chamber will cause this .

 

[Ridgerunner665]

I was thinking extractor... and it could be... it could also be a dirty chamber.