1911 premature slide lock: replacement slidestop?

C

Chuck Dye

New member
The Springfield Armory parkerized 1911-A1 is locking prematurely when loaded with 230 grain ball, two to three times in fifty rounds. The top round on lockup has a nice bright scar from the slide stop and the stop itself has a fine telltale of copper even though the problem cannot be duplicated with the gun unsprung and hand cycled (with firing pin removed.) The answer is obviously to trim the slide stop. Given my history with such things (cut that 2x4 three times and it is still too short!) I want a replacement available before I start. Any suggestions on choosing a replacement that will not also need trimming would be welcome.
 
Yup...

Ed Brown Hardcore or Wilson Bulletproof come to mind.
Click to expand...

...what he said...or I might add the EGW to that list as well...That's 3 flavors...
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Is your grip shooting position such that you have your lefty thumb is along side the frame?

If so, my guess is that it might not be the fault of the slide stop, at least not directly. I am guessing that you may be bumping the slide stop during the recoil and cycling. The slide stop is supposed to be pushed up via the mag follower after the last round is chambered. What I think is happing is that the premature lockup forces the stop slightly into the path of the feeding cartridge, scratching the case. The slide stop should not contact loading rounds as it should remain below the top of the follower, hence below the cartridges.
 
Well, if you've already decided that spending the money on a new slidestop is not out of the question, then ruining this part wouldn't be either. It actually just sounds like the slidestop could be just slightly out of spec. Use a fine file or better yet a small stone and remove a slight bit of metal from the area the that the skid marks are showing up at. I normally polish this entire area, along with removing the tooling/machine marks from that area and the back of the slide stop. Don't change the angles, they are important. They are designed to miss the bullet tip but hit the mag follower.

If you end up getting a replacement, you'll find the McCormick slidestops have the serrations on top like I believe the Springfields do, and are an excellent replacement, or if you like the checkering, contact Gil Hebert and get one of his. I've found both of them to have a good .200 shaft and are finished fairly nice.
 
Oh, another thing you may want to consider is to 'dimple' the end of the stop where it rests on the plunger. Brownell's sells a fancy tool for that, but the tip of any smal drill bit will do it just fine. You should be able to see where it rests.
 
The most common cause of premature lockback is the inside of the slide stop hitting the nose of the next round in the mag. If you're reloading, sometimes making the OAL just a few thousandths shorter will fix it. Otherwise, grinding a very amall amount off the inside of the slide stop usually works. If you've already noticed shiny spots from contact, that's the place to start.

Go slow anytime you're removing metal and you shouldn't get in over your head.
 
start with what you have,follow the last two or three posts,getting a new one will require fitting, if you don't know where to start,match the old one as best as possible.but it is better to work with what is there.
 
Thanks, folks, the problem has been (largely) solved.

I originally posted my question here, at 1911Forum, and The High Road. The High Road thread proved most helpful. The end result is that I have removed the nylon shock buffer and have a reliable (thus far) pistol.
 
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