Bizarre Kimber 1911 Malfunction During Gunfight

B

Bartholomew Roberts

Moderator
Shooter #1 and shooter #2 face off across a suburban backyard. #1 produces a Hi-point 9mm and fires one round from a half-loaded magazine. Hi-Point has stoppage. In response to seeing #1 slap leather, #2 produces a Kimber 1911 loaded 7+1 and fires 7 rounds as he falls. #2 has malfunction so he drops the existing mag (with one round left) and slams in a fresh mag. The slide won't go forward so he physically forces it home, fires again and has another stoppage. At this point he realizes he stopped #1 somewhere in there and ceases firing.

Post-fight examination, the Kimber is missing the recoil spring and recoil spring plug. The bottom of the barrel bushing is pointing out to the side at 7:30 (from a looking down the muzzle perspective).

Any ideas on what happened?
 
Sounds like either the spring plug failed, or he didnt have the gun together correctly.

Since he got seven rounds off, Im guessing the plug failed, or he wouldnt have gotten that far.

I saw a 1911 do just that at the range once. I think it was a Colt Officers model. Sent the spring and parts downrange.

Did they ever find the spring and plug?
 
This appears to be a chicken/egg deal; did the bushing turn, allowing the spring and plug to get away, or did the bushing turn because the spring and plug had gotten away?

Don't see how the plug and spring could get out unless the bushing had already turned, but how/why did the bushing turn when the spring and plug should be locking the bushing in place?
 
Theories:
1. Holster pushed on plug and bushing turned slightly. Subsequent firing worked the bushing until the spring and plug popped.

2. Plug got hung up on the slide. When the shooter twisted the pistol during the reload, the bushing flopped over and the spring and plug went bye-bye when he pushed on the slide.
 
I have had a similar failure. My bushing was an extremely loose fit in the slide and otherwise "normal" operation and typical 230gr ball ammo sent recoil spring and plug down range during shooting.

I replaced the loosely (poorly) bushing with a new Kart bushing and no issues since, many thousands of rounds later.
 
What I am trying to figure out is was this operator error or manufacturing defect? It sounds like this isn't an unknown occurence. Also sounds like it could be either.
 
Other than perhaps reassembling the gun wrong, I dont know how it would be operator error. I suppose with a typical bushing/plug set up, you could get it wrong.

I carried a 1911 for a good part of my life, and in pretty much any manner you can come up with, and never had an issue with them though.

As Pete said, Murphy is always about, and things like this are his specialty. Just a fluke thing either way, and the stuff you have nightmares about.

And people wonder why some of us carry two guns. :)
 
The answer is: Its a Kimber. I have a couple of Numbers. One from the custom shop. They both took a lot of work to be what I would consider a good 1911. When I was competitive shooting I would estimate that about 70% of the failures I saw were in Kimber pistols. Mostly failure to feed. I saw a Kimber fall apart (same issue you describe) in a shoot one day. Considering it had already fired over 100 rounds, I doubt it was assembled incorrectly. Full disclosure, my Colt has done the same thing.
 
I've seen two-piece spring plugs. I have one in my junkbox; it appears to be a coined end cap pressed into a piece of tubing.

If the end cap came loose - it's not pressed in very deep - it could get sideways and work its way past the "fangs" on the bushing, letting the spring out. And with nothing to prevent the bushing from turning, the tube could get loose too.
 
So far, we still don't know if it was a full-size Kimber with a conventional barrel bushing (recoil spring plug held in by the barrel bushing) or if it was a shorter model with a reverse recoil spring plug, held in place by a flange or a step machined in the slide recoil spring tunnel.
 
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I would guess that the barrel bushing was not properly placed over the plunger tube when assembled and it finished turning during firing, releasing the plug and spring.
 
My custom eclipse II has a 2 piece guide rod that came loose in the 1st 100 or so rounds. I have heard of them coming out of the gun. Is it possible that this happened and the bushing was loose and turned? The cap is open to allow the guide rod to stick through when the slides retracts, but is flanged to hold the bushing. My bushing is very tight, requiring a tool to disassemble. Of course I loctighted the bushing when I got the gun apart for cleaning. I have the parts to do away with the guide rod, just haven't gotten around to it yet.
 
larryh1108 said:
I would guess that the barrel bushing was not properly placed over the plunger tube when assembled and it finished turning during firing, releasing the plug and spring.
Click to expand...

This would be my guess also, however I'm not familiar with all the different Kimber models. On the average 1911 it would be easy to reinstall the plunger tube behind the bushing and be able to fire a couple of rounds before the bushing rotates to the point where the tube could go flying out.
 
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