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Colt Mark IV Series 70
- Thread starter TBOY
- Start date
Could you describe the malfunction in more detail? Is it a stovepipe or a failure to feed. Its kind of important to know.
Its possible that the person you bought the gun from replaced the recoil spring with one that is heavier than stock. As your pistol gunks up from shooting, and resistance is increased, you may find the slide is not traveling far enough back under recoil to properly strip a round from your magazine. Sometimes this will manifest itself as a stovepipe jam and sometimes as a round that comes halfway out of the magazine and jams on the feed ramp.
The same thing can happen when shooting "light", or target, ammo. If you are reloading, try upping the charge a couple of tenths of a grain until it starts functioning reliably. If you are shooting factory 230gr FMJ and having this problem, then the ammo is not likely the problem but it wouldn't hurt to try a different brand just to see the effect.
Since its a used gun, and you may not know how its been used (or abused), then its a good idea to replace all the springs in the pistol with a complete set of Wolf standard power replacement springs from someplace like Brownell's. If you are at all handy with your hands, a hammer and the proper size punch, this is easy to do yourself (see the tech info on m1911.org for details).
[Edited by proximo on 05-15-2001 at 09:39 PM]
Its possible that the person you bought the gun from replaced the recoil spring with one that is heavier than stock. As your pistol gunks up from shooting, and resistance is increased, you may find the slide is not traveling far enough back under recoil to properly strip a round from your magazine. Sometimes this will manifest itself as a stovepipe jam and sometimes as a round that comes halfway out of the magazine and jams on the feed ramp.
The same thing can happen when shooting "light", or target, ammo. If you are reloading, try upping the charge a couple of tenths of a grain until it starts functioning reliably. If you are shooting factory 230gr FMJ and having this problem, then the ammo is not likely the problem but it wouldn't hurt to try a different brand just to see the effect.
Since its a used gun, and you may not know how its been used (or abused), then its a good idea to replace all the springs in the pistol with a complete set of Wolf standard power replacement springs from someplace like Brownell's. If you are at all handy with your hands, a hammer and the proper size punch, this is easy to do yourself (see the tech info on m1911.org for details).
[Edited by proximo on 05-15-2001 at 09:39 PM]
second on replace the springs, previous owners do dumb things to perfectly good guns. another possibility is mags, if yours is marginally reliable than it may cause problems when the gun gunks up. My 70 works flawlessly with its original factory mag and Wilson 7 or 8 rnd versions. It runs on CMC 10rndrs, but won't slide lock. If you don't have any buy some Wilsons. Last, is there a shock-buff behind the recoil spring? If so lose it and see what happens. They are nice to have if they work w/ your pistol, but these guns did survive 70+ years w/o them . my 0.02
Fully agree on replacing springs. The recoil spring is the most important in your type og malfunction, so replace it first. When you take the gun appart, make sure you check the condition of the leaf spring (behind the grip safety) and main spring (inside the mains pring housing-the arched thing). Sometime gunk accumulates there, and while this is not relevant to FTF, it can cause light primer strikes etc.
While you at ir, check the barel to frame fit, sear-trigger-disconnector arrangement and grip safety function. This is 70 series gun, so the firing pin should be very easy to remove. Change that spring too and clean the firing pin chanel.
There are total of 5 springs in the 1911, not counting the magasine spring. It should take you about 30 minutes to change them all. Very simple. One thing, before you take them out of the frame, make sure you note how sear and disconnector fit together. They are also small funny looking parts, don't loose them.
While you at ir, check the barel to frame fit, sear-trigger-disconnector arrangement and grip safety function. This is 70 series gun, so the firing pin should be very easy to remove. Change that spring too and clean the firing pin chanel.
There are total of 5 springs in the 1911, not counting the magasine spring. It should take you about 30 minutes to change them all. Very simple. One thing, before you take them out of the frame, make sure you note how sear and disconnector fit together. They are also small funny looking parts, don't loose them.