Forget the Shok Buff in a fighting gun.

I'd say forget Shok-Buffs completely. They're nothing but trouble in 1911s.

I fell prey to this hype with my first Gold Cup. Inside 200 rounds, I swore never to have one of these abominations pollute the inside of another gun I own EVER. They're that bad.

Same thing for full length guide rods in 1911s. A pox on them.
 
Ditto ...

Lots of Colts with & without shock buffs. Buffer materials have come apart, sheared and split, or worked fine. Sometimes the damaged ones lost bits of material which went places I wished it hadn't ... and yes, large chunks can become caught between the coils of the recoil spring as it's compressing under recoil. Annoying on the range, especially while qualifying ...

The rearward slide travel is stopped earlier than intended. Just retract the slide to the rear with & without one in place, while looking down into the ejection port. You can see the difference. Sometimes this has caused erratic ejection issues, which makes sense if less of the ejector is protruding from the breech face because the slide isn't as far to the rear.

I haven't used them in carry weapons for several years, and won't.
 
Perhaps they've modified their pistols to allow for the installation of the buff, while still allowing the full range of motion for rearward slide travel? Relieving the surface at the rear of the plug housing under the front of slide...?

Just a (late-night, semi-druken) guess. Never used the buffs, and probably never will. I don't see the point of babying a combat tool. YM, naturally, MV.
 
Yes, with the careful attention of an armorer most pistols can be modified, even including the use of a buffer insert, and still maintain their reliability ...

A properly sized ejection port, an extended ejector with the forward edges radiused, beveled & "tuned" as necessary to aid in controling the ejection (including modifying the "timing" of the ejection), as well as the extractor being properly adjusted for tension & the hook beveled, polished and "tuned" ...

And then, if the maintenance of the pistols includes a careful inspection of the condition of the synthetic buffer material ... especially after each and every shooting exercise ...replacing them when they start to show wear, like cracks, deepening indentations, chips missing, etc..

These steps can enhance the basic reliability of the pistol, while still allowing the shooter the advantages to be gained from buffer use.

I considered my Combat Commander to be well broken in once it had reached 20,000 rounds of service life. Hammer & sear were replaced once, and springs as required by wear. I started to pay more attention to the ejection/extraction pattern of the pistol, and changed the recoil springs whenever the pattern changed more than a little.
 
I use buffers in my para and coonan , but after I practice when I clean the gun I check them before reassembling it , most of the time its just easier to replace it after practicing because they are so battered after 1k worth of rounds. I look at them like cheap insurance especially since you can't get a new slide for a coonan .
 
I have used shock buffs for many years with no problems. I do change them when I change the recoil spring, about every 1000 rounds.
 
Question for George and Correria

Does the shock-buff shorten the travel on the slide to your 1911?

I noticed Correia said the slide hesitated on the last 1/2" of travel. My springfield will do that if I walk the slide forward until it makes contact with the disconnector. Then, if I hold my mouth just right and wiggle my left ear, it will stay there (it's done this once when I deliberatly tried to get it to). If I cycle it normally or snap it off the release it doesn't even appear to slow down. It doesn't do this in firing (at least not that I've noticed) but if you have a shock-buffer in the gun and it shortens the stroke, it is possible that when the slide went all the way back it wasn't far enough from the disconnector to build enough momentum to overcome it. If you also had a light charge in the round then this could compound the problem.

I don't know what would prove but it could be why the gun hesitated. It might be an early sign of a slight problem (or an opportunity to slicken your gun's action up some more). I plan to get my gun looked at as soon as I can find a good gunsmith, or when I send it to Springfield to have the inserts put in my Novak sites, but until then I'm not going to worry about it. I trust my life to a GP100 anyway, and my concealment piece (once my permit gets here) will most likely be a small .357 revolver).

As far as shock-buffers are concerned, I don't have one and don't really want one. I figure the recoil spring guide will go before the slide or frame do. My father's USGI Colt has one and it doesn't appear to hurt anything, though that gun has a number of issues anyway, namely it has a habit of FTRTB - I think his Mag release is gone. I'm going to a gun show this weekend and plan to get him another one there if I can find a USGI one (he likes the gun as USGI as he can get it except for the Millet sights)

Okay, I've rambled on long enough,
 
Sixgunner, that is a possibility. I noticed that the disconnect on his 1911 was a bit firmer than on mine. It is a possibility that the buffer was slowing it down just enough that it would hesitate at that point.
 
I think Sixgunner diagnosed the issue.
I had the same thing that he has with his Springfield. That "spot" in the last 1/2 of travel.
Yeah, it's due to the disconnector. I had been tempted to take out the Dremmel and shave that puppy off. It only disconnects when it is depressed, so if it was shaved down to the point that it no longer contacts the slide, it wont disconnect, and it wont hold up the slide. On the 1911 I am pretty much of the opinion that it is not needed.
Hence the extra value on the older series 70 guns... before that feature was put into the series 80. The Springfields are using that series 80 pattern. If I have a decent understanding of this stuff - I may be wrong. Regardless of my possible incorrectness, The next 1911 I get will be an older Colt that has some work done to it. The smoothest action I have ever felt on any autopistol was on a Colt series 70.

That Kings recoil buffer looks interesting - there is no rubber to act like a break. That has possibility. Maybe someday I'll try it.
 
Wondering...

I think your gun will start dropping to half cock or go full auto if you disable the disconnector as the trigger will hold the sear back all the time it is pressed.
 
BigG got it right.

The disconnector is in contact with the slide at all times (depending on tolerences, it might not touch when the slide is fully in battery, and the disconnector is in the "cutout" or well in the slide). Trimming down the disconnector so that it doesn't contact the slide will result in a gun that doesn't disconnect - and has hammer follow with a possibility of firing multiple shots with a single pull of the trigger. Bad thing to do.

Sorry George, but on a 1911, it absolutely IS needed.

Series 70 guns have it too. So do the commercial Colts. Other than the firing pin safety, what is it that series 80 guns have that the others don't?
 
Series 80

I think the FP safety is about it other than the enhanced features like undercut trigger guard, spatulate grip safety tang, Swenson type hammer, etc, of the Enhanced pistols.

There were transition models that retained the Series 70 collet bushing into the Series 80 guns, also. Most Series 80s have a regular GI type bushing.

Some or many of the Series 80 have the beefed up slide rails like the National Match pistols rather than the skinny GI/older Colt commercial slide rails.
 
Unsafe condition

Do not grind off the disconnector.

My father's pre-series 70 (made in the 1950's) has that same spot. His won't hang up on it, but then again it's about 50 years old and has about a 20 lb recoil spring in it! It isn't necessarily a problem in itself, although it seems like it would be. See my post on the 1911forum.com in the gunsmithing thread (user name: Wheel Gun). Read the response from R_Scott. It is very good advice I think.

Grinding off the disconnector is one of the things done to turn a 1911 full auto (I think). Use a good quality lube on the disconnector and, if the gun is new, give it a chance to break in good. Also check for even wear on the bevel at the bottom of the breach face. Also make sure the disconnector fits the hole well.

You might want to take the gun to a good gunsmith and have him check it out - perhaps you have a spring problem or something (if you have a problem at all). Or send it back to the factory. In any case, if the gun is reliable without the shock-buff, leave out the shock-buff and let it go at that. Also remember that when the gun cycles your finger will most likely still be on the trigger from the previous shot, so that makes a difference. Let me put it this way. On mine, you set the slide so it is hung up on the disconnector. You then squeeze the trigger. CLACK! Gun closed!

I hear a lot about "tool steel" disconnectors and how great they are. It seems to me that if the disconnector is harder than the frame (which is probably not tool steel), then it will wear away the frame material. For long-term longevity of the pistol I'd rather the disconnector wear out (cheap part vs. expensive part). Am I missing something?
 
There is a min/max tolerance for disconnectors and occasionally a "long" disconnector gets out there in a factory pistol. That combined with a shallow cutout or slightly low disconnector track on the slide will cause something like you are describing. Kuhnhausen's 45 book is invaluable for understanding the 45 Auto.

There is something definitely rotten in Denmark as the disconnector in most Colts is only a nub when it is fully extended. Like a mini pimple certainly not enough to hold back a slide under spring tension. It may be that the rear edge could be STONED just to break any hard angle. :confused:
 
Hmmm. It is interesting. But that little pimple can almost - almost hold back the slide. Maybe polishing the whole raceway that the nubbin slides accross will help. Not sure. Maybe that isn't the issue at all. Maybe it's the guide rod.
Perhaps the guide rod is interacting with something differently than normal.
 
George, take out the guide rod first. Don't look for something difficult before you check the easy stuff.

JMB didn't put one in so I assume it don't need it. HTH
 
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