What is timing in a 1911

Timing is the movement of the action relative to the movement of the bullet or cartridge.

Semis rely heavily on the mag getting the cartridge against the feed lips before the slide hits the case base. Also, the slide has to push the cartridge in a controlled feed. Smacking it from mag to chamber will case a percentage of misfeeds and extractor tension issues. Angles and surfaces must be smooth enough to allow this to happen without burning off all slide energy before lock, but slow enough to maintain the controlled feed sequence. This balance must be within acceptable levels for all rounds in the mag.
 
Timing can also apply to the unlocking part of the cycle. The link has to pull the barrel locking lugs out of engagement with the slide lugs at the right moment.

Jim
 
+1 Nathan

One of the big reasons they have some problems with a few 1911 longslides, most timing lies in the recoil spring and slide wieght , they even have different springs for plus p rounds, you can do every upgrade to a 1911 in the book to make it reliable , but a cheap or mismatched spring makes the gun a paper wieght
 
most timing lies in the recoil spring and slide weight , they even have different springs for plus p rounds, you can do every upgrade

The springs have nothing to do with timing. Timing is commonly confused with time. While different spring rates can affect time, they can't affect timing.

Timing is mechanically fixed, and the timed function will occur at its appointed place in the cycle, regardless of the speed of the cycle.

Time is a function of speed and distance.

If you disable the automatic spark advance in a distributor and set the ignition timing to fire the plug at 10 degrees BTDC, the plug will fire at 10' BTDC whether the engine is idling or at redline.
 
One of the long established top quality barrel makers for 1911's is Scheumann Barrels.It is noteworthy that Kuhnhausen refers to them.

This link will take you to Schuemann's explanation of 1911 timing.

http://schuemann.com/Portals/0/Documentation/Webfile_1911 Timing.pdf

It has to do with the barrel being drwn down out of lockup by the link.This occurs till the underlug of the barrel contacts the frame,then the barrel stops moving to the rear,and it stops moving down.The slide continues to the rear.

It is critical at this point that the locking lugs are fully disengaged.

They must fully disengage during the dynamics of firing.

Almost,but not quite fully unlocking is harmfull to the lugs ,both barrel and slide.

The link gives a more complete explanation,and a description of checking it.
 
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