Whats the most common malfunction in your 1911?
- Thread starter NMGlocker
- Start date
Southern Raider
New member
Bad staking job at the factory allowing the plunger tubes to come loose.
denfoote...
How do you figure the G36 is a Commander sized pistol? If it could be compared to any 1911 based gun, it might be similar in size and capacity to an Officer's Model or a Defender/Ultra Compact size. Not hardly a Commander. But what can you expect when a Combat Tupperware aficionado butts in on a discussion about 1911s.
How do you figure the G36 is a Commander sized pistol? If it could be compared to any 1911 based gun, it might be similar in size and capacity to an Officer's Model or a Defender/Ultra Compact size. Not hardly a Commander. But what can you expect when a Combat Tupperware aficionado butts in on a discussion about 1911s.
Please share with the class.deputy tom
New member
The only problem I've ever had is FTF certain hollow points.tom.
The only malfunctions I have had from the 1911s I own right now were two consecutive rounds of Wolf 45 that swelled in the chamber of my Colt Government Model and forced me to disassemble the pistol to extract them.
Since this was without a single doubt an ammo problem, I would say the most common malfunction in my 1911 is...none.
Since this was without a single doubt an ammo problem, I would say the most common malfunction in my 1911 is...none.
I need to start buying 1911's and mags from wherever Jim Keenan does.
I do. They're called genuine USGI. I've also shot many pre-70 commercials and hardly ever had a malfunction of any sort with those. Trust me, there is a world of difference between the way they used to make 1911s and the way they do now.
Every firearm I have ever fired from 4.2" mortars, 40 mm anti aircraft guns on down to pellet guns have malfunctioned on occasion. If you shoot one enough, get it dirty enough, get enough wear on it; it will malfunction. It may be ammo related, it may be magazine related, it may be worn out or broken parts, or it may just be so dirty that it can't function reliably anymore. In these discussions about handgun reliablity, what we are really interested in is whether the basic design of the gun is sound. That the malfuctions are not inherent in their design. The deisgner of the weapon has no control over whether you clean it, lubricate it, or shoot good ammo through it. That much is up to you. What matters is, if you do you part, will the gun do it's part ?
I have owned a number of 1911 handguns. I currently own three, a Colt Series 80, a Springfield Armory "loaded", and a Colt Officers Model enhanced. In the past I have owned Colt Series 70s, Colt National Match, GI Colts, AMT Hardballer, and a Auto Ordanance. I can honestly say that I never had a problem with the gun unless I didn't clean it, I didn't lubricate it, or a part broke. At one time I shot IPSC with a Colt Series 70. I was shooting in the neighborhood of 1500 rounds per week in practice and in matches. During that time I had extractors and ejectors go bad, once they were replaced and adjusted I was good to go for a large number of rounds. I had a few magazines go bad on me, I threw them away and the gun worked fine from there on out. During one of the extractor outages, I had a match to shoot on a Saturday. I stopped on the way to the match and bought a Colt Series 80. I removed it from the case, loaded it and shot a match with it. No cleaning, never even had it home. It functioned fine. I still have that gun and it works great. I was out with a guy one day sighting in his .454 Redhawk. I was taking a break from the severe recoil of that cannon and decided to see how my 1911 (the series 80 mentioned above) shot off sandbags. I had never tried the gun off the bench before and was amazed when I shot an 8 round group at 25 yards that could be covered with a quarter. This gun has had countless thousands of round through it and it is still running like a top. Every 1911 I ever owned was bone stock. No mods or aftermarket accessories of any kind; I even have the original grips on them. I am not going to make any claims for the 1911 being the most reliable gun ever made but I believe I have fired mine many, many thousands of rounds more than the average armchair commando and am totally satisfied with it's design. I certainly trust my life to any one that I have ever owned. What about parts breakage ? I mentioned several times that I have had broken extractors and ejectors. I personally don't believe this is a bad design. When you subject any gun to the pounding I was giving those two Colts, you are going to have to replace parts at some point. This is the same as our car tires. They are good for a certain number of miles. If we put the miles on all in one year and have to replace them, that doesn't make them bad tires. Since I stopped shooting IPSC on a regular basis, I have never had to replace another part on a 1911.
Edited: I have to take that back about the mods. I do have allen head grip screws in all of them.
I have owned a number of 1911 handguns. I currently own three, a Colt Series 80, a Springfield Armory "loaded", and a Colt Officers Model enhanced. In the past I have owned Colt Series 70s, Colt National Match, GI Colts, AMT Hardballer, and a Auto Ordanance. I can honestly say that I never had a problem with the gun unless I didn't clean it, I didn't lubricate it, or a part broke. At one time I shot IPSC with a Colt Series 70. I was shooting in the neighborhood of 1500 rounds per week in practice and in matches. During that time I had extractors and ejectors go bad, once they were replaced and adjusted I was good to go for a large number of rounds. I had a few magazines go bad on me, I threw them away and the gun worked fine from there on out. During one of the extractor outages, I had a match to shoot on a Saturday. I stopped on the way to the match and bought a Colt Series 80. I removed it from the case, loaded it and shot a match with it. No cleaning, never even had it home. It functioned fine. I still have that gun and it works great. I was out with a guy one day sighting in his .454 Redhawk. I was taking a break from the severe recoil of that cannon and decided to see how my 1911 (the series 80 mentioned above) shot off sandbags. I had never tried the gun off the bench before and was amazed when I shot an 8 round group at 25 yards that could be covered with a quarter. This gun has had countless thousands of round through it and it is still running like a top. Every 1911 I ever owned was bone stock. No mods or aftermarket accessories of any kind; I even have the original grips on them. I am not going to make any claims for the 1911 being the most reliable gun ever made but I believe I have fired mine many, many thousands of rounds more than the average armchair commando and am totally satisfied with it's design. I certainly trust my life to any one that I have ever owned. What about parts breakage ? I mentioned several times that I have had broken extractors and ejectors. I personally don't believe this is a bad design. When you subject any gun to the pounding I was giving those two Colts, you are going to have to replace parts at some point. This is the same as our car tires. They are good for a certain number of miles. If we put the miles on all in one year and have to replace them, that doesn't make them bad tires. Since I stopped shooting IPSC on a regular basis, I have never had to replace another part on a 1911.
Edited: I have to take that back about the mods. I do have allen head grip screws in all of them.
I have never had a failure to extract (does anyone ever?). I have also never had a failure to feed that wasn't due to a failure to eject that left an empty in the chamber, preventing the new round from feeding. It's always been a failure to eject.
I've also never had a round fail to fire.
That's with 1911s. I've had other pistols that had failures to feed and failures to fire.
I've also never had a round fail to fire.
That's with 1911s. I've had other pistols that had failures to feed and failures to fire.
Southern Raider
New member
The plunger tube is mounted to the frame by two small hollow pins. (Look on the inside of the mag well opposite the plunger tube.) These are attached to the frame by "staking". A tool flares out the hollow pins and causes them to grip the frame. I've had 3 factory Colts over the years and two of them have come loose.
This can be a very nasty failure in that if the tube becomes loose enough, the safety plunger can come out further than normal and lock the gun on safe. (Really bad when you need it!)
Peter M. Eick
New member
You missed the most important malfunction....
Running out of ammo, that seems to stop my Baer's the most.
Running out of ammo, that seems to stop my Baer's the most.
The only malfunctions I've had were due to using bad magazines, bad ammo (usually short SWC will cause problem for me), or a piece broke. If one uses good magazines (Wilson Combat, or Chip McCormick Power Mags) and good ammo, and usually replace the extractor with a good tuned one, then failure seems very rare. Most of my 1911s are on the tight side, so they'd probably start to choke if I ran them through the mud and didn't clean and lube them like they want. In that case, I'd get an older and looser Colt.
Occasionally it doesn't want to go into battery on the first round without a little help. With the original mags there were some mag related failures (wouldn't lock open the slide on the last round) but replacing the mags fixed that. Occasionally, it will fail to eject, it is somewhat ammo sensitive and usually switching to another brand of ammo fixes that. Great gun but a little more finicky on ammo than other designs (cheap mags can happen with any gun design).
Country Boy
New member
No problems.