1911 Choked Today. Couple Things I'd Like to Double Check With You.

[Josh Smith]

Hi Guys,

I took the 1911 out to fire after receiving some new grips -- Hogue with palm swells, if anyone is interested. Much more comfortable than the Pachmayrs I was riding before. Not wraparound either.

Now, it only choked with one type of ammo: My handloads. They are 230 grain cast lead truncated cone over 4.6 grains to 5.2 of Win231 or BE, depending on the powder and day, and what the actual weight of the bullet was. I have several hundred of these in an ammo can that I just threw in there for practice.

The 1911 never used to choke on them. This time around I had several malfs.

I took the frame buffer out and that improved things some. The Wilson mags started choking on the first round only, the manually loaded one.

Frame buffer never did cause problems before, but obviously is now.

Still feeding wasn't where it was.

I've ordered some Tripp upgrade kits for installation in the Wilson mags. They have been loaded for quite a while, only get unloaded to function test when I swap ammo.

The recoil spring is 18.5# with the mainspring being 21#. Less than 500 rounds on either.

I'm thinking that the mag springs are going to prove to be the culprits, that or I need to use a lighter spring with the lighter ammo.

It fed fine with my self-defense ammo I needed to shoot out. No problems whatsoever there; Winchester PDX and both new and old Hydra-Shok went through it fine as did some hardball.

The flat-nosed stuff is for pest animals, though, and I'd rather it feed right from my hybrid military mags (if not from the tapered lip mags I prefer). I'll look at semi-wadcutter molds in case I can't get them to feed right, but I'd really rather just use the truncated cone.

I think I've thought this all through, but any thoughts are more than welcome.

Thanks!

Josh

P.S. All malfs were of the three-point variety, or straight into the frame ramp, not continuing to ride up. Thanks again, J.S.

[AndyC]

It's good that you're aware of the different styles of feed-lips and their effect on feeding in 1911s.

Only thing I can think of right now is to play around some with the seating-depth of those bullets; for example, I had fits trying to get the Lee 200gr SWC (allegedly the H&G #68 clone - pshaw!) to feed in my 1911 - and eventually found that that specific bullet had to be seated really deep before it would feed right.

Never trusted it and eventually traded my Lee 6-cavity for an H&G #68 original 2-cavity (best trade I ever made!), which feeds like a champ.

[35remington]

Joshua, as you typically do, I'll bet this question has been posted on a half dozen forums.

My question:

If the first manually loaded round chokes, how will using a lighter spring with lighter ammo help? I'm presuming it hangs up with a feedramp nosedive, but you did not specify.

I am sure that you also know by now that the position of the round when it misfeeds tells you what caused the problem.

What was the position of the misfeeding round in these instances?

[MGySgt]

How are you loading the first round?

From a slide lock - are you depressing the slide lock lever or pulling the slide back and releasing it?

If you are pulling it back and releasing it - the slide could be slowed down by the way/position of your hand.

Does the fist round load ok, if you have a live round in the chamber and than put a fresh mag in and pull the trigger?

Mor information is required - picks would also help.

[Josh Smith]

Hi Folks,

The Tripp hybrid conversions came today.

http://www.smith-sights.com/resources/tripp.jpg
These are just awesome!

The followers are hybrid and are of high quality.

I only had one bobble with the feeding - the first time I charged manually. I pulled the slide back again and it rode up fine.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b191/WabashShootist/Guns/reloading/5df335a8.jpghttp://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b191/WabashShootist/Guns/reloading/220d13ab.jpg

I wouldn't mind finding a wadcutter profile bullet mold, but I really like this truncated cone style and want it to feed perfectly again.

The recoil spring looks to be in good shape. The reloads may need a bumped powder charge, but the empties are ejecting in a textbook fashion, about 6' to my 4 o'clock.

I'm waiting on a Lee trimmer to get here to check all my cases, but they should all be in spec. I'll play with the handloads after casting new bullets.

Thanks for all the help so far. I'll keep updating the thread as I try new stuff out!

Josh

[Larry Gibson]

I only had one bobble with the feeding - the first time I charged manually. I pulled the slide back again and it rode up fine.

Are you;

loocinng the slide back, inserting mag then hitting the slide release and letting the slide go forward on its own?

Holding onto and riding the slide forward while releasing the slide stop?

Inserting mag, pulling back on the slide and letting it go?

Larry Gibson

[Josh Smith]

Hi Larry,

I've tried all of the above except riding the slide. (I ride the slide only to test how easy something feeds; I usually find it pretty accurate).

The stoppage came from a release from slide lock, but I normally charge by pulling the slide back fully and releasing it.

This method proves more reliable, easier for left-handed me, and keeps the notch in the slide from rounding off.

If I didn't believe in redundancies, the slide lock would be ground flat.

Everything just points to weak mag springs. I've had these mags for two or three years and this is the first time they've shown need to be changed. I had talked extensively to Steve Camp, who was a fan of the Tripp conversions in Wilson #47 bodies, and figured to replace the guts of those mags with the Tripp conversions when the springs showed any weakness.

I think I will leave the buffer out, though. I never saw any problems with it prior to this, but it seems to magnify any problem that does exist, as this demonstrated.

As you can probably tell from the picture, this 1911 sees very heavy use and I demand reliability from it above all else. Even a single stoppage is a major concern with this pistol until/unless I track it to the ammo, as it just doesn't fail. It's boringly reliable.

Regards,

Josh

[nicholst55]

If you decide to look at another bullet, I always had excellent luck with the Lyman 452460 in many, many different 1911s - even unmodified USGI M1911s. As far as the Lee case trimmer, I have never trimmed .45ACP brass, as most cases (99.99%) are shorter than the trim-to length anyway.

[CJR]

Josh,

A couple of comments:
1. Cobra mags position the rounds about 0.080 " higher than standard mags and give the round a straighter path to the chamber.
2. Cobra upgrade kits, used in Wilson mags, only give you a different follower and a stronger spring.
3. More recent Wilson mags copy Tripp's Cobra mags and position the round a little higher. Simple check is to take your EMPTY mags, put one DUMMY round in the mag, lock the slide back, insert the mag and see where the rim of the top DUMMY round is relative to the slide's recoil surface. Wilson mag lips can be carefully rebent to position top round like Cobras do.
4. Truncated CB need to be seated deeper for proper functioning. Unfortunately that will raise pressures and speed up slide cycling/malfunctions. Powder charges need to be dropped slightly to get pressures back where they need to be. Also, check to see if the TC CB is being forced deeper into the case, as the slide goes to battery, and raising pressures. If so, case fit needs to be tighter on TC CB.
5. Ditch the recoil spring buffer. You don't want it disintegrating and jamming the piece when you need it most.

Tip: 1911 slides are racked back to load the rounds or clear jams like you want to throw that slide in the parking lot behind you. That's standard 1911 combat technique.

Hope this helps.

Best regards,
CJR