[themic]

Hi all

been a browser for a while, and finally had a real question... so i finally registered

anyways,

my Colt 1911 commander has started having feed failures. alot of them. shooting winchester whitebox, using mags from colt, kimber, and wilson.

i think this is what's called "stovepiping"... the round points halfway upwards and gets pinned by the slide. a bitch to clear, sometimes.

is this because all my magazines need some work? my spring getting old?

oh, and i know i'm not limp-wristing, i checked.

anyways, if anyone has some suggestions to check out, i'd be glad to hear em.

thanks

-- brendan

[Matthew_Q]

Probably needs to be ramped and throated

[Navy joe]

Given that you've used various mags I'd pass on that as a cause. I assume that it didn't always do this, so at some point the feed ramp was acceptable. I'd first clean the extractor channel to get crud out from behind the extractor and change the recoil spring under the theory that a worn spring may be giving a slide velocity too fast for the rounds to strip right.

Edit to add. Try a different bullet while you're at it too, a roundnose FMJ. Winchester does the truncated cone thing and some guns despise those.

[CWL]

First thing you do is number your mags and keep track if this is only happening in some or all of them. Sometimes one or two bad mags is all you need to take care of, it could even be the feed lips.

Next keep track whether the stovepiping is happening all the time, at teh beginning or the end of each mag-load. If stovepipes are happening towards the end, this is a sure sign of magazine spring fatigue and the need for replacement.

Next check how many rounds you have fired thru your gun without recoil spring change. If it's never, then you're in need of a replacement.

Perhaps you need to examine the extractor/claw and adjust the tension as well.

[yankytrash]

My very first suspicion is the extractor needs tuning/cleaning, as Navy joe and CWL pointed out. Sudden failures with many mags wouldn't be ammo, mags, or feedramp, that's somethin else.

If your extractor offers decent resistance when being pulled out, tuning may not be necessary, but I'd give'r a tweak anyway (pull it half-way out to the bmup in the middle of the extractor, bend the rear of the extractor toward the left side of the gun about 1/4", no more).

Give the claw hook a good scrubdown, and inspect carefully for chips.

Extractors are cheap, I'd replace it regardless, even if suspicion is minimal. That's sayin somethin, 'cause I'm a cheap bastard. :D

[themic]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts

CWL, the answer is never. Good point. Changing my recoil spring.

yankytrash, good to hear from a fellow cheap bastard. i'll work on that extractor, too. Always been a little bit scared of touching the non-field-strippable parts, but time to get over that i guess.

NavyJoe, yeah i don't like the flat noses either. I shoot ball ammo and JHP.

Might be a good excuse to get myself a revolver till i feel this one is reliable again... but that's a different forum :D

[Ebbtide]

been a browser for a while,

Check out this site for all your 1911 needs:

www.1911forum.com

...then come back here!