[MSgt B]

The cold kept the half-steppers off the range today, it was nice having the place pretty much to ourselves.
There were a few guys there I knew from another squadron, and we shared weapons up and down the firing line for about 4 hours. Had to be my best overall day at the range as far as just relaxing and having a good time with good friends.
Let me get to the point. This is the second day breaking in my new RIA 1911. Yesterday I put about 60 rounds down range and I gave it a good cleaning last night. Today I went through 200 rounds. All of it has been just cheap 230gr jacketed target ammo from WW. It was a rare occasion when I could get through a magazine without having to "tap" once or twice to get the slide seated. The only other 1911 I've fired was my dad's, which was nice and aged and ran smooth as glass, so I'm chalking it up to just a bit tougher break-in than I'm used to.

I'm putting this out there to get some advice on a couple points in particular.
1) Is it the ammo? Would something with more punch help?
2) I noticed while cleaning it this evening that as the slide comes forward it seems to hang up just a little bit on the hammer. If I slide a finger up there and hold the hammer back full, I can tell the difference. Is this the usual?
3) What about the spring, should I invest in something heavier?

I want this to be my new primary carry weapon, but until I can have complete confidence, I'm stuck with the 9mm. Help me!

P.S. - My wife put her second 100 rounds through the 9mm today. She still can't hit dammit, but now she's missing consistently. I believe there is hope.

[1911Tuner]

Howdy MSgt and welcome aboard.

Half-steppers....:D I like that. Thought I was the only one who shot with numb fingers.

The failures to go to/return to battery problem is likely due to a little too much extractor tension, but there could be a couple other simple issues at work too.

From whence in The Old Dominion do you hail? I've got kinfolks in Wise and Pulaski counties...

[MSgt B]

I'm stationed at Langley AFB down on the peninsula.

I'm originaly from NoVa, but I've spent most of the last 15 yrs overseas.

Is the extractor tension something that will smooth out over time? Or should I have it tinkered with?

[1911Tuner]

It might...if that's all there is to the problem...and it would take a long time to reduce the tension through normal use.

Reducing the tension isn't hard to do. Remove the extractor and straighten a little of the bend in it. Easy does it. A little goes a long way. Too much and you'll get failures to extract.


Kinda rushed right this minute, but if you don't now how to remove the extractor, sing out. I'll check back later to walk ya through...unless somebody beats me to it. The firing pin is under spring pressure and will launch it with enough force to punch through your eye, in case you figure it out. I suggest pointing it at a pillow to keep from losing it...About a foot away should do.

[tegemu]

260 rounds is really not too much for a break in. My experience is that some of my 1911's didn't run right 'til 800+ rounds. One of mine is at 1100, have had great improvement in the last 200 or so. there is a persistant problem that I have held off doing anything about until I was sure it was WELL broken in. Now I am going to see my trusty Smith. My point - I wouldn't start messing with tweaking and tuning untill I had at least 500 rounds and preferably 800. Magazine shuffling and ammo variance perhaps but nothing mechanical.

[1911Tuner]

260 rounds is really not too much for a break in. My experience is that some of my 1911's didn't run right 'til 800+ rounds.

Sad. It didn't used to be that way though...Been my experience that if a 1911 needs a thousand rounds to get it to run, it ain't right to start with...

[AirForceShooter]

keep using the WW box it's fine.
Give it a little time.
Send a few hundred rmore rounds down range.
It's new.
Don't start adjusting anything until you have At Least 5 or 600 rounds through it. It might just be a little hang up in the rails.

Shoot it like you're trying to break it!!!

AFS

[1911Tuner]

:D

[MSgt B]

:what:

Well, if I have to, then I have to.

I'll just have to go back to the range this weekend and run another 400 rounds into the berm.

Come to think of it, I'd better take along the AK-47, the Winchester 1300, and the Sig Pro 9mm, just to make sure they're not having any feed problems too.

It tough being a gun owner.:D

[tegemu]

Please let us know how it does after the additional 400 rds.

1911tuner - I felt exactly the same as you, When I realized the reality of the modern guns being so finicky, I fumed, grumbled and sulked. It took me a while before I accepted the situation. I am a retired Aerospace Eng. Tech and my background with aircraft had me foolishly believing that something mechanical should run right first time, every time. If aircraft parts and components needed "Breaking In," as todays guns do, the earth would be peppered with crashed aircraft. I see no reason that, if they wanted to, gun manufacturers couldn't deliver a consistantly "Ready to use" product. After reading these forums, it is obvious that the problem is endemic throughout the gun world, no maker is exempt.

[1911Tuner]

tegemu...Bingo!

I always thought of the break-in process as a way of seating and wearing in of bearing surfaces...and that's the way it once was. Now, it seems that
the new gun owner often must not only drop the bucks for a new gun, he has to turn around and lay down another couple hundred for enough ammo to get it to run...and the manufacturers pretend that's the way it should be!

Unbelieveable...

Anyway...MSgt's problem is very likely an over-tensioned extractor...
and another 2 or 3 hundred rounds ain't likely to cure it. We'll see, by and by.

[ravencon]

Ah, the heartbreak of the 1911. No matter how much I love 'em, I can never entirely trust 'em.

[gazpacho]

Let me guess, you shoot, the empty ejects clean, the next round loads, but the slide stops less than a 1/4" from going into battery, right? My RIA 1911 did that though the first 500 rounds or so, about every other magazine. Then I replaced the Recoil Spring with a stock weight (I think 16#?) Wolff spring, and it has run like a glock--oops, I mean clock--ever since.

[1911Tuner]

Ah, the heartbreak of the 1911. No matter how much I love 'em, I can never entirely trust 'em.

Nor can you entirely trust any weapon that your life depends on. Like the wise ol' Master Gunny told us time and again.:

"EXPECT your weapon to malfunction."

That said...Out of five range beaters...four Colts and a Norinco...here's the approximate round count to malfunction per each as per my records:
Early 1991A1...15 years/130,000+ rounds/Zero
Early 1991A1....15 years/130,000+ rounds/6
Mid-production 1991A1...9 years/15,000 rounds/2
NRM....5 years/30,000/4 (After replacing the MIM extractor)
Norinco...unknown production date/35,000+ rounds/5

Most malfunctions were failure to lock on empty or (likely) ammo related. 95% of the ammo is much-reloaded brass w/home cast 225-230 grain RN and 200-grain H&G #68 SWC. The early 1991 Colts are each on their third barrels with one complete rebuild at app.75,000 rounds, including rail swaging/slide refitting. neither has needed so much as extractor adjustment since initial
tensioning. I intend to replace the extractors in both this week. No problems...they're just a bit long in the tooth and showing signs of old age.

[Old Fuff]

Ah, the heartbreak of the 1911. No matter how much I love 'em, I can never entirely trust 'em.

I haven't had any problem trusting my older 1911 platform pistols because they haven't let me down. This you understand is over a half century of experience, and some of the pistols were older then I am, while others were wartime (both World Wars) production.

The problem today is that all of the current manufacturers assemble guns using parts purchased from various sub-contractors. In addition neither they, and/or the sub-contractors know what a quality control department is in many cases. Last but not least, today's buyers want a tight gun with a match-grade barrel (read that to mean a smaller chamber) and they get what they want. However "tight" doesn't mean "reliable" unless the parts are carefully fitted, not just assembled. Throw in some out-of-spec magazines and you'll have trouble.

I suspect that if MSgt B made up some of Tuner's famous slurry and used it, along with some attention directed toward the extractor tension, his pistol might start working without having to burn up hundreds of rounds of ammunition - not that this is a hardship... :D But it shouldn't be necessary.

Breaking in is something we never used to have too do because guns worked as they came out of the box. There is no reason that couldn't be the way now. The reason it isn't, is because today's buyers don't demand it.

[Tropical Z]

WWB is too weak to properly break in a new gun.I use Wolf with great success.