My 1911-380 issues, troubleshooting, progress

I can barely read your post. It's dark grey on black. I just want to see what my response looks like.

I've been intrigued by the 1911-380, which looks to be a great idea... if it works. So I'll keenly follow this post, and learn from your misfortunes and the way they are resolved. Please keep us posted.

BTW, I went to read the rules on the browning owners forum, and can't see where you sinned if you just posted this same thing, verbatim... Heavy handed moderation, by an overzealous mall cop, or biased forum?

Usually ejection of a live round is too weak a magazine spring for the recoil impulse, the round where it happens depends on where the spring upward force minus the weight of the bullet stack and friction are minimum. If the new mags you get don't fix it, see if Wolfe has "extra power" magazine and/or recoil springs for it.

Is this .380 pistol blow-back or tiling barrel?

Have you let other shooters try it? My friend had a Glock 42, it seemed to work for me, but stove-piped for most everyone else who was less experienced. All auto loaders require a certain level of grip strength so you effectively add mass to the gun with your grip to reduce the recoil energy that bounces things around.

My friend has one, she is of very small stature and it seemed to function perfectly for her, so I think there is hope for you.

I rarely find gun specific forums useful as they seem dominated by fanboys and shills.

One thing I forgot to mention, is sometimes new magazines need some interior finish to wear off before they function 100% as the fresh surfaces can have some extra friction or bind a bit.

Take one magazine load it and unload it a few times, not in the gun! Use your thumb or the fat end of a pen etc. to strip the rounds from the magazine. This can help "wear it in" and save some ammo. Do one mag (perhaps the "worst" one) 15 or 20 times before your next outing and see if it helps.

wally said:

Is this .380 pistol blow-back or tiling barrel?

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The 1911-390 uses a modified Browning action with a linkless cam and locking into the ejection port. So it's more like Hi-Power than 1911. Attached is a picture of it field-stripped.

Wally is right on the money with his diagnosis and suggested actions.

If this were a full sized 1911, my additional advice would be to slow the rearward movement of the slide by putting in a flat bottom firing pin stop and a heavier than normal mainspring. I don't know if such things exist for the Browning.

I wonder if Wolff sells heavier magazine springs that would fit your magazines even though they're not specifically made for the Browning. I've been able to replace OEM 1911 magazine springs with those from another manufacturer to cure inertia feed problems like you're having.

The magazine spring in this magazine extends outside of the magazine body and activates the side stop. You can even see it in the picture. Because of this unusual feature, you cannot just throw any old spring into the magazine. It has to have this kink in the topmost turn. I don't expect Wolff to make one any time soon.

lordfarquaad said:

... can you say how yours ran out of the box and is running today? No similar problems?

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Mine runs reliably with both original and additional magazines (they are all factory magazines). It is possible to make the topmost round fly out if one slams the magazine in and the slide is open. It never happened to me, but my wife does it sometimes. I think the magazine lips are too short. In addition, the ejector is set too far forward in my unit, and unfired rounds cannot be ejected, should one wish to unload. But there are no issues with feeding and ejection when shooting.

I like 1911's. A reduced .380 ACP sounds good. Enticing, yes ?
From the responses I deduce that FN/B has produced some good fruit, but needs some time to hone it down to nearly perfect.

In the meantime, for those who want just one .380, I'd say go Bersa Thunder or BT Concealed Carry.

lordfarquaad said:

Does anyone have experience with the "Browning Owners" forum? I posted this info there, verbatim, in the 1911-380 forum, and was banned a half hour later with a nice, all-caps explanation saying "TOTAL DISREGARD FOR FORUM RULES...BANNED." A bit overzealous, but oh well.

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A year or more ago I also was banned from the "Browning Owner's forum. The reason listed was "spam". The only thing that I had posted was a question about my Browning 1911-22, certainly no spam. I tried to contact an administrator a couple of times with no response. I just checked again and I'm still banned.

dtwalters said:

A year or more ago I also was banned from the "Browning Owner's forum.

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It's for the best, really Get a load of this guy dispensing wisdom in the 1911-380 section:

lordfarquaad said:

Do you stick with a particular brand/type of ammo? Or do you feed it all kinds? If a specific type, what?

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It had trouble with PDX1. Seems okay with any ball ammunition, including Winchester with blunt noses.

lordfarquaad said:

I'm also unable to cycle live rounds (just by racking the slide) in any of the (now 3) pistols I've used, which makes me think it's part of the design and not an anomaly. I can get the round out of the chamber easily if I turn it on its side and rack it gently, but don't even think about trying to rack it forcefully, expecting the chambered round to fly right out the top. Only works with spent casings.

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I made a video on the topic and one commenter wrote that he filed the ejector back until the rounds started to clear. I didn't dare to do that.

What is going on at FN/Browning? They don't see potential major issues with a gun that won't cleanly extract & eject an unfired round from the chamber?

These pistols are, just for clarification, not made by either FN or Browning.
They're manufactured by ATI in Salt Lake City, for Browning, at the same plant that makes the Buckmarks.
Denis

DPris said:

These pistols are, just for clarification, not made by either FN or Browning.
They're manufactured by ATI in Salt Lake City, for Browning, at the same plant that makes the Buckmarks.
Denis

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Could be and doesn't really matter, the fault lies with the designers not the sub-contractors making it to their specs.

If its an ATI design and FN/Browning is only a name being sold to them for marketing purposes, how could they let their good name be used on a gun that won't extract and eject loaded rounds?

lordfarquaad said:

What about casings hitting me in the forehead?

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It occurs very rarely on mine. I also have a Glock that does it sometimes. Never gave it much thought.

I also have a 1911-380. While I do not have many rounds through it, 150-200 or so, it has performed flawlessly with round nose bullets. I don't shoot much else in a 380 ACP.

Cases eject and land in a nice pile a few feet away.

Because of comments in this thread, I tried to see if the top round would pop out of the magazine when it was inserted. I could make the top round pop out but boy did I ever have to RAM (capitalized for effect!) the magazine home.

With what I consider normal handling and inserting the magazine, the top round always stayed in place. I only tried with one magazine though.

Also, there is limited room in the gun to eject a loaded round. For mine, even round nose bullets hung up. The slide does travel a fair distance past where the ejector hits the case so it could be shortened a little. But, I would not do that until I researched replacing the ejector and the availability of a replacement.

Wally,
I made the clarification for those who may think Browning actually makes the gun.
Browning makes nothing, everything with the Browning name, trademark & logo is either contracted out or licensed out.

That said, this is the first I've seen on any forum describing the problems you're finding with the little 1911.
It's annoying, but occasional lemons are an inescapable facet of the manufacturing world & it sounds like Browning is trying to work through it with you.

It may take time.
Should it happen? Ideally, no.
Does it happen? Obviously, yes.

A buddy has one, loves it, his wife loves it, no problems whatever.
Denis

lordfarquaad said:

What about casings hitting me in the forehead? Noticed this primarily with lighter loads in 2 of the pistols I was testing.

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The usual cause of this is an extractor that is losing control of the empty case as the slide moves rearward. This results in the case not being ejected properly and as it floats in space the rearward rushing slide contacts the case at the front of the ejection port and bats the case straight back at you.

It could also be that the case is being ejected too low and is contacting the lower edge of the ejection port which can cause the case to pop up into the path of the rearward rushing slide. Once again, it gets batted straight back at you.

Check very carefully around the edges of the ejection port for brass smears indicating contact with the cases.

There is a very common test for determining the condition of your extractor.

• Insert a fully loaded mag into the pistol
• Chamber the first round
• Remove the magazine from the pistol
• Point the pistol down range and pull the trigger
• Observe the flight of the ejected case

Rinse and repeat for the remaining rounds in the magazine.

If ANY of the cases fall down though the empty magazine well or the ejection pattern is all over the place, your extractor needs some attention.

Internal extractors are the easiest to work with and modify. I don't know if your .380 has an internal or external extractor.

Here's a link that you may find of some interest: https://forums.1911forum.com/showthread.php?t=829865