Who Do I Send My10mm 1911 To Make It Run?

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Mot45acp

Mot45acp

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Since I couldn't find a 10mm VBOB anywhere, I had a local smith build me a 10mm bobtail commander. This guy is highly regarded in my area. Four months and $3500 later, he delivers me a beautiful 1911 built to my specs. Love at first sight.

Until I shot it, or tried to shoot it. Rounds dead ending into the feed ramp. Not nose diving, just feeding straight into ramp. Ramp is smooth and looks good. Both Sig FMJ and HP, Underwood FMJ and HP. It appeared that the mags were sitting too low. Toying with the idea of a mag catch with higher shelf. Or if there is a mag that holds the rounds higher.

So I take it back with ammo. He says the mags are out of spec. These include the MecGars, he provided, the DW factory and the Tripp Cobras. He adjusts the lips and sends me on my way.

Now none of the mags function in this gun or my Specialist 10mm. I get premature slide lock, rounds FTF on the top of the barrel hood. I think I'm going to trash the mags he mucked with and get more.

Also I can feel the slide slamming back. I believe the gun is under sprung. He told me it has an 18# recoil spring, and a 22# main spring. This seems light to me for a 4.25" 10mm, but I am no gun smith. It does have the flat firing pin stop as per my request.

Question is, should I get different springs? If so which weights would you recommend? Or should i send it off to someone? If so who? I put reliability as my number 1 priority.

I won't name him as I am not looking to trash this gun smith, but it seems to me that this project was above his head.
20220527_113530.jpg
 
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Mot45acp said:
Since I couldn't find a 10mm VBOB anywhere, I had a local smith build me a 10mm bobtail commander. This guy is highly regarded in my area. Four months and $3500 later, he delivers me a beautiful 1911 built to my specs. Love at first sight.

Until I shot it, or tried to shoot it. Rounds dead ending into the feed ramp. Not nose diving, just feeding straight into ramp. Ramp is smooth and looks good. Both Sig FMJ and HP, Underwood FMJ and HP. It appeared that the mags were sitting too low. Toying with the idea of a mag catch with higher shelf. Or if there is a mag that holds the rounds higher.

So I take it back with ammo. He says the mags are out of spec. These include the MecGars, he provided, the DW factory and the Tripp Cobras. He adjusts the lips and sends me on my way.

Now none of the mags function in this gun or my Specialist 10mm. I get premature slide lock, rounds FTF on the top of the barrel hood. I think I'm going to trash the mags he mucked with and get more.

Also I can feel the slide slamming back. I believe the gun is under sprung. He told me it has an 18# recoil spring, and a 22# main spring. This seems light to me for a 4.25" 10mm, but I am no gun smith. It does have the flat firing pin stop as per my request.

Question is, should I get different springs? If so which weights would you recommend? Or should i send it off to someone? If so who? I put reliability as my number 1 priority.

I won't name him as I am not looking to trash this gun smith, but it seems to me that this project was above his head.
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you have a mess on your hands. Sorry to hear, I would not give in and tell him to fix it. and fix the mags too. A Smith should back his work, if he said it functions and it’s a mag issue, ask him for his test mags.
 
Mark_Mark said:
you have a mess on your hands. Sorry to hear, I would not give in and tell him to fix it. and fix the mags too. A Smith should back his work, if he said it functions and it’s a mag issue, ask him for his test mags.
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At this point I don't know if he has the capability. The test mags were included with the gun.
 
Spring weight will be ammo dependent, and with the flat FPS you can drop a few more pounds but I’d say a 20 lb as that is (I believe) the lightest spring Wolff advertises. My 1911s with the flat stop run 14 lb springs in govt .45 ACP guise.
 
As I see it, you paid that smith a lot of money to build you a gun. You should NOT be expected to accept a nonfunctional gun.
If it's over his head, it should be on him to sub contact the work to someone who can handle it, ON HIS DIME.
As a contractor myself, if I get in over my head, it's on me to find a way to provide my customer with a satisfactory job AT THE QUOTED PRICE, even if I screwed up my quote.
 
Closest that comes to mind is Jim Budde north of Austin. Still a piece up the road from you, and I don’t know if he’s still working on pistols, but he certainly knows his 1911s. He’s in Leander and is on FB. Definitely worth checking, formerly of Les Baer Customs and Alchemy Custom Weaponry.

Otherwise by reputation, Jeremy Reid, Reid Pistolsmithing, but he’s nearly to Oklahoma.
 
ontarget said:
As I see it, you paid that smith a lot of money to build you a gun. You should NOT be expected to accept a nonfunctional gun.
If it's over his head, it should be on him to sub contact the work to someone who can handle it, ON HIS DIME.
As a contractor myself, if I get in over my head, it's on me to find a way to provide my customer with a satisfactory job AT THE QUOTED PRICE, even if I screwed up my quote.
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OP is a nice guy who has been taken advantage of. I get it, possble deep pockets and don’t want the stress of confrontation. I would demand he take back the gun. Find another Smith that can do 10mm commander.
 
$3,500 would buy me a whole lotta "get this thing fixed".

I'm sorry, but there's absolutely nothing magically expensive about a 1911 build in and of itself. $200 for the barrel, $200-$300 each for the frame and slide? And don't get me started on the magazines. And yeah, I recognize there are all the other little parts, too.

But the bottom line is you paid $3,500 for a firearm that doesn't reliably fire every time you pull the trigger. I have a three decade old Colt 1991A1 I spent $450 on that has NEVER given me any functional problems.

I don't know how this guy tests his products, but when a customer comes in with definite issues and he doesn't put a full box or two through it trying to replicate it (or confirm the fix), then he's not worth much. A round or two, or a single magazine isn't much of a test.

YOU shouldn't be the one trying to "fix" this. Don't change SQUAT...unless it's simply a different magazine. No springs, and definitely no tooling of it. That's HIS bailiwick.
 
Would you be willing to provide a picture of your gun showing the feed ramp. There should be at least a 1/32" space between ramp and barrel so that round does not hit the edge of the barrel. I would request that he test fire it until it is right or demand a refund. You must be willing to take him to court if all else fails, it is a question of principle.
 
I just took it back. The owner of the store that the smith operates out of is pissed that it left his shop like that.

I explained to him that I don't care about "new" or pretty. I'd rather they shoot the crap outta it and have it work.

The reason I'm not raising hell is I have a long history with these folks, I didn't really want to throw a relationship that was built over the last decade away. I get first call when something new or interesting shows up, before they even put it out.

I'm giving them another chance to make it right. If not I will send it off with the lesson learned of not having them build me anything again, and call it good.
 
Mot45acp said:
I just took it back. The owner of the store that the smith operates out of is pissed that it left his shop like that.

I explained to him that I don't care about "new" or pretty. I'd rather they shoot the crap outta it and have it work.

The reason I'm not raising hell is I have a long history with these folks, I didn't really want to throw a relationship that was built over the last decade away. I get first call when something new or interesting shows up, before they even put it out.

I'm giving them another chance to make it right. If not I will send it off with the lesson learned of not having them build me anything again, and call it good.
Click to expand...
look man… they have a Relationship with you, not the other way around. I’m glade you took it back!!!! I was living vicariously through your experience and was pretty ticked off, I feel better now. THANKS MAN!!
 
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