1911 people, how do you care for a new gun?

[WolfMansDad]

I recently bought a new colt 1911 stainless, and it proved to be very unreliable after I had cleaned it. I sent it back to the factory, and it came back a little better, but not much. Now, one thing that struck me was that it was plenty reliable during its very first range session and during the first session after it came back from the factory the second time. It only seemed to fail (failure to go into battery, slow and rough cycling) after I had cleaned it. Each time it came from the factory, it had some sort of thick goop on the slide rails and in the channels, almost like crisco and not at all like ordinary gun oil or the "light machine oil" recommended in the manual. When I cleaned that off, the slide rails and channels looked almost sand-cast, they were so rough. Is there supposed to be a break-in compound in the slide, like glock uses? The manual didn't say anything about it.

I've owned a few (six or seven) semi-automatic pistols in my life. However, this was my first new 1911. I got a used colt series 70 for my 18th birthday and never had any problems with it. I cleaned the new colt the same way I always cleaned the old one. Was I supposed to do something special with the new one?

 

[CWL]

This is strange.

Your Colt 1911 should be able to perform with just oil. Sounds like this one was manufactured out of spec.

Did your service tag back from Colt say what the problem was?

If it's a case of stainless galling along the rails, you may want to try using grease to lube it (that "goop" you saw may be white lithium grease) and shoot 200-500 rounds thru it to break it in. Then see if everything hasn't fitted together better.

 

[JDGray]

My Loaded Springfield had a few failures to go fully into battery when I first got it, all it took was a tap, and it slid in. After a few hundred rounds that went away. I use synthetic grease on my rails, and the gun runs perfect. It seems smoother with the grease, vs oil. Assemble the gun without the recoil spring, and feel for any roughness or catches, it should be silky smooth. I polished my full length guide rod and the inside of the recoil spring, and made mine smoother yet. I've heard of people running a slightly heavier recoil spring to help with the issue you have, untill the 500 rnd mark, it will most likely break in just fine.

 

[stevemis]

I always use grease on parts that slide and oil on parts that rotate. I tend to like NLGI #2 or #3.

I agree that your pistol shouldn't be giving you this trouble, and the lubrication type you use shouldn't make much of a difference in overall reliability.

I agree with JDGray: Field strip the pistol, remove the barrel, lug and recoil spring and gently/slowly rock the slide back and forth looking for a spot that binds.

A lot of FTF issues in 1911's are caused by magazines. If you have more than a couple of mags, see if there's one magazine that consistently behaves well or badly.

Your ammo might also be out-of-spec.. have you tried different brands of factory (new) ammunition?

Steve

 

[Steve C]

Contact parts that slide against each other should be oiled or you could use some Gunslik which is like a grease but is a graphite. Pivot points should also be lubed as well as the outside of the barrel with a light coating of oil. I use CLP, RemOIL, or Hoppes gun oil. Stainless may require a gun specific grease type lube as stainless doesn't slide as easily against itself.

Usually failure to go into battery is a magazine or ammo problem. Does the pistol work reliably with a mag loaded with less than maximum number of rounds? Could be the mag spring is too strong and pushing the first few bullets out of the magazine may be too hard for the recoil spring. Try another magazine, preferably one that's older and reliable with other 1911 pistols and see if that makes any difference.

 

[Alphazulu6]

Ouch......did Colt tell you that it was working when they sent it back to you?

 

[WolfMansDad]

Assemble the gun without the recoil spring, and feel for any roughness or catches, it should be silky smooth.

I did try this, and the slide was very rough. Sometimes it would catch and stick, requiring a lot of force to move it either forward or backward. It was anything but silky smooth. My other pistols have all been smooth in this test, and I was wondering if 1911s were supposed to be different. Every one I tried at the store felt rough, so I thought maybe this was normal.

When firing, I could feel the slide working, scraping along the rails and returning to battery (at least most of the time). Every other 1911 I've ever fired had a very snappy slide. On my old series 70, you just felt recoil, not slide action.

Did your service tag back from Colt say what the problem was?

No. No documentation came back with the pistol, but I could tell they re-staked the front sight (it had worked loose after the first box of rounds), and the breechface had been polished (it had been very rough).

If you have more than a couple of mags, see if there's one magazine that consistently behaves well or badly.

I tried this, too. It performed equally badly with both factory mags and with a Chip McCormick shooting star that always functioned in my series 70.

Your ammo might also be out-of-spec.. have you tried different brands of factory (new) ammunition?

I used Winchester white box FMJ, Mag-Tech FMJ, Fiocchi FMJ, and Remington "flat nose," an FMJ round with the same profile as hollow points. I probably fired four or five hundred rounds trying to get this thing to work, and it was just as bad at the end as at the beginning. I bought new ammo just for this pistol. I reloaded for my series 70 and never had any failures, but everyone I talked to recommended using factory ammo for breaking in a new gun.

I forgot to mention that the trigger was also very rough and inconsistent from shot to shot. Sometimes it was very light, and sometimes it was so heavy I wondered if I had left the safety on.

You guys are confirming my suspicion that this one was a lemon.

 

[JDGray]

Sounds like another trip to Colt is in order