1911Tuner
Moderator Emeritus
Since I decided to rest a bit today before gettin' started with the dogs...I
thought I might do a little write-up on reliability, since that area is my basic stock-in-trade.
Reliability is more than feeding, firing, extracting, and ejecting. While this is the basis for reliability...the pistol MUST go bang when the trigger is pulled...there's more to it than that. Reliability isn't determined in absolutes, and it can't be guaranteed. No machine can be guaranteed to operate without failure. It's a mechanical and mathematical impossibility. If we keep it and use it long enough, it's inevitible that something is gonna fail at some point. If reliability could be guaranteed, there would be no reason to practice "Malfunction Drills."
Oh! You say you DON'T practice malfunction drills?
On the mechanical end, we can take steps to insure functional reliability.
We make certain adjustments, and check dimensions. We use the best
critical parts and tune the guns and see to minor details. We make sure that everything is in-spec and made of correct materials. We search tirelessly for good magazines, and are willing to pay riduculous prices for the latese and best. We clean and lubricate and fuss over major points. but there are certain habits that we can adopt that will increase the odds against weapon failure at a critical moment. Simple things that take little time...and while many of these things don't add or subtract very much from the odds...every percentage point in favor of reliability increases our chances of having a functional pistol if you should find yourself UTYAIA when you least expect it.
The most likely place to experience a failure to feed/go to battery is on the
top round in a magazine that is loaded to capacity, and on the last round in the magazine. That's a flat statement that is backed up by physics, and it applies to any magazine-fed weapon. This is one more reason that carrying a pistol in Condition Two is a little risky. The time to have a
"Lock'n'Load stoppage is at home while the coffee is brewing...NOT
when an attack starts over a stoplight fender-bender while you furiously
back-pedal and rack the slide to keep 300-pound Bubba from caving your head in with a tire iron.
The top round because the spring imposes its maximum tension and drag on the slide. That works to bleed momentum from the slide as it goes to battery, and increases the chance of a fialure to go to battery. Divide the
number of rounds into 100 and convert to percentage. Reducing the capacity by one round in a 7-round magazine reduces the drag on the slide by roughly 13% coming AND going. That's a signifigant amount,
but there's another point that few consider. It also reduces the load pushing on the magazine floorplate by the same amount. For those of us
who use flush-fit magazines with welded bases, it decreases the chance that the constant tension will cause the welds to fail. Many people will
carry the gun loaded to magazine capacity +one...but doing so increases the chance of breaking the welds through that constant load by 13%.
How many of us check the baseplate welds daily? Weekly? Ever?
Those of us who are lucky enough to have a supply of magazines with
pinned bases may skip this part of the examination.
A clean and oiled gun is a happy gun. How many of us field-strip the gun
that we bet our life on weekly, blow the lint out of it, and put a drop of oil in each frame rail?
How many of us...after storing the pistol in a nightstand drawer overnight in Condition Two...lock the slide and peek into the barrel to check for an obstruction before we load it and head out for adventure?
How many of us perform function and safety checks on our carry pistols
on a routine basis? Daily? Weekly? Ever? Reliability is as much about NOT having the gun go bang when it shouldn't as it is having it go bang when it must.
How many...during a routine field-strip and cleaning...examine the parts for signs of iminent failure? How about the ammunition?
How many of us...when racking the slide to chamber the top round before
strapping the pistol on...give the slide a little bump to insure full battery and disconnect reset? The 1911 was designed to operate at full speed.
Chambering the top round by hand-cycling the slide isn't full speed, and neither is loading the gun by tripping the slidestop. The dynamics aren't the same. Remember the addition of the Forward Bolt Assist on the
M16-A1 modification? There was a very good reason for that appendage...and the troops were directed to use it whenever the rifles were loaded, regardless of the conditions. The op-rod handles on the M-1 and M-14 were whacked for the same reasons. Why should the 1911
pistol be any different? The dynamics are much the same. Easy to do.
Simply pull the hammer past full-cock...bump the slide... lower the hammer onto the sear, and engage the safety. This also insures full sear reset. Safety engagement may be performed before or after the bump...
at your discretion.
Habits. Habits. How many of us test our brakes before backing out of
the driveway in a mad rush to get to work on time?
Food for thought.
thought I might do a little write-up on reliability, since that area is my basic stock-in-trade.
Reliability is more than feeding, firing, extracting, and ejecting. While this is the basis for reliability...the pistol MUST go bang when the trigger is pulled...there's more to it than that. Reliability isn't determined in absolutes, and it can't be guaranteed. No machine can be guaranteed to operate without failure. It's a mechanical and mathematical impossibility. If we keep it and use it long enough, it's inevitible that something is gonna fail at some point. If reliability could be guaranteed, there would be no reason to practice "Malfunction Drills."
Oh! You say you DON'T practice malfunction drills?
On the mechanical end, we can take steps to insure functional reliability.
We make certain adjustments, and check dimensions. We use the best
critical parts and tune the guns and see to minor details. We make sure that everything is in-spec and made of correct materials. We search tirelessly for good magazines, and are willing to pay riduculous prices for the latese and best. We clean and lubricate and fuss over major points. but there are certain habits that we can adopt that will increase the odds against weapon failure at a critical moment. Simple things that take little time...and while many of these things don't add or subtract very much from the odds...every percentage point in favor of reliability increases our chances of having a functional pistol if you should find yourself UTYAIA when you least expect it.
The most likely place to experience a failure to feed/go to battery is on the
top round in a magazine that is loaded to capacity, and on the last round in the magazine. That's a flat statement that is backed up by physics, and it applies to any magazine-fed weapon. This is one more reason that carrying a pistol in Condition Two is a little risky. The time to have a
"Lock'n'Load stoppage is at home while the coffee is brewing...NOT
when an attack starts over a stoplight fender-bender while you furiously
back-pedal and rack the slide to keep 300-pound Bubba from caving your head in with a tire iron.
The top round because the spring imposes its maximum tension and drag on the slide. That works to bleed momentum from the slide as it goes to battery, and increases the chance of a fialure to go to battery. Divide the
number of rounds into 100 and convert to percentage. Reducing the capacity by one round in a 7-round magazine reduces the drag on the slide by roughly 13% coming AND going. That's a signifigant amount,
but there's another point that few consider. It also reduces the load pushing on the magazine floorplate by the same amount. For those of us
who use flush-fit magazines with welded bases, it decreases the chance that the constant tension will cause the welds to fail. Many people will
carry the gun loaded to magazine capacity +one...but doing so increases the chance of breaking the welds through that constant load by 13%.
How many of us check the baseplate welds daily? Weekly? Ever?
Those of us who are lucky enough to have a supply of magazines with
pinned bases may skip this part of the examination.
A clean and oiled gun is a happy gun. How many of us field-strip the gun
that we bet our life on weekly, blow the lint out of it, and put a drop of oil in each frame rail?
How many of us...after storing the pistol in a nightstand drawer overnight in Condition Two...lock the slide and peek into the barrel to check for an obstruction before we load it and head out for adventure?
How many of us perform function and safety checks on our carry pistols
on a routine basis? Daily? Weekly? Ever? Reliability is as much about NOT having the gun go bang when it shouldn't as it is having it go bang when it must.
How many...during a routine field-strip and cleaning...examine the parts for signs of iminent failure? How about the ammunition?
How many of us...when racking the slide to chamber the top round before
strapping the pistol on...give the slide a little bump to insure full battery and disconnect reset? The 1911 was designed to operate at full speed.
Chambering the top round by hand-cycling the slide isn't full speed, and neither is loading the gun by tripping the slidestop. The dynamics aren't the same. Remember the addition of the Forward Bolt Assist on the
M16-A1 modification? There was a very good reason for that appendage...and the troops were directed to use it whenever the rifles were loaded, regardless of the conditions. The op-rod handles on the M-1 and M-14 were whacked for the same reasons. Why should the 1911
pistol be any different? The dynamics are much the same. Easy to do.
Simply pull the hammer past full-cock...bump the slide... lower the hammer onto the sear, and engage the safety. This also insures full sear reset. Safety engagement may be performed before or after the bump...
at your discretion.
Habits. Habits. How many of us test our brakes before backing out of
the driveway in a mad rush to get to work on time?
Food for thought.
...Oh yeah!
