I recently saw a video on how to clean a 1911 made by Bill Wilson (Wilson Combat) where he recommends removal and cleaning of the firing pin & extractor every so often.
Bill is an expert on the 1911 so I do not have any doubts about what he says but although he made it look fairly easy I have never disassembled a 1911 beyond field striping and I don't feel confident doing it without getting into trouble.
Anyone here do this themselves? If so, any tips or suggestions to someone that has never it will be greatly appreciated.
I don't consider myself obsessive compulsive, but I might be.......
I also faithfully obey the old Bullseye Shooter advice that
"the elbow is the drip point". I oil the heck out of my 1911's, and when I shoot oiled ammunition, even more oil comes out of the action. At the end of the day, the pistol is very oily inside, which makes fouling removal easy. It just wipes out. But the solvated fouling is everywhere, and that bothers me. I want a clean gun for the next match, so I start pulling parts and wiping them down.
Clearly, OCD. Last weekend, at a 2700 Bullseye Match, Ernst said he had not cleaned one 22 lr for eight years. I mocked him. Ernst brings seven pistols to the match, so when they start malfunctioning, he has a spare.The guy shoots Master class scores, but it can't be due to the dirty guns.
One of his test targets, and two fired in competition
On occasion I will pull every part off a 1911 and wipe it down. I regularly blow compressed air through the trigger mechanism, between break downs, and then pour LSA down the hammer, to get the sear oiled.
And I frequently remove the firing pin and extractor. Taking the firing pin stop off is easy. Taking the firing pin spring and extractor out, is easy with a series 70 action. A series 80 action is particularly frustrating with the stupid firing pin block. I have to push-pull on the extractor to get the thing to drop, if it will. Sometime the things won't drop, and that is time to remove the series 80 parts.
Reassembly is becomes difficult when the extractor rotates around. Getting the back of the extractor to align with the slide stop can be a very frustrating experience. But I found something that helps, for the pistols that need it: a deprimed 6.5 X 55 Swedish case.
The rim diameter of a real, Swedish 6.5 X 55 case, is slightly wider than the rim of a 45 ACP case. The American 6.5 X 55 cases that I own, duplicate the 30-06/45ACP rim width and are pretty useless as a tool. I slide the 6.5 X 55 case under the extractor, and because it is just a little wider, tension keeps it in place, and keeps the extractor from rolling around. Then I use a small screwdriver and rotate the extractor till the the notch in the extractor lines up with the slide stop grooves. Then I drop in the firing pin and spring, carefully slide the slide stop in, without rotating the irritating extractor, and with my third hand (LOL) push the firing pin down so I can push the slide stop home. The reason for depriming the 6.5 X 55 case is so the firing pin will go flush when pressed in the back. If the case was primed, even with a dud primer, the firing pin will bump into that primer, and then I would be unable to push the firing pin down far enough to be out of the way of the slide stop. Once the slide stop is in place, obviously I remove the 6.5 X 55 case.
I highly recommend not oiling either the firing pin or the spring. Wipe them down and wipe out the firing pin channel with a Q Tip. Others have reported congealed oil gumming the firing pin in a forward position. Which would cause an out of battery experience. Advanced primer ignition sort of thing.