Notch cut in rear of plug

[Captaingyro]

I just bought a used 1911. It's a Colt's Mark IV Series 70 that's been accurized.

It has a Kart barrel and adjustable rear sight by STI. It's tight all around (requires a bushing wrench to take down), and the action is silky smooth. The trigger is much better than stock, but still has just a little bit of creep. It's obviously been shot and carried, but well cared-for.

I had a couple of competent gunsmiths check it out, and had a chance to shoot it before I bought it. It's a very accurate shooter (hit a prairie dog popper at 70 yards a couple of times), and function seems absolutely normal.

So what's wrong? Maybe nothing, but I just disassembled it for cleaning, and noticed that there's a notch gouged into the rear of the plug. The notch is about the width of the lug, and about three millimeters deep. It almost appears that at some time in the past the plug was hammering against the lug during recoil, but there's no polishing on the lug to indicate that it's been repeatedly hit.

So what do you think could be going on? The plug appears perfectly normal other than the notch, and the gun functions and shoots well.

 

[SilentScream]

Hard to make a definite conclusion from the pics, however it certainly looks to be an impact rather than a deliberate cut/notch. I'll be willing to bet the gun was set up to shoot light loads and someone possibly shot standard and/or hot loads through it repeatedly. Is the recoil spring exceedingly short/compressed, or look to be cut?

 

[Captaingyro]

No, the recoil spring looks normal. As a matter of fact, it's in pretty good shape...not altered in any way and with a double wind at each end. I'm pretty sure it's not original.

I shoot very light loads (4.5 gr of 231 under a 200gr LSWC) for about 820 fps. The gun would fire the first round, but fail to go fully into battery on the next. We traced that to a very tight chamber and the fact that my taper crimp is probably not as aggressive as it could be. My buddy (a long time 1911 armorer) also shoots a pretty light load (4 gr of Titegroup; same bullet) for about 840 fps. His loads, with a slightly tighter crimp, chambered and cycled just fine.

 

[Reloadron]

The only way I can see this happening and I am not even sure about it is if the gun was incorrectly assembled at some point. That is when the recoil spring plug was inserted and the barrel bushing rotated over it the plug wasn't centered under the bushing? Normally the back end of the plug should not extend back enough to hit anything. I would just remove and replace the plug and see what happens. Anyway, that would be my guess looking at the depth of the notch and what would happen if the bushing was on the plug's surface rather than the edge. Beyond that? I got nuttin!

Ron

 

[BBBBill]

An unmodified Colt S70 slide will not allow the plug to protrude out the back of the spring tunnel, so it is unlikely that the rear of the plug crashed into the barrel lugs. You can verify by dropping the plug into position in the slide and tilting the muzzle end up. The plug should not drop though and out the back. Some recent production slides do not have the internal shoulder to prevent the plug from dropping through and some smiths have modified older slides to that configuration when using certain components. At any rate, the damage is inconsequential and will cause no problems with function. The damage can be cleaned up with needle files and sandpaper if desired, mostly to remove rough edges that might snag a finger tip.
The recoil spring is not standard (double wind at each end). The spring should be tight on the guide rod at the back end and free on the front end to slide over the guide rod as the spring collapses.
It appears that the spring notch tab in the front of the plug has been partially ironed out, preventing it from capturing the front of the recoil spring. The notch tab is a good feature (eliminated on much current production) that helps prevent loss of the plug during disassembly/reassembly. Were it mine, I would reform the tab to work correctly and install a correctly formed open end spring.

 

[Captaingyro]

I think we have a winner. I was showing the plug to a few of the old timers at the range today and one guy immediately said, "Oh, somebody assembled it once without the guide rod."

It seems to makes sense. The slide has no shelf to prevent the plug from passing all the way through, and without the head of the guide rod in the way there would be nothing to stop the plug from impacting the lug. Somebody probably left the guide rod on the bench, went to the range, fired one shot, and thought, "Hmmm...that sure felt funny."

BTW, if anyone's curious I'm including a picture of the old girl.

 

[Jim Watson]

Nice looking gun.
It has most of what I want on one, maybe a taller magazine catch and longer thumb safety but that would be about it.
I just shake my head at these frou frou guns with French fried borders and checkering on assorted non-grasping surfaces.

 

[Captaingyro]

Thanks. I agree. I'm not crazy about a magwell on a classic like this, but other than that I like it. The seller represented that the custom work was done by Don Williams.

I'm partial to a longer trigger, so I'll replace that, and I'm going to treat her to a new set of Wolff springs, just so that I know exactly what's in there. Other than those changes, and taking the creep out of the trigger, I'll probably leave her alone.

 

[BBBBill]

Don Williams is an excellent smith. You might contact him with the serial number, etc for verification.

The Action Works
3030 Center Street West
Chino Valley, AZ 86323
Phone: (928( 636 1691
e-mail: [email protected]
http://www.theactionworks.com/

 

[Sunray]

That recoil spring plug has just been slightly damaged somehow. A notch there won't matter.