OK 1911 guys, need some "break-in" help.

[Kb! Bob]

Hey Guys,
I am a complete 1911 newbie and need some advice/assurance to ease my mind. My Dad (not only a 1911 newb, but a total gun newb) picked up a Kimber Warrior last week for home defense and some carry. I have been doing the breaking in with him thus far. Here is how its been:

-Brought the gun home, disassembled, cleaned, and lubed.
-Took to range and put about 150 through it, had 4-5 FTFeeds. Using WWB and occuring with both Kimber mag and Wilson mag, rounds would hang up on ramp I guess and gun would lock approx. 1/2"-3/4" out of battery.
- Took her apart, cleaned it again very well and lubed again, according to manufacture specs. etc.
-Went out again today and had about the same amount of the same kind of failures in 100 rounds.

My observances are that it happens to both of us, so its not limpwristing. Also, not everytime but probably 4 out of 5 times it was the last round in the mag, and it did occur with both mags.

After shooting my Glocks, my old man is worried. It is my opinion that it is an extremely tight gun and still too early in the process to begin worrying. If it still happens after 400-500 then we may have an issue. Am I correct in this assumption, and is their any other ideas/remedies you guys with more experience may be able to offer me. Thanks a lot!!

[GuyMontag]

What mags are you using? I have a Kimber and the mag that came with it was shit. It's in a landfill now. Before you freak out, pick up some quality magazines.

[mrnyman]

Try another brand of ammo, maybe THAT gun doesnt like wwb, i think its the ammo.

1911's in general can be picky about ammo.
Let us know how it goes.

Nyman

[Nic]

...and make sure you are running that Kimber wet.

[Kb! Bob]

What mags are you using? I have a Kimber and the mag that came with it was shit. It's in a landfill now. Before you freak out, pick up some quality magazines.

I am using two mags. One is the Kimber mag (J&J or G&G?) and the other is a Wilson Combat 8 rounder. I may pick up a Chip McCormick just to make sure, but I think the Wilson mag would run if it was gonna run.

Try another brand of ammo, maybe THAT gun doesnt like wwb, i think its the ammo.

1911's in general can be picky about ammo.
Let us know how it goes.

Nyman

I just picked up a 500 round lot of American Eagle and I have some Lawman as well, so I'll give that a shot. Thanks!

...and make sure you are running that Kimber wet.

Yup. When I cleaned it out of the box I would call it "normally lubed" with RemOil. Then, after the first range trip and cleaning, I used Tetra Grease on the rails and RemOil a little more liberally, not dripping but a good bit. Whats the consensus on a drop of oil/grease on the ramp?

[Lycanthrope]

Let me guess, the rounds are in the chamber, but not fully in battery. I wager the slide doesn't have enough juice to get the rim fully under the extractor. If the gun is throwing empties more than about 6 feet you can loosen up the extractor tension and probably fix the issue. Otherwise, you need to sit around and just cycle the hell out of it while watching a movie. To accelerate the process you can get some jewelers rouge (often in the felt wheel dremel kits at Wal Mart) and put that on the rails......that will polish them up and get your slide speed back.

Remoil is too thin and isn't really slick under load. Almost anything else is a better lube....even Mobile 1.

Lycanweaponshieldthrope

[Kb! Bob]

Let me guess, the rounds are in the chamber, but not fully in battery. I wager the slide doesn't have enough juice to get the rim fully under the extractor. If the gun is throwing empties more than about 6 feet you can loosen up the extractor tension and probably fix the issue. Otherwise, you need to sit around and just cycle the hell out of it while watching a movie. To accelerate the process you can get some jewelers rouge (often in the felt wheel dremel kits at Wal Mart) and put that on the rails......that will polish them up and get your slide speed back.

Remoil is too thin and isn't really slick under load. Almost anything else is a better lube....even Mobile 1.

Lycanweaponshieldthrope

That very well may be the issue! That is exactly the malfunction it is having, and now that I think about it the brass is flying across the room. I'll check out the jewelers rouge kit as well. Thanks for the input!

[Nate7667]

It would not hurt to polish your feed ramp and top and/or the rest of the chamber while your have the rouge out.
Just take you time with the chamber, metal is a bitch to add back on once its removed

[Lycanthrope]

It would not hurt to polish your feed ramp and top and/or the rest of the chamber while your have the rouge out.
Just take you time with the chamber, metal is a bitch to add back on once its removed

This is easy if you buy a felt wheel kit with your rouge and remove the barrel.

Polish the ramp to a shine, but do NOT touch that apex where the ramp meets the chamber. Don't round that edge.

Take a look here as well:

http://www.m1911.org/technic2.htm

Kimbers are tight and accurate, but all that causes friction and you need to smooth them up before the slide is going to operate at the speed it needs to.

Lycansmoothherupthrope

[JDePietro]

Yup. When I cleaned it out of the box I would call it "normally lubed" with RemOil. Then, after the first range trip and cleaning, I used Tetra Grease on the rails and RemOil a little more liberally, not dripping but a good bit. Whats the consensus on a drop of oil/grease on the ramp?

What did that sidearm every do to you to warrent this act of neglect. Cease and desist before you get called the Michael Vick of the 1911 world.

Seriously thought ditch the rem-water and pick up a good quality oil. I am partial to Eezox but Royal Purple makes good stuff, S&W makes their own gun oil now, hoppes elite is good stuff, or and this may sound weird but ATF (automatic transmission fluid) is really good stuff. You can get a huge bottle of Amsoil ATF for dirt cheap and it will last you the life of your sidearm +. The real draw backs to using things like Mobil 1 and ATF is the lack of corrosion resistance. If you do a search on this site or google/bing you can find some good comparisons, in fact I did a lube/cleaner review for this site.

As far as were to put it that is an argument of monumental proportions. I would go into it but I don't have the time at this moment.