Pennsylvania Firearm Owners Association
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  1. #1
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    Default 1911 cycling issue

    Not mine but I was shooting at a friend's house and one of his freinds was having consistant problems with his Sig 1911.

    Every empty brass fired would get stuck in the slide. Most of them were oriented horizontally, stuck half way out of the ejection port. The next round in the magazine would be very slightly stripped, with the bullet nose stopped at the middle of the feed ramp.

    I had an extra Meg-gar 1911 mag in my range bag thag did the same thing. The only thing different he said was the ammo he was using. It has an external extractor so I'm thinking that's not the issue. His chamber and feed ramp was pretty sooty but I don't think that would do it. Maybe too weak of a recoil spring for this ammo?

    He left shortly after I arrived, so I didn't have much time to play with it much. It seemed to hand cycle rounds fine.

    I'd be curious to know what the POOFA 1911 gurus think?
    Accuse your enemy of what you are doing as you are doing it to create confusion -Karl Marx

  2. #2
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    Default Re: 1911 cycling issue

    You describe ammo that's too weak, or a recoil spring that's too strong, or a missing ejector.

    If the ammo is weak, it doesn't push the slide back either forcefully enough, or far enough to get positive ejection of the case, which stays in the ejection port / breech area, blocking the next round from feeding while jamming the slide open.

    Same sequence of events if the recoil spring is too strong, but that's just another way of saying the ammo is weak.

    If the ammo has been fired successfully before, there's a chance the ejector came loose and fell out and ejection may be erratic, although I've seen a couple of 1911s surprisingly work fine while missing an ejector, others not so much.

    What ammo? Yellow box UMC and Silver Bear steel case are notoriously problematic in 1911s in my experience, as are weak handloads.

    If he has the option of shooting some 230 gr FMJ like WWB, Fiocchi, S&B, American Eagle, etc, try that and see what happens, after making sure the ejector is in place.

    Noah
    Wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times.

  3. #3
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    Default Re: 1911 cycling issue

    Quote Originally Posted by Noah_Zark View Post
    You describe ammo that's too weak, or a recoil spring that's too strong, or a missing ejector.

    If the ammo is weak, it doesn't push the slide back either forcefully enough, or far enough to get positive ejection of the case, which stays in the ejection port / breech area, blocking the next round from feeding while jamming the slide open.

    Same sequence of events if the recoil spring is too strong, but that's just another way of saying the ammo is weak.

    If the ammo has been fired successfully before, there's a chance the ejector came loose and fell out and ejection may be erratic, although I've seen a couple of 1911s surprisingly work fine while missing an ejector, others not so much.

    What ammo? Yellow box UMC and Silver Bear steel case are notoriously problematic in 1911s in my experience, as are weak handloads.

    If he has the option of shooting some 230 gr FMJ like WWB, Fiocchi, S&B, American Eagle, etc, try that and see what happens, after making sure the ejector is in place.

    Noah
    I'm not sure what type of ammo it was besides it being brass cased. He did say this never happened before and it was the first time using this ammo. That did lead me to suspect it as the problem. I normally have some decent .45 ammo in my can but I only went over to try out my new to me G19.

    It has an external extractor and I have zero experience with those on 1911's. It did seem like the slide was not cycling properly or completely. I did type too weak of a recoil spring while I was thinking too strong. Starting to worry about early onset Alzheimer's.

    Thanks Noah!
    Accuse your enemy of what you are doing as you are doing it to create confusion -Karl Marx

  4. #4
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    Default Re: 1911 cycling issue

    N_Z has given you a good starting point to relay to your friend. While talking to him find out the brand of ammo and tell him to look very closely at the extractor, it could be there but the lip may be broken where it doesn't pull the fired round out correctly to engage the ejector and the round just sort of pops off the extractor and never get fully extracted/ejected. He needs to look at the ejector also to make sure it doesn't have a broken tip.
    Ron USAF Ret E-8 FFL01/SOT3 NRA Benefactor Member

  5. #5
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    Default Re: 1911 cycling issue

    Limp-wristing?
    I don't speak English , I talk American!

  6. #6
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    Default Re: 1911 cycling issue

    Quote Originally Posted by abner13 View Post
    Limp-wristing?
    I shot it once and I'm hopelessly hetero. It did the exact same thing.
    Accuse your enemy of what you are doing as you are doing it to create confusion -Karl Marx

  7. #7
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    Default Re: 1911 cycling issue

    Recoil spring too strong for the ammo being used. I say that because unfired cases behaving when hand wracked might indicate that the slide is not traveling aft far enough or fast enough during fire. Or, try more different magazines. Only other thing I can think of may be the toggle link is the wrong ratio for the ammo being used.
    There are two kinds of guns. Those I have acquired, and those I hope to.

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