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earlyagain
Posts: 6,558 Senior Member
Got this NIB in 91' or 92' as best I can remember. Been watching 1911 videos online. Didn't know I could pull the slide rearward from the locked back position to release it. This pistol came perfectly set up from the factory near as I can tell. And I've some how managed not to harm it a bit. The bushing is snug. The slide stop pin shows two perfect marks from supporting the rear of the barrel. My friend and I fit the new trigger like the amateur hacks we are. It actually fits ok, but the gun don't care. It runs and runs and runs. The only flaw I can find on it is microscopic play in the plunger tube. Ive got extra recoil and fp springs. Im going to get a shock buffer for the guide rod eventually. Maybe in another 20 or 30 years I'll know everything about it.
Im still learning about my pistol.
earlyagain
Posts: 6,558 Senior Member
Got this NIB in 91' or 92' as best I can remember. Been watching 1911 videos online. Didn't know I could pull the slide rearward from the locked back position to release it. This pistol came perfectly set up from the factory near as I can tell. And I've some how managed not to harm it a bit. The bushing is snug. The slide stop pin shows two perfect marks from supporting the rear of the barrel. My friend and I fit the new trigger like the amateur hacks we are. It actually fits ok, but the gun don't care. It runs and runs and runs. The only flaw I can find on it is microscopic play in the plunger tube. Ive got extra recoil and fp springs. Im going to get a shock buffer for the guide rod eventually. Maybe in another 20 or 30 years I'll know everything about it.
Replies
Pass on the shock buffer - just run the next-step-up-from-GI 18.5# recoil spring andGI-standard 23# main spring. Not so much an issue on the full size Government Models, but the shock buffs do limit your slide travel by their 1/8" or so thickness. They can take an Officer's Model right to the point of the slide running out of rearward movement RIGHT after the breech face clears the back of the mag well. Reduces the momentum from the "running start" you want the slide to have before it encounters resistance from the round stack and feed ramp. Can't help your ejection either.
"Nothing is safe from stupid." - Zee
I don't think I ever get tired of learning about these things. I was looking at the breech lock up while I had the slide off. Using a snap cap, it looks like the extractor really does hold the cartridge against the breech face. Maybe Colt quality ain't what it used to be, but the new Colt mag I bought runs great.
The shock buffer is up to you. Buy my LGS who was a 1911 guru never used them. Especially after getting them in from customers where the buffer goes bad and falls apart in the gun locking things up.
But thats how he made money too.
- Don Burt
I've taken to flushing the gap between tube and frame with acetone and then filling it with red Loctite to maximize the force it's going to take to get it wiggling again. Just make sure to run a pipe cleaner through the tube and all surrounding areas afterwards.
The function check for extractor tension is to slide a live round (or correctly weighted dummy for the safety-paranoid) under the extractor hook. Light shaking should give you some rattle, but it should not fall off. If it does, pull the extractor halfway out of its tunnel so that the "bulge" in its middle is at the rear of the slide, rotate it 180 degrees and push on its rear to increase the inward bend. DO NOT APPLY GORILLA FORCE! Reinsert, retest, and re-tweak as needed.
The sign of problems there is failure to properly eject brass, which means the brass isn't clamped enough by the extractor for the ejector to give its proper kick.
When you really start taking his stuff apart and looking at how it runs, and then look at how differently all his stuff runs, you REALLY start to get a feel for the level of genius Browning was operating at. Where all the Stephen Hawkings and Neil DeGrasse Tysons go on about Einstein, JMB was on the same kind of plane.
Interestingly, one of his designs that has most blown my mind is one of his simplest - the Winchester bolt action single shot .22 that grew from the model 1900 to the 67. It has one part serving the function of sear, extractor, and IIRC, ejector - or maybe partial ejector in conjunction with the firing pin, and it does all those operations on one leaf spring.
That combination leaf spring under your 1911's mainspring housing - same kind of thing. Powers the sear engagement, disconnector, trigger return, and grip safety, and it's just one part.
So where a modern manufacturer might get fast and cheap production through the use of lots of stampings and roll pins, John got it done with BRAINS. Einstein's brain ended up in a jar for study somewhere - - would have been neat to have a neurologist compare him, JMB, Hiram Maxim, Tesla, etc... to see what, if anything, all those Greek gods walking the earth had in common.
"Nothing is safe from stupid." - Zee
FWIW, i have an 70s Colt 1911 and the spring tube has that birds beak to grab the recoil spring. Its allows you to screw it onto the recoil spring but when i remove the bushing i dont expect it to stay on the spring. I also have other 1911s without that feature too. IIRC, dont have it pointed to your face when doing it and pay attention to where its pointed when removing the bushing. I think someone broke a window when it flew off the spring.
but even with it "loose" its not been able to move past the bushing.
something else. If yours has the internal extractor, dont hand feed any rounds into the chamber and drop/release the slide. you may end up breaking your extractor and any replacement may need to be tuned to your gun.
- Don Burt
"If you get it and didn't work for it, someone else worked for it and didn't get it..."
Cylinder & Slide still makes the GI style plunger with the cutout for threading onto the recoil spring. A nice addition and cheap if you aren't running that way already.
Regardless of the presence of that cutout or not, my technique for avoiding launch is the same:
1. Clear gun and put the safety on. This keeps the slide from moving backwards as you press on the plunger.
2. With the gun pointed upward and the empty mag well facing you, insert your right pinky finger into the triggerguard, wrap your next three fingers over the top of the slide, and depress the plunger with your thumb, trying for maximum surface coverage..
3. Left hand rotates the barrel bushing out of the way.
4. Right thumb EEEEEEEASES off.
5. Safety off, slide back, disassemble as normal. Reassemble in reverse,
Best of luck!
"Nothing is safe from stupid." - Zee
Breamfisher show'd me how to substitute an empty cartridge case if I do lose thw plug......
you can add a beavertail to those guns. I would just keep and ID the OEMs so that they can be swapped out when you want.
i dont mind modding a gun with drop in parts or parts that may need minor mods. I try to mod the part, no the parts around it so that if/when i sell i can just add the OEM parts and they new owner can do what they want.
- Don Burt