I'm back from a vacation here- looking for some input on 1911 assembly/disassembly nuances...

LuckyDuck

Old Salt
Full Member
Minuteman
  • Nov 4, 2020
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    As a quick disclaimer- I've got more 1911's than any sane person should own. Primarily my collection consists of mostly Colts and also has a good representation of Ed Brown's, Dan Wesson's, Les Baer's and a Tisas's thrown into the mix.

    I say that only as a reference point that I'm far from "new" to the 1911 pistols. That said- I have one (and just one) that's "acting" unusually for me & within my self proclaimed "vast" experiences.

    On to the behavior I'm trying to diagnose- I have a recently purchased Colt Mark IV Series 70 that's completely stock internally at this point but does have aftermarket "medallion" walnut grips. So that's what I'm working with here.

    The "behavior" that's screwing me up is that while assembling/disassembling it the slide locks up after relieving recoil spring tension by first taking out the recoil spring plunger. And I mean it locks up completely.

    I'm 100% certain after playing around with it at this point is the barrel is moving... ("out of battery" doesn't sound right given the assembly/disassembly process but it's absolutely the barrel "moving" and that's how I was able to work through this to get it both taken apart & put back together.

    So I figured out "what" is happening and "how" to work through it, but for the life of me I can't figure out the "why" this is happening. I have way more 1911's than Snow White had dwarves but this is the 1st time I'm seeing this.

    Could it be the link size causing this?

    Again- I've got her taken apart & put back together but this is the first time I've run across this... "eccentricy" Has anyone else seen this?

    -LD
     
    I do remember stainless Colt 70 Mk IV's having a similar issue many moons ago. Could be that the recoil spring plunger is keeping the standard-colt-combat-loose-wobbly as fuck barrel bushing pushed up in its proper place. When the plunger is removed, the BBL bushing is free to move around, and therefore allowing the barrel to move around, and therefore allowing the BBL top locking lugs to get to some odd angle in the slide lug recesses causing things to become immovable until you wiggle it around to "unlocks things.

    IDK. Without putting hands on it.. tough call. On all my 1911's with loose bushing fit (like Colt 70's) I always get a custom cut barrel bushing from EGW with 0.002" slide-bushing clearance and 0.002" bushing-barrel clearance and I use Brownells garnet 800 grit lapping compound to bed them together. They always shoot much, much better after that.


    Good luck.