Sidearms & Scatterguns Interesting & scary occurance with 1911. And Gunsmith question

[jeo556]

Good afternoon gentlemen.

Last night while taking my 1911 off for the evening I noticed that while taking the pistol off of safe was a little more difficult to do than usual. So I unloaded the gun and proceded to manipulate the safety multiple times to see if "smoothed" out again. After about 10 manilpulations of the safety I could not longer take the pistol off of safe, rendering the gun useless. It was only then that I realized that the rear stake on my plunger tube had come loose and allowed the plunger to interact with the thumb safety in such a way that the safety was stuck in the on postition and the slide was obviously locked as well.

I DO NOT want this thread to turn into a effing disaster about this pistol vs. that pistol or why I was carrying the gun in that condition, or anything else. I simply wanted to illistrate the fact that a loose plunger tube stake could severly negatively affect the reliability of this platform. If this is already common knowledge please forgive me. I just never considered that the plunger tube could work itself loose unless the gun was shot a ton latetly, which this gun was not. So please check your plunger tubes for movement or at least make sure that your thumb safety is easily operable prior to carrying your 1911 for protections sake.

Now onto the gunsmith question. Can a plunger tube reliably be re-staked? Or should I just purchase another? Anyone out there willing to let me borrow thier plunger staking tool?

Thanks guys, have a good one.

 

[CoryT]

Not an unusual problem, I probably saw it 2-3 time a year here at Gunsite. DO NOT restake the existing part. Buy a new bar stock part, (I like the Ed Brown unit). Make sure the frame has a proper dimple on the inside wall, a ball end cutter in the Dremel or Foredom tool can be used to create it. Apply a little red Locktite or Rocksett to the legs, then crimp in place with the proper tool. The Brownells modified ViseGrip unit does a fantastic job.

If properly installed in the first place, it should never come loose, but it seems that many mfg's can't be bothered to do any number of things right, since that costs money and everyone wants the product to be cheap.

 

[ShtrRdy]

Take a look at the existing plunger tube to see if there is enough material to re-stake it. If marginal, then just replace the plunger tube.

 

[Unknown]

I tend to agree with CoryT. If the plunger tube came loose once, something is wrong, or was done wrong. I would want to KNOW it got fixed with the best possible parts to reduce the probability of anything happening in the future. If I lived out in the middle of nowhere, I would save the old part just in case it was TEOTWAWKI and I desperately needed the part.

 

[sidewaysil80]

Did you try contacting the mfg to see if they'll rectify it under warranty (not that it would inspire confidence)?

 

[cal50]

I had a Colt that did that once. I re-staked it and it never moved again.

(Support the tube when staking )

 

[Saito]

A good set of grips should support the plunger tube btw.

 

[bdcmh]

You can also stake and silver solder the tube in place.

Give me a shout if you want to borrow my tube staking tool.

 

[Deej]

I've never had one come loose but have had 2 friends that have and neither were what I would call heavy shooters. At most 500 rounds a year. When fixed them I got new ones as didn't want to reinstall a stressed part. I stakes and soldered both and never another issue. One of them I put a couple thousand rounds threw as he had switched to a beretta and took a long time to take back.

 

[lancetkenyon]

To the OP, what brand was your 1911?

I have three (two Kimbers and a S&W PD) and want to know if I should be looking at this as a possible issue in the future.

 

[FourNineThree]

Agree with CoryT on this one as well. Colt has been doing them pretty shallowly for years and claim they are reconfiguring tooling to make it better.

Good luck getting it fixed up.

Be safe,
FourNineThree