Open gun doubling

[P_R]

You guys really helped me out with the problem of my open gun failing to feed. I wound up rounding the lower corner of my extractor just a little bit, and polishing it up some. I think that really helped. I also did a little polishing on the ramp of the barrel, the breech face and and the top of the disconnector.

So it's feeding well, but now I notice that on two occasions it has doubled. I thought I might have imagined it the first time. But the second time I decided that's what it must be doing. I've read all kinds of diagnoses out there - hammer hooks or sear worn seem to be the most common issues. Spring tensions were discussed. But one person said an overpolished disconnect could do it. Since that's all that changed recently, I wondered if anyone here would concur that a disconnect that's too polished could cause this issue. I also kind of wonder if my increased amount of shooting lately might be sufficient to require that I change out some springs (leaf spring, firing pin spring...). I've never changed my firing pin spring. I'd be interested to know if most doubles are the result of firing pin issues - FP stuck forward on rifle going into battery or pin inertial issues OR are they more generally caused by the hammer falling for some reason. The two times this happened, it was real, real fast. The timer didn't even catch it.

If my search-foo is weak, please advise on better search terms than "1911 double", "open gun doubling".

I'm starting to lose my mojo with this gun. I just want something that runs and runs.

Edited May 15, 2011 by P_R

[ParaGunner]

I would replace the disconnector and do not polish or shorten the disconnector. Polishing does remove material and a shortened diconnector could cause a gun to double.

[CocoBolo]

Take it to a good smith, its worth the money.

[TimBoettcher]

Take it to a good smith, its worth the money.

+1

[P_R]

I decided to try to search feature again. Turns out my searchfoo was pretty weak. It helps if you pay attention to the search section box. Quite a bunch of stuff comes up in the gunsmithing section.

Anyway, I found a few sites with function tests for 1911's and ran through all of them. It passed. I see there's now another another mention of the disconnect polishing issue. I find myself conflicted on this because that did indeed change so it would make sense to look at the disconnect for the problem. But on the other hand I just have trouble with the analysis that brushing away a few molecules of metal off the disconnect would do this. I can't imagine that the tolerance between good and bad are THAT tight. Maybe I'm wrong, but I just have trouble wrapping my head around that one.

I'm going to try a new firing pin spring first - at least until the gunsmith returns my call. I'll definitely keep that disconnect in mind if the quick and simple fix doesn't work.

I'd still be curious to know if there's some way to figure out whether the hammer followed of if the firing pin floated forward a little bit.

One thing that's got me just a little curious is the reason the gun wasn't feeding before seems to have been that the cartridge was hanging up just a little bit on the extractor. This would have caused the slide to slow down a little bit before going into battery. So now that I've got the cases are slipping up under the extractor better, there's less slowing of the slide before it goes into battery, making it more likely that the firing pin would fly forward as the slide stops. Does this make sense?

[P_R]

Okay, I just got back from changing out the FP spring. I took it out of there and it was broken. I'll be curious to see if that was the issue. If I don't have any more issues with it in the next few times I shoot, then I'll put another reply back here for the sake of future troubleshooters.

[Mat Price]

your pin spring was broken ? What you could have been seeing is called trigger bounce. Carefull with polshing up the disconector. The main thing is when setting up your leaf spring you set it first with only the disconnector in the frame using a trigger pull gauge and then set the sear leg with the sear and disconector in. MAKE SURE YOUR GRIP SCREWS ARE TIGHT. loose grip screws cause all kinds of weird things to happen.